10 Lame Batman Villains I Dare The Gotham Writers To Use

5. Tweedledum and Tweedledee

I intentionally used a picture of a more modern use of these characters in comics, because they were just too goofy to believe in their early appearances. Almost like they were ripped right out of Through the Looking-Glass. The Mad Hatter worked as a Batman villain, and maybe some others would have too. Some writer could have made, say, Cheshire Cat work. These guys, not so much?

The story behind them is that they were actually cousins with the last name Tweed who looked like they were identical twins. Because they also looked a lot like the literary versions of Tweedledum and Tweedledee — and, presumably, were big Lewis Carroll fans — they decided to just run with it. In the Golden Age, that was sometimes enough for the basis of an origin.

You’d be right to wonder what possible threat these guys could pose to Batman, and their first appearance depicted one of them rolling down a hill as Batman and Robin struggled to get out of the way. So I guess just take the high ground and you’ll be alright.

The Tweeds did, in fact, assemble an entire Wonderland Gang at one point, and they’ve been used a surprising number of times over the years. They made their one and only semi-frightening appearance in Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, and in Infinite Crisis, we learned that not even the death of Tweedledum was sufficient to stop them, because he had a twin brother to take his place. Because of course he did.

Since they were crime bosses to start, I guess we could see the cousins as rivals to Fish Mooney or the Penguin on Gotham, but I’m not sure we need to go there.

Next: No. 4: Ten-Eyed Man