Hugo Strange
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Real Identity: Hugo Strange
Affiliation(s): Arkham Asylum
Appearances: Meltdown, Strange Minds, A Fistful of Felt, Gotham's Ultimate Criminal Mastermind, Strange New World, Rumors, Lost Heroes Part One, and Part Two
Powers/Skills: Psychology, Analysis, Intelligence, Manipulation, and Technology
Voiced By: Frank Gorshin and Richard Green
After a childhood of trauma and grief, Hugo Strange grew to become a psychologist and senior resident at Arkham Asylum. Strange came into the spotlight when he was tasked with analysing Ethan Bennett and sharing his findings at a trial months later. He concluded that Bennett was psychologically traumatized in the line of duty and suffered from temporary insanity. However, it seems likely that Strange knew Bennett was still unstable and resort to using his powers again. Allowing Bennett to reintegrate into society would be worthy of his study.
Strange's insane but well disguised manipulations of inmates continued after he was promoted to Chief of Psychology. Under the guise of helping the Gotham Police find Detective Yin, Strange used his mind reader to enter the Joker's brain. Months later, he attempted to cure Arnold Wesker of his Scarface complex with a radical treatment program. Strange separated Scarface from Wesker and released him with a clean bill of health. However, Strange secretly planted Scarface in his apartment to test the treatment. The Batman deduced his involvement and began to suspect Strange's sanity.
To prove his intellectual superiority as a criminal mastermind, Strange created an artificial intelligence pre-programmed with psychological profiles of himself, Mr. Freeze, the Riddler, the Joker, the Penguin, and Clayface. He advertised it to Mayor Grange, Bruce Wayne, and Commissioner Gordon as a method of anticipating criminal schemes before they come to fruition. He secretly preprogrammed D.A.V.E. to escape and destroy the Batman. Batman deduced his involvement and implicated Strange. He was incarcerated at Arkham. Despite this, Strange continued to use inside contacts to create an odorless, fast acting, and invisible toxic agent that makes its victims hallucinate and see zombies.
An orderly discovered it and confiscated it. The Gotham Police kept the vials in the Evidence Room. One week later, Strange requested to speak with the Batman. Upon their visit, Strange doused them with a hidden vial of the agent and manipulated the Batman into thinking it actually turned everyone in Gotham into zombies and the confiscated vials were the antidote. The Batman would mistakenly set off the agents to cure everyone and taint the city in two days, instead. Luckily, Batgirl caught Robin and used his samples to create a cure. The two and Commissioner Gordon managed to adminster the cure to the Batman before he could set off thermo charges and spread the toxin. Strange was moved to a high security cell in Arkham.
While incarcerated, Strange was kidnapped by Rumor but later returned after the Batman and Robin defeated him. A short while later, during the invasion of the Joining, Strange escaped Arkham and salvaged parts from a downed spacecraft, including a central communicator. He managed to make contact with the Joining and made a deal with them. In exchange for helping steal the powers of Earth's super heroes, Strange would receive ultimate knowledge from the aliens. Strange constructed the device in an air raid shelter for a little over a year. Once ready, he began by laying a trap in Central City for the Justice League that included sleeping gas, a flame thrower, and yellow powder triggered by a radio signal. The Batman and Green Arrow used the Strange duplicate residing in Arkham to track the signal.
However, it was too late. The powers were siphoned into advanced androids and set loose on Gotham. While the Justice League fought the androids, Strange got his payment and was literally lobotomized by the overwhelming amount of knowledge. The Martian Manhunter used his telepathy to search Strange's mind for shut off codes to stop the Joining once and for all. Afterwards, Strange was remanded to Arkham Asylum.