![](\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEjZTYc8RO83jYNKKyVrIeGWTNvR_42BDYfuKrwB5IxdbKzYKQMXG-DEBfuVSAB9aLh6xWdUmdbw-1V83jS4_48t0tLqEKP40HNDHQcGnmUCLzuZcqqrnQkHiMSTVeNvXv17iOdD_SaDa6UeB-S3R6huwd2UOlTtVC-Qk7IpV_eGidc3XoBdLxoEfto9YA\/w408-h640\/hugo%20strange%201940%201a%20detective%20036.JPG\" "\\"Hugo")
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/p>\n
Hugo Strange starts his crime career pre-seasoned with a goodly dose of “I’ve heard of this guy. This guy is a big deal” from Batman. <\/p>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/p>\n
His actual plan is nothing special: using a machine he stole, Strange floods Gotham with fog night after night, leaving the police helpless to stop his gang as they loot and plunder at prearranged locations.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/p>\n
The biggest thing that this story establishes, of course, is the dichotomy of Hugo Strange being a weird little lumpy-headed dork who is also a physical threat to someone like the Batman, something that he manages to retain when he is brought back as an Earth-One villain in the 70s when a lot of the other nerds in Batman’s rogues gallery like the Joker have become minimal physical threats.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/p>\n
2. Batman Comics v1 001, ‘Untitled’<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/p>\n
Strange wastes no time in staging an escape and soon he’s embarking on one of his signature capers: creating the Monster Men!<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/p>\n
Having kidnapped five men from an insane asylum, Strange treats them with growth hormones which mutate them into brutish giants. They are then used in the same way as the fog machine was in his first caper: while the Monster Men battle the police, Strange’s gang get to work looting.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/p>\n
Strange even manages to capture Batman, and almost turns him<\/i> into a Monster Man while conveniently laying out his entire plot.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But of course Batman manages to get free, brutally murder the Monster Men and (seemingly) Strange, and formulate an antidote for himself.<\/p>\n 3. Detective Comics v1 046, ‘Untitled’<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Strange’s final foray into crime in 1940 involves using fear-inducing dust to incapacitate bank guards and such so his men can rob and plunder. And of course it was inevitable that he would eventually figure on using some of his technology to take over the US. In fairness to him, using fear dust to conquer is slightly more plausible than say doing so as a single nude invisible man<\/a>, but it’s probably a bit of a stretch even so.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n