Edward Nygma - Fictional Character Biography

Fictional Character Biography

The Riddler's criminal modus operandi is so deeply ingrained into his personality that he is virtually powerless to stop himself from acting it out (as shown in his fourth comic book appearance). He cannot simply kill his opponents when he has the upper hand; he has to put them in a deathtrap to see if he can devise a life and death intellectual challenge that the hero cannot solve and escape. However, unlike many of Batman's themed enemies, Riddler's compulsion is quite flexible, allowing him to commit any crime as long as he can describe it in a riddle or puzzle.

After a teacher announces that a contest will be held over who can solve a puzzle the fastest, a young Edward Nigma (or Nashton at the time, according to some writers) sets his sights on winning this, craving the glory and satisfaction that will come with the victory. He sneaks into the school one night, takes the puzzle out of the teacher's desk, and practices it until he is able to solve it in under a minute. As predicted, he wins the contest and is given a book about riddles as a prize. His cheating rewarded, Edward embraced the mastery of puzzles of all kinds, eventually becoming a carnival employee who excelled at cheating his customers out of their money with his bizarre puzzles and mind games. He soon finds himself longing for greater challenges and thrills, and dons the guise of the Riddler to challenge Batman, who he believes could possibly be a worthy adversary for him.

In the Batman: Arkham Asylum universe, it is revealed in one of Nigma's patient interviews that his father was abusive, which is when his fascination with riddles and puzzles began. In the second interview, when asked about his childhood, Nigma says, "My father hated me. Always called me a moron. I was determined to prove him wrong, so I entered a contest at school. A twenty dollar prize to the kid who could solve an almost impossible logic problem. I won, of course...he was convinced I had cheated. He kept yelling, 'You must have cheated! Admit it, you moron, you cheated!' I swore I didn't, and he hit me for lying." Nigma then goes on to say that he did indeed cheat in the contest, though he shows no guilt.

In Batman: The Long Halloween, the Riddler appears as an informant. He first appears when Carmine "The Roman" Falcone hires him to figure out who the Holiday Killer is. Falcone eventually loses his patience with the Riddler, however, and orders his daughter, Sophia, to force him to leave. Upon exiting Falcone's office, Holiday attacks the Riddler, but for some reason leaves him alive. The attack was planned to coincide with the holiday of April Fool's, and several items pertaining to it were left at the scene. This may be why the Riddler was left alive, as matters are traditionally reversed on the holiday. He appeared again in the same chapter of the story in which Harvey Dent is disfigured, when Batman comes to him for information about the attack. He plays a slightly larger role in the story's sequel, Batman: Dark Victory, in which Batman turns to him to figure out the significance of the lost games of hangman that are left at the scenes of the Hangman killer's crimes. He later showed up as a member of Two-Face's jury during the Hangman's trial.

In Catwoman: When in Rome, he joins Selina Kyle on a trip to Italy in search of his fellow rogue's origins. It is there that he manipulates her into believing that some of Batman's most dangerous foes are after her. He has his henchmen employ several gimmicks and weapons used by the Scarecrow, Mr. Freeze, and the Joker to achieve this. He hopes to extract Batman's real identity from her, but to his dismay, she actually doesn't know or care.

The Riddler appears in The Question series, being convinced to become a "big-time villain" by a prostitute he meets on a bus. He hijacks the bus and begins asking riddles, killing and robbing anyone that got them wrong. The Question quickly subdues him by asking him philosophical riddles in return. He is outwitted and has a mental breakdown before being set free as a reward for getting one last riddle right.

In the one-shot "Riddler and the Riddle Factory", the Riddler becomes the host of an underground game show that focuses on digging up dirt on celebrities. Many of the famous people that he humiliates end up committing suicide shortly afterwards, suggesting that perhaps the Riddler did more than just inspire their deaths. In the end, his actions turn out to be a front for his attempts to find the hidden treasures of "Scarface" Scarelli, a Gotham City gangster who lived long before Batman's reign of crimefighting.

In the three-part Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight storyline "The Primal Riddle", written by Steve Englehart, the Riddler engineers one of his greatest deathtraps: Batman is thrown into a narrow pit that is slowly filling up with water. The walls are electrically wired, and a set of bumpers are the only thing that prevents the water from touching the walls and causing Batman to die by electrocution. The only options Batman appears to have are death by electrocution and death by drowning, but as always, Batman manages to tamper with the trap's design and develop a route of escape.

The Riddler has a working relationship with the Cluemaster, although he initially resents the villain for seemingly copying his modus operandi. In their first encounter, he sets his fellow rogue up with a bomb and sends Batman off chasing riddles that would lead to its defusing, as well as away from his real plan: to steal a vast amount of priceless baseball merchandise. The two team up on a few occasions afterwards, and work together on a big scheme shortly before Cluemaster's apparent death in the pages of The Suicide Squad.

After Harley Quinn briefly breaks free of her devotion to the Joker, she attempts to hold up a large party at Wayne Manor, only to find that the Riddler is targeting the building also. The two gangs engage in a firefight, but Harley gains the upper hand when Big Barda (who was secretly allied with her at the time) interrupts the conflict and captures the Riddler and his men. During the storyline, the Riddler makes constant allusions to a "mystery" that is hidden within the mansion, and after his apprehension, damage done to the building causes the entrance to the Batcave to open. The Riddler sees this, and then declares that he has "solved the riddle of Wayne Manor".

During this period, he attacks Black Canary and Green Arrow in Star City, and he is easily defeated. This event helps lay the foundations for Riddler's future confrontations with Green Arrow.

During a crisis caused when Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth was broken, resulting in the laws of truth breaking down and causing reality to be shaped by the perceptions of individuals, one of the symptoms was when Batman found himself unable to solve any of the Riddler's riddles, but was nevertheless still able to defeat the Riddler as the Riddler himself couldn't solve the riddles either – most likely reflecting the public idea of the Riddler's puzzles being insoluble – claiming that he managed to "improvise" to defeat the Riddler. His low reputation among heroes and villains was reflected when the Flash noted that Batman having trouble with the Riddler was a clear sign that the world was ending.

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