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Clayface is the identity used by a number of shapeshifting supervillains who have battled the Batman. He is notable for being a classic villain who is metahuman rather than a deranged 'normal' human being like most in the Batman's rogues gallery.
Basil Karlo (aka Ultimate Clayface)
The original Clayface, Basil Karlo, appeared in Detective Comics #40. He was an actor who was driven mad when he heard of a remake of the classic horror film he had starred in. Donning the mask of the film's villain, the Clayface, he embarked on a murder spree among the cast and crew of the remake. He was foiled by Batman and Robin, and incarcerated in Arkham Asylum.
Much later, during the final stages of the Mud Pack Event (see below), he was imbued with abilities similar to those of Clayfaces III and IV, and was dubbed the "Ultimate Clayface".
During the "No Man's Land" event, Basil Karlo battled and was defeated by Poison Ivy in Robinson Park. It appears the Ultimate Clayface was destroyed in this battle, but has resurfaced as a member of the Secret Society of Super Villains.
The name Basil Karlo, and his career as a horror film star, suggest a reference to Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone.
Matt Hagen
The second Clayface, Matt Hagen, first appeared in Detective Comics #298. A treasure hunter, Hagen found a mysterious radioactive pool of protoplasm in a cave. Immersing himself in it, he was transformed into a malleable clay-like form which could be shaped into almost anything he desired, though this was only a temporary effect, requiring him to return to the pool periodically in order to maintain use of his powers, although eventually he managed to copy the pool's protoplasmic jelly by chemistry studies. However, the artificial protoplasm was seen to have a meagre 5 hours of duration in comparison to the full two days of the pool itself. Hagen was ultimately killed during the 12-issue limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths. During the Mud Pack storyline, the other villains that used the name Clayface gathered Clayface II's remains and made him a post-mortem member of the Mud Pack.
Preston Payne
The third Clayface, Preston Payne, first appeared in Detective Comics #478. Suffering from hyperpituitarism, Payne worked at S.T.A.R. Labs searching for a cure. He obtained a sample of the then-living Matt Hagen's blood, and isolated an enzyme which he introduced into his own bloodstream. Although he was briefly able to shape his own appearance, this effect was short-lived: while on a date, his flesh began to melt, and when he touched his horrified girlfriend, she completely melted. Payne built an exoskeleton anti-melting suit to prevent himself from touching anyone, but he learned that he needed to spread his melting contagion onto others to survive (he feels pain if he doesn't melt anyone). During this time his mental health started to slip as he fell in love with a wax mannequin he named "Helena", thinking she was the only woman immune to his touch. After another breakdown, he thought Helena enjoyed watching men "fighting over her" when he battled Batman yet again in front of the wax doll. Although he didn't give her up, he kept her in Arkham Asylum, saying "we're both too polite to admit divorce, but she can't live forever". He then met Shondra Fuller, Clayface IV. While with the Mud Pack, he brought the remains of Matt Hagen. He then fell in love with Shondra, producing a child named Cassius Payne, the fifth Clayface.
Recently, Preston acquired medicine to control his pain and now feels the "hunger" only in his mind. It was also revealed that his parents were abusive towards him.
Sondra Fuller
The fourth Clayface, Sondra Fuller, also known as Lady Clay, first appeared in Outsiders (volume 1) #21. She was a member of Strike Force Kobra who was transformed into a shape-changer by her employer Kobra's technologies. She possesses identical abilities to those of Matt Hagen and can additionally copy the powers of the being she's mimicking, but without the requirement for a source of protoplasm. She was defeated by the Outsiders.
Cassius "Clay" Payne
After the Mud Pack, Payne and Fuller fell in love and eventually became withdrawn and had a child together named Cassius "Clay" Payne, who became the fifth Clayface. The boy is separated from his parents and held in a government laboratory. The full extent of his powers are unknown. The name "Cassius" is a pun on "Cassius Clay", the birthname of legendary boxer Muhammad Ali.
Currently, the bio statis of Cassius shows that if a piece of him is separated from his body, it can grow a mind of its own, but it mostly thinks in a retarded form of what Cassius wants. If bonded with another human (i.e. Claything), the piece can give that human clayface-like abilities, such as become like clay, being able to withstand bullets and other harm, and could also manifest Clayface III's ability to melt objects, but all this person would have to do is just think it. It is unknown if a person can gain different abilities when bonded with a piece of Cassius.
In Batman: Gotham Knights recently, Cassius has now taken on the clay-like appearance of his mother and father, but he looks more like Basil Karlo than either of his parents. He can only stay in Clayface mode while awake, similar to the Teen Titans villain Plasmus in the animated show.
Claything
The sixth Clayface, also known as Claything, was created when a skin sample from Cassius Payne came to life and merged with a DEO (Department of Extra-Normal Operations) scientist, Dr. Malley. He had the ability to melt objects simply by looking at them. Claything was destroyed and his remains are stored at the DEO HQ. These events took place in Batman #550: "Chasing Clay".
Mud Pack
Before the appearance of the fifth and sixth Clayfaces, the third and fourth Clayfaces teamed up, breaking the original Clayface out of prison and forming the Mud Pack. Karlo later managed to copy the others' powers by injecting himself with extracts of samples of the other two Clayfaces, becoming the "Ultimate Clayface". The three battled and were defeated by Batman.
In other media
The original animated form of Clayface was derived from the Teen Titans comics character Plasmus.
The New Adventures of Batman
Clayface's first appearance outside the comics was in several episodes of Filmation's The New Adventures of Batman in the late 1970s. This show featured the Matt Hagen version of Clayface, and according to his first appearance he must drink his special potion daily to keep his Clayface powers. In this show he often uses his powers to take on the forms of animals.In Clayface's first episode, Clayface was shown to be able to survive in water without dissolving (unlike later animated incarnations), but as Matt Hagen he did not know how to swim. His second episode paired him up with Catwoman in a plot to steal oil.
He was also one of the four villains featured in the show's only two-part episode, in which the alien Zarbor conned him, The Joker, Catwoman and The Penguin into teaming up against Batman and Robin, as a diversion while Zarbor stole Earth's nuclear plants. The four villains later tried to get revenge on Zarbor in vain. In this series Clayface was voiced by Lou Scheimer.
Batman: The Animated Series
In The Animated Series, several episodes featured a more tragic Clayface character, voiced by Ron Perlman, that combined aspects of several of the comic-book Clayfaces. He was Matt Hagen, a past-his-prime actor who had been disfigured in a horrible car accident and was rushed to the burn clinic. While at the burn clinic, he was approached by corrupt businessman Roland Daggett and had him turned to a compound called Renuyu (it was untested, non-FDA approved, and highly addictive, cosmetic) to maintain his youthful appearance compared to years of plastic surgery. In exchange, Hagen would use his acting skills to further Daggett's schemes. When Hagen botched Daggett's attempt to seize WayneTech by failing to acquire the necessary data from Lucius Fox disguised as Bruce Wayne, his supply was cut off. He was caught in Daggett Industries, disguised as Wayne, trying to steal a large supply of Renuyu by Raymond Bell and Germs, who worked for Roland Daggett; they then tried to kill him by forcing him to ingest an entire canister of Renuyu. Rather than kill him, however, the overdose saturated every cell in his body, turning him into a bulky and misshapen claylike form who could, for short periods of time, shapeshift into anything or anybody he wished. After trying to get revenge on Daggett, he was stopped and, apparently, destroyed by Batman. It was soon discovered that he had faked his own death by electrocution, however, and was still very much alive for the time being.
Eventually, Clayface began to slowly fall apart as his chemical structure degraded. He took refuge with a young, female research scientist who fell in love with him and helped him commit crimes to afford the research necessary to find a cure. Just as they were in the middle of administering a treatment, however, Batman intervened and fought him. Beaten, Clayface essentially committed suicide by allowing himself to fall into the nearby ocean and dissolve.
About a year later, however, Clayface revealed that he had been able to survive this experience when his dissolving remains drifted by a sewer pipe depositing industrial waste into the ocean. Something in the chemicals allowed him to keep enough of himself together until he took refuge in the Gotham reservoir system. He soon displayed the ability to form automata from his body to be sent to do things for him at a distance. Robin encountered one, a young girl (whom he named Annie) who had no memory of her origin and developed an independent personality. In time, Clayface sought to reabsorb her, fighting Robin to get to her. As Clayface was just about to kill the hopelessly overmatched Robin, the automaton sacrificed herself to save him by ramming and absorbing herself into her maker, knocking him into the sewer. In the end, Clayface is arrested and taken to Arkham Asylum, where he is encased in a metal coating to stop him escaping.
However, he later tried to rob a shopping mall at Christmas time, but was thwarted by Batgirl in an incontinuity error featuring him being defeated by Christmas lights electrocuting him while he is in water. It is pointed out in his first appearance that he shows no effect when electrocuted.
Justice League
Clayface made his return to action in the Justice League series, where it was revealed that at some point, he had been captured, separated and sealed into several biohazard canisters, which came into the possession of a wealthy collector named Morgan Edge. Gorilla Grodd and his newly-formed Secret Society attacked his mansion, freeing Clayface and offering him a position in their group. Grodd promised Clayface that he'll find a way to revert Clayface back to Matt Hagen. Clayface was defeated when the Flash planted fireworks in his clay body and Hawkgirl ignited them, blowing Clayface apart. It is unknown whether he survived or not.The Batman
In The Batman, Clayface was Detective Ethan Bennett, a detective in the police force, and Bruce Wayne's basketball buddy from high school. Bennett was a great supporter of the Batman.Clayface originated in the two-part episodes "The Rubber Face of Comedy/The Clay Face of Tragedy." After he inhaled a dose of Joker's Joker Putty, Bennett was rescued by Batman and his partner, Detective Ellen Yin. He was suspended by Chief Rojas after publicly denouncing the chief's claims about the Batman. At his apartment, Bennett mutated into a featureless gray-clay like figure, and tried to look for help, scaring away the locals. Clayface had become obsessed with killing Chief Rojas.
Batman and Yin found the connection that Clayface was Ethan Bennett. At East Gotham Gym, Chief Rojas was almost killed by Clayface, but Batman rescued him, and a confrontation ensued. In the end, Clayface turned into a puddle, washing down the locker room drain.
In Meltdown, Clayface is getting a payback against the Joker for his transformation, and he was captured by Batman using a freeze pellet. After Bennett was released from Arkham Asylum on probation during a trial where a scientist and Hugo Strange protested against Bruce Wayne's suggestion, he still wanted to get his revenge on the Joker during the time he was a security guard. At the confrontation, Clayface becomes a criminal and he was sent to Arkham after getting away from Batman only to get captured by Ellen Yin who uses a freeze pellet where he resides at his cell.
In Grundy's Night, Clayface disguises himself as Solomon Grundy to terrorize people on Halloween. In the wax museum, Batman confronts Clayface. In the end, Clayface was encased in wax, and he was taken back to Arkham Asylum.
This Clayface differs from previous versions in that he is not truly composed of clay but his cellular tissues have assumed a texture, coloration and consistency equivalent to clay or sculpting putty. Apparently, in his "natural" Clayface state he is extremely moist, and prone to sloughing off chunks of tissue, though he can alter this at will.
This version of Clayface has the "generic" power common to all Clayfaces -that is, the power to shapeshift to imitate other people- but he also has other powers unique to him. For a start, this Clayface possesses an extraordinary degree of regenerative power, thus enabling him to instantly and effortlessly replace tissue lost due to either damage or simply sloughed off. He also has the ability to extend his limbs and body in a manner vaguely remeniscent of Mr. Fantastic, as well as to compress himself into a "puddle" of clay and in this shape squeeze through gaps. He can also create 'clay wings' on his back and use them to fly as seen in The Clayface of Tragedy.
It is unknown if this Clayface's shapeshifting abilities allow him to assume the form of non-human or inanimate objects, but he is known to have the ability to harden his body's consistency from its normal "goopy" state to rock-solid, and to combine this ability with his shapeshifting powers to morph his limbs into various forms of stone weapons. Lances and bludgeons are most common, but in his "debut" episode he is also shown producing a crossbow and launching stone bolts at a target.
This version of Clayface was voiced by Steve Harris.
A new Clayface, Matt Hagen, will make his debut in the fourth season of The Batman.
Arkham Asylum
A stunted, emaciated Clayface III appears in the graphic novel Arkham Asylum by Grant Morrison and by Dave McKean. He is used to represent munchausens or hypochondria.Birds of Prey
Clayface also made an appearance in the last episode of the short-lived Birds of Prey television series. In this series he killed Catwoman and had a son named Chris.Video Games
Clayface has made several appearances in video games featuring Batman. He appeared as a boss in The Adventures of Batman & Robin for the Super NES, The Adventures of Batman & Robin for the Sega CD and Rise of Sin Tzu. Ron Perlman reprised his role as Clayface from the animated series for the latter two games. The Sega CD game featured Clayface as the final boss. In it, he impersonated crime lord Rupert Thorne while the real Thorne was on vacation. He then used Thorne's wealth to hire some of Batman's greatest villains to kill him, so then Gotham City would be his for the taking. In the end Clayface tried escaping in a helicopter, but it crashed into the side of a bridge, causing him to fall into the harbor and dissolve in an ending somewhat reminiscient of the episode "Mudslide".Other
The Mask animated villain Putty Thing was a clear parody of Clayface from The Animated Series, albeit portrayed as a dumb surfer teenager. Putty Thing had the same abilities to create weapons. He never shape shifted to look human, though as the character was portrayed as being incredibly stupid, he may have simply been unaware of his own abilities.
Batman Beyond (the futuristic sequel to Batman TAS) villain Inque was likely meant to be the future equivalent to Clayface (as opposed to the series merely using Clayface again) as she had similar abilities (though no known connection to Clayface).
Bibliography
Batman villains | Fictional monsters | Fictional shapeshifters | Fictional actors
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