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Wrath (comics)
Encyclopedia
The Wrath is the name of two fictional
comic book
supervillain
s published by DC Comics
. The original Wrath debuted in Batman Special
#1 (1984), and was created by Mike W. Barr
and Michael Golden. The second Wrath debuted in Batman Confidential #13 (March 2008), and was created by Tony Bedard
and Rags Morales
.
; but it is also a reference to the Ellery Queen
novel of the same name, as the story's author, Mike W. Barr
is a renowned Queen enthusiast.
A Post Infinite Crisis
legacy version of The Wrath debuted in the paged of Batman Confidential
#13 in a story arc written by Tony Bedard
, with Elliott Caldwell, the 'student' of the original Wrath, taking on his mentor's mantle.
's rogues gallery, where he served as a sort of anti-Batman. The Wrath's appearance and motivation are reminiscent of Batman's, but with notable differences. The Wrath (like Batman) is distinguished by perfectionism
and obsession in what he does. His costume is also very similar to Batman's (though coloured in crimson and purple with a W-insignia on the chest and cowl; the W on his cowl, when seen in the right light and at the right angle, looks like the ears of the Batman's own cowl).
Wrath's parents were a couple of burglars like Joe Chill
, the man who shot and killed Batman's own parents. They were shot by a young policeman who mistook them for committing a robbery (in actuality, they were crawling out of a window to "skip out" on paying their rent). Due to this, the Wrath dedicated his life to a campaign of revenge against law and law-enforcers. As he had grown up, the burglars' son became a professional assassin. For years, he travelled the world to work as a gun for hire, later falling in love with Gayle Hudson, the daughter of an ex-mafia boss who hired Wrath to kill the people who killed her father after his retirement.
When Wrath finally returns to Gotham City, he comes to kill the man who had shot his parents. Wrath's target turns out to be Commissioner Gordon
of the Gotham City Police which leads to Wrath coming into conflict with Batman. In the course of their impersonal battle of wits, Wrath learns Batman's secret identity as Bruce Wayne and proceeds to attack several of his friends; Alfred Pennyworth
is hospitalized, and Leslie Thompkins
is taken hostage by Wrath.
Wrath dies during his showdown with Batman, having been caught in a fire he himself triggered; one of his explosive capsules went off during a fight, and Batman's attempt to throw Wrath off results in Batman accidentally throwing Wrath into the fire. Wrath falls to his death before Batman could grab him.
In Wrath Child (Batman Confidential #13-16), several details of his origin are retcon
ned. His father is now depicted as a corrupt cop who was robbing a warehouse with his wife and his son acting as a lookout. Gordon confronts them and, in a gunfight, kills the parents in self-defense. Wrath claims that only his father was armed and Gordon shot to kill first, but in reality his father fired first and then his mother took up his father's gun. Abandoned by the cops in an effort to conceal the corruption, he becomes a hitman in hopes of "avenging his parents again and again". While preparing to assassinate Gordon, he studied Batman, initially planning just to dress like him to needle Gordon but coming to conclude that they were kindred spirits inspired by a similar disaster in their lives, duplicating Batman's costume and equipment to the extent that he began training his own "Robin", who went on to become the new Wrath.
It also retconned that the original story took place shortly after Dick Grayson became Robin (the original story was published the same year that Grayson became Nightwing), with Grayson missing the events because he was away at the time on an "educational holiday" (One of the various training missions Batman sent him on).
A sporting an all-purple costume. This Wrath, who Batman is convinced is a copycat from his first appearance, begins murdering police officers visiting Gotham for a convention and breaks in to Grayle Hudson's apartment. After a fight with Batman, during which he confirms he's not the original Wrath, he tells the Dark Knight to investigate Commissioner Gordon
's actions on June 26 twenty five years ago— the same night Bruce Wayne's parents died. Upon another meeting with Batman, the second Wrath tells a distorted versions of the events that happened, saying Gordon killed the original Wrath's parents in cold blood, though Batman saw through this and realized that Gordon shot them in self-defense. Batman and Nightwing, upon confronting the second Wrath for a final time, learned the new Wrath's real name was Elliot Caldwell, an orphan boy whom the Wrath trained to be his answer to Batman's Robin. Elliot was one of five orphans who the original Wrath kidnapped and trained, but Elliot was the only one who survived the training. Despite Caldwell's refusal to believe their claims and his subsequent efforts to continue fighting, he was stopped by Batman and Nightwing, whose teamwork and care for each other forced Caldwell to recognize that he had never had the same relationship with his master, and was sent to Blackgate Penitentiary
, although he reflected that he would be ready to face them again in future now that his 'emotional weakness' had been purged.
, William and Andrew Mallory (voiced by Chris Gorham and Daryl Sabara
) are children of jewel thieves. It's implied that their parents made themselves wealthy this way. However, they were eventually caught and convicted, the same night when Thomas
and Martha Wayne
were shot. At the time, the Mallory brothers were still only young children. Andy barely remembers them at all due to him being no older than a toddler
. It is this event that motivates them to become the Wrath and Scorn and to help criminals in their crimes. The Wrath defended their actions with the bizarre claim that criminals like the Joker
have the right to make a living their way just as much as innocent people do, demonstrating no interest in his comic counterpart's vendetta against the law that took his parents. Their activities consist of aiding Batman villains such as the Joker, the Penguin
, Killer Croc
, and the Ventriloquist & Scarface
. At the same time, they also fought Batman and Robin directly. When out of costume, the Mallory brothers pretend to be friends of Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson
(Andy and Dick, however, do little to hide their disdain for each other). Ultimately, it is this "friendship" that leads Bruce and Will to realize each other is Batman and Wrath. Although the costumed brothers are eventually captured, they plan to reveal the Dynamic Duo's secret identities. Bruce is willing to accept that outcome, but the Joker is not. Having grown tired of the Wrath and Scorn's "interference", and seeing the end of Batman's career as the end of his greatest source of fun, the Joker decides to silence them by posing as a policeman when they plea to him to get them out. Instead of breaking them free, he gases them with Joker Venom
. The Joker implies that this will "break [their] minds," and it clearly prevents them from speaking.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
supervillain
Supervillain
A supervillain or supervillainess is a variant of the villain character type, commonly found in comic books, action movies and science fiction in various media.They are sometimes used as foils to superheroes and other fictional heroes...
s published by DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
. The original Wrath debuted in Batman Special
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
#1 (1984), and was created by Mike W. Barr
Mike W. Barr
Mike W. Barr is an American writer of comic books, and mystery, and science fiction novels.-Biography:Barr's debut as a comics professional came in DC Comics' Detective Comics #444 , for which he wrote an 8-page back-up mystery feature starring the Elongated Man...
and Michael Golden. The second Wrath debuted in Batman Confidential #13 (March 2008), and was created by Tony Bedard
Tony Bedard
Antony "Tony" J. L. Bedard is a writer and editor who has worked in the comic book industry from the early '90s through the present. He is best known for his work at CrossGen Comics, where he was under exclusive contract, and for his run writing Marvel Comics X-Men spin-off Exiles.-Career:Tony...
and Rags Morales
Rags Morales
Ralph "Rags" Morales is an American comic book artist known for his work on DC Comics' Identity Crisis, Countdown to Infinite Crisis, Batman Confidential, and Hawkman, Turok Dinosaur Hunter for Valiant Comics and Magic the Gathering: Dakkon Blackblade #1 from Armada/Acclaim Comics.Morales is the...
.
Publication history
The Wrath's debut story was titled "The Player on the Other Side", published in Batman Special #1 (1984). The title was based on an essay by Aldous HuxleyAldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...
; but it is also a reference to the Ellery Queen
Ellery Queen
Ellery Queen is both a fictional character and a pseudonym used by two American cousins from Brooklyn, New York: Daniel Nathan, alias Frederic Dannay and Manford Lepofsky, alias Manfred Bennington Lee , to write, edit, and anthologize detective fiction.The fictional Ellery Queen created by...
novel of the same name, as the story's author, Mike W. Barr
Mike W. Barr
Mike W. Barr is an American writer of comic books, and mystery, and science fiction novels.-Biography:Barr's debut as a comics professional came in DC Comics' Detective Comics #444 , for which he wrote an 8-page back-up mystery feature starring the Elongated Man...
is a renowned Queen enthusiast.
A Post Infinite Crisis
Infinite Crisis
Infinite Crisis is a 2005 - 2006 comic book storyline published by DC Comics, consisting of an eponymous, seven-issue comic book limited series written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Phil Jimenez, George Pérez, Ivan Reis, and Jerry Ordway, and a number of tie-in books...
legacy version of The Wrath debuted in the paged of Batman Confidential
Batman Confidential
Batman Confidential was an American monthly comic book series from DC Comics which debuted on December 6, 2006 and concluded on March 2, 2011....
#13 in a story arc written by Tony Bedard
Tony Bedard
Antony "Tony" J. L. Bedard is a writer and editor who has worked in the comic book industry from the early '90s through the present. He is best known for his work at CrossGen Comics, where he was under exclusive contract, and for his run writing Marvel Comics X-Men spin-off Exiles.-Career:Tony...
, with Elliott Caldwell, the 'student' of the original Wrath, taking on his mentor's mantle.
The original Wrath
The first Wrath was a member of BatmanBatman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
's rogues gallery, where he served as a sort of anti-Batman. The Wrath's appearance and motivation are reminiscent of Batman's, but with notable differences. The Wrath (like Batman) is distinguished by perfectionism
Perfectionism (psychology)
Perfectionism, in psychology, is a belief that a state of completeness and flawlessness can and should be attained. In its pathological form, perfectionism is a belief that work or output that is anything less than perfect is unacceptable...
and obsession in what he does. His costume is also very similar to Batman's (though coloured in crimson and purple with a W-insignia on the chest and cowl; the W on his cowl, when seen in the right light and at the right angle, looks like the ears of the Batman's own cowl).
Wrath's parents were a couple of burglars like Joe Chill
Joe Chill
Joe Chill is a fictional character in the DC Comics Batman series. He is best known for murdering young Bruce Wayne's parents , thus making him indirectly responsible for Batman's existence....
, the man who shot and killed Batman's own parents. They were shot by a young policeman who mistook them for committing a robbery (in actuality, they were crawling out of a window to "skip out" on paying their rent). Due to this, the Wrath dedicated his life to a campaign of revenge against law and law-enforcers. As he had grown up, the burglars' son became a professional assassin. For years, he travelled the world to work as a gun for hire, later falling in love with Gayle Hudson, the daughter of an ex-mafia boss who hired Wrath to kill the people who killed her father after his retirement.
When Wrath finally returns to Gotham City, he comes to kill the man who had shot his parents. Wrath's target turns out to be Commissioner Gordon
James Gordon (comics)
James Worthington Gordon, Sr. is a fictional character, an ally of Batman that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and was created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane...
of the Gotham City Police which leads to Wrath coming into conflict with Batman. In the course of their impersonal battle of wits, Wrath learns Batman's secret identity as Bruce Wayne and proceeds to attack several of his friends; Alfred Pennyworth
Alfred Pennyworth
Alfred Pennyworth is a fictional character that appears throughout the DC Comics franchise. The character first appears in Batman #16 , and was created by writer Bob Kane and artist Jerry Robinson. Alfred serves as Batman’s tireless butler, assistant, confidant, and surrogate father figure...
is hospitalized, and Leslie Thompkins
Leslie Thompkins
Dr. Leslie Thompkins is a fictional character from the Batman mythos. Created by writer Dennis O'Neil and artist Dick Giordano, she first appeared in Detective Comics #457...
is taken hostage by Wrath.
Wrath dies during his showdown with Batman, having been caught in a fire he himself triggered; one of his explosive capsules went off during a fight, and Batman's attempt to throw Wrath off results in Batman accidentally throwing Wrath into the fire. Wrath falls to his death before Batman could grab him.
In Wrath Child (Batman Confidential #13-16), several details of his origin are retcon
Retcon
Retroactive continuity is the alteration of previously established facts in a fictional work. Retcons are done for many reasons, including the accommodation of sequels or further derivative works in a series, wherein newer authors or creators want to revise the in-story history to allow a course...
ned. His father is now depicted as a corrupt cop who was robbing a warehouse with his wife and his son acting as a lookout. Gordon confronts them and, in a gunfight, kills the parents in self-defense. Wrath claims that only his father was armed and Gordon shot to kill first, but in reality his father fired first and then his mother took up his father's gun. Abandoned by the cops in an effort to conceal the corruption, he becomes a hitman in hopes of "avenging his parents again and again". While preparing to assassinate Gordon, he studied Batman, initially planning just to dress like him to needle Gordon but coming to conclude that they were kindred spirits inspired by a similar disaster in their lives, duplicating Batman's costume and equipment to the extent that he began training his own "Robin", who went on to become the new Wrath.
It also retconned that the original story took place shortly after Dick Grayson became Robin (the original story was published the same year that Grayson became Nightwing), with Grayson missing the events because he was away at the time on an "educational holiday" (One of the various training missions Batman sent him on).
Elliot Caldwell
James Gordon (comics)
James Worthington Gordon, Sr. is a fictional character, an ally of Batman that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and was created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane...
's actions on June 26 twenty five years ago— the same night Bruce Wayne's parents died. Upon another meeting with Batman, the second Wrath tells a distorted versions of the events that happened, saying Gordon killed the original Wrath's parents in cold blood, though Batman saw through this and realized that Gordon shot them in self-defense. Batman and Nightwing, upon confronting the second Wrath for a final time, learned the new Wrath's real name was Elliot Caldwell, an orphan boy whom the Wrath trained to be his answer to Batman's Robin. Elliot was one of five orphans who the original Wrath kidnapped and trained, but Elliot was the only one who survived the training. Despite Caldwell's refusal to believe their claims and his subsequent efforts to continue fighting, he was stopped by Batman and Nightwing, whose teamwork and care for each other forced Caldwell to recognize that he had never had the same relationship with his master, and was sent to Blackgate Penitentiary
Blackgate Penitentiary
Blackgate Penitentiary is a fictional prison depicted in the DC Universe, traditionally located on a small island in the Gotham Bay, Gotham City...
, although he reflected that he would be ready to face them again in future now that his 'emotional weakness' had been purged.
Television
Wrath appears in The BatmanThe Batman (TV series)
The Batman is an American animated television series produced by Warner Bros. Animation based on the DC Comics superhero Batman. It ran from 2004 to 2008, on the Saturday morning television block Kids' WB...
, William and Andrew Mallory (voiced by Chris Gorham and Daryl Sabara
Daryl Sabara
Daryl Christopher Sabara is an American film and television actor. He is perhaps best known for playing Juni Cortez in the Spy Kids film series, as well as for a variety of television and film appearances, including Wizards of Waverly Place, Father of the Pride, The Polar Express, Keeping Up with...
) are children of jewel thieves. It's implied that their parents made themselves wealthy this way. However, they were eventually caught and convicted, the same night when Thomas
Thomas Wayne
Thomas Wayne is a fictional character in the Batman series of comic books. Dr. Thomas Wayne was the father of Bruce Wayne, and husband of Martha Wayne, as well as a gifted surgeon and philanthropist...
and Martha Wayne
Martha Wayne
Martha Wayne is a fictional character of the Batman series of comic books, published by DC Comics. She is Dr. Thomas Wayne's wife and mother of Bruce Wayne. When she and her husband are murdered during a holdup, young Bruce swears to avenge their deaths by fighting crime...
were shot. At the time, the Mallory brothers were still only young children. Andy barely remembers them at all due to him being no older than a toddler
Toddler
A toddler is a young child, usually defined as being between the ages of one and three. Registered nurse, midwife and author, Robin Barker, states 'Any time from eight months onwards your baby will begin to realise he is a separate person from you...
. It is this event that motivates them to become the Wrath and Scorn and to help criminals in their crimes. The Wrath defended their actions with the bizarre claim that criminals like the Joker
Joker (comics)
The Joker is a fictional character, a comic book supervillain published by DC Comics. He is the archenemy of Batman, having been directly responsible for numerous tragedies in Batman's life, including the paralysis of Barbara Gordon and the death of Jason Todd, the second Robin...
have the right to make a living their way just as much as innocent people do, demonstrating no interest in his comic counterpart's vendetta against the law that took his parents. Their activities consist of aiding Batman villains such as the Joker, the Penguin
Penguin (comics)
Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot III is a DC Comics supervillain and one of Batman's oldest, most persistent enemies. The Penguin was introduced by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, making his debut in Detective Comics #58 .The Penguin is a short, rotund man known for his love of birds and his...
, Killer Croc
Killer Croc
Killer Croc is a comic book supervillain in the DC Universe, an enemy of Batman. Created by writer Gerry Conway and artist Gene Colan, while there was a shadowy cameo in Detective Comics #523 , his actual first appearance is credited to Batman #357 , which is also the first appearance of Jason...
, and the Ventriloquist & Scarface
Ventriloquist (comics)
The Ventriloquist is a fictional character, a supervillain and enemy of Batman in the . The Ventriloquist first appeared in Detective Comics #583 and was created by Alan Grant, John Wagner and Norm Breyfogle...
. At the same time, they also fought Batman and Robin directly. When out of costume, the Mallory brothers pretend to be friends of Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson
Dick Grayson
Dick Grayson is a fictional superhero that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger and illustrator Jerry Robinson, he first appeared in Detective Comics #38 in April 1940....
(Andy and Dick, however, do little to hide their disdain for each other). Ultimately, it is this "friendship" that leads Bruce and Will to realize each other is Batman and Wrath. Although the costumed brothers are eventually captured, they plan to reveal the Dynamic Duo's secret identities. Bruce is willing to accept that outcome, but the Joker is not. Having grown tired of the Wrath and Scorn's "interference", and seeing the end of Batman's career as the end of his greatest source of fun, the Joker decides to silence them by posing as a policeman when they plea to him to get them out. Instead of breaking them free, he gases them with Joker Venom
Joker venom
Joker venom, also called Joker toxin or Smilex, is a fictional toxin, a favorite murder weapon used by The Joker in the Batman franchise of movies, comics, and cartoons...
. The Joker implies that this will "break [their] minds," and it clearly prevents them from speaking.