LogFAQs > #882958169

#116 - Clayface (Basil Karlo) Nominated by: Eddv
First Appearance: Detective Comics #40 (Jun. 1940)
Created by: Bill Finger and Bob Kane

Fundamentals: 8/10
Track Record: 5/10
Scarlet Factor: 5/10

I gave Ed the benefit of the doubt and assume that he wanted me to rank the original pile of shit and not the subsequent piles of shit that debuted later.

Clayface is a special kind of villain that feels at home in any era or franchise. I could just as easily see Clayface starring in a late 19th century dime novel as I could see him as the new face of terror in a slasher film. The possibilities for a man who can be any man, an actor who can assume his roles so perfectly that it is impossible to tell the doppelganger from the real thing are endless. I truly think there are great, great potential stories to tell with Clayface.

But as was the case with Ultra-Humanite, we're not focused on the right kind of storytelling with the guy. The excitement with Clayface is the search. He can be anyone and anywhere, so it takes a keen mind and some detective work to find him. However, writers and artists are more interested in the big battles, watching Batman swim around in a typhoon of diarrhea while a face pokes out from the poop and makes vague Vaudevillian threats. That's not as much fun as the chase itself. Sometimes it's not the destination, it's the journey. However, it's hard to see that as a writer. You want to create payoff, to keep a reader glued to the page so they pick up the next issue. The answer to the question of audience retention isn't to splash page mud, but to let the mud set. Let Clayface be anybody, lead Batman on a mystery investigation, and let the payoff be huge.

Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer