The Riddler’s skills come in helpful for one thing aside from felony enterprise and making Batman chase his personal tail in The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale. In the most effective Batman tales, the Holiday Killer continues to be at giant, and each Batman and the Riddler are taking part in detective on April Fool’s Day. Hired by Carmine Falcone to analyze the murders of his felony household, the Riddler reveals his mental experience in fixing the riddle of Holiday’s id.

In the tip, the Riddler guesses flawed and loses the Holiday sport. Surprisingly, he turns into the following goal of the Holiday killer – solely he’s the one sufferer who’s spared fully, leaving him to surprise a few new riddle: “When does a killer not kill?” As it seems, Batman is the higher detective, and the mindless world simply would not conform to the Riddler’s simple questions.

8 The Riddler’s Origin Gets a Mysterious Makeover

Secret Origins Special #1 by Neil Gaiman, Bernie Mireault, Matt Wagner, and Joe Matt

Neil Gaiman, well-known novelist and creator of The Sandman universe, enlisted the assistance of Bernie Mireault for the Riddler’s look inSecret Origins Special #1, which tells “new” tales about some well-known Gotham villains. In a future timeline, the Riddler is a cryptic previous man with opinions on the younger and trendy criminals of Gotham. These criminals attempt to interview him, however he solutions each query with a query of his personal, cementing a brand new (however not definitive) origin.

Riddle me this: The biggest of my strengths is that I do know my price. I hug myself so tightly at each delivery. What am I? Check out the reply on the finish of the web page!

This comedian is influential to the mythos of the Riddler, who has modified names via the years, alternating between Edward Nigma/Nygma and Edward Nashton. It permits him to grow to be a personality very like the Joker, who cannot be trusted to inform the reality. This model of the Riddler is way more a trickster, paying homage to his authentic self whereas he additionally disappears fully into the riddles he creates.

7 Batman Finally Outsmarts the Riddler in a Dark Twist

Batman: Gotham Knights #6 by Walt Simonson, John Paul Leon, and John Workman

In a backup story from Batman: Gotham Knights #6 – and later to be collected as part of the Batman: Black & White collection – “The Riddle” by legends Walt Simonson and John Paul Leon is a deep look into each Batman and the Riddler’s obsession with one another. In this model of their historical past, Batman is not begrudgingly answering the Bat-signal each night time, however simply as obsessive about being smarter than his opponent because the Riddler is.

Edward Nigma rushes to a home of Alice in Wonderland memorabilia after its collector dies, and his objective is to lastly remedy Lewis Carroll’s riddle: “why is a raven like a writing desk?” After many fantastical trials, he captures the solutions – solely to find that Batman has been ready there for him and presumably substituted the riddle’s reply for a faux reply of his personal, leaving the Riddler to fall right into a insanity very like one other underrated Batman villain, the Mad Hatter.

6 The Riddler Discovers a Riddle He Can’t Solve

Joker’s Asylum II: The Riddler #1 by Peter Calloway, Andres Guinaldo, Raúl Fernández, Tomeu Morey, and Pat Brosseau

In the one-shot Joker’s Asylum II: The Riddler #1, Edward Nigma takes the highlight as the primary character in this implausible comedian that is narrated by the Joker as he cycles via the Gotham rogues in order to element how they’re simply as villainous as him. In this story, the Riddler is approached by a mysterious determine who enlists his assist to lastly kill Batman – solely the determine’s id isn’t revealed, turning into an unanswered riddle.

Riddle me this: I could be cracked. I could be made. I could be instructed. I could be performed. What am I? Check out the reply on the finish of the web page!

That’s not the one riddle in the comedian, nonetheless, as Edward additionally falls in love throughout a heist after which finds himself attempting to unravel the riddle of affection itself. This comedian provides a chance to not solely delve into the thoughts of the Riddler however to humanize the villain. There’s actually no riddle as unsolvable as love.

5 A New Riddler Debuts and Seizes All of Gotham

Batman: Zero Year by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo

There are greater than sufficient origin tales and timeline reboots in the DC Universe, however the New 52’s Batman: Zero Year options an origin for extra than simply Batman. In Batman’s first 12 months because the Dark Knight of Gotham, his detective abilities (and his survival abilities) are put to the check when the Riddler sends the town into a whole blackout and holds Gotham hostage till Batman solves his riddles.

This storyline steers the Riddler away from being a foolish trope right into a mastermind of staggering proportions. It additionally fully solidifies Edward Nygma as Batman’s mental rival over each different Gotham villain – even finally being declared the equal of the Joker. It’s not typically {that a} single Batman rogue can wrest management of Gotham, however Batman at all times comes out on high and solves the Riddler’s video games.

4 The Riddler Becomes Batman’s New Sidekick

Detective Comics #822 by Paul Dini, Don Kramer, Wayne Faucher, John Kalisz, and Jared Ok. Fletcher

One of the very best one-shot Riddler tales of all time, “E. Nigma, Consulting Detective” from Detective Comics #822 options Edward Nigma popping out of a coma forgetting practically all the things about his lifetime of crime. The Riddler is shortly employed as a detective for his deduction abilities, and he and Batman embark on a tense buddy-cop quest to unravel a thriller collectively. Instead of their ordinary hero/villain dynamic, among the finest comedic moments between the 2 occur proper in this difficulty.

As an final insult to Batman, he and the Riddler truly work fairly effectively collectively, contemplating their intellects are alike. The Riddler even practically comes out on high, fixing the case and getting away with a brand new felony endeavor – that’s, till Batman outsmarts him, just like the World’s Greatest Detective he’s.

3 The Riddler Gets His Darkest, Most Realistic Treatment

Batman: One Bad Day – The Riddler #1 by Tom King, Mitch Gerads, and Clayton Cowles

The award-winning group of Tom King and Mitch Gerards took a totally totally different have a look at Edward Nygma in Batman: One Bad Day – the Riddler #1, a chunk of the One Bad Day collection in which iconic Gotham villains bought their very own devoted story. In this one-shot, the Riddler kills a person in broad daylight, and Batman is tasked with not solely fixing the crime however determining precisely why the Riddler would change his personal strategies so brutally.

Riddle me this: What is the start of eternity, the tip of time and area, the start of each finish, and the tip of each race? Check out the reply on the finish of the web page!

Celebrated as probably the most authentic Riddler story ever, this comedian takes each the Riddler and Batman right into a bleak excessive that does not really feel like Gotham in any respect however way more just like the mindless violence of the actual world. Suddenly, the riddles flip from foolish turns-of-phrases into random acts of absurd violence. In the tip, this riddle is unanswerable, and the Riddler will proceed to be reborn till followers lastly have a solution to the query of who he actually is.

2 The Riddler Gets Serious in His Rebirth-Era Takeover of Gotham

Batman: The War of Jokes and Riddles by Tom King and Mikel Janín

Another reinvention of the Riddler, King and Mikel Janín’s Batman: The War of Jokes and Riddles reveals precisely when Batman was lastly tempted to kill one in every of his rogues – and it wasn’t the Joker. The Riddler emerges as Gotham’s final villain with a brand new query mark scar on his chest as his emblem. For the primary time, Edward Nygma wasn’t only a sniveling mental however an imposing bodily drive like each different Batman villain.

At the conclusion of the conflict, it is lastly revealed that each one the Riddler needed to do was treatment the Joker’s melancholy. For all of the deaths he had induced in the town, Batman decides to kill the Riddler, and when the Joker himself stops Batman from crossing his personal line, he lastly begins to snort. After this story, all three characters are by no means the identical, and Batman would not emerge precisely victorious.

1 The Riddler Is at His Peak in This Plot Against Batman

Batman: Hush by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee

The finest Riddler story of all time is not even a Riddler story till a reveal on the very finish of the comedian. Batman: Hush by Loeb and Jim Lee is a thriller that tears aside the Bat-Family and introduces Hush to Gotham. In it, Edward Nigma is offhandedly captured attempting to rob a financial institution, which serves initially as a purple herring. But then the reality comes out: he is been the mastermind all alongside.

The Riddler’s information in regards to the identities of the Bat-Family is what cements his plot. He gathers all of the Gotham rogues and plans to tear down the Dark Knight’s psyche together with his biggest worry: dropping Jason Todd. While Nigma would not precisely outsmart Batman, he actually does some lasting harm. This story reveals simply how sensible the Riddler is and the way far he has come from easy riddles to overarching plots that make up the most effective Batman comics of all time, starring the most effective villains of all time: the Riddler.

Riddle 3 Answer: the letter “e”