Batman’s First Villain was the only dangerous criminal to him. For more Eight decades Batman has glorified the comic book pages and took on Gotham’s most dangerous criminals, but in the beginning, there was only one.
Batman has glorified the comic book pages for more than eight years and fought many dangerous villains to save his city, he is the Batman’s First Villain, but the question is from where it all started? Who was the first villain to encounter Batman? A superhero’s journey and longevity are often made or broken by the quality of their rogue’s gallery. Nowhere is that truer than with DC Comics’ caped crusader himself, one of the oldest superhero characters in American comics, The Bat-Man.
Many readers assume that the Clown Prince of Crime ‘The Joker’ was Batman’s first Villian, but this is not true. In fact, Joker was introduced a year after Batman made his appearance in Detective Comic #27. So if it is not Joker then who was Batman’s first villain.
Chronologically Batman’s first Villian to match wits and fists with Batman was Alfred Stryker who appeared in Detective Comic #27. Stryker took full ownership of the Chemical manufacturing business by killing his three partners. The story sees it ends with Batman “socking” the fiendish Stryker so hard that he fells of a railing and crashes to his death into a vat of Acid.
Batman’s first Villain was Dr. Death
However, Batman’s first villain, the “arch-criminal” was Dr. Death a genius mad scientist who appeared after two issues of Batman’s first appearance in the comic book #29. With a deadly “pollen extract” of his own invention he had a simple goal to exact tribute from the wealthy of Gotham City. The exact plan of Dr. Death is still a mystery but his main was to trap and kill the Batman before the executes his plan, but Batman is still alive that means his plan was failed. After that Dr. Death made few comebacks in the following issues.
Canonically, some readers may argue that Batman’s first villain was one who tried to spill Bruce Wayne into two, is Joe Chill, who was appeared in the Flashbacks of Detective Comic #33. These issues take the story back in Batman’s life where Joe Chill gunned down Thomas and Martha Wayne in front of Bruce’s eyes. So Joe Chill is the one who created darkness within Bruce Wayne from which the Bat would emerge fifteen years later.
Some purist claims that Dr. Death is the Batman’s first villain and for some Joe Chill is the one. But it’s all in readers’ hand to decides who is the Batman’s first true criminal opponent, but one thing’s for certain – none of them were the last.
