Underrated Bat Rogues

[MikeandRaph87]

Originally Posted by myconius

i really enjoyed those comics featuring The Spook that you recommended to me.

i have to be honest, i did kind of enjoy seeing The Spook beheaded by Damian Wayne. sure it was a slapstick moment, but it showed what a Problem Child Damian truly was. and gave Batman a realization as to just what a danger this child was.

and in comics, no character is ever truly dead.

I am just surprised at how he was an actual threat while not being a big name and then forgotten only to be remembered as a joke. How can someone who was an actual threat be a joke like that? Its not freaking Signal Man or Calendar Man, or Killer Moth who always have been in-story treated as such from day one.

I thought Spook would have returned by now. If everyone else can get well.Why not play up one or the other his escape artistry to get out of the beheading or come back undead and be an actual Sppok? The only thing campy about him is coincidental, the fact his name is Val Kaliban opposed to Val Kilmer, a slight name tweak and there you go.

These are his appearances, but note #291-#294 is as a gathering of villains which he portrays a juror. Which ones did you read?
Detective Comics #434 (April 1973): "The Spook Who Stalked Batman"
Detective Comics #435 (June-July 1973): "The Spook Strikes Again"
Batman #252 (October 1973): "The Spook's Master Stroke"
Batman #276 (June 1976): "The Haunting of the Spook"
Batman #291 (September 1977): "Where Were You On the Night Batman Was Killed?"
Batman #292 (October 1977): "The Testimony of the Riddler"
Batman #293 (November 1977): "The Testimony of Luthor"
Batman #294 (December 1977): "Testimony of the Joker"
Batman #304 (October 1978 ): "To Hell with Batman--and Back"
Detective Comics #488 (February-March 1980): "The Spook's Death Sentence for Batman"
Detective Comics #526 (May 1983): "All My Enemies Against Me"

Then there is "Scared Straight" from Gotham Knights #46 (December 2003) that portrayed him differently and perhaps inspired Batman#657's use of the character. Morrison said he was a favorite forgotten character, why would you kill a favorite to build up one of her own? "Favorite", sure its what I would have done to Professor Pyg.