Michael Ansara (April 15, 1922 – July 31, 2013)

[james_davis_nicoll]

He had a long and varied career, including this role:

"" (Watch on YouTube)

Poor Freeze. Every plan he came up with only made his situation worse.

"" (Watch on YouTube)

Aside from Man-Bat and maybe Cat Woman, did any of Batman's more sympathetic foes manage to reform?

Comments

[mishalak]

In which context? In the animated series The Ventriloquist managed to vanquish Scarface and go straight. It did not happen in the comic books though.

[keithmm.livejournal.com]

I don't know about sympathetic, and I don't know if it's still in effect, the Penguin realized he could make almost as much money legally (and keep it) by going legit, and so started a themed nightclub, with a little gray-market activity on the side. He had a deal going with Batman providing some info on what was going down from time to time made sure the Bat chose not not delve too deeply in some of Penguin's law-skirting activities.

The Riddler became a private investigator when he realized that all trying to outwit Batman with puzzles was doing was landing him repeatedly in Arkham, and there's more than one way to prove yourself intellectually superior than someone else, such as being better at what they do than they are. So he decided to demonstrate he could be a better detective than Batman, with the side-benefit that his puzzle obsession worked for him. IIRC, Batman even used him as an investigator on the odd occasion, which delighted Nygma to no end.

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

I was kind of hoping the Penguin would abandon crime, and instead fund development of a free Unix-like operating system.

[(Anonymous)]

The problem with reforming a villain, is that sooner or later a new writer comes along and undoes the reforming. It happens occasionally, but doesn't stick.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

And if the new writer isn't interested themselves, there's always an editor who is. Or pressure from further up the editorial chain, possibly...?

[jcfiala.livejournal.com]

The problem with reforming a villain, is that sooner or later a new writer comes along and undoes the reforming. It happens occasionally, but doesn't stick.

[burger-eater.livejournal.com]

I thought Freeze came back after this "death" as a disembodied head (but I'm too lazy to check Wikipedia.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

He was already a disembodied head at the start of the episode. Unfortunately the clone body he received didn't have long shelf life.

[burger-eater.livejournal.com]

The Cassandra Cain Batgirl was an assassin who became part of the family, but I haven't seen her character in a while and I don't know if it stuck.

Harvey Dent was reformed for a while, too, (he took over as protector of Gotham while Batman was away) but I seriously doubt it stuck.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

James Robinson's "Face the Face" made sure that it didn't.

Potential thrown away, it seemed to me. Recidivism = corporate profit.