8 Batman Villains That Need Origin Stories Told Instead Of The Joker

It’s not a stretch to say Batman has one of the better rogues galleries out of any colorfully costumed crime fighter. A hero is only as good as his villains, and every one of The Dark Knight’s dastardly foes are complex and three-dimensional in their own twisted way. In fact, a prequel movie about any of them would work for almost all of Batman’s villains… except one. And for some baffling reason, that’s the character which producers are trying to spin a prequel film around. That’s right. The Joker is getting his own origin story. The one villain who we're supposed to know nothing about is getting a fleshed out backstory. It’s a totally jarring move because the film is planned to be in a separate continuity than Jared Leto’s already established Joker. So basically, Warner Bros. is bending over backwards to create a confusing film based around a character with intentionally murky origins. We struggle to understand why, though, as any of Batman’s other villains would make for great origin movies because most of them can invoke a twinge of sympathy and are actually relatable in their own twisted way. So, on that note, here are 8 of the Bat's foes who we'd much rather see get their own film. The Riddler It’s been rumored that the backstory for The Joker’s origin film is going to deal with bullying (groan), and that’s somehow supposed to help the audience relate to him as a character. If they're adamant about exploring a bullying storyline though, it would be better suited for a Riddler origins movie rather than for the Clown Prince of Crime. Otherwise known as Edward Nygma, The Riddler is a criminal mastermind and a cunning strategist who’s constantly undone by his ego and compulsive desire to leave clues around all his crimes. He’ll never be truly satisfied until he can prove his intellectual superiority over Batman. A backstory around him would show a meek kid constantly being bullied by his father and his peers because he thinks he’s better than them. He just wants to be the best at all costs and never getting the recognition he thinks he’s owed eventually would turn him to a life of crime. If they didn’t want to show the Riddler as an outright supervillain, there’s an arc in the comics that shows the character reforming and becoming a private investigator. He still has all his cocky and arrogant traits, but he actually works to solve crimes. Making an origin story about a villain struggling with what’s right and wrong? That’s way more engaging than a Joker origin movie, if you ask us. Mr. Freeze If producers wanted to amp up the tragedy when crafting a Batman villain prequel film, they would be wise to explore the heartbreaking story of Mr. Freeze. Although his origin tale has gone through a few tweaks, it mostly follows one arc. Brilliant cryogenics expert Victor Fries is driven to a life a crime in order to save his dying wife from a rare illness. In his pursuit, he suffers an accident that basically turns his body into a living Popsicle, confining him to a cold suit in order to survive. A story like this could basically be Breaking Bad with superpowers. It would be about a good man driven to extreme lengths to protect what he holds most dear to him. In fact, Bryan Cranston would make a great Mr. Freeze, so how about Warner Bros. focuses on this origin story rather than The Joker? Catwoman People will be quick to point out that there already was a Catwoman film with Halle Berry, and that turned out to be one of the most atrocious pieces of cinema ever made. So, why should they try again? Well for one thing, the Halle Berry film barely counts as a Catwoman movie, changing everything about the character including her name, her backstory and her powers. So, people might say that a Catwoman film could never work because the first one did so poorly, but how about they let the studio make a proper one first before they judge? Selina Kyle is a fascinating character, always toeing the line between hero and villain. Her first priority has always been to herself, but that doesn’t mean she avoids doing the right thing. She’s a master thief and competent fighter and a prequel movie about her could go a bunch of different ways. Her backstory has changed a lot, too, meaning she’s been everything from an amnesiac flight attendant to a dominatrix. Really, as long as the movie keeps the core of Selina’s character, meaning a girl who had to fight her way out of the slums in order to make something of herself, then it instantly makes for a more interesting proposition than a Joker film. Ra's Al Ghul If Warner Bros. really wants to make a movie about a villain with a mysterious past, a far better option than the Joker is the infamous Ra’s Al Ghul. Leader of the League of Assassins (or League of Shadows in some variations), Ra’s Al Ghul is a brutal villain and an incredibly formidable foe who has been around for hundreds and hundreds of years. He usually has two goals in mind: wipe out potential threats to humanity (usually meaning the scum of Gotham City), and finding someone worthy to take over as Ra’s Al Ghul. This is an interesting subtext of his character that isn’t explored often. Although Ra’s Al Ghul would never just give up his title to someone unworthy, that doesn’t mean he wants to do this forever. A prequel movie about The Demon’s Head (one of his many nicknames) could follow a young Ra’s Al Ghul stumbling upon the mystical Lazarus Pits that grant him immortality and setting out to do some good with his newfound gifts. But over time, the Pits would corrupt him, turning him into the villain we know today. Because Warner Bros. is so adamant about confusing audiences with continuity, they should just go for broke and get Liam Neeson to reprise the role he played in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy. Because, why not? Two-Face As great as Aaron Eckhart’s performance as Harvey Dent was in The Dark Knight, he'll always be overshadowed by Heath Ledger’s masterful portrayal as the Joker. And now, it looks like The Joker is screwing over Two-Face again. The character of Harvey Dent is one of Batman’s most tragic figures and he deserves to have an in depth story detailing his villainous transformation. Most people are aware of Dent’s backstory. He was Gotham’s upstanding District Attorney and after half of his face was horribly disfigured, he was driven insane. He’s most notable for being obsessed with duality and the number 2, basing all of his decisions off a coin toss. Later versions of the character had Dent suffer from serious mental illness and the disfiguring of the face released that side of the character. Two-Face is someone that deserves his own movie because his backstory is not one that should be confined to a subplot of a Batman film. To truly understand how far Dent fell from beloved District Attorney to deranged villain, you would need to take the time to actually develop his character to get inside his head. Let’s flip a coin. Heads, we make a Two-Face movie. Tails, we also make a Two-Face movie. Sound good? Hush A twisted version of Bruce Wayne, Hush would be a great villain to devote a prequel story to, mainly because he’s a villain we still haven’t seen in live-action yet. His backstory is still unknown to a majority of mainstream audiences, and it’s that sort of foundation Warner Bros. should focus their energy on instead of popular characters like The Joker. Hush, real name Thomas Elliot, grew up as a childhood friend of Bruce Wayne, and always tried to teach young Bruce how to strategize and outthink his opponents. Elliot unfortunately had an abusive father and a weak mother, which eventually pushed him over the edge. He staged an accident by cutting his parent’s brake lines, which killed his father and injured his mother, who was only saved by Dr. Thomas Wayne, Bruce’s father. This set up a long standing vendetta between Elliot and Bruce, which would cause Elliot to try to kill Bruce again and again. That’s a story that deserves its own movie. It would be fresh, exciting and allow for Batman to be apart of the film without actually being apart of the story. Imagine a Dark Knight movie without the hero as a main character. It’s an interesting idea that Warner Bros. needs to make happen. Bane Bane’s most famous appearance to date is Tom Hardy’s version of the character from Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises. But besides being known as one of the first “Tom Hardy Covers His Face” roles, is Bane that memorable of a villain? Sure, he beats Batman to a pulp and talks in an almost indistinguishable garble, but his backstory is barely touched upon. And anyone who knows anything about Bane know there’s so much more to his story that deserves to be told. Although he looks like he eats rusty nails as snacks, comic book readers know he’s more than just a strong brute. He’s actually a brilliant strategist when it comes to analyzing and ‘breaking’ his enemies. Not only that, but his backstory is the type of dark, gritty, contained tale that would make a great prequel film. Bane entered the world already at a huge disadvantage. His father was revolutionary who escaped prison on the island of Santa Prisca. The government cruelly decided that the man’s son should serve the sentence instead, thus forcing a very young Bane to grow up in one of the harshest prisons in the world. He was a boy among vicious criminals and had to adapt in order to survive. He murdered his first man when he was eight years old and only got more brutal as time went on. A supervillain origin story set in prison? If Warner Bros. really wants to get dark with their origin stories and push an R-rated film, Bane would be the perfect villain to explore. Poison Ivy Audiences have been pushing for stronger female representation in films for years, and Warner Bros. is in a great spot to continue putting female characters front and center in their films after the overwhelming critical and commercial success of Wonder Woman. One villain that deserves a chance to take the spotlight in her supervillain origin movie is none other than Poison Ivy. Often thought of as either an over-sexualized green-skinned vixen or an extreme eco-terrorist, there’s actually a lot of potential for an origin story revolving around one of Batman’s most famous villains. Before her accident, she was known as Dr. Pamela Lillian Isley, a Gotham city botanist. She’s horribly experimented on by a male colleague and comes out of it a changed woman, meaning she has the ability to control plant growth (which is a lot cooler than it sounds). A film around her backstory would not only be tragic, but also a little topical. If the movie paints her as a woman who's desperate to protect the Earth from harmful toxins and manmade problems, then at its core you have a villain who just wants to protect what she thinks is important. That immediately makes a prequel story loads more interesting than whatever they want to do with The Joker.