The theatrical premiere of DC Studios’ Clayface is a little more than a month away, and for DC Comics fans, it can’t come soon enough. The film marks a departure and an experiment for the well-worn territory that is the comic book movie: it’s an out-and-out Cronenberg body horror film based on a B-list Batman villain. We’ve had comic book movies with a horror slant (Swamp Thing, Blade, Morbius), we’ve had villain origins (Joker, Venom), but Clayface looks like a unique, blood-stained take on both. Clayface lends himself to it: in his eighty-six year history, the metamorphic menace has evolved into one of Batman’s most complex, enduring villains. Debuting in 1940 as a Phantom of the Opera-esque madman with no super-powers to speak of, Clayface’s history touches nearly every decade of Batman comics, defined by the trends and tropes of its era.
To many Batman fans and collectors, Clayface’s story doesn’t really begin with 1940’s Detective Comics #40. The Clayface appearing in that and other golden age issues has little in common with his modern age counterpart; instead fans think of Detective Comics #298 as the character’s true debut. In Detective Comics #298, Clayface was reimagined as an actor in decline, subjected to mutagenic chemicals that give him the ability to reshape his body into any form he chooses … though at the gradual, inextricable cost of his humanity. Detective Comics #298 has become one of the most sought-after Batman comics of the silver age, worth $200 to collectors even in low-grade condition. Today, Heritage Auctions has a 6.5 CGC (Certified Guarantee Company) graded copy of Detective Comics #298 up for auction, with its price as of writing already higher than the Overstreet Price Guide’s estimated value.
The Golden Age Clayface was Basil Karlo (his name inspired by Golden Age horror stars Basil Rathbone and Boris Karloff), star of classic horror films, including his signature role in Argus Pictures’ Dread Castle. When Karlo, whose career has waned, hears that Argus is mounting a remake of Dread Castle without his involvement, he flies into a psychotic rage, sabotaging the production and killing its crew. Karlo is a brilliant make-up artist who played his signature roles in make-up of his own design, including that of “Clayface,” which he uses to murder Dread Castle starlet Lorna Dane (not to be confused with the X-Men character). After the events of Detective Comics #40, Karlo is institutionalized, but on the night of his transfer to the state asylum, a storm causes the car carrying him to overturn, allowing him to escape and seek revenge on Batman and Robin in Detective Comics #49.
Besides his name, the Basil Karlo Clayface took several more cues from the horror films of his era. The character’s prowess as a make-up artist was based on real-world Phantom of the Opera and Hunchback of Notre Dame Lon Chaney, with Hunchback remade for the first time just the year before Clayface’s 1940 debut. Karlo’s tempestuous personality and references to his career self-sabotage are based on Bela Lugosi, whose career lived in the shadow of his 1931 turn as Dracula, and his decision to turn down the role of Frankenstein’s Monster. His appearance in the Clayface make-up is also dead ringer for Lionel Atwill’s mad killer in 1933’s Mystery of the Wax Museum. This is reflective of Batman’s Golden Age stories, which were dark, grim, and notoriously violent. Bill Finger and Bob Kane’s Batman inhabited a perpetually-dark, fog-shrouded Gotham full of deranged madmen and psychotic mobsters, a world so bleak it caught the attention of censors in the early 1950s. In response, the world of Batman changed overnight, and the new Clayface that emerged in 1961 was perfectly at home in it.
For the Comics Code Authority-friendly Batman, the tone of stories shifted lighter, and Batman’s rogues’ gallery was largely abandoned (or at least retooled) in favor of monsters, aliens, and other science fiction-tinted menaces. Just two issues after Clayface II debuted, Batman would battle the Polka-Dot Man for the first time. Clayface II was Matt Hagen (the name used for other versions of the character like Batman: The Animated Series and the upcoming film), an actor mutated by radioactive mud in a cave. Hagen is unambitious, using his powers for the usual Silver Age smash-and-grab of bags of cash and jewelry. In his early appearances, Clayface II has greater control over his appearance, able to use his abilities mostly to transform into animals or to imitate other people (including Superman). He was an infrequent, though recurring, foe to Batman throughout the sixties, disappearing by the time Batman hit the air in 1966 — the series was likely a factor in his disuse, as the show drove what villains appeared in the comics. Characters like the Joker or Catwoman returned to the spotlight, Clayface fell into obscurity. It wouldn’t be until the late seventies when a continuity-minded Detective Comics run would reintroduce Clayface.
One of the best things about Bronze Age comics was that for the first time, the writers were comic fans. Talent like Len Wein, Roy Thomas, and Gerry Conway had grown up reading comics, and came onto the titles they were now writing with years of ideas and memories from their time as readers. That meant the reintroduction of villains like Hugo Strange, and a reimaging of villains like Clayface. In Detective Comics #478, Len Wein and Marshall Rogers introduced a third Clayface, Preston Payne, who mixed Clayface’s Golden Age horror roots with his Silver Age sci-fi powers. Infected with Matt Hagen’s blood, S.T.A.R. Labs scientist Preston Payne has been driven mad by his uncontrollable, gruesome transformations and deadly touch. Payne was the DC Universe’s primary Clayface even in the years after Crisis On Infinite Earths, memorably leading a short-lived team of Clayfaces known as “the Mudpack” in Detective Comics #604-607. Bruce Timm and Paul Dini chose to use Matt Hagen as the name and template for their Batman: The Animated Series Clayface, though his personality hewed closer to Preston Payne.
Seen by many as a defining take on the character, Batman: The Animated Series also cemented the Dark Knight’s central rogues’ gallery. Clayface’s origin two-parter, “Feat of Clay,” is widely regarded by fans as one of the series’ best episodes. Mike Flanagan agrees, as he cites “that incredible two-parter with Ron Perlman voicing the character, which was so formative for me as a kid” as the impetus for the Clayface screenplay. Like Wein and Rodgers decades prior, Flanagan continues the proud legacy of telling a Clayface story filtered through childhood memories. Though Detective Comics #298’s influence is indirect, the impact of Bill Finger’s decision to reimagine his forgotten Golden Age creation is immense. The body-horror nightmare imagery of Clayface was only latent potential in these Silver Age pages, awaiting the proper inspiration to be molded into ghastly, unforgettable form. Batman fans can only hope that the upcoming film lives up to that eight-decades and counting lineage, providing another chapter in one of the most fascinating evolutions in comic book history.
