#63 - Lock-Up
First Appearance: Batman: The Animated Series S03E09 (Nov 1994)
"Gotham's been declared a disaster area - and even THEY won't keep you!" ~Lock-Up
Lyle Bolton, well, jailed criminals. That's not so bad, right? Right? Well, let me tell you, mon ami, that when Lyle Bolton locks you up and throws away the key, he's essentially doomed you to a period of incarceration that makes Vader's torture room look like Club Med. Bolton's private imprisonment system involves building wickedly brutal deathtraps into his jails, and he pretty much just captures any criminal he wants. Which, I mean, didn't really matter when he captured Charaxes, but when you throw Two-Face into a room with live wires and leaky faucets, well, we just can't have good villains going to waste.
Bolton's shall we say eccentric mode of incarceration has been a piece of Batman's history for a while now, occasionally serving as a temporary measure for Batman when he has no one else to turn to. In that way he reminds me of the Penguin; every once and a while, Batman has to dig deep, suck it up and turn to one of his less-psychotic enemies for some information or help, and I always find these interactions to be some of the most unique and interesting ones Bats provides. It helps blur the line of justice and vigilantism, of whether Batman is a socially acceptable response to a flawed system or aberrant behavior spawning from a civilization's dying carcass. Lock-Up is almost an institutional presence, an uber-conservative extremist on the exact opposite end of the spectrum as Facade and Anarky, and when he shows up, it helps to paint some interesting social commentaries.
Greatest Lyle Bolton Story Ever Told:No Man's Land - Lyle Bolton is the ONLY jailor around in the forsaken ruins of Gotham, and Batman must turn to him to take over the remains of Blackgate Prison. However, when dark rumors begin to surface, Batman sends Nightwing in to investigate. One of my all-time favorite Nightwing stories, thanks to a great villain in a really unique situation.
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