Imagine you are strolling down the street when you hear a bang-bang and someone shoots you in the thigh. It will not only perplex you, but it will almost certainly make for a hilarious narrative if you survive. This is the type of character we will be looking at today. Onomatopoeia, a serial killer and underappreciated DC villain, will be the subject of our discussion.
Phil Hester, an artist, and Kevin Smith, a filmmaker, collaborated on the creation of Onomatopoeia, our favorite character. In the year 2002, he first debuted in the pages of Green Arrow. Onomatopoeia is a serial murderer who preys on vigilantes who are not equipped with superpowers. He earned his moniker by imitating sounds in the environment, such as leaking taps, gunshots, and so on.
Onomatopoeia may appear to be uninterested in anything other than shooting and stabbing people and saying “bang” and “shunk.” Magneto is a multi-layered and nuanced villain, but not every villain needs to be. “WEEOOO WEEOOO.” they will exclaim when they hear a police siren.
You can spend your entire career attempting to be meaningful, brilliant, or humorous, but penning a phrase better than “WEEOOO WEEOOO” is an uphill task.
His first comic book appearance
We see Onomatopoeia make his first appearance in the Green Arrow comic “Feast and Fowl,” published in 2002. It starts with the Star-Spangled Kid informing Black Canary at JSA headquarters in Manhattan that Green Arrow has arrived to take her out for dinner. Dinah rushes downstairs after learning that Courtney left him alone downstairs with Hawkman. She is afraid that the two ideological rival superheroes will kill one other. However, instead of witnessing a fight, she finds them smiling and joking around as if they were best friends.
Dinah and Ollie go out to dinner, and she reveals her recent dating history, which includes Ra’s Al Ghul and her then-JSA teammate Doctor Midnite, which makes Oliver jealous. Later, Ollie acknowledges that going on a date with Dinah is terrifying to him. Canary is first put off by this, but Arrow later confesses that she was one of his key motivations for trying to resurrect from the dead.
Carter warns him to proceed with caution with her because she is still adapting to Ollie’s return from the dead. The Riddler and his minions arrive before they can continue their talk, hell-bent on robbing the restaurant patrons, interrupting their meal. Ollie and Dinah leap into action and dispatch the Riddler and his henchmen with ease. They then retreat to Dinah’s room at JSA headquarters for a romantic night. The following day, Ollie wakes up and prepares to depart, only to be met by Hawkman.
This issue also introduces “The Sounds of Violence,” Smith’s final story arc in the book during his first run. Meanwhile, the Green Arrow comic takes us to Philadelphia, where we see a villain known as Onomatopoeia using the power of his voice to slay a rookie superhero known as Virago for the first time. The enigmatic Onomatopoeia is introduced as a serial assassin who targets non-powered costumed heroes.
All there is to know about the infamous and mysterious supervillain Onomatopoeia
Green Arrow’s comic serves as an interlude. We see Onomatopoeia for the first time in the comic, and it serves as a lead-up to “The Sounds of Violence,” a three-issue plot in which he is the main adversary through issues #13–15 of the title.
Nothing is known about Onomatopoeia’s origins so far. There is speculation that he is from Delaware and had a brother who was assassinated by a masked assailant. Apart from the fact that Onomatopoeia is a Caucasian guy, which is revealed when portions of his face are shrouded by shadow in Green Arrow (vol. 3) #14, and when the bottom half of his face is seen again in issue #15, not much is known about his appearance.
After dispatching two low-level heroes in The Sound of Violence, Onomatopoeia turns his attention to a more well-known foe, the Green Arrow. He strikes the second Green Arrow, Connor Hawke, and gravely injures him. He manages to flee, and Onomatopoeia follows him to a hospital, planning to complete the job. However, he assassinates numerous doctors in the operating area. But Hawke is saved by his father, Oliver Queen, throughout the course of the story .
In issue #7 of the 2006 miniseries Infinite Crisis, Onomatopoeia appears to be linked with the Secret Society of Super-Villains during the Infinite Crisis since they sent him to assist in the conquest of Metropolis. He had been recruited by Alexander Luthor, Jr.’s Secret Society of Super-Villains and was made a part of the army sent to destroy Metropolis. The Secret Society of Super-Villains is defeated by a superhero army backed by the National Guard. We see Onomatopoeia fighting the Odd Man, another costumed but powerless vigilante. However, he isn’t able to defeat him, so he flees.
The next comic we see him in is Cacophony. Here, Onomatopoeia assists the Joker in his escape from Arkham Asylum. He shoots Deadshot in the head during the escape, but Deadshot lives. He urges Joker to start a gang fight with Maxie Zeus and even gives him the funds for it, which draws Batman out. He succeeds in drawing him out, but he loses in a hand-to-hand battle with the hero.
In order to escape capture, he stabs the Joker in the heart, forcing Batman to choose between apprehending him and saving the Joker, his biggest enemy. Onomatopoeia is able to flee because Batman remains with the Joker. The third issue of this series is when his everyday life as a citizen is revealed. He appears to be a well-adjusted and functional member of society in his hidden identity.
He is married and has two children, neither of whom are aware of his secret existence as a supervillain. He uses sports like tennis, polo, and hunting to explain his injuries to his family when in reality, they are battle scars. He is a rather intriguing man, and he has a hidden trophy case where he keeps the masks of the heroes he’s slain. He eventually turned his attention to the Arrows.
He returns in The Widening Gyre, where Onomatopoeia takes on the identity of Baphomet, a Gotham superhero. He even joins Batman in his fight against Etrigan and Poison Ivy. Then, over the course of several battles, where he fights other villains like Deadshot, Crazy Quilt, and Calendar Man as well, he gradually earns Batman’s trust. After a few weeks of working together, Baphomet surprised Batman by removing his mask in front of him. Batman vanished on Baphomet because he believed it required a higher level of dedication. Later, while Bruce was on vacation with Silver St. Cloud in Aspen, Baphomet filled in for Batman.
After apprehending Mr. Freeze, he surprised Robin by removing his mask in front of him. He changed into civilian clothes and walked home days after single-handedly stopping the Joker. One day, he saw Batman following him. So, he told him about his life and that he is married with two children (a boy and a girl), works as an insurance adjuster in Delaware, and his family came to Gotham City before his first child was born, and started fighting crime after his brother Jerry was murdered by a masked criminal.
He began to cry, prompting Batman to hug him after saying that all he wants to do is clean the city for moral people. Batman, at this point, began to confide in Baphomet and told him how during his first year as Batman, he suffered from a bladder spasm due to an explosion that occurred too close to him. Towards the end of the story, Batman reveals his secret identity and what he believes to be his past. He brings Baphomet to the Batcave and reveals his identity as Bruce Wayne. He introduces the disguised Onomatopoeia to Silver St Cloud.
When Batman turns to put away his utility belt when Onomatopoeia eventually betrays his actual identity. He duplicates the sound of his utility belt hitting the table, helping Batman identify him. He catches Onomatopoeia when he is midway through slitting Silver’s throat as he mimics the blade’s sound, and he turns just in time to save himself.
A new and revamped Onomatopoeia is featured in the pages of Teen Titans in the New 52. He appears this time inside a moving truck on a ferry. The vehicle is loaded with explosives, and it seems that he wants to blow up the ferry. On the other hand, Red Arrow arrives on the scene and apprehends him on the ferry, driving the truck into the sea. However, it is revealed that this was all part of his plan all along, as the fusion bomb in the truck would detonate in the ocean, causing a gigantic tidal wave to slam into Star City.
While the Teen Titans and Red Arrow work to defend the city from the incoming tidal wave, Onomatopoeia breaks into Queen Industries and steals high-grade weapons. As the Teen Titans and Red Arrow save the city, the serial murderer uses the armament he had stolen and opens fire on them.
Robin and Kid Flash, due to their quick thinking and reflexes, were able to overcome him despite the firing of bullets. After overcoming him, Onomatopoeia was captured by Robin and imprisoned in a secret location illegally along with some of the other villains. Later, he took part in a jailbreak, which was a bust. So, he was apprehended and imprisoned again.
When Robin’s unlawful jail was found, Damian decided to use the magic of Djinn to brainwash his prisoners, including Onomatopoeia, into becoming citizens. However, when Djinn was imprisoned within her ring by fellow member Roundhouse, the magic wore off, reverting the villains back to their old ways. As a result, the villains who had been wronged by the Titans banded together. They pooled their resources and paid Deathstroke to avenge them. Unfortunately, this plan was also a bust. Following the failure of this scheme, Onomatopoeia was quickly vanquished by the Teen Titans and appropriately arrested.
What makes him so deadly?
It’s unclear whether Onomatopoeia is a metahuman, yet it makes us wonder since he took hits from six arrows without halting in his fight with Green Arrow. He received two to one shoulder, one fatally through his breast, one between the first and middle knuckles of his right hand, one through his right foot, and one in the palm of his right hand, none of which slowed him or even impaired his manual dexterity.
He took a seven-story tumble from the roof of the Star City hospital after being shot and yet managed to flee before Green Arrow could find him. He’s also tough enough to withstand direct blasts and fires that would kill unarmored people. Despite the fact that he isn’t a metahuman, it is only logical to believe that he is enhanced in some way or the other.
Furthermore, we see that Onomatopoeia is a highly talented fighter and athlete, especially in hand-to-hand combat. He is a skilled marksman and weapons specialist as well. He is, of course, a great manipulator and liar, as well as a remarkably brilliant villain. It is unknown if Onomatopoeia possesses any superhuman talents or powers. Given his capacity to withstand extraordinarily high levels of harm with minimal visible impact, he may be superhumanly durable, but this is unverified.
He always has two semiautomatic pistols, a sniper rifle, and an army knife on him. He has occasionally been seen using other weapons like an ax or crossbows. His marksmanship is so good that it has been compared to that of Deadshot. He appears to be highly clever as well, having planned the Joker’s escape in order to bring out Batman, and escape capture by inflicting a near-fatal wound on the Joker, distracting Batman. His standard supervillain attire includes black gloves, jeans, a shirt, a large black trench coat, and an oversized black hood with concentric white rings. It is revealed in Batman: Cacophony that he collects the masks of heroes he kills and keeps them in a trophy case in his secret identity’s home.
What is most interesting about him is that when he’s dressed up, Onomatopoeia only communicates in onomatopoeias. He copies the sounds surrounding him. It’s unclear whether his impersonation is accurate, such as whether he simply repeats the phrase “blam” or produces the sound of a gun being discharged. As Baphomet, he has demonstrated that this is not a necessity for him but rather a personal preference, which I feel is very iconic.
He just chooses to not use words and speak in sounds. I highly doubt any other villain can evoke so much while saying so little. He is such an underrated supervillain in the DC comicverse. I would love to see more of him in other projects. A comic focusing entirely on his time as Baphomet would also make for an excellent read. An origin story might be too much of an ask, but I know it would be marvelous. I want to know his thought process and what motivates him.