Batman over the years has had many twisted and sadistic villains over the years, and one good example of them is Victor Zsasz. Since his debut in 1992 Zsasz has never been close to one of Batman's main villains, but he has been in the background fairly often. Especially since his extremely brief appearance in the movie Batman Begins, he has steadily been appearing more and more. He regularly appeared in the hit video game series Batman:Arkham, has featured in the TV show Gotham, and is set to appear in the upcoming Birds of Prey movie.
Origins
In the grand scheme of Batman's publication history Zsasz is a very recent addition - he first debuted in Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1 in 1992. Created by Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle he was initially disturbing serial killer, as the main focus of the story was the ongoing renovations on Arkham Asylum and the new warden Jeremiah Arkham vowing to 'cure' a chained Batman. Zsasz was noticeable as his body was covered in scars forming tally marks - it was later revealed that each tally represented a person murdered by him. This was part of a story called The Last Arkham - it turned out that Zsasz had been manipulating Jeremiah Arkham, and had managed to bribe a contractor while the asylum was being restored to build a passage out of his cell. During the day, Zsasz would slowly chip away at Arkham's sanity, and at night he would leave to commit further murders. Batman and Commissioner Gordon made a plan getting Batman committed where he could search for clues on the inside. Although Zsasz was stopped, whenever a breakout happened his killing spree started again.
Batman Chronicles #3 later told how Victor Zsasz became who he was. Like Bruce Wayne he was born into a life of luxury. His owned his own international corporation, and received further funding from his incredibly wealthy parents. However, aged 25, they were killed driving him into a deep depression. Unlike Bruce Wayne, who became the Batman, Zsasz turned to gambling to take his mind off of his depression, but this became an addiction. He spent days upon days at the Iceberg Lounge - a club and casino owned by the Penguin. Seeing an easy mark the Penguin kept challenging to games which made Victor lose more and more of his money. Eventually, Zsasz lost everything, and stumbling away from the club decided that he was destined for suicide. While attempting to jump from Gotham Bridge, a desperate mugger came at him with a knife. Instead, Zsasz grabbed the weapon and used it to end the mugger's life. In that moment - seeing the life leave the eyes of the mugger - everything changed. He saw nothing and meaningless in the eyes of the mugger, and viewed his murder of the man as bringing him a 'gift'. He realised that he was the only actual human, everyone else were 'zombies' and he had to liberate them. As a sign that he had liberated someone, and to prove that he was the only real human, he carved a tally into his skin. Now, he commits murders and places the victims in real-life positions so they could be 'real' in death. After every kill he carved another tally onto himself. In later stories it was revealed that Zsasz would have a breakdown if he couldn't leave his mark or kill someone - often saying that he 'has to have the mark'/
Knightfall and No Man's Land
In Knightfall, to break Batman both mentally and physically Bane released all the inmates from Arkham Asylum - everyone from the Joker to the Mad Hatter were released. One of those to escape was Zsasz. He broke into an all-girls boarding school taking them all hostage. As they were the daughters of Gotham's elite he wanted to make a statement by 'liberating' such high-class zombies. Even when the girls tried to overpower him he remained strong - Zsasz is very strong once dislocating Batman's shoulder in Detective Comics #368. The two police officers who were sent in to get him were also killed by the serial killer. By this time Batman was becoming increasingly exhausted hunting down escaped villains, so the agile and strong Zsasz proved to be a match. The killer's taunts started driving Batman to the edge causing him to snap and savagely beat the killer after he suggested that they were the same. Kevin Smith in 2008 would explain this in Batman: Cacophony as Batman hates Zsasz the most for his outlook on people and life. It took detective Renee Montoya dragging Batman off of the killer to stop the beating.
In No Man's Land Gotham experienced an earthquake isolating it from the rest of the country, so the villains took over. Poison Ivy, Joker, Bane, and Mr. Freeze were just some of the villains to take over parts of Gotham. Zsasz similarly claimed an area to kill as he pleased. Being one serial killer facing off against super-powered individuals and gangs meant he was soon injured and sent to Dr. Leslie Thompkins's field hospital. Her good nature and care started shattering Zsasz's worldview. In Thompkins there was evidence that people were not simply empty vessels - they were hopeful and good. As he couldn't cope with this shift in perception he decided to ignore and run away from the field hospital.
With Other Villains
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| Part of Riddler's gang with Scarecrow, Deathstroke, Two-Face, Firefly, Killer Croc and Clayface |
Zsasz has occasionally ran with other villains, but his nihilistic and homicidal view on humanity means that he is often kept at arm's length. After Batman was killed by Darkseid a new story called Battle for the Cowl began. During this a new Black Mask, later revealed to be Jeremiah Arkham, managed to hire Zsasz as one of the members of his new gang. With a large amount of money he let Zsasz purchase a warehouse which could host battles-to-the-death between Gotham's runaway or kidnapped child population. Children would be forced to fight one another with the provision that the last one standing could fight Zsasz and earn their freedom. This enraged Damian Wayne, Bruce's son and the new Robin, who became traumatised seeing the bodies of the dead children. Damian was not raised by Bruce so was very willing to kill, and he almost killed Zsasz by slashing him with a sword before kicking him into the river. He would survive and continue working with Black Mask, and would sometimes move away to continue killing by himself. In 2017 DC published the War of Jokes and Riddles story - told in flashback it tells a Gotham wide gang war between Joker and the Riddler. More and more villains ended up picking a side; Zsasz would end up joining Riddler's gang.
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