Before you head into theaters next week, get a briefing on the masked villain causing the mayhem in Gotham City. Who exactly is the Riddler? What drives him? Find out in this edition of Comic Book 101.

Welcome back to Comic Book 101, the authority on what you need to know about major influences in upcoming film and television series. After an extended break, class is back in session as attention points towards The Batman's upcoming release. The Riddler is among those next on deck for the Caped Crusader. The corrupt conniver hasn't been portrayed on the big screen as a member of Batman's rogue gallery for quite some time so he finds himself as the subject of this edition of Comic Book 101.

Enter The Riddler

The Riddler is one of the Bat's oldest villains, making his debut all the way back in the pages of 1948's Detective Comics issue 140. Despite what the billing of the upcoming film would have you believe, his real name is Edward Nigma, which is a kind of clever play on words exploring the inner workings of a mystery or riddle itself. He is billed quite incorrectly as "Edward Nashton" in the film.

Many people have portrayed the green-clad maniac throughout the years. They include the legendary character actor/comedian Frank Gorshin, John Astin, Jim Carrey, Cory Michael Smith, and of course, Paul Dano in the upcoming rendition. Additionally, Riddler has been voiced in movies and games by others, including Freddy Krueger himself, Robert Englund.

Edward is different from Batman's other rogues. He has incredibly high intelligence and is incredibly dangerous and deranged with his death traps that he springs for his victims. Think Saw and Jigsaw, except Riddler did it first. Unlike some of Batman's other villains, however, his greatest strength, his intelligence, is also his greatest weakness.

Other villains including, but not limited to Joker, Two-Face, Penguin, and Bane all have a gimmick of sorts, but they, for the most part, want Batman dead. Some iterations of Joker are, of course, the exception here. Some versions of the Clown Prince of Crime wish to harm or severely injure him as opposed to kill him. Riddler thrives on Batman knowing who he is and making sure the Dark Knight knows how intelligent he is. This has cost him several times in fights with the Bat. Riddler has had several opportunities to kill the Batman just slip away through his fingers because he has to let Bruce know it's him that is about to end his life: it's Riddler, and no one else. This has been used against him on several occasions.

Nigma has gone through a soft reboot in the animated films as of late, however. Expanding on the above need for everyone, including and especially Batman, to know how smart he is, he also demands respect, both from Batman and other villains. Respect that is not always given. Enter Batman: Hush. The acclaimed animated film from D.C. Animation reimagines the origins of Hush as none other than The Riddler. Hush was first introduced as Bruce Wayne's childhood friend Thomas Elliot. In the film, Elliot is killed, and it is Riddler who is revealed to be the dangerous foe. He has reimagined his own gimmick to demand respect from those around him, both hero and villain. Many believe Riddler will end up either being Hush in this film or will be set up to become Hush in a future installment of this set of Batman films. Another recent reboot has Nigma actually depicted as a reformed criminal working along both Bruce Wayne and Bruce's alter ego as a helper of sorts. He is hired as a detective on several occasions in the Riddler Reformed series and does a lot of good before eventually returning to his ill-mannered deeds.

The approach director Matt Reeves is taking on this project does seem to, at least on its face, go along with the Hush storyline. In that storyline, Riddler does indeed know who Bruce Wayne's alter ego is. Reeves has stated that in the film, this is the case as well. One thing is for sure though; audiences don't have long to wait as The Batman hits theaters on March 4th. Keep checking Movieweb for updates and for future installments of Comic Book 101. Class dismissed.