Fictional Character Biography
Philip Reardon served as a soldier in the U.S. Special Forces in Vietnam until he was honorably discharged after a grenade fragment hit him between the eyes. He returned to civilian life as a warehouse guard. One night, he was knocked out by thieves who planted a bomb to blow up the warehouse. When Batman arrived at the scene, Reardon recovered but his vision was blurred. Mistaking Batman as one of the thieves, Reardon battled him. When he recognized Batman, the warehouse exploded and Reardon's retinas were burned, which impacted his war injury and blinded him permanently in both eyes.
A brilliant doctor named Dr. Engstrom reconnected his optic nerves to his fingertips, enabling him to see through them. He blamed Batman for what had happened and took his revenge on him under the identity of the Ten-Eyed Man. Because of his indisputably unique abilities, he was employed by persons unknown as the only villain worthy to attack Man-Bat. During this fight, Man-Bat threw a shrub at him which hurt when he caught it.
He fought Batman on two occasions and came up short both times, often being defeated by injuring his sensitive eyes/fingers by tricking him into catching or touching something. He could only be kept in a jail cell by keeping his hands locked in a special box that kept him blind all day and night because with eyes on his fingers, "escape would be child's play for him," although precisely how this would be the case was not elaborated upon.
He was accidentally killed during the Crisis on Infinite Earths. It was reportedly at the specific request of Marv Wolfman, among a list of characters he wanted to kill first. His only appearance after that was in Animal Man #23 along with other characters who were wiped out by the Crisis.
Read more about this topic: Ten-Eyed Man
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