There is a reason Batman is known as the “World’s Greatest Detective” and is one of the most well-known comic book characters ever. You could believe we are talking about his outrageous wealth, his supercomputer brain, or the many, many styles of martial arts he has mastered throughout his 80-plus years on this planet. It is none of those things, not even the fact that he is essentially a comic book Sherlock Holmes, albeit with far superior equipment.
A hero is only as good as his villain, as the old adage goes, and Batman boasts one of the best rogues galleries in comic book history. There are almost as many cunning Penguins, seductive Poison Ivys, insane Jokers, and Harley Quinns floating around on the pages of comic books and on our screens these days as there are Caped Crusaders. But the beauty of Batman villains is that even if they are as obscure as being one-of-a-kind, they will still be the most heinous criminals you can imagine.
Because the Hush virus compelled him to resort to cannibalism, Killer Croc, one of the most powerful Batman villains ever created, was discriminated against. But, whereas Croc’s hunger for human flesh was born of necessity, The Abattoir’s was born of madness; and, as always, an everlasting dream quest for immortality.
The Abattoir appeared in Detective Comics issue 625 in 1991, created by Marv Wolfman and Jim Aparo, and has since become one of the most obscure and unappreciated Batman villains of all time. We will look at everything that explains why Arnold Etkar’s criminal name is French for “A Slaughterhouse” in this video. The Origins of the Abattoir are examined in this article.
Who is Arnold Etkar? Abattoir’s Backstory
You know a character is going to be absolutely off his rocker when the first few panels of his debut appearance show him breaking out of Arkham Asylum. Arnold Etkar is introduced to us in the hallway of Arkham Asylum with a gist of the reason for his incarceration there; he called himself the Abattoir, and was locked up in Gotham’s Madhouse for murdering and feasting on the flesh of 19 individuals. That itself should give you an idea of just how off-the-rocker this guy is. And if his family history is to be believed, madness and a penchant for criminal activities seem to run in his blood. Many years ago, Arnold had an uncle who was a prominent politician in Gotham.
Given the heritage of the city’s complicated relationship with corruption, it should come as no surprise that Arnold’s uncle had a few skeletons in his closet; the biggest one being his own brother, Arnold’s father. Turns out, crime and politics did not go hand-in-hand in their household and Arnold’s family was cast out, left to fend for themselves like the common thief their father was. To avoid having his reputation ruined on account of his family’s dirty secret, Arnold’s uncle forced his family to change their surnames to Etkar; and knowing what we know today, we seriously cannot blame him for being as paranoid as he was.
From a very young age, Arnold exhibited traits that suggested he was nothing like his father; in fact, he was something even worse. Arnold Etkar, since his earliest days, felt that his family was cursed by evil; and that his mission in life was to stop their tirade against the world by putting an end to their lives. He could’ve been called a poetic savior of the masses if his thought process ended there. Instead, it veered off into the furthest depths of depravity and madness.
In addition to being extremely open to kinslaying just as a concept, it seemed like Arnold’s mind harbored more…occult inclinations. He didn’t just want to kill his relatives; he wanted to eat their flesh, suck the marrow out of their bones, and drink their blood to add their life forces to his in order to become immortal. It was in pursuit of this ultimate goal that Arnold committed his first 19 murders; and why he escaped Arkham in Detective Comics issue no. 625.
After making away in an Eagle Supply Company van, Arnold crashes an election rally being held by Mayoral candidate Henry Etchison. Etkar shoots Etchison’s wife dead in cold blood and declares his support for incumbent Deputy Mayor Harriman; and his crime-riddled reign as a city administrator. Etkar starts shooting up the party in an attempt to get to Etchison himself but is distracted by Gotham City journalist Vicki Vale.
Her constant photographing set off his belief system, as he thought that his soul would be tarnished if it got captured by the camera. He pursued Vale in an attempt to reclaim his soul, and add hers to his exhaustive list of personal sacrifices. Batman arrived in the nick of time and blunted Etkar’s gunshot with his chest plate, though it did dispel his aura of being the Demon of Gotham a little bit. After rescuing Vale and returning to the Batcave, Bruce Wayne decides to live up to his moniker.
The World’s Greatest Detective breaks into the place where it all began to commence his investigation. Locating Etkar’s case file, he notices a peculiar change in his personal history that he forwards to Commissioner Gordon and then proceeds to interrogate one of the people who helped Arnold escape Arkham. After prodding around for a little bit, he discovered Etkar’s location and visited him at the cemetery he was hiding out.
Batman confronted the Abattoir of Gotham City and was momentarily stunned by his freakish strength. He was able to break out of his grip and subdue him soon enough when he revealed to Arnold Etrak that he knew his family secret. After throwing him back in Arkham, Batman goes to confront the person actually responsible for getting a butcher like Abattoir back on the streets- Henry Etchison himself! Turns out, that Arnold Etkar’s true birth name is Arnold Etchison.
He was kept locked away in obscurity due to the obvious political threat he posed to the Etchison dynasty. Henry only let him out so he could arrange for his wife’s death and strengthen his harsh anti-crime election campaign with a public display for the reason behind his proposed “hard measures”. Thanks to his incredibly deductive mind, Batman was able to identify Etchison’s plot before it reached its final stages; but this wouldn’t be the last time he’d hear from the Abattoir.
Abattoir Various Story Arcs
In issue 628, Arnold Etchison makes his return in a rather bizarre fashion. While Oswald Cobblepot spends his time locked behind bars in Arkham, his prized ornithological collection comes under threat from the Abattoir as part of an unholy ritual that will grant him the immortality he has always craved. Following in the footsteps of the 17th-century mystic king of Arakan, Thiri Thu Dhamma, Arnold planned to make three stages of sacrifices to achieve his goals.
The first step involved cutting out the hearts of 2,000 doves; the symbol of peace. 1300 of these were The Penguin. The next step involved sacrificing 4,000 cows; the symbol of fertility and the continuance of life. Arnold accomplished this by killing everything living he could find at Gotham Milk Dairy. The last step was going to be the worst; by blowing up the Gotham Bridge, Arnold Etchison would finally complete his inhumane ritual and trade 6,000 human lives for everlasting immortality. Thankfully, the Caped Crusader was on hand to foil this plot and save Gotham’s citizens from yet another maniacal serial killer.
Abattoir’s next escape would come during the events of Knightfall when Bane set every criminal in Gotham City free. Arnold went straight back to his family vendetta and killed several of his relatives in a vicious spree that saw him skin his victims alive. He zoned in on his last living relative- Graham- and managed to abduct him from the Doctor Thompkins Orphanage. Abattoir planned to complete his lifelong mission by sacrificing Graham and 12 other orphans to attain immortality.
Azrael intervened and managed to save the children, but his internal conflict allowed Arnold to escape. He’d enlist the help of Preston Payne, aka Clayface 3, to complete his quest by kidnapping Payne’s son. He trapped Graham in an unimaginably torturous apparatus and left him there. Azrael came up against Abattoir once again, and in a repeat of their last encounter, found himself conflicted over what he was going to do to him now that he had him cornered.
As he struggled to come to a decision, Abattoir’s hand slipped off the plank he was grabbing and he fell to his death; much to his shock of Robin. It was this act that finally got Jean-Paul Valley relieved of his duties as Gotham’s Defender, as Bruce Wayne donned the cowl once again. In one last-ditch effort to complete his perceived destiny, Abattoir’s spirit tries to take out his last blood relation- a distant cousin- but is stopped by the World’s Greatest Detective and summarily sent back to Hell. Batman encounters him on his trip to the nether realm with Etrigan the Demon during the events of Batman: Demon.
Abattoir made his 21st century return thanks to The Blackest Night prophecy. As his body was being transported from Gotham to the Justice League’s fortified crypts in Washington DC, a Black Lantern Ring found him and revived his corpse as a thrall of Nekron. Abattoir immediately resumed his cannibalistic ways and managed to corner Commissioner Gordon and Barbara Gordon at the police station when Deadman intervened.
Every Black Lantern Batman villain then began pursuing the Caped Crusader and Red Robin, cornering them in a cemetery before eventually being tricked into immobility by the World’s Greatest Detective. In 2013, a new Abattoir emerged, though this one was created more out of circumstance than mental health issues. Jersey Pallet was the sole survivor of a plane crash in the Cascade Mountains, but it was always suspected that there were others.
Rumors had always swirled around the nature of that crash; and the fact that Pallet had cannibalized his fellow travelers in order to survive himself. So when a serial killer emerged in Gotham City whose MO resembled Maori rituals, Batman knew where to check immediately. Though he was incapacitated- and nearly castrated- by the new Abattoir, Batman is one of the greatest fighters in the world. He is able to get out of his bonds and subdue his attacker, sending him packing on a one-way trip to Arkham Asylum; just like his predecessor.
What Makes Abattoir So Dangerous?
There is absolutely nothing about him that makes you look at Arnold Etchison and go, “Damn, I better stay away from this monster”. He doesn’t have superstrength. He cannot fly. He isn’t a metahuman with powers that can wow the audience at a circus or bring Darkseid to heel; whichever suits the situation best. He’s just a human being. What makes him one of the most sadistic to ever go up against Batman is his sheer insanity. It would not be an exaggeration to say that Abattoir could give Joker a run for his money, what with all his occult notions of attaining immortality through cannibalism and parricide. Abattoir, like his namesake, is a walking slaughterhouse.
He is in peak physical condition for a man in his 40s and fights like a man in his early 20s. His feral, bloodthirsty fighting style has stalemated both Bruce Wayne and Azrael in the past; two men who know far more about hand-to-hand combat than the untrained Arnold Etchison. His frenzied, borderline Barbaric approach to battle also renders him practically painless when the adrenaline is flowing through him. For a short span of time, Abattoir can tank hits like he’s Mr. Fantastic on full-elasticity mode.
And while these things are already enough to make you look over your shoulder a million times whenever you’re roaming the streets of Gotham, it’s his mind that is the real danger. Being spiritual is one thing; Arnold Etchison actually believes in the age-old myth that links cannibalism to immortality and is pursuing both with a relentless passion. He would get a serious kick out of torturing his victims first or terrifying them at the very least. An example of this would be his treatment of Graham Etchinson, whom Abbatoir strapped to a Bed of Spikes. With every passing hour, a weight would drop vertically above his chest, ensuring his death would be slow and painful.
Arnold has already shown that he doesn’t care much about his own blood, as he views human souls as a vehicle to unlocking a higher plane of existence. He believed by killing a human he would possess their soul and gain their strength, something cultures forgot long ago, and also put their faith in.
Oddly enough Abattoir actually acquired these abilities twice after his death. The first is a reanimated Ghost trying to consume his last living cousin’s unborn child’s soul, and the second is during the Blackest Night storyline when his corpse was reanimated as a Black Lantern. Even in death, Arnold Etchison made sure that his slaughterhouse was stocked to the ceiling with fresh corpses; and with the number of times he’s broken out of Arkham, it’s surprising he isn’t called Mister Miracle.
Why The Abattoir deserves more recognition
While Batman has dealt with a plethora of demented villains in his 80-year-long career as a crime-fighter, we haven’t seen him go up against someone so clearly irredeemable. The Abattoir isn’t one of those layered characters whose motivations can be justified through poetic license or even logical deduction. He’s just a pure psychopath, plain and simple, and that is what makes him so effective. Arnold Etchison is one of the only human adversaries of Batman to have a ledger so red it would make Red Guardian blush, and then gape his mouth in horror when he realizes about 50% of it, are just his family members.
The Abattoir is a character that has been used sparingly since he was first created in 1991, and that’s completely fine with us; because unlike Calendar Man or Rag Doll, Abattoir is one D-list Batman villain who can actually use some mystique in his backstory. The fact that all we know about Arnold is what we’re told is kinda jarring in a world that is capitalizing on flashbacks and redemption stories faster than Popeye’s did with their Chicken Sandwich. We’d love to see him pop up in some form on mainstream media soon; as part of an animated show, an Arkhamverse installment, or a cameo in that new Arkham Asylum TV show DC is developing.
He’s menacing, he’s charismatic, and most of all, he’s bat-crap crazy. Tell us that a cold open that features a known cannibal breaking out of what is supposed to be the most secure facility in Gotham City, doesn’t sound like an immediate Emmy nod for Matt Reeves’ team to you. We thought so, as well.