6 Times Comics Made Great Villains Terrible

5. Arnold Wesker Becomes Quakemaster - Cataclysm

Arnold Wesker is best known to Batman fans as the Ventriloquist, a troubled supervillain terrorised by a split personality manifesting in a wooden mobster-like doll called Scarface. As of DC Rebirth Wesker is thankfully back doing his Dead of Night Hugo-routine, but he's had to contend with a fair few baffling creative alterations throughout his career, the most recent of which involved him being needlessly swapped for Peyton Reed, the latest in a now unfortunately long line of evil Ventriloquists.

During the Cataclysm event, a 1998 crossover that saw Gotham succumb to a series of devastating earthquakes, it was revealed that poor Wesker now had a third personality to contend with, known as the Quakemaster. Said name had already been taken by an older Batman villain, but that didn't stop Wesker, who ditched the interesting mob motif for a look that seemingly inspired the design of the Underminer several years later.

Fortunately it was an interpretation that didn't overshadow the genuinely interesting characterisation of a man terrorised by a mob doll, with the character making several appearances in the lauded Batman: The Animated Series by this stage, but it was unfortunate all the same.