By Bill Finger, Bob Kane & Jerry Robinson, Sheldon Moldoff & Charles Paris, Len Wein, Marshall Rogers & Dick Giordano, Mike W Barr & Jim Aparo, Dan Raspler, Keith Giffen, Bernie Mireault, Tom Grummett, Al Gordon, Denis Rodier & Gary Martin, Doug Moench, J.H. Williams III, John Beatty & Mick Gray, Ed Brubaker, Darwyn Cooke & Mike Allred, Steve Purcell, Mike Mignola, Kevin Nowlan, A.J. Lieberman, Al Barrionuevo & Bit, John Layman & Cliff Richards and various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-7144-2 (TPB), 978-1-4012-7975-2 (Digital edition)
This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.
As is only sensible, when filmmakers unleash their take on a comic book character of any vintage, savvy publishers collate, curate and commercialise. In lieu of that today, here’s a bunch of formative tales focusing on the many versions of a perennial Bat-villain who is the epitome of a malign make-over to compliment the current screen transition for ever-eager new fans…
Once more practically proving that the Dark Knight’s foes are more interesting – or at least more scary – than any of his heroic clan, the movie Clayface had its premiere on October 13th 2026 at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Legion Theater and will go on general release everywhere else between 21st and 23rd October as another tile in the DCU’s cinematic mosaic masterplan as designated Chapter One: Gods and Monsters…
Gathered here are works from Detective Comics, #40, 298 & 478-479; Batman #550; Outsiders #21; Secret Origins (vol. 2) #44; Catwoman #4; Batman: Gotham Knights #68-71 and Batman Villains Secret Files and Origins #1 & Batman: The Dark Knight #23.3 spreading between cover dates June 1940 to November 2013. Mixed together they comprise a sparse scattering of exploits from an extremely versatile and frequently far-flung villain/victim/vigilante legion whose past appearances demand far greater support from the print crowd.
Mabe if the film is any good – or at least makes some money – we’ll see a bigger 85+ Years Celebration edition.
Clayface is at least nine separate iterations of a single character (not even counting copycat versions including obsessed actor/stalker John Carlinger, numerous assorted clones, The Clayface of Japan & Clownface) as well as twinned comic book concepts. Even this does not count the superb version seen in Batman: The Animated Adventures universe on both TV and comic books. All have in some manner oozed through greater DC Continuity, battling not just various Bat-clan heroes but also Superman, Wonder Woman and other champions.
A primal force affecting many people, assorted Clayfaces have even worked as heroes beside Batman and others.
Here and now though, let’s enjoy a basic introduction to a mess of history The obvious kick-off is that first appearance as concocted by Bill Finger, Bob Kane & Jerry Robinson in Detective Comics #40. A movie influenced (1925’s The Phantom of the Opera) mystery whodunnit, ‘The Murders of Clayface’ saw the Dynamic Duo ranging across baroque film sets to stop a string of murders which almost ended the life of Bruce Wayne’s movie starlet girlfriend Julie Madison. She was simply the latest target of a monstrous actor-turned-maniac who recreated a past screen triumph to slaughter. That culprit was aging star Basil Karlo, equally motivated by jealousy, madness and a thirst for death…
The murdering but mortal maniac returned in ‘Clayface Walks Again’ (Detective #49 March 1941) and not included here, as we jump to 26th October 1961 for a wild tale from Batman’s sci fi boy scout era. Revamped by Finger, Sheldon Moldoff & Charles Paris for Detective #298 (as cover dated December 1961) ‘The Challenge of Clayface’ introduced art thief Matt Hagen who discovered a pool of protoplasm that granted him the ability to change his shape. Despite being regularly outwitted by Batman and Robin, Hagen kept on stealing for decades, and despite being superseded by another iteration was active until his death during the Crisis on Infinite Earths in the mid-1980s.
Before then Len Wein, Marshall Rogers & Dick Giordano appropriated the name for anew tragic terror who debuted in DC #478 in ‘The Coming of… Clayface III!’ as deranged scientist Preson Payne seeks to cure his deformed body and instead becomes a walking, predatory disease. An Acromegalic afflicted with chronic hyperpituitarism, he used Hagen’ s blood to create a cure, but initial success turned to appalling horror as the process resulted in his periodically needing to purge and reset himself by reducing those in range to blobs of melted protoplasmic slime. Driven by crushing isolation, Payne also began a delusional romance with a store mannequin until Batman was forced to end his depredations in #479’s ‘If a Man Be Made of Clay…!’
With the potential of Hagen’s discovery loose in the world for all to exploit, we jump next to Outsiders #21 (July 1987, by Mike W. Barr & Jim Aparo) and the beginning of an extended epic only relevant to us as it premieres ‘Strike Force Kobra’. Leading the terrorist villains’ infiltration of Batman’s latest prodigy squad is deeply disturbed Lady Clay who, as Sondra Fuller, begged Kobra to grant her the ability to escape the face and form nature had given her…
In September 1989’s Secret Origins (vol. 2) #44, the clay creations now dubbed The Mudpack were put under a microscope courtesy of overall scripter Dan Raspler. Illustrators Keith Giffen & Al Gordon detailed ‘The Coming of Clayface!’, revealing the secrets of Basil Karlo whilst Bernie Mireault & Denis Rodier depicted ‘The Tragic and Amusing History of Clayface II’ before Tom Grummett & Gary Martin examined Payne in ‘His Name is Clayface III!’
In the interim Karlo had returned and harvested Fuller and Payne’s body fluids (semi-solids?), thereby gaining protoplasmic shapeshifting powers and melting touch to become the Ultimate Clayface. Fuller and Payne paired up and had a metahuman son. Fifth Clayface Cassius Clay Payne was a shapeshifter who also possessed the universal solvent/melting touch of his dad but was eventually apprehended by semi-federal authorities the Department of Extranormal Operations…
In Batman #550 (January 1998, by Doug Moench, J.H. Williams III, John Beatty & Mick Gray) the Dark Night and D.E.O. agent Cameron Chase are ‘Chasing Clay’ after callous top boffin Dr Peter Malley “examines” Cassius and accidentally becomes a tragic but lethally rampaging Clay-Thing…
In Catwoman #4 (April 2002) another Clayface offshoot congeals in ‘Anodyne-Conclusion’. This story sees Ed Brubaker, Darwyn Cooke & Mike Allred end a 4-part tale rebooting the feline fury as vigilante protector of rough district the East End of Old Gotham. Reunited with former street pal Holly Robinson, Selina Kyle moves in to find renewed meaning and decides to solve a case Gotham’s corrupt authorities won’t touch.
That comes when she determines to stop a serial killer preying on street girls and other human flotsam and discovers psychotic charmer Todd Russell is only another victim of mad science and the Clayface legacy. This is a peripheral addition at best but understandable as it ticks boxes and displays the astounding work of much missed maestro Cooke, and is followed by a piece from 2005’s Batman Villains Secret Files and Origins #1 (2005). Crafted by Steve Purcell, Mike Mignola & Kevin Nowlan, ‘If A Man be Clay!’ re-examines the clownish antics of Matt Hagen prior to a view of the Eighth Clayface…
In an extended saga by A.J. Lieberman, Al Barrionuevo & Bit that ran in Batman: Gotham Knights #68-71 (October 2005-January 2006) ‘The Shape of Things to Come Parts One -Four’ reintroduces Johnny Williams as first seen – but not here – in Batman: Gotham Knights #60.
Williams is a firefighter accidentally infected by stray Clayface protoplasm, whose life now goes to hell when Batman nemesis Tommy Elliot AKA Hush divines his secret and coerces him into turning Bruce Wayne’s life upside down. The masterplan is for Hush to take those abilities for himself before destroying all Batman cherishes, but of course with the sheer chaos of unleashed Clayfaces in the mix, no plan can stand for long…
This pliable primer presses pause on a full reimagining sparked by the 2011 “New 52” DC reboot. Batman: The Dark Knight #23.3 (2013) by John Layman & Cliff Richards sees frustrated failing actor Basil Karlo accept an untested chemical from crime boss The Penguin in a bid to break his “bad luck” streak. However, although the DNA-altering solution gives him powers, it comes at a shocking cost, Now as supervillains run the world Karlo revels in his epic descent and ponders what he’s become in ‘Not Just Another Pretty Face’…
With covers by Kane & Robinson, Moldoff, Rogers, Terry Austin, Aparo, Nowlan, Kelly Jones, Beatty, Williams III, Gray, Cooke, Jason Fabok, Claudio Castellini and Guillem March
& Tomeu Morey, this roster of roles won’t show you the filmic Clayface, but it will certainly inform and entertain as it channels many of those assorted incarnations, reincarnations and re-castings of the miasmically malleable malefactor and their many aspects.
© 1940, 1961, 1978, 1987, 1998, 2002, 2005, 2013, 2017 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.