#42 - Simon Hurt
First Appearance: Batman #156 (Jun 1963)
"I am the hole in things! I bring hell on Earth and to the world debasement!" ~Simon Hurt
How do you kill Batman without killing Batman? Well, Simon Hurt figured it out, kind of, except like a week later Batman ended up killed, but not really. Um... let me start again.
Simon Hurt consumed the front half of Grant Morrison's Batman run with brilliance, malevolence and a touch of maddening persistence. I honestly don't know how Batman would've gotten to this new plateau of comic popularity without Hurt's long-running machinations as he orchestrated everything from the Black Glove to Batman RIP to most of Batman and Robin. It's just a fantastic, fantastic plot that unfolds over the course of YEARS of Batman stories, and it was a joy from start to finish.
The pieces of Simon Hurt's gambit are cobbled from all over the Batman mythos - goofy Silver Age stories like Zur-En-Arrh and the Club of Heroes, the Barbatos story from the amazing Dark Knight, Dark City, pieces of Robinson's Face the Face and more. However, in Hurt you have this just thrilling uniting force that brought so many disparate relics of Batman's past and made them new, fresh and riveting again. Batman needs great, clever, sick villains to really give him the challenges that readers can relish in, and for me, Simon Hurt is exactly what the doctor ordered.
Greatest Simon Hurt Story Ever Told:Batman R.I.P. - Hurt comes so damn close to winning in this story, with all sorts of strings being pulled as the world unravels around Bruce Wayne. I was in awe the entire time this story unfolded - Simon Hurt knows precisely what to do at every turn and corner. An amazing, amazing story that stretches Batman past his limits.
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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)
