Editing Hugo Strange (section)

===Pre-''Crisis''===
====Golden Age====
Professor Hugo Strange first appears in ''Detective Comics'' #36 (February 1940) as a scientist and criminal mastermind who uses a stolen "concentrated lightning" machine to generate a dense fog every night so his gang can rob banks unseen, though he knows that Batman poses a threat to him. Batman, who already knows of Strange's experiments, begins investigating him after one of his henchmen commits a murder. When the robbers are apprehended, Strange vows to set a trap for Batman and deal with him personally. He has a dozen of his men ambush the vigilante, and one of them knocks him out with a blackjack. Batman wakes up in Strange's lair, where Strange hangs him from his wrists and lashes him with a whip. Batman breaks the ropes, gasses the room, and defeats Strange, who is jailed but quickly begins planning his escape.<ref name=dc136>''Detective Comics'' #36. DC Comics.</ref>

In ''Batman'' #1 (spring 1940), Strange carries out his escape plan, recruits a new gang of criminals, then breaks out five patients from [[Arkham Asylum]] and uses them as test subjects, turning them into monsters using an artificial growth hormone. He outfits them with bulletproof clothing, and uses them to rampage through [[Gotham City]] and distract the police while his men commit robberies. Strange administers the serum to Batman after the giants capture him, saying it will work in 18 hours. Batman tricks two of the monsters into killing each other, and then formulates a drug that prevents any abnormal secretions from the pituitary gland, preventing the transformation. He is then able to kill all the other monsters, and sends Strange to his apparent death in a fall from a cliff, although he suspects that the mad scientist has survived.<ref>''Batman'' #1. DC Comics.</ref>

In ''Detective Comics'' #46 (December 1940), Strange returns and starts spreading a fear-inducing powder around the city until a punch from Batman again sends him falling off a cliff to his apparent death.<ref name=dc146>''Detective Comics'' #46. DC Comics.</ref>

====Earth-One====
He returned years later in the 1970s in the "Strange Apparitions" story arc in ''Detective Comics'' #469-479 (May 1977-September–October 1978). Having survived his earlier "death", Strange left Gotham City and went to Europe for several years, where his criminal career prospered with no one to challenge him. Bored and hoping to pit his wits against Batman again, Strange, now using the alias of Dr. Todhunter, opens a private hospital, Graytowers Clinic, for Gotham's wealthiest citizens, where he holds them for ransom before mutating them into mindless monsters.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cowsill |first1=Alan |last2=Irvine |first2=Alex |last3=Manning |first3=Matthew K. |last4=McAvennie |first4=Michael |last5=Wallace |first5=Daniel |title=DC Comics Year By Year: A Visual Chronicle |date=2019 |publisher=DK Publishing |isbn=978-1-4654-8578-6 |page=166}}</ref> When Bruce Wayne checks into the hospital to recover discreetly from radiation burns he sustained while fighting [[Doctor Phosphorus]], Strange finds out that Wayne is Batman and uses this information to wreak havoc on his personal life. Strange then attempts to auction the identity of Batman to [[Rupert Thorne]], [[Penguin (character)|Penguin]], and [[Joker (character)|Joker]]. Not wanting to lose, Thorne has Strange abducted and beaten by his men to reveal Batman's identity, but Strange apparently dies without ever telling him. Strange's ghost returns to haunt Thorne, driving him insane. Thorne confesses his corruption and is sent to [[Arkham Asylum]].<ref>''Detective Comics'' #469–476. DC Comics.</ref>

Strange's ghost returns again to haunt Thorne in ''Detective Comics'' #513 (April 1982), #516 (July 1982), #518 (September 1982), and #520 (November 1982) and ''Batman'' #354 (December 1982), leading up to the appearance of the ''real'' Hugo Strange in the last panel of the last page of the fifth issue mentioned here. As revealed two issues later in ''Batman'' #356 (February 1983), Strange had indeed survived the beating from Thorne's men by using [[yoga]] techniques to slow his heartbeat to an undetectable level. It is also revealed that Strange also artificially created the "ghost" of himself that haunted Thorne by using strategically placed devices that simulated the appearance of a spirit. Upon his return, Strange used the devices again to bring back the "ghost" so he could punish Thorne for double-crossing him. Subsequently, Strange attempts to weaken Bruce Wayne through the use of drugs and lifelike robots called Mandroids, with the ultimate goal of destroying Wayne  completely so that Strange could take his place as Batman. The plan fails, and Strange apparently dies once more when he attempts to kill Batman by blowing up a replica of [[Wayne Manor]] with himself in it, stating that if ''he'' cannot be Batman, then ''no'' one can. Batman survives the explosion, but no trace of Strange is found.<ref>''Detective Comics'' #513, 516, 518, and 520 and ''Batman'' #354 and 356. DC Comics.</ref>

Later, Strange returns yet again (the Hugo Strange that "died" in the explosion was revealed by the real Strange to be a Mandroid) in ''Batman Annual'' #10 (1986), in another attempt to destroy Batman and Bruce Wayne, this time attempting to financially bankrupt Wayne by using various tricks to force three Wayne Enterprises shareholders to sell their stock holdings to him so he could bankrupt the company. He also attempts to frame Batman as a criminal. However, Strange is defeated and sent to prison. Batman is able to stop Strange from further exploiting his knowledge of his secret identity by falsely claiming that he hypnotized Strange to give him a fake idea of Batman's true identity just before [[Jim Gordon (character)|Commissioner Gordon]] shows up to arrest him; his explanation is so convincing that Strange begins to wonder if Batman is attempting a complex double-bluff by letting him think that Bruce Wayne is Batman and thus doubts whether his original conclusion was correct.<ref>''Batman Annual'' #10. DC Comics.</ref>

====Earth-Two====
The [[Earth-Two]] version of Strange has a similar early history to the Earth-One version and also survives the fall that he experienced in ''Detective Comics'' #46.<ref name=dc146 /> In ''The Brave and the Bold'' #182 (January 1982), it is revealed that he is left paralyzed by the fall but, after years of physical therapy, he regains enough movement to write out the surgical techniques needed to repair the damage to his body - and bribes a surgeon to perform the operation. The surgeon lacks Strange's skill, and the operation leaves Strange deformed. Strange uses one of his devices to capture [[Starman (Ted Knight)|Starman]]'s Cosmic Rod to use its power to attack everyone and everything that [[Batman (Earth-Two)|Batman]] holds dear. He generates a storm in Gotham to obtain the device, which creates a dimensional doorway to [[Earth-One]], bringing that universe's Batman over to Earth-Two, which allows him and Earth-Two's [[Robin (Earth-Two)|Robin]] to join with Earth-Two's [[Batwoman (Kathy Kane)|Batwoman]] in defeating Strange. Strange realizes that he is, in fact, angry at his own wasted life and deformed body, so he uses the Cosmic Rod to commit suicide.<ref>''The Brave and the Bold'' #182. DC Comics.</ref>