#mr. camera

365 DC Comics Paper Cut-Out Villains - One Villain, Every Day, All Year…

February 15th - Mister Camera


Not the Camera Store One Usually Expects

Photographer Edward Weston said, “Photography suits the temper of this age – of active bodies and minds. It is a perfect medium for one whose mind is teeming with ideas, imagery, for a prolific worker who would be slowed down by painting or sculpting, for one who sees quickly and acts decisively, accurately.”

I included that quote because the words “temper of this age” to me seem perfect for…

Here's Mr. Camera, a villain in DC comics. Unfortunately, he's kind of dorky.

Mr. Camera (like a lot of lesser villains never got given a real name) made his first and only appearance in 1954's Batman #81 in a 10 page story that he only appeared in half of.  He pretty much is exactly what you'd expect from a 1950s Batman gimmick villain, Mr. Camera has a camera themed costume and commits camera themed crimes using camera themed weapons.  Really that's all he had time for in his five pages in the spotlight, except that he also occasionally liked to film his crimes and caught Batman and Robin unmasking on tape.  He hid the tape (unwatched) before they caught him and the rest of the story consists of Batman and Robin basically "framing" Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson as being Batman and Robin, then exposing the fraud so that when Mr. Camera is released from prison no one will believe his tape.  Ironically when the tape is recovered it turns out that the whole thing was out of focus to begin with and their secret identities were safe all along.