When it comes to the rogues gallery of the Dark Knight, it is often recognized as one of the best, and there are no doubts about it. We have villains who are the epitome of evil, capable of being lethal, insane, and, let’s not forget, unsettling.
When it comes to upsetting, we can’t forget about Humphry Dumpler, a.k.a. Humpty Dumpty, and his obsession with putting broken things back together and restoring them to their original state. He’s even okay with dismantling and rearranging them, which is unnerving, to say the least.
The character was created by acclaimed writer Dan Slott and illustrator Ryan Sook and originally appeared in Arkham Asylum: Living Hell #2 in 2003. This model inmate at Arkham Asylum is extremely capable of blowing your mind with his capers, despite his portly, well-mannered exterior.
So get ready for today’s video, in which we’ll not only go into the beginnings of this Batman villain but also discuss his debut appearance in a comic book. You’d better be prepared!
Humpty Dumpty Origin From His First Comic Book Appearance
Introduced as a model prisoner at Arkham Asylum, Humphry Dumpler boasting a hulking figure and an egg-shaped head is seen getting praised by Dr. Jeremiah Arkham for his previous work. We learn from the duo’s conversation that Humphry had earlier fixed the looking glass of The Mad Hatter. He is given a few tools and asked to fix Ventriloquist’s Scarface dummy. While Humphry is thrilled to take up the new project and Dr. Arkham isn’t hesitant at all to provide him with the props, the same sense of security cannot be vouched when it comes down to the warden, Mr. Cash.
He is certainly not sure if it is a good idea to hand so many things to Humphry Dumpler given that he is a prisoner at the end of the day. That is when Dr. Arkham elucidates to Mr. Cash showing him the bigger picture: “Some inmates need their crutches just to function.” He further tells Mr. Cash that Humphry is different, he has made no escape attempts so far and the fact that he acts like a free handyman works out mostly in their favor.
With his cellmate asking him how he ended up in the asylum, Humphry starts speaking in rhyme and the readers are taken into a flashback. Right from the time he was born, Humphry has been subjected to sheer bad luck. Starting from his home being wrecked to him losing his parents as well as his beloved puppy in what seemed to be devastating accidents; Humphry has been a victim of endless tragedies. With no one to take care of him, child services left him under the care of his abusive grandmother.
Eventually, Humphry grew up and started embracing the obstacles in his path. Determined to comprehend how the world around him works, he started taking daily trips down to the library. Believing books to be the answer to everything, he started reading just so he could see for himself what made things go wrong for him in the first place and then to try and fix it of course.
Dismantling and reassembling every mechanical device that caused him even the slightest obstruction, Humphry developed this compulsive desire to fix things. Speaking of the things he fixed, most of them ended up causing dangerous accidents but regardless, it was important for Humphry to break a thing down and learn how its insides functioned.
Soon came the day when one of the machines ended up disclosing something about him and revealing him to the world for the very first time may we add! With Humphry taking apart an ATM machine and putting it back together after he thought that the machine ‘ate his card’, his picture was all over the papers the next day thanks to the inbuilt cameras that the cash machines had. The newspapers addressed him as ‘Humpty Dumpty, the super saboteur of Gotham’, and Humphry decided to get out of the city.
Investing every bit of money that he had to go on a sailing trip, he decided to sleep for a while before leaving. After all, he still had time left and he kept looking at the humongous old clock tower outside till he dozed off. Call it his misfortune but when he reached the pier, he realized that his ship had already sailed away. The old clock tower was slow by an hour and in other words, it was time for Humphry to set it right.
Borrowing books from the public library, he read all about the mechanisms of a clock and went to fix the gears in the clock tower. However, this only led to one of the clock hands flying off, triggering some kind of a chain reaction, one that resulted in a horde of gigantic signs crashing onto the streets below injuring and even killing several people in the process.
Well, lucky for Batgirl, she was able to put two and two together and track Humphry down to his exact location. But her figuring out his location startled Humphry enough to make him lose his balance and fall off the rooftop. Of course, Batgirl dived right after him and while she was able to save him, she ended up dislocating her arms.
Humphry was happy and prompt at the same time in putting her arms back together after which he surrendered himself. Batgirl revealed to Humphry how she tracked him and gave credit to his overdue library books. But with her asking why the latter took a book on human anatomy, Humphry decides to take her home. How else would he have shown to Batgirl that he had dismembered his abusive grandmother and then sewn her back together using bootlace in an attempt to “fix” her?
The Origin Of Humpty Dumpty In Beware the Batman
Voiced by Matt L. Jones, the character of Humpty Dumpty is seen making an appearance in the fifth episode titled, Broken and the eighteenth episode titled, Games of the computer-animated television series, Beware the Batman.
As per the Broken storyline, Humpty was a genius accountant, one who worked for the crime lord, Tobias Whale. When the time came for Humpty to testify against Whale, the latter arranged for his men to kill Humpty but it turns out to be an unsuccessful attempt. Of course, this comes as a complete shock to Humpty and he is badly injured in the process. The incident drives him absolutely crazy and he ends up escaping protective custody only to start plotting his revenge.
But it is not just Whale that he has big plans for; he begins with Whale’s hit squad operative, Joseph ‘Ice Pick Joe’ Krimple, and places him inside a life-size toy soldier statue. Soon, Whale, along with his business associates are picked off one after the other and placed inside similar toy soldier suits.
But here is where the twist comes; these do not just toy soldier statues. Each statue suit is a bomb, one that’s capable of wiping out the entire city block, which basically means Humpty has confined his victims inside explosive shells. Now, as per the plan, his toy soldiers start appearing all over the city, each of them equipped with firearms. Call it staging a distraction, Humpty eventually abducts Lt. James Gordon as he was the one to have talked him into testifying against Whale in the first place, and during the time of the attack, he had failed to protect Humpty.
Speaking of Batman, he in due course, is able to figure out where Humpty has taken his hostages and drives to the venue, one that happens to be a real castle. The caped crusader is able to locate both Whale and Gordon and carry them to safety. Next, he goes after Humpty and tries his best to reason with him. Humpty blames both Whale and Gordon for the current course of events and tells Batman how he was dragged into the duo’s war against each other much against his own will.
By now, Batman has reached the topmost part of the castle tower and he finds Humpty standing right on the edge. Reciting the famous rhyme, “All the king’s horses and all the king’s men can’t put Humphrey Dumpler back together again” Humpty jumps off. While Batman is able to grab one of his arms, it rips off and he soon realizes that it is not Humpty who jumped but a robotic shell instead. In case, you are wondering where Humpty is, oh he’s holed up somewhere safe and pretty much planning his next move.
In Games, Humpty has Batman, Katana, Commissioner Gordon, Mayor Grange, and Tobias Whale drugged, abducted, and held hostage inside an abandoned house filled with puzzles and death traps. In fact, he literally forces them to participate in his new Murder Mystery Game and states one of them is accountable for the death of an innocent man and the whole purpose of the game is to figure out who the real culprit is.
He has left behind clues for each player and warns them of certain obstacles along the way. However, with every clue, the game becomes way more deadly and literally starts taking a toll on the players. As for Batman, he is hell-bent on solving the puzzle and seeing the end of Humpty of course. The group eventually comes across Ernie Crosky, a weapons smuggler, and is able to connect the dots finally.
Each of them is tied to Ernie; Katana was more like the middle-man as she was working undercover to track the weapons, Whale was the one to have framed Ernie, Batman was the one to have given the tip on the shipment, Gordon was the one to have arrested Ernie, and Grange was the judge who had sentenced him to prison. Humpty finally appears and states to the group how he could not do anything for Ernie back then except watch him get framed.
Now, he wants to redeem his actions and give Ernie the chance to take his revenge on the group. But that is not what Ernie wants; he just wants to go home. With Batman blaming Humpty to be equally accountable for ruining Ernie’s life given that Humpty was a witness to everything and still did nothing about it, Humpty fires the cannon at the group and attempts to escape. Ironically, he becomes a victim of his own game and ends up knocking himself unconscious. Humpty is then arrested and sent to Blackgate Penitentiary.