Updating '60s TV Bat-Villains

[Michael Hopcroft]

Given that there's already a thread about bringing modern-style Batman villains back into the Adam West era, it seems to me there are a few one-shot West villains who could be adapted to more modern times.

 

The one that springs to mind is the Minstrel, who was played by former leading man Van Johnson. Although he dressed in medieval clothes and played an authentic lute, that was just his image shtick. His real theme was that he was a pre-PC era super-hacker. His crime spree began when he broke into the computers of the Gotham City Stock Exchange and messed with them so they would give consistently inaccurate stock prices. This threw the global financial markets into chaos, which he then tried to blackmail the "exchange members" into paying him a weekly fee to keep it from happening again -- a high-tech protection racket. When Batman was called in, the Minstrel engaged him in a duel of technical wits, mostly from a safe distance, finally resorting to using the electrical grid to create a credible threat that he could literally bring down the exchange building.

 

A modern Minstrel would probably give superheroes fits. Were it not for his ego, which demands attention to stoke it, he could amass a fortune in utter anonymity by manipulating the world's financial systems. In fact, he probably already has. But now he wants the world to know how brilliant he is, without giving away his real persona, so his is engaging in more conspicuous technically-oriented crimes -- always from a safe distance, preferably several hundreds miles, from anyone who could strike back at him.And if he is really arrogant, he could go after the secrets of governments, financial markets, and superteams -- using those secrets for his own ends or as blackmail material.

 

Imagine how difficult it would make the lives of Batman or the JLA if someone could get into their computers. the Batcomputer in the Internet age is probably the most difficult-to-crack computer system on Earth. There are literally no backdoors into it -- all its systems are built from the ground up for that purpose. Batman can probably get into other people's computers -- including some really tightly-guarded ones -- but nobody can get into his. Until the Minstrel, that is. And that prospect should be enough to make Batman really sweat.

[Balabanto]

Egghead: Well, Vincent Price made him scary then. God only knows what he'd be like now.

 

Check out the King Tut reboot a few years ago. That turned out great.

[kahuna's bro]

I think that for legal reasons they call him "the pharoh" now

[Cancer]

... Imagine how difficult it would make the lives of Batman or the JLA if someone could get into their computers. the Batcomputer in the Internet age is probably the most difficult-to-crack computer system on Earth. There are literally no backdoors into it -- all its systems are built from the ground up for that purpose. Batman can probably get into other people's computers -- including some really tightly-guarded ones -- but nobody can get into his. Until the Minstrel' date=' that is. And that prospect should be enough to make Batman [i']really[/i] sweat.

 

Frankly, I'd expect Batman's machine would have a super-secure but "normal" front end (something that might serve as a honey pot if anyone got even that far) but the real system would be exotic custom-made hardware and OS with unpublished specs and syntax. With a few minutes I could even hack up some technobabble for it if it was necessary.

[Michael Hopcroft]

 

Frankly, I'd expect Batman's machine would have a super-secure but "normal" front end (something that might serve as a honey pot if anyone got even that far) but the real system would be exotic custom-made hardware and OS with unpublished specs and syntax. With a few minutes I could even hack up some technobabble for it if it was necessary.

 

the Minstrel would live for a challenge like that. And it would be all the more impressive were he to succeed. He could learn all sorts of interesting things there. He wouldn't learn Batman's secret identity (he's too justifiably paranoid to put that on ANY computer) but he would learn how to replicate a lot of Batman's technology. He would also gain access to all of Batman's databases, which would have all sorts of juicy data on the criminal and superhero communities, not to mention many of the world's law enforcement and governments. He would have his finger on the source of Batman's near-omniscience.

 

He could also mess with Oracle in all kinds of nasty ways....

[Old Man]

He could also mess with Oracle in all kinds of nasty ways....

 

But then he'd be a superhero, not a supervillain.

 

Batman's server infrastructure could probably be kept secure from just about anyone simply by airgapping or using a cross domain security infrastructure with a secure guard between his 'public' and 'private' domains. That would be very very hard to hack into.

 

Of course, the Minstrel's introductory attack is one that is actually contemplated in the cybersecurity industry. An attack that began introducing 'noise' into the financial system--not stock prices, but account balances--could be difficult to detect (at first) and, left unchecked, could actually bring down a country's currency and economy.

 

Other batvillains could use some updating as well. The Riddler will have to up his game if we can just Google for the answers to all his questions. As a gadgeteer, the Penguin would benefit from advances in personal tech over the past decades; his monocle could easily be a Google Glass interface, and he can get all kinds of sinister bumbershoots off the rack from the KGB FSB.

[GestaltBennie]

The Bookworm has the Necronomicon.

[kahuna's bro]

very good gestaltbernie

[Cassandra]

I think that for legal reasons they call him "the pharoh" now

Yes, I believe Steve Martin owns King Tut (Obscure Comedy Act Reference!)

[steriaca]

Shame: This version of the evil cowboy is less 'Roben Hood of the West', and more 'shoot them in the back'. He uses old west lingo, but modern methods. Egghead: An egg obsessed looney, but more violent and murderous. His henchmen wear special helmets which 'scramble' their brains when thay fail him (the Ronco way). One example of one of his crimes: Egghead kidnaps rich young women, then release them without harm or ransom asked or payed. After a while, he revealed that he took there 'eggs', and ransoms them back to the woman and there family.

[Nothere]

Well you've taken all the good ones.

 

Black Widow, Marsha, and Siren all hadmind control as their style, but the Mad Hatter has that covered. Louie the lilac and Lord Fogg would work as minor villians. But as a major player I can't think of a one.

That is a false statement...for I am False Face. If a criminal master of disguise can become one of Spiderman's biggest foes, no reason it can't work for Batman.

[kahuna's bro]

point taken

 

[steriaca]

Marsha, Queen of Diamonds: Murderous jewel thief. Possible crossdresser. (I don't think Bats ever faced one). Siren: Crimes based on music. Sound and water can also be theams for crime. Louie the Lilac: Bases his crimes on 1920's gainster lore and/or flowers.