Egghead (DC Comics)

Egghead is a fictional character created for the 1960s ''Batman'' television series. Played by Vincent Price, the character was identifiable by his pale bald head and white and yellow suit. He believes himself to be "the world's smartest criminal", and his crimes usually have an egg motif to them; he also includes egg-related puns in his speech and uses various egg-themed weapons.

Background

Like many other villains (''e.g.'', King Tut, Shame, the Siren, Chandell, the Bookworm, and Louie the Lilac), Egghead was created specifically for the 1960s ''Batman'' TV series. Much like Harley Quinn would decades later after initially being introduced in '' Batman: The Animated Series'', Egghead would go on to be introduced in the comic books and make him an official villain. There had been several minor characters known as Egghead, but they were bald secondary gangsters that had little to do with the TV series character. The first, spelled Egg-Head, was an associate, along with bespectacled Fish-Eyes, of jewel thief Michael Baffle in ''Detective Comics'' #63 (May 1942). Another Egghead was in Mike Optik's gang in "Dick Grayson, Telegraph Boy!" in ''Batman'' #22 (April-May 1944). He was not very intelligent, and Professor Hendricks tricked him into thinking he was on a rocket in outer space to get him to reveal the location of Optik's hideout.

Fictional character biography

Egghead was introduced in the second season two-parter, "An Egg Grows in Gotham" and "The Yegg Foes in Gotham", where he schemes with Chief Screaming Chicken (Edward Everett Horton) of the Mohican Indian tribe to revert control of Gotham to the chief's people. In return, Egghead would also govern the city and enable the criminal underground to run amok. Their scheme is foiled by Batman ( Adam West) and Robin (Burt Ward).

Egghead would return three times in the third season with his new partner and love interest Olga, Queen of the Cossacks (Anne Baxter), an exile from Bessarovia. The first two third-season appearances, "The Ogg and I" and "How to Hatch a Dinosaur", were actually filmed as one multi-part story, but split into two separate stories (Season 3 episodes 8 and 9) prior to airing. In "How to Hatch a Dinosaur", Egghead and Olga plan to hatch an egg of a ''Neosaurus'' and later to try to feed Robin and Batgirl to it. It does not work, however, and the ''Neosaurus'' - actually Batman in disguise - advances toward Egghead and Olga, causing them to surrender to the police.

Egghead and Olga appear for the final time in season three in episode 15, "The Ogg Couple", in which they steal the Sword of Bulbul and the Egg of Ogg.

In "The Entrancing Dr. Cassandra", Egghead (alongside the Joker, the Penguin, the Riddler, Catwoman, and King Tut) is freed from prison by Dr. Cassandra Spellcraft and her husband Cabala. Dr. Spellcraft promises Egghead control over the poultry farms when she takes over Gotham, even giving him and the other villains her camouflage pills to assist in their crime spree.

Egghead is one of only two ''Batman'' 1960s series villains to deduce Batman's secret identity (and the only one to do so through deductive reasoning instead of trickery). Reasoning that the enormous "egg-spense" involved in producing Batman's various gadgets would point to only one of three Gotham millionaires, and deducing that two could not be the Caped Crusader (one has a French accent, which Batman does not have, and the other is left-handed, where as Batman is right-handed), he concludes that the last, Bruce Wayne, must be Batman.

In other media

Television

* Egghead debuts in the 1960s ''Batman'' TV series, portrayed by Vincent Price.
* Egghead can be seen in '' Batman: The Brave and the Bold'' episode "Day of the Dark Knight!" as a convict trying to escape Iron Heights Penitentiary, but was stopped by Batman and Green Arrow, among other villains from the show.
* Egghead's portrait hangs in a display of "Egghead's Egg" in the 2020 season 2 episode of ''Harley Quinn'', "Catwoman".

Film

* According to ''Batman Forever'' and '' Batman & Robin'' director Joel Schumacher, Egghead was one of the villains considered by Mark Protosevich to be the main antagonist of his cancelled fifth ''Batman'' film ''Batman Unchained'', alongside King Tut, the Mad Hatter and the Scarecrow.
* In the animated film '' Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders'' (which is an adaptation of the 1960s TV show), Egghead appears among other criminals during the climax after Robin and Catwoman free Egghead and the other villains from Gotham City Penitentiary. He is seen fighting Batman and his duplicates by using egg-like bombs.
* In Team StarKid's comedy musical '' Holy Musical B@man'', Egghead makes a minor appearance, stealing all the chickens from Gotham, hoping to see its citizens suffer from a lack of eggs. He is almost immediately defeated by Batman and Robin.
* Egghead appears in ''The Lego Batman Movie'' as one of the villains assisting in Joker's attack on Gotham. He later appears using an egg-shaped mech to fight off the Phantom Zone inmates.
* Egghead is seen in ''Batman vs. Two-Face'' as one of the super-criminals that Hugo Strange and Harleen Quinzel are attempting to treat.

Comics

* Egghead makes cameo appearances in other Batman media outside of the 1960s series. He can be seen in '' Batman: Shadow of the Bat'' #3-4 as an inmate of Arkham Asylum, battling Batman gladiator-style after being set free from his cell by Jeremiah Arkham.
* He is also featured in '' Batman: The Brave and the Bold'' issue #16. His real name is given as Edgar Heed and he seeks to awaken Egg Fu.
* Egghead appears in issue #3 of the ''Batman '66'' comic book series, "The Joker Sees Red", as an inmate of Arkham Asylum. He also appears in the one-shot issue ''Batman '66 Meets the Legion of Super Heroes'', being depicted as Universo's ancestor.
* He appears as Professor Egghead in ''Gotham Academy'' #14.

See also

* List of Batman enemies in other media
* List of Batman family enemies
* Egghead (Marvel Comics)

References

{{Batman characters

Television characters introduced in 1966
Batman (TV series)
DC Comics supervillains
DC Comics male supervillains
Eggs in culture
Fictional gangsters
American male characters in television
Fictional crime bosses