The Mad Hatter (Jervis Tetch) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly as an adversary of the superhero Batman. He is modeled after the Hatter from Lewis Carroll's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, a character often called the "Mad Hatter" in adaptations of Carroll. A scientist who invents and uses technological mind control devices to influence and manipulate the minds of his victims, the Mad Hatter is one of Batman's most enduring enemies and belongs to the collective of adversaries that make up Batman's rogues gallery. The Mad Hatter has been substantially adapted from the comics into various forms of media, including feature films, television series, and video games. He has been voiced by Roddy McDowall in the DC animated universe and Peter MacNicol in the Batman: Arkham video game series, among others. He has also been portrayed in live-action by David Wayne in the 1960s Batman series, and Benedict Samuel in the Fox series Gotham. A variation of the character named Liam Crandle appeared in the third season premiere of the Arrowverse series Batwoman, portrayed by Amitai Marmorstein.
Publication history and characterization Created by Bill Finger and Lew Sayre Schwartz, the Mad Hatter made his first appearance in Batman #49 (October 1948). Jervis Tetch is fascinated with hats of all shapes and sizes, as well as the Lewis Carroll's children's book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, particularly favoring the chapter "A Mad Tea Party". According to Dr. Blakloch of Arkham Asylum:
Jervis is obsessive-compulsive, and highly delusional. He's got an immature self-image, so he identifies more with children than adults. Oh and he's a genius, too. (BPD) Blakloch also notes that when agitated, Tetch begins rhyming as a defence mechanism. Tetch often quotes and makes reference to Carroll's Wonderland novels, and sometimes even fails to discern between these stories and reality. In addition to his obsession with Lewis Carroll, Tetch has also shown an additional obsession with hats. In Secret Six, he will not eat a piece of food that does not have a hat on it, and states that he is not interested in the sight of his naked teammate Knockout because she is not wearing a hat. In the graphic novel Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, it is strongly implied that he is a pedophile. His storylines in Streets of Gotham #4 and Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's Batman: Haunted Knight also imply an unhealthy fixation on children, such as when he kidnaps a young Barbara Gordon and forces her into a tea party dressed as Alice, as well as kidnapping other runaway children and dressing them up like characters from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Fictional character biography
Backstory Growing up, Tetch was a lonely, awkward child, shunned by other children and living in his own fantasy world. As an adult, he becomes a neuroscientist, and at some point moves into a boarding house owned by Ella Littleton. There he befriends Ella's daughter, Connie, and her friends in her junior high school computer club, sometimes helping them with their projects. A few years later, when Connie is in high school, she gets pregnant. Fearing the reaction of her extremely strict mother, Connie lies to her and claims she had been raped by someone on her high school's baseball team, the Gotham Hawks. Ella, in turn, approaches Tetch for help and convinces him that the Gotham Hawks are "bad kids". Tetch agrees to use his mind control technology on a member of the team, making him use a pipe bomb to kill the other players. Although this is Tetch's first known criminal act, his involvement in the locker room bombing would not be discovered until years later.
Criminal career
Golden Age
In his first appearance as the Mad Hatter, Tetch attempts to steal a trophy from the Gotham Yacht Club, and begins a crime spree that ends when he is foiled by Batman while he is trying to rob spectators from a high society horseshow. Tetch is subsequently sent to Arkham Asylum (although his fate is not revealed until Detective Comics #510). The Mad Hatter is not seen again in the Golden Age of Comic Books.
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