10 Lame Batman Villains I Dare The Gotham Writers To Use

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1. Kite Man

Even among the horrible Batman villains on this list, Kite Man pulled off something truly special: he actually got lamer later in his history, if that’s even possible.

To be sure, the original concept of a villain who used a giant kite to fly around on and befuddled Batman and Robin with specially gimmicked kites was bad enough. I can almost understand the latter part, because the Penguin’s gimmicked umbrellas aren’t that much better, but sometimes you miss when you take a lot of swings. I’m just not so sure that the kite symbol he used was so great that he needed it on his helmet, his chest and his belt.

No, Kite Man got worse because in the 80s, a writer decided to give him a backstory — he didn’t need one prior, because of the whole Silver Age thing — and decided that in his secret identity, Kite Man was actually Charles “Chuck” Brown. If you don’t get that painfully forced reference, congrats: you’re still pretty young.

I know that you’re thinking, “But we’ve already seen a Balloonman on Gotham, surely it’s not that much further to Kite Man.” I’m here to tell you that you’re wrong, not only because Kite Man is simply awful in his own right, but because he’s so tainted in the minds of comic fans, routinely showing up toward the top of any list of the worst Batman villains of all time.

If the Gotham writers could somehow figure out a way to make the concept work, and I mean the whole thing, not simply having a random gangster named Chuck Brown make a play for power, I’d consider that the greatest feat in translating comics to other media ever.

Next: 50 Greatest Super Villains in Comic Book History

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