(New York World’s Fair Comics 002, 1940)
Dr Vreekill had a steel-melting ray and a dream (engage in the surprisingly common crime activity of extorting the attractions of the New York World’s Fair as a prelude to world domination) until Batman and Robin stuck their big noses into his business.
(Detective v1 033, 1939)
Carl here is a scientist who is obsessed with Napoleon, something that people used to be when there weren’t so many fictional characters to be consumed with – heck, he appears only a few months before the Joker begins his slow crawl to being the one a weird loner would be pictured dressing up as while he makes his Important Plans.
Since Carl was a scientist he recruited a cabal of other scientists to help him make war machines and since he was a Napoleon Head he recruited an army of dudes and together these formed the backbone of his world domination scheme until he was unexpectedly Batmanned.
The real notable thing about Carl is that he was basically the last villain that Batman fought before he stopped killing people. In fact, Batman (by my count) kills the most people in this incident: at least 14, including Carl himself!
ADDENDUM: I was wrong about the “stopped killing people” part because I had a Fan Theory about how Batman stopped killing about the same time he adopted Robin. The major flaw in this Fan Theory was that Batman and Robin kept on killing people.
(Detective v1 033, 1939)
Carl here is a scientist who is obsessed with Napoleon, something that people used to be when there weren’t so many fictional characters to be consumed with – heck, he appears only a few months before the Joker begins his slow crawl to being the one a weird loner would be pictured dressing up as while he makes his Important Plans.
Since Carl was a scientist he recruited a cabal of other scientists to help him make war machines and since he was a Napoleon Head he recruited an army of dudes and together these formed the backbone of his world domination scheme until he was unexpectedly Batmanned.
The real notable thing about Carl is that he was basically the last villain that Batman fought before he stopped killing people. In fact, Batman (by my count) kills the most people in this incident: at least 14, including Carl himself!
ADDENDUM: I was wrong about the “stopped killing people” part because I had a Fan Theory about how Batman stopped killing about the same time he adopted Robin. The major flaw in this Fan Theory was that Batman and Robin kept on killing people.
(Detective v1 031-032, 1939)
The only reason this guy’s minor is that Batman shoots him dead in 1939. I know he’s made a few reappearances over the years but mostly they’re retellings of that first story. Also I guess they’re calling him the Mad Monk now? Weird.
My point is that Batman deserves a vampire nemesis so they should BRING HIM BACK.
ADDENDUM: it’s very strange to me that in Batman: Red Rain it’s Dracula who vampires Batman and not the Monk, an established vampiric Bat-villain.