Egghead (DC Comics)

Egghead is a fictional character created for the 1960s Batman television series. Played by horror film mainstay Vincent Price, the character was identifiable by his pale bald head and white and yellow suit. He believes himself to be "the world's smartest criminal", and his crimes usually have an egg motif to them; he also includes egg-related puns in his speech ("egg-zactly", "egg-cellent", etc.). Additionally, he would use a wide assortment of egg-shaped weapons, such as laughing gas eggs and tear gas eggs (laid by chickens on a diet of onions).

Egghead
Egghead as he appears in the comic books
Publication information
First appearance"An Egg Grows in Gotham"
In-story information
Full nameEdgar Heed
AbilitiesGenius-level intelligence
Various egg-themed weapons

Background

Like many other villains, Egghead was created specifically for the 1966 Batman TV series (e.g., King Tut, Shame, the Siren, Chandell, the Bookworm, and Louie the Lilac). Egghead would go on to be introduced in the comic books.

Fictional character biography

Egghead was introduced in the second season two-parter, "An Egg Grows in Gotham" and "The Yegg Foes in Gotham," where he schemes with Chief Screaming Chicken (Edward Everett Horton) of the Mohican Indian tribe to revert control of Gotham City to the chief's people. In return, Egghead would also govern the city and enable the criminal underground to run amok. Their scheme is foiled by Batman (Adam West) and Robin (Burt Ward).

Egghead would return three times in the third season with his new partner and love interest Olga, Queen of the Cossacks (Anne Baxter), an exile from Bessarovia. The first two third-season appearances, "The Ogg and I" and "How to Hatch a Dinosaur", were actually filmed as one multi-part story, but split into two separate stories (Season 3 episodes 8 and 9) prior to airing. In "How to Hatch a Dinosaur," Egghead and Olga plan to hatch an egg of a Neosaurus and later to try to feed Robin and Batgirl to it. It does not work, however, and the Neosaurus - actually Batman in disguise - advances toward Egghead and Olga, causing them to surrender to the police.

Egghead and Olga appear for the final time in season three in episode 15, "The Ogg Couple", in which they steal the Sword of Bulbul and the Egg of Ogg.

In "The Entrancing Dr. Cassandra," Egghead (alongside the Joker, the Penguin, the Riddler, Catwoman, and King Tut) is freed from prison by Dr. Cassandra Spellcraft and her husband Cabala. Dr. Spellcraft promises Egghead control over the poultry farms when she takes over Gotham City, even giving him and the other villains her camouflage pills to assist in their crime spree.

Egghead is one of only two Batman 1960s series villains to deduce Batman's secret identity (and the only one to do so through deductive reasoning instead of trickery). Reasoning that the enormous "egg-spense" involved in producing Batman's various gadgets would point to only one of three Gotham City millionaires, and deducing that two could not be the Caped Crusader (one has a French accent, which Batman does not have, and the other is left-handed, where as Batman is right-handed), he concludes that the last, Bruce Wayne, must be Batman.

In other media

Television
Egghead as portrayed by Vincent Price

Film
  • According to Batman Forever and Batman & Robin director Joel Schumacher, Egghead was one of the lead choices considered by Mark Protosevich to be the main antagonist of his cancelled fifth Batman film Batman Unchained, alongside King Tut, the Mad Hatter and the Scarecrow.[1]
  • In the animated film Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders (which is an adaptation of the 1960s TV show), Egghead appears among other criminals during the climax after Robin and Catwoman free Egghead and the other villains from Gotham City Penitentiary. He is seen fighting Batman and his duplicates by using egg-like bombs.
  • In Team StarKid's comedy musical Holy Musical B@man, Egghead makes a minor appearance, stealing all the chickens from Gotham City, hoping to see its citizens suffer from a lack of eggs. He is almost immediately defeated by Batman and Robin.
  • Egghead briefly appears in The Lego Batman Movie, but his voice actor is uncredited. He is seen tossing eggs at his opponents and laughing similarly to Vincent Price at the time when he was among the villains assisting in Joker's attack on Gotham City. Egghead later appears using an egg-shaped mech to fight off the Phantom Zone inmates.
  • Egghead is seen in Batman vs. Two-Face. He appears as one of the super-criminals that Hugo Strange and Harleen Quinzel are attempting to treat.

Comics
  • Egghead makes cameo appearances in other Batman media outside of the 1960s series. He can be seen in Batman: Shadow of the Bat #3-4 as an inmate of Arkham Asylum, battling Batman gladiator-style after being set free from his cell by Jeremiah Arkham.
  • He is also featured in Batman: The Brave and the Bold issue #16. In this issue, his real name is given as Edgar Heed and he seeks to awaken Egg Fu.
  • Egghead appears in the Batman '66 comic book series. He appears in issue #3, in the story "The Joker Sees Red", in which he is an inmate of Arkham Asylum. Later on in the same issue, he appears in the story "Scrambled Eggs". He is depicted as the ancestor of Universo in the one-shot issue Batman '66 Meets the Legion of Super Heroes.
  • He appears as Professor Egghead in Gotham Academy #14.

See also

References
  1. "Remember when Courtney Love nearly played Harley Quinn in the sequel to Batman & Robin?". Flickeringmyth.com. August 5, 2016. Retrieved September 7, 2017.
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