Sunday, December 25, 2011

Zsasz on Paper and Screen


Victor Zsasz is one of the villains created by the phenomenal duo of the late 1980s/early 1990s, Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle. Some of the other great villains concocted by the two are the Ventriloquist/Scarface, Anarky, Kadaver and Cornelius Stirk. 
Zsasz appeared relatively late in the Grant/Breyfogle run, in 1992's story "The Last Arkham" published in Shadow of the Bat #1. This debut story presented the villain as someone already established, well known to Batman and Gordon and doing time in Arkham.


Zsasz is a very cruel and disturbing villain, even for the standards of the dark, Modern Age Batman and all the psychos he faces. He would perfectly fit in one of the David Fincher movies about the psychotic serial killers and could have a movie on his own.

When Zsasz is first introduced in the story, his appearance isn't revealed for quite some time and there's a considerable buildup to his reveal. He is right away presented as someone extremely dangerous, kept locked like Hannibal Lecter, and also shown as someone equally intelligent being able to mess with people's mind and manipulate them without them knowing it.

The signature trait in Zsasz's appearance are his tally marks. Everytime he murders someone, he marks his body with a scar. 


Another signature visual trait is the appearance of his eyes. He doesn't have any special eyewear, but his eyes look the way they do to visually express his insanity and twisted perception of life and world


His methods are quite brutal. He slits victims throats and is completely immune to cries or pleads, and doesn't care if it's a small child or a pregnant woman. He always smiles while doing his deeds and takes a tremendous pleasures in doing them. After the murder, he always leaves his victims in a lifelike poses and that's his Modus Operandi


The reason why he kills and why is he referring to all people as Zombies is revealed in his origin story in 1996's Batman Chronicles #3. He is another one of those psychos who had a tragedy in his life that pushed him into the dark corners of madness. He was a rich head of an international company but he suddenly lost his parents and soon after all of his money. While trying to jump off the bridge he gets attacked by a mugger and defends himself killing the oppressor with his own knife. He enjoyed the kill and from then on decided that life is meaningless and pointless and that everyone should be freed from this 'pointless' life. A knife became the weapon of his choice, but sometimes he uses anything that he has available


It is also worth mentioning that he is actually a physical match for Batman, an extremely good fighter whose cleverness helps him in the duel - he can often sneak up on Batman and surprise him


In the more recent years the comic books really toned down the character and made him into someone almost completely different, especially when it comes to his behavior, high energy and insanity


BATMAN BEGINS

Due to the brutality of the character, he never appeared in any Batman related mass media until 2005's Batman Begins. Not announced by the media, he was a nice surprise and nod to the hardcore Batman comic book fans

Tim Booth: I have a tiny part, as a serial killer (IGN 2005)

Zsasz in the movie is called Zsaz and appears three times.


The first time during trial smirking after Crane saves him from prison time and testifies that he is insane and should be moved to Arkham. Soon after it's revealed that Zsaz is 'someone who butchers people for the mob' and is also referred to as "Falcone's thug". Those descriptions sound very different than the comic book version, however it's important to note that in the recent years Zsasz worked for the gangster Black Mask for money - not that he cared about monetary gain, but because he wanted money so he can realize his dreams - mass murder. It is a possibility that the movie Zsaz had the same motivations.

As oppose to his comic book version he seems quiet and reserved, even when he regains his freedom. As far as similarities, Zsaz has the signature physical traits of the characters like the tally marks on his body


As far as his personality, it seems like he also likes to use knives and looks like he's about to enjoy his deed


19 comments:

  1. I like this character, but he isn't really much of a villain IMHO, Gothamstreets why not a Riddler one next?

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  2. I like Zsasz very much, always did like most of the villains created by Grant and Breyfogle, even the less known ones like C'th, Idiot and Ratcatcher .
    The reason why I wrote about him this time is mostly because I got a few emails about the article on Henri Ducard from some movie fans who werent that well oriented in the comics thanking me for the writeup, saying they didnt know there was such character in the comics and that there isnt much info on him online. I believe the casual or movies-only fans may not know much about Zsasz either

    As for Riddler, I dont know. I might write about the Joker/TwoFace teamup next

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  3. Great article as always!

    Gotham-streets when the Dark Knight rises hits theaters an you write about the Batman and Catwoman relationship?

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  4. That would be a must. Btw, even tho we only have a trailer to go on, I already have plenty of similarities between the TDKR and comic book Catwomen

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  5. Wow I never heard of this guy, thanks Gotham streets! I'm wondering you read the original Kane/Finger stories but with the early 30's and 40's stories did they really deal with dark stuff like murder, death? Also how much supernatural stuff were present in that run?
    I saw this image in your excellent Killer Batman blog
    http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-92qT5sEEIIg/TtaM_aR9esI/AAAAAAAACMA/F9O-QewHxH0/s1600/DC35NEWKILLSC.jpg

    And I was like huh?

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  6. Yes Ive read every single comic book from that era from 1939 to 1951. Only the first year was very dark and brutal, very soon after Robin joined the whole universe got a major makeover in every way

    As for supernaturality, it was present in every run actually. Vampires, demons, ghosts and all kinds of Indian spirits or cursed creatures always existed in batman universe

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  7. ''Zsasz is a very cruel and disturbing villain, even for the standards of the dark, Modern Age Batman and all the psychos he faces. He would perfectly fit in one of the David Fincher movies about the psychotic serial killers and could have a movie on his own.''

    Haven't read many of modern Batman comics outside Year One, some others but this villain seems kinda pale in brutality in comparison to the Joker.

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  8. Depends on POV. Joker gets an upper hand when it comes to mental and psycho torture (I think Killing Joke is the topper). His ideas are sick. As far as the actual graphic violence I think Zsasz wins. Zsasz murders little children with a smile, Im sure Joker would too if it would suit his current need, but overall Zsasz was portrayed as a child and women slasher more so than Joker

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  9. Unless you mean Ledger's Joker than yes, Zsasz isn't THAT brutal

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  10. Hmm, i'm surprised that you didn't cover Zsasz in Arkham Asylum Games as well as 2005's Batman Begins video game where he returns to his original incarnation, rather than the hitman he's described in the Nolan's main film.

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  11. Oh and Zsasz was also in Batman: Dark Tomorrow game too.

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  12. Well, I never cover video games and rarely cover Animated movies actually. I just prefer to focus on the comic to film adaptations

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  13. Gothamstreets, does that mean you prefer live action Batman film depictions over cartoons depictions, or do you like Batman regardless of all mediums if he's depicted well?
    Do you prefer Batman in cinema in general?
    Because you seem to have a likening to restricting yourself only towards the films and movies and never really focusing on the cartoons.

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  14. "Gothamstreets, does that mean you prefer live action Batman film depictions over cartoons depictions, or ?"

    They are different mediums and I dont usually compare the two, I like them both

    "do you like Batman regardless of all mediums if he's depicted well"

    Yeah, pretty much. In short, Im a fan of Batman mythology in general

    "Do you prefer Batman in cinema in general?"

    Even tho I got into comics before any of the theatrical movies came out yes, I think in a lot of ways Burton and Nolan's movies are more interesting, but theyre also very different than comics as well as far as style and type of the stories goes. Hard to compare

    "Because you seem to have a likening to restricting yourself only towards the films and movies and never really focusing on the cartoons."

    I really enjoy the cartoons, most of them, thats why even tho the blog is suppose to focus on comics+movies I still touch upon cartoons from time to time. I did in Joker's history, Impact of B89 and the whole feature dedicated to BTAS borrowing from movies. But primarily I wanna use this site to show how comics translated into those movies

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  15. GothamStreets your blog is absolutely amazing. Its great that it has all the facts supported by issue numbers and scans

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  16. Gotham-streets are there things in the movies that you personally prefer over the comics?
    Do you think the movies improved upon some elements of the comics, also what are changes you didn't like to the comics for the films.

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  17. I love the comics, I got into batman because of comics first, but there are many elements which are more appealing to me in movies:
    Burton's 1940s world and a Gothic feel and all the designs, The black rubber suit and Keaton's mysterious approach, Two face's origins in TDK, Bale's emotional vulnerability which makes him more human and more identifiable with, Ras from BB, Penguin and Catwoman from BR.

    I mean, its not really preference cause I like having both - the Gothic Batman like Keaton and the Batman from the Modern Age like Bale, so I can just say I like to have the two rather than say I prefer one over another

    The changes I dont like? I guess only the Scarecrow in BB. And Schumacher's movies arent really my thing

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  18. As always, great research and solid work.
    You should definitely do a Robin article, he's been disrespected and disavowed repeatedly.

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