Supervillain Origins: Victor Zsasz

Batman has fought many ruthless characters in his career – but this one may be the most soulless of them all. Welcome to WatchMojo.com and today we will explore the comic book origin of Victor Zsasz. As with most comic book characters, there are often re-imaginations and different versions to a character’s past. We have chosen primarily to follow the storyline which unfolded in 1992’s Shadow of the Bat #1-4 and which was expanded upon in 1996’s The Batman Chronicles #3. Vicious and remorseless, Victor Zsasz first appeared in the Arkham Asylum story arc that opened the Shadow of the Bat series in 1992. Although this was Zsasz’s first appearance, he was treated as a long-time foe of Batman. Zsasz was revealed to be a serial killer who had at this time killed more than forty people. His calling card was to pose his victims in lifelike tableaux. Zsasz also had the unnerving habit of carving a new tally mark in his skin for each person killed. In this story, Batman had to discover how Zsasz, who seemed to be securely incarcerated, was still apparently committing crimes. Although readers learned a lot about Zsasz’s character, they didn’t find out much about how he came to be a serial killer. That full origin came a few years later, in 1996. The villain’s origin story was told during a session with Dr. Temple, the psychologist assigned to work with him in Arkham Asylum. Zsasz began his tale by talking about how he looked into his own soul and became the killer he now is. He then started at the beginning. According to Zsasz, he had a very happy childhood. He was raised by loving and caring parents who also were quite wealthy. In school, he was a model student and graduated cum laude from college. Soon after graduation, he amassed his own fortune through his intelligence and business acumen. His parents’ death when he was 25 years old disoriented the young man. To distract himself, he began gambling. Soon this moved beyond a distraction and became an addiction. In one memorable night, he ended up impoverishing himself through a high-stakes game against the Penguin. That night, he gazed into a mirror and saw his own soul – or lack thereof. Zsasz formed the opinion that there was nothing to his life, and nothing to anyone’s life. He came to see himself and all humans as nothing more than robots or zombies. Zsasz decided to commit suicide but was interrupted in his attempt by an old man who wanted to rob him. The young man easily got the upper hand on his assailant. When he did so, he had a revelation. Since all people are nothing but zombies, he could save them from their empty lives – by killing them. And by killing them, Zsasz found a purpose for his own life. He essentially became a serial killer so that he would have a purpose in life – and not feel bored or hopeless. Victor Zsasz is one of the most brutal of all of Batman’s crazed foes. Perhaps too existential and violent to be used extensively on animated TV shows, Zsasz has nevertheless made brief appearances in live-action Batman properties and video games. He’s a fascinating character who fits in well with the media projects that emphasize the darker side of Batman’s world. Are you a fan of Victor Zsasz? For more comic book origins, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com. Special thanks to our user Jack Morris for submitting the idea on our WatchMojo.com/suggest page!