Humpty Dumpty (comics)

Humpty Dumpty is a fictional character from DC Comics. Unlike many of Batman's enemies, he is not malevolent.

Publication history

Humpty Dumpty first appeared in the 2004 graphic novel Arkham Asylum: Living Hell and was created by Dan Slott and Ryan Sook.

Fictional character biography

Humphry Dumpler is a hulking man with an egg-shaped head who speaks in rhyme and has a compulsive desire to "repair" that which he considers to be broken. He is shown in flashback to have been the victim of inexplicable, almost supernaturally bad luck almost since birth, illustrated by countless tragedies through his life. Eventually, he became determined to understand the mechanics of the world around him in an attempt to see what made things go wrong for him and attempt to fix them. In his crimes, Humpty disassembles and reassembles mechanical devices that upset him in some way. The devices he "fixes" cause numerous accidents, such as a subway train derailing. Humpty Dumpty's final crime is to adjust the gears in a clock tower, causing one of its hands to fly off, provoking a chain reaction in which dozens of enormous signage objects crashed to the streets and kill dozens of people. When Batgirl tries to apprehend him, she dislocates her arms. Humpty promptly slips her arms back into her sockets and surrenders to her. Revealing that she had tracked him by his overdue library books, her sole question was why he had borrowed a book on human anatomy. Humpty takes her to his home to reveal he had dissected his abusive grandmother and sewn her back together with bootlace in an ill-thought attempt to "fix" her.^[1]

He is a model prisoner at Arkham Asylum and is given various small projects to pass the time, such as repairing a broken mirror or fixing Ventriloquist's Scarface dummy. He befriends the financial fraudster Warren White and saves his life from Death Rattle and Two-Face.^[2]

In Villains United he joins Alexander Luthor, Jr.'s Society.^[3] He is seen partaking in the attack upon the House of Secrets.^[4]

He is one of the villains sent to retrieve the Get Out of Hell free card from the Secret Six.^[5]

In the Batman: Battle for the Cowl storyline, Humpty Dumpty is recruited by Black Mask as part of a group of villains aiming to take over Gotham.^[6]

During the Batman: Leviathan storyline, Humpty Dumpty masquerades as Santa Claus as part of a plan to get stolen toys to the children at the Rainbow House Shelter. He is approached by a man named Abuse who asks if he knows about any missing children. Worried that he'll be found out, Humpty Dumpty knocks Abuse unconscious out and flees to the shelter. Once there, Humpty Dumpty begins placing repaired toys in the children's beds until Batman and Robin show up. As Batman questions Humpty, Robin notices that, even with the lights on and all three talking, none of the children have woken up or made a sound. Looking under the covers, Robin discovers that the children are all dead. Enraged, Robin asks Humpty if he killed the children. Humpty says he is innocent, and explains that he found them “near the river” as they floated up to him. Sad the children had died so close to Christmas, Humpty had tried to give them one last holiday.^[7]

In The New 52 (a reboot of the DC Comics universe), Humpty Dumpty is seen as an inmate at Arkham Asylum at the same time that Resurrection Man is incarcerated there.^[8]

Powers and abilities

Humpty Dumpty has a knack of disassembling and reassembling different items.

In other media

Television

• Humpty Dumpty appears in the animated series Beware the Batman, voiced by Matt L. Jones.^[9] As revealed in the episode "Broken", Humphry is an accountant for the mob who is supposed to testify against crime boss Tobias Whale. However, after Whale's men make an attempt on his life, Humphrey goes insane and goes into hiding to enact his revenge with toy soldier suits that are rigged to explode. He also targets Whale's hit squad operative, Joseph "Ice Pick Joe" Crimple, Whale's financial adviser Donovan Baker, and former District Attorney Marion Grange. Humpty eventually goes after Lt. James Gordon (who talked him into testifying) and captures him while using his toy soldiers as distractions. When Batman comes to Gordon's aid, Humpty fakes his death while disarming the rigged soldier suits and goes into hiding once more. In "Games", Humpty kidnaps Batman, Katana, Gordon, Whale, and Grange, and sets them loose in an abandoned house filled with death traps. He forces them to play a Mystery Murder Game, where they have to guess the answer to his questions while surviving his death traps. Humpty claims that among them someone "ended" someone else's life, and the culprit would be punished. At the end, it is revealed that Humpty referred to Ernie Croskey, a ship captain that was framed by Whale when one of his smuggling operations was busted. Katana oversaw the operations as an agent of the League of Assassins, Batman tipped Gordon to the shipment, Gordon made the arrest, and Grange sent Croskey to prison as a judge. Humpty believes everyone involved is guilty, and tries to redeem himself since he was too weak to speak up on Croskey's behalf. Croskey is offered the chance by Humpty to kill all of those responsible, but Croskey does not desire revenge. Batman blames Humpty for Croskey's fate as well, since he didn't testify against Whale before Croskey was jailed, but the villain tries to escape. Batman captures Humpty and arrests Whale, making the arrangements to clear Croskey's name. Humpty is sent to Blackgate Penitentiary.

Video games

• Though he does not appear physically, Humpty Dumpty's bio can be unlocked in Batman: Arkham Asylum by solving one of Riddler's riddles. The player has to examine a few broken toy soldiers on a bench in the Botanical Gardens in order to unlock Humpty Dumpty's bio.

See also

• List of Batman Family adversaries

References

External links

• Humphry Dumpler at DC Comics Wiki