Who is Hugo? - Hugo Strange in all his glory.

-Remember, falling doesn't hurt, it's only the sudden stop at the end that's dangerous.

monologue of the Joker throwing Hugo Strange out of the plane.

Hugo Strange. What a cutie!

Not so long ago, we all, delighted, witnessed the trailer of the inevitably upcoming new chapter of the man's adventures – the bat. This high-quality trailer is beautiful, abundant in fight scenes, and is extremely pompous. All the components of a quality action movie are present. But besides the action, the trailer also contained a funny spoiler – we were shown the identity of Bat’s new opponent in Batman: Arkham City.

Link to the trailer.

Yes, in the trailer, leisurely, trying to pry information from a muscular special forces guy, walked an unknown figure in a white coat. The face of the scoundrel, carefully hidden, is the main mystery of the trailer, revealed at the end. But here's the issue – for the overwhelming majority, the face of the rogue is not any revelation.

Man... Do I know you?

-Who is this? – 90% of those who watched the trailer will ask, staring at the bearded bespectacled man.

-This is apparently some super-evil doctor. They say, doctors haven't had a pay raise in a long time, so he snapped, poor guy. – 9% will say, scratching their heads.

And only 1%, upon seeing Hugo’s disgusting face, will slyly smile and say nothing. But not because they recognized the foe; it's just that talking to a monitor is a pointless activity.

Professor Hugo Strange. Photo from 1940.

Smart. Handsome. Sexy.

Indeed, Hugo Strange is not an AAA villain, not a superfish or a supercriminal of the Batman world. And although once Bats called Hugo the greatest of all supervillains, he did that in a sleepy state; don’t pay attention. On the other hand, it is the very unknown nature that makes Hugo interesting; at least I became interested in the professor precisely because I knew nothing about him.

Everyone loves Batman... Just, everyone in their own way.

It all began with mysterious robberies – Gotham was shrouded in dense impenetrable fog, while money was disappearing from banks. The police could do nothing; the criminals seemed to "dissolve" in the fog, leaving no trace. At the same time, Bats, strolling through nighttime Gotham, accidentally witnessed the murder of an FBI agent. The dying federal on the hands of the Bat told him that he had stumbled upon the gang's trail and, as he breathed his last, gave the superhero a lead. Ah, everything is so simple, 1940, what do you want? The concept of a "twisted plot" was invented later.

Bats tracked down the gang, and it began... A short scuffle. Bats demonstrates several moves of American wrestling. Bats gets hit on the head and wakes up shackled. Boss Radish hits Bats with a whip. Bats escapes from the handcuffs, enters the fight again, and wins. Hooray.

Classic fight of 1940

By the way, the founder of the criminal gang was indeed Professor Strange. A psychiatrist, a man who emerged from decent society, albeit a bit haughty at times, and nervous. The fog that descended on Gotham was the result of his hands – the professor developed a special device that generates it.


Fog-generating machine.

The villain was caught and sent behind bars, from where he sent curses towards the Bat.


(Absolute nonsense with the fog from old comics. 1940, can you imagine? In the new DC story, it seemingly didn't exist.)

However, tell me, which of the comic villains has ever been kept in correctional facilities for long? The correct answer is – NONE. So, Hugo escaped as soon as an opportunity presented itself.


Since the professor had no intention of mending his ways, after his escape he continued to engage in mischief. This time Strange was more inventive – he concocted a serum that turns a person into a huge dull killing machine. Hugo procured people in a local mental hospital, at a hundred bucks a pop.

Hugo buys material for research in Dr. Arkham’s asylum

Super-thug, result of the experiment.

Super-thug-nextgen.

Gotham was swept by a wave of crime – Hugo’s big guys were smashing everything around, drawing all the police's attention while Hugo was robbing banks. Bats, of course, could not help but join the fray. However, he didn't do much heroics, getting caught by the wicked mega-men and delivered to Mr. Strange.


Do you think he is scared now?

-Aha! Now you are in my hands, cursed Batman! – shouted the mad scientist, raising his hands and laughing maniacally.

-You spawn of evil, Strange! – roared the man – the bat, trying to free himself from the steel grips holding him with mutants. – You can kill me, but others will come in my place.

-I will not kill you, Batman; I will make you my slave instead. – Hugo smiled, playfully releasing a small fountain of mutating potion from a syringe prepared especially for Batsy.

Ah, I got bored with the monotonous description of that simple story.


Of course, Bats managed to find the antidote and avoid a regrettable fate. The final confrontation between Hugo and Bats was epic; the Bat threw the professor out of a window into a deep abyss. Yes, there were times when Bats didn’t play nice with his enemies.

Of course, Hugo didn’t splatter; in the Batman universe, all marginally significant characters die rarely and rarely forever. Usually, their deaths end with a resounding resurrection.

The next time the professor attempted to make a career in politics, but he didn’t want to hold debates; he chose a much more effective way to get a high official position – intimidation using a special fear chemical. And, of course, plus murders, how could one do without them?

But even here that accursed Batman stuck his stick (hee-hee) in his wheels. And so, Hugo again flew down headfirst from a high cliff.

Batman once again throws Hugo from a great height, now it's their favorite game.

Batman sincerely rejoices at having thrown Hugo from a great height

The next appearance of Strange occurred nearly forty years later (of course, in earthly time, not the time in the Batman universe). It turned out that Strange had immunity to falls from heights, and the professor is still alive and well to this day. Moreover, he did not turn into a law-abiding citizen at all; he remained a scoundrel; he just moved from Gotham to Europe. He built a sort of sanatorium where he brainwashed the rich, profiting from it. For his good fortune, unfortunately for Bats, at this sanatorium, on the recommendation of his friend, Bruce Wayne ended up.

Are you on an enema? Nina, get ready!

The friendliness of the treating doctor and the hyper-mega-sexuality of the nurse in any hospital should be perceived as danger. Bruce didn’t know this, so he was very surprised when they locked him in a dark room and pumped him full of drugs. Thank God Bruce had a Batman suit in his briefcase, which he put on as soon as he regained consciousness. Getting out of the window, Bats made it to the roof of the mansion, where, to his surprise, he found two hyper-thugs, whom he immediately dispatched.

****

Congregation of thugs on the roof, awaiting rain.

Bursting into the doctor's office, the Bat caught a criminal couple – the doctor and the nurse. The Bat immediately demanded explanations, saying - "What's going on? I've paid for everything!" In response, the doctor pulled off his face, which turned out to be a mask. Beneath the guise of the doctor hid none other than Hugo Strange himself. Batman was ready to arrest the scoundrel, but not so fast; suddenly, a snake bit the Bat. Ah yes, a snake, surprisingly, darn. Probably some sort of special trained snake. Can you train a snake? It’d be nice to have a couple of trained snakes at home. Forget it... Doesn't matter...

Poisoned, Batman fainted, and Hugo, pulling off his mask, recognized his arch-nemesis, Bruce Wayne. Half-dead Bruce took his place on the hospital bed of Strange's facility, soon to be joined by his loyal butler – Alfred. Hugo, meanwhile, took Wayne's place, "dressing up" in his face.

**

Veils ripped off

**

Like Matryoshka dolls.

Gotham was soon filled with Hugo's rampaging giants; chaos reigned, and instead of Bruce patrolling the troubled streets, Strange-Bat was on duty. Hugo also accessed Bruce's millions, but even that money was not enough for the greedy professor, so he set up an auction to sell the secret identity of Batman. Greed, my dear friend, was his downfall; Strange asked too high a price for the secret.

****

Some did not want to pay. And they wanted the secret. But did not want to pay. This was a certain Rupert Thorne, one of the major mob bosses of Gotham at that time. Although Strange’s hyper-thugs were of impressive size, they were not immune to lead shot from firearms. Consequently, every single one of them fell to the dusty ground. Thorne himself dealt a brutal blow to Strange to extract the terrible secret, but the professor remained silent.

-I won't let you have it! – Thorne raged, giving his guys orders to finish off the obstinate man.

**

**

Thus died Hugo Strange. Again. However, dying, the professor did not rest in peace. His spirit began to torment his killer, regularly visiting him.

Rupert, from numerous and prolonged stresses (I swear, neither food nor sleep for a poor man), eventually went crazy, and even ended up temporarily in Arkham. But the psychotherapists did not help, and as soon as Thorne left the facility, the hallucinations resumed.

****

Having tried all possible ways to rid himself of the visions, Rupert decided to go to extremes – he consulted a specialist on mysterious occurrences. The guy turned out to be quite clever and, after a couple of days of investigation, stumbled upon Hugo Strange's secret laboratory. In the lab, a device that "generates" ghostly images was discovered.

****

And it seemed that Rupert was to finally get absolution, but no. He was troubled by another extreme – "Who was responsible for his madness?". And the troubles were not over yet. With his own hands, drunk Thorne burned down his mansion. Accidentally, of course, when he freaked out during a talk with the Bat. A distraught, crushed former mob boss, now an idiot and a pauper, found the only culprits lying nearby – his former accomplices, to whom what was happening with Rupert was clearly to their advantage. Thorne burst in on them with a gun, and they all started denying, saying – "We were never involved. Never sat together". However, the neurasthenic didn’t particularly listen; he began a shootout, in which he himself perished.

So, time for a quiz. Who, do you think, really drove Thorne mad? Well, of course, my little geniuses, it was…

Hugo Strange!

Alive and well. Again. Yes. How he does it, I don’t know. Hugo claims it happened just like that.

Sporadically, literally a couple more times, Hugo challenged Batman. He now had not mutant brutes at his disposal, but high-tech robotic duplicates of Batman and Robin. The professor is currently trying to expose Bruce Wayne to the world, proving that Bruce is Batman. So far, he hasn’t succeeded, and moreover, he’s not even sure of this fact himself anymore.

xxx

In the animated series Batman: The Animated Series, Hugo was also featured, although the episode dedicated to him - “The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne,” has little in common with the comic book Hugo's story. According to BTAS, Strange is just a diminutive psychiatrist who extracts memories from clients and subsequently blackmails them. Strange accidentally "consulted" Bruce Wayne and learned his main secret. The rest, you remember – the episode with selling the secret to criminal elements, and then jail. That’s it. One episode – not much.

xxx

Thinking that the comic story of Strange, or his BTAS story, which Batman: Arkham Asylum was clearly modeled after, will serve as the basis for the game, is at least foolish. This information is rather written for acquainting the curious with the character himself. From this information, a number of conclusions can be drawn regarding what to expect from Mr. Strange.

And in general, according to the blog's information, the game version of Hugo Strange will be hired by the authorities for monitoring and curating "Arkham City" – the structure meant to replace the destroyed Arkham Asylum. In other words, he will be something like the chief doctor of the clinic.

This fundamentally does not align with the chronology of the universe, as Hugo's first acquaintance with Bats should have taken place well before the public emergence in the criminal community of Mr. Joker. Although the infamous chronology is of little importance to almost everyone; the comic universe poorly matches the game universe, no matter how hard you try, which, in turn, does not detract from the quality of the game.

In writing this post, information (dates and months of magazines in which Strange appeared) from the site EmperorJoker, Article "Hugo Strange"

Thank you for your attention. Goodbye everyone.