#81 - Ventriloquist (Arnold Wesker)
First Appearance: Detective Comics #583 (Feb 1988)
"You should count yourselves lucky, working for me. I ain't no glock of wood -- I got the grains to take us places!" ~Ventriloquist, as Scarface
Look, I'm not going to defend dropping a major villain at #81. Despite how important Ventriloquist has been to the Batman mythos (especially in No Man's Land), I'm not really a fan of the guy. He's a wimpy schizophrenic that hides behind a puppet with a gat and a speech impediment, ok? What's there to really like? I'll admit that he's been a part of several good storylines in Batman, and that gets him a pass to the 81st spot. I mean, if you make your way in to stuff like Face the Face and No Man's Land, you're bound to make it onto this list simply on the future of those being excellent stories. That said, Ventriloquist isn't my cup o' tea.
Arnold Wesker was a child when - and this is the ridiculous part - his parents were run over by a truck containing mannequins and dummies. You can't make this **** up. Oh wait, you can. Anyways, he used this traumatic moment to define him, assuming for no reason whatsoever that he was supposed to forgo all emotions, which essentially broke him into two personas: Scarface and the Ventriloquist. Anyways, that's all there is to it. Frankly, his best moment is in Blackest Night when a zombified Ventriloquist sporting a Black Lantern Scarface is running around Gotham wreaking havoc. Now THAT was funny.
Greatest Ventriloquist Story Ever Told:Batman: Cataclysm - The prelude to No Man's Land, an earthquake rocks Gotham and as heroes and villains alike try to deal with it, a mysterious new enemy called the Quakemaster steps forward to claim responsibility. Ventriloquist's best storyline.
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Top 100 Batman VILLAINS
RandomName basically describes it. It's a list of the top 100 Batman villains. (Note: This isn't MY list. So, if you don't agree with it, don't freak out and rant in the comments)
