10 Things DC Wants You To Forget About The Riddler

5. Some Of His Riddles Are Really, Really Terrible

Even allowing for that one there - which isn't a real riddle, to be fair - The Riddler has told a lot of crummy riddles in his time. Which is pretty bad when you consider it's what his entire personality is based around. That would be like if The Joker wasn't very funny. And even when his one liners fall flat you basically have to laugh, either because you've got a gun to your head or you've been dosed with Joker toxin.

We suppose you could argue that it's down to that deep seated need to get caught, but...shut up. Honestly though, his crimes are all based on making riddles. So if he can't manage that even, what hope does he have for anything else? If they're not totally awful puns that a child could figure out, let alone the World's Greatest Detective - eg "What people are always in a hurry? Russians" - then they're absolutely impossible to figure out and make no logical sense, like some of the more taxing questions he poses the players in the Arkham games - "Zsasz is counting on you finding his work" was totally nonsensical to anybody not familiar with Batman lore - neither of which are great for...well, The Riddler.

There are only so many riddles in the world, and both writers and Edward Nigma probably get bored of trying to fit crimes to word games. Still, that's a bit lazy for a guy who loves riddles so much that he named himself after them. That Russian one's still bothering us. That would be like us calling ourselves The Amazing Chef and committing crimes based on beans on toast. Actually, that's quite good, let's just write that down...

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Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/