Batman Reading Project

First off, I know that the writers did an actual reference there and based him off Tommy Udo in Kiss of Death, a noir film Frank Gorshin was taking inspiration from for his Riddler portrayal in the 60s.

I don't really care. It's a neat reference, but a character needs to be more than just an in-joke if they get this much screentime. Joker is a good example. He's based off Conrad Veidt, he's a serious, grim Joker who smiles but hardly laughs-- but he still uses Joker gas. He likes endless nihilism, he's a sadist, he still feels like the Joker. A dour, noir Joker, but still the Joker.

Riddler?

Guy says one pineapple grenade joke and then goes back to shooting people. He's an idiot. He's not the Riddler. He's Black Mask in Riddler's clothes.

I'd like to compare this to the other Caped Crusader villains. Did they make Harley not a psychiatrist? No. Did they make Gentleman Ghost not rob people and not be a ghost? No. Did they make Penguin not a crime boss, even when they genderswapped her? No!

Why did Riddler get an entirely new personality and new job and lose his gimmick outright? If it was just one or the other it could even work (it's a thing in Caped Crusader to switch motives or personality) but the problem with Riddler is that they lost his gimmick too, the one thing all other antagonists kept.

It makes him feel empty, because without the cerebral mind games he's basically just a mobster movie archetype. The Nicky from Casino. The Tommy DeVito from Goodfellas. Tony Montana without the redeeming qualities. The hothead who feels invincible and dies because of his own hubris.

Which if you've seen any actual mobster movie, has probably been done better in anything else you've seen, because it's not crammed sporadically in ten episodes. And because those mobsters probably had more interesting dialogue, because they'd often get some wit. This Riddler? Zilch.

When Riddler is around, the mobsters have left Gotham. He's a post-supervillain arrival, he's not a Falcone. The Falcones are a shoe-in for mobster movie archetypes too, but they don't put Carmine Falcone in a lizard coat and say he's Killer Croc because that subverts your expectations!

There's just nothing to Riddler besides the mob archetype. How interesting is he as a character, by himself?... uh, he's stupid and evil and even more evil and so one-note that he just gets shot and dies in Episode 7 because Joker needed that extra screentime to do something actually interesting.

What makes him special? The fact that he'd kill all friends? The fact that he's brutal and rules his new empire on his own whims? That's... not a unique personality. That would probably be the same as Oswalda with more bullets, and Oswalda got her gimmick in her water emphasis, which set her apart from just being another mobster.

Taking away Riddler's gimmick isn't just removing a funny voice and 'Riddle me This!' scene, it's literally stripping him of anything to distinguish himself from just another goon with a gun.

What maddens me more is that he could still be a mobster, the idea of him being a mobster isn't bad, it's that they took the most boring way out of it! When I say they took the wrong inspiration from Casino, I mean he should be an Ace Rothstein, or to use a real-life (more real life, Casino is based on real life) example, Meyer Lansky.

If they wanted to do a Riddler, he should've been a numbers man, an organizer. A mobster who keeps the books running, the cash rolling in, and everything in tip-top shape in the pyramid.

He should be called the Riddler because he orders people 'riddled' with bullets, not because he is the one riddling people because that also makes Thorne look like a moron for putting him in any authority for longer than twelve seconds.

How much more into the gimmick would that be? Infinitely! He could get frustrated at Batman knocking down his pyramid of crime, then suddenly chomping at the bit to be more involved with 'the Bat' because he's finally got a match with his brains!

Mobsters aren't known for being smart! Mobsters are often people who go into crime because an actual, societally-benefitting job isn't in their interests!

No wonder a different version of the Riddler would be obsessed, because for once someone gets his obscure book references, for once he has someone who can pick up wordplay, because they didn't quit fifth grade to harass shopkeepers.

For once he has met someone in his line of work that has more than just a trigger finger, an actual brain, and a sharp one, an educated one!