22 Oct Riddle Me This

It was announced this week that the long awaited Matt Reeves directed and Robert Pattinson starring Batman movie now has a release date of June 2021 (since pushed back to March 4, 2022), which gives the Cloverfield director plenty of time to craft his own take on the caped crusader after replacing director-star Ben Affleck at the helm of the tenth film set in the DC Extended Universe. Jonah Hill was in talks to portray the film’s lead villain, with both Riddler and Penguin rumored to be in the mix, but after he passed on the project, Paul Dano was confirmed as the Riddler–which does not discount additional characters from the Batman Rogues Gallery, including Penguin. Zoe Kravitz will be playing Selena Kyle (aka Catwoman), and Jeffrey Wright will be playing Commissioner Jim Gordon. Reeves has confided that his script focuses on the dark knight’s detective skills, leading many comic fans to speculate that the Geoff Johns and Jim Lee story arc Hush will serve as the source material. With the Oscar-Nominated Dano as the Prince of Puzzles, we can count on a more nuanced exploration of the Riddler’s obsessive compulsive traits than any we’ve seen thus far. And that gives Pop Sequentialism a good excuse to showcase the All-Time Best Riddler Covers!

It may surprise many to discover that from his first appearance in Detective Comics in 1948 (Detective Comics #140) through the end of the Bronze Age, the Riddler features as the solo villain on less than 10 comic book covers. And his first appearance in the Silver Age (Batman #171, May 1965) was only his third appearance overall. Both the Dick Sprang debut and the Murphy Anderson/Carmine Infantino reintroduction highlight the madcap splendor of comic books of the pre-Vietnam War era.

It would be Frank Gorshin‘s Emmy-nominated take on the character in the 1960s Batman TV Series that would elevate Riddler from relative obscurity to mass popularity on par with the Joker and Penguin. But even in that era, Riddler appeared in only a handful of issues and featured on even fewer covers.  In the Bronze Age, Riddler appeared in about a dozen comics, but was mostly relegated to cameos among other villains. There were a few cover appearances, though, with highlights being 1977’s Batman #292 (with penciler Jim Aparo‘s menacing Riddler seemingly poised to punch Batman’s empty cowl), and 1983’s Batman #362 which features Ed Hannigan‘s dynamic tribute to inker Dick Giordano‘s prior cover of Batman #317, which surpasses its predecessor in terms of iconic composition–possibly the best Riddler cover of them all.

In 1989, wunderkind author Neil Gaiman wrote a new backstory for Riddler in Secret Origins Special #1, which features a classic Brian Bolland cover of Riddler, Two-Face and Penguin. Gaiman presents a tale that foreshadows Todd Phillips‘ recent Joker  film by cleverly juxtaposing reality with the character’s perception of reality. By giving Riddler a distinct sense of pathos, it helped to separate him from the crazed and murderous Joker. By virtue of having been deemed worthy by a writer of Gaiman’s stature, Riddler forever graduated from the C-list with this single issue. If the new movie features Penguin, too, this comic will likely experience an exponential price hike, and we can almost bet that Harvey Dent will be in the new movie, even if not as Two-face.

While Hush from Batman #608-619 (October 2002 – September 2003) is invariably the Riddler’s finest moment in Batman lore, he is not prominently featured on the covers of any of the 12 issues from that run. But there are stellar covers before and after that landmark tale within the standard Batman continuity. Batman #490 (March 1993) has one of the all-time best Riddler action covers courtesy of Travis Charest. Batman #698 (June 2010) is a fabulous Riddler close-up by writer-artist Tony S. Daniel. Detective Comics #705 (January 1997) has an iconic puzzle cover by Graham Nolan.

And the three covers by Jason Pearson for Steve Englehart‘s “Primal Riddle” story in Batman Legends of the Dark Knight #109-111 (from the fall of 1998) channel a neon grit the likes of which we haven’t seen since Howard Chaykin‘s American Flagg or even Tanino Liberatore‘s RanXerox.

But some of the most dynamic Riddler covers of the modern era are from non-Batman titles. By spreading his appearances across other DC titles, the worthy opponent that emerged from Hush took on a greater versatility and sophistication. Reality television star turned comic book superstar Judd Winnick showcased the Riddler’s potential as a dangerously cunning criminal mastermind in his 2004 run on Green Arrow, which yielded this stylish cover (on issue #35) by Spanish illustrator Marcos Martin. By 2010, Paul Dini, the award-winning animation writer, reformed Riddler and weaved him into storylines that featured him as an ace detective and even a Batman ally (evident in Guillem March‘s noirish cover for Gotham City Sirens #9 from April 2010).

Judging from the price bump that all classic Joker appearances got after the recent Joker movie, we can bet that speculators are already driving the prices up on key Riddler books based solely on the news of Paul Dano’s casting. Unlike the Joker, Riddler cover appearances are relatively scarce, and so the ten or so covers pre-1977 are likely to double and triple in value before Matt Reeves’ movie is even released. And if Dano turns in the type of performance we’ve come to expect from him, the sky is the limit on slabbed, graded Riddler books.

Many thanks to MyComicShop.com and Fandom.com for info and images that made this article possible.