Meet “The Prince of Puzzles” – The Riddler!

While many well-known villains of Batman were introduced in the early 1940’s, one of the most notorious made his debut in the Fall of 1948.  Edward Nigma aka the Riddler, was a man who had been obsessed with puzzles from an early age.  When he turned this obsession into a life of crime, he believed that he was clever enough to outwit Batman.  In his first appearance in Detective Comics #140, shown above, Batman and Robin proved him wrong.

The Riddler appeared two months later in Detective Comics #142 and was again defeated by our heroes.  As promising as the character was, he was not featured again until May of 1965 in the pages of Batman #171, where he began his run as one of the main figures in Batman Rogues’s Gallery.

Expert commentary above provided by our good friend and comics expert,Bill Jourdain.   Thanks Bill!