Gotham City has always been the hive for most of DC comics’ sick villains, and it is all because of our cape crusader, Batman, who has kept these crazy psychopaths from destroying the city. Despite their best efforts to suffocate justice, Batman emerged victorious in the end.
They all fought well, but one guy, in particular, Dr. Thomas Elliot, nicknamed Hush, is always one step ahead of Batman and on a level with him in terms of hand-to-hand fighting. The character was created by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee and first appeared in Batman #609 in January 2003 as part of the 12-issue series “Batman: Hush.” Hush has yet to make a true live-action appearance, however, it has appeared in video games and the FOX television series Gotham. So, without further ado, let us have a look at the figure who rivals Batman’s cerebral ability.
The Early life of Tommy or Dr. Thomas Elliot
Dr. Thomas “Tommy” Elliot was Bruce Wayne’s boyhood pal. Thomas, Bruce’s father, was overjoyed to see the youngsters interact and believed that Bruce had finally found a buddy to whom he could relate. Tommy and Bruce had a lot of fun playing strategy games, with Tommy always managing to outmaneuver his otherwise bright friend. On the other hand, Tommy despised his father, who was constantly drunk and aggressive.
His mother, who had come from a poor family, did little to aid her kid since she was ready to put up with whatever abuse directed at her and her son to maintain her opulent lifestyle. Instead of protecting Thomas, she made him learn Aristotle in order to deal with his father in a quiet, passive manner, something he forgave her for. Thomas Wayne took Bruce and Tommy to Metropolis one day’s business vacation.
He told them to stay in their hotel room, but they sneaked out to view the city and watched a battle between the recently retired super-hero Green Lantern and his old adversary, the Icicle. Tommy devised a method to amass his own money. He broke the brake lines to his parents’ automobile, sending it careening over the side of the road. Tommy’s father died suddenly, but his mother survived owing to emergency surgery performed by Bruce’s father.
What Prompted him to embrace his evil side?
Tommy ended up receiving the riches he desired, but he had to wait years, seeing his mother struggle and eventually die from cancer. Twisted by his avarice, he privately despised Bruce Wayne for his perceived “good fortune” after the Waynes’ deaths placed Bruce in the exact position that Tommy had tried to achieve for himself, a mentality that would one day inspire an intricate conspiracy to eliminate Bruce Wayne.
Elliot laid up a complex scheme against Batman, aided by the Riddler, who had just utilized a Lazarus Pit and had an insight that led him to discover Batman’s actual identity in the deal. As part of this plot, he transmogrified Killer Croc and had him stage an abduction to raise funds. Poison Ivy seized possession of Catwoman and later shortly constrained Superman to provide additional security. Elliot fabricated his death at the hands of the Joker to provoke Batman into assassinating the Joker and thus destroying him as a person.
Scarecrow ended up causing further rifts among Batman’s allies. Throughout this period, Elliot took the character of a guy whose head was shrouded in bandages and talked in hushed tones when witnessing his schemes develop, finally adopting the moniker “Hush” based on the song “Hush, Little Baby,” about a youngster who couldn’t be content. However, Elliot’s plot was thwarted when Two-Face resurfaced after Elliot provided his plastic surgery in exchange for his legal acumen. Harvey Dent called the now-retired James Gordon to supply Batman with critical aid until Elliot was unmasked.
The comic book origins explored
Different characters from comic books have alternate background stories, and for Hush, we will be exploring its origin story from the Batman issue 608. It was published in 2002 and later expanded over a 12-issue storyline.
The scene opens at Gotham City shipyard where Batman seeks to rescue a kid named Edward from Killer Croc. Croc’s body has been mutilated, enhancing his speed and strength, but Batman takes him down. He rescued the boy easily but kept thinking if there was a mastermind over Croc’s kidnapping for money is not exactly what Killer Croc would do. He later realized that the ransom money which was with Killer Croc before their hassle is missing.
He quickly uses his infrared goggles to find out that Catwoman is fleeing the scene with the money and so without further delay, he starts chasing her. Although chasing Catwoman is more like a game for him he kept toiling his brain as stealing someone else’s money is also not what Catwoman would do. He kept chasing her across buildings and thinking if there is a superior brain behind all these events.
Just as he was swinging someone cut his ropes making him fall headfirst from a great height into a crime alley. Surrounded by thugs and with a severe injury, Batman is in serious trouble, but Huntress arrives thanks to the signal sent to her via the utility belt and saves him. A man with bandages wrapped around his face watches the entire event from a terrace. Meanwhile, Catwoman makes her way to Poison Ivy to give her the money which he hands over to her secret benefactor.. Batman is brought back to the Batman with fractures in his skull.
Using morse codes he informs Alfred of the name “Thomas Elliot”. The Wayne family stages the incident like a car accident and admits Bruce to a local hospital where the famous Thomas Elliot arrives to operate his brain surgery. The story goes back in the past to introduce Bruce’s only childhood pal Thomas Elliot. The two were the closest of the pals and shared several common interests. As a kid, Thomas was always a few steps ahead of his friend Bruce in strategy games and Bruce’s father had a soft corner for him as well.
However, unlike Bruce’s parents, Thomas was brought up by an alcoholic and abusive father. One night both his parents encountered a car accident which led to his father’s demise. His mother was in a critical stage too but Bruce’s father Thomas Wayne managed to save her. Back in the present-day Bruce recovers and starts investigating whatever was going on that night. He first dropped by Killer Croc’s cell to collect whatever information he could get. He enquires about who had hired him before Croc breaks the wall of his cell and makes a run for the sewer exit. During Croc’s admission to the prison, Batman had planted a device in his spine which helped him to locate Croc’s journey.
He chased him on his Batmobile and just as he was catching close someone shot the front left tire of his batmobile making it go out of control. He crashes with his Batmobile and is surprised to see how his tires are shot.The tires of his Batmobile have reinforced Kevlar and were filled with petroleum jelly which required sound knowledge and skill to shoot exactly at the weak spot. He asks Oracle to not lose track of Croc.
Meanwhile, Croc is scaling the building where Poison Ivy’s garden is located and finds Catwoman in search of something. He swipes at Catwoman and demands to get back his money. Catwoman defends herself and states that the money is with Poison Ivy but Killer Croc explains that he had been informed in Arkham by Poison Ivy that the money is with Catwoman and also that she would be found here. He grabs her and just when he was about to end her life, Batman attacks and throws him out of the building.
He holds the fight and explains that they all have been played by someone to which Croc says that the money was the fix for him out of this mutilated form. Before he could extract any more information from Croc, the FBI arrives and manages to take in Croc. Batman stares at the night thinking about who or what is behind all of this while the same man with bandages is shown to view the entire event from a terrace across the building.
Six days later Batman meets Catwoman who informs him that Poison Ivy is in the metropolis. Catwoman finds Poison Ivy and pretends to be in her spell as she was before but soon gets exposed. They both get into a fight with Batman freeing her from Poison Ivy’s wines. Poison Ivy states that she has also brought her champion and the building starts shaking. It is Superman. She managed to gain control over superman by kissing her wearing Kryptonite-infused lipstick. The fights continue with Superman nearly killing the two of them. Finally, they had to drop Lois Lane from the top of a building to make Superman snap out of Poison Ivy’s spell.
Poison Ivy escapes and they take the help of Krypto to find her. They soon find Poison Ivy and Catwoman takes her down and the man with bandages is shown to have been watching the entire event from a nearby terrace. Bruce returns to Gotham and decides to take a night off. He goes to visit an Opera along with Selena and Thomas Elliot which soon gets jeopardized by Harley and her gang. They loot everyone and Bruce escapes only to revisit as Batman and oppose the goons. Selena was also present there and she rejoins everyone as Catwoman.
They fight and Harley manages to escape using her spring boots. Batman saves Catwoman and runs out to chase Harley but finds that his friend, Thomas is shot dead and Joker is standing nearby.Batman loses his calm and starts beating the life out of the Joker as previous to this he had killed Jason Todd as well. He keeps punching him while Joker keeps saying that it wasn’t him. Harley comes to save him but is knocked out by Batman. Even Catwoman comes to stop him but fails too. He is finally stopped by Commissioner Jim Gordan and while he takes Batman out of the alley the same man with bandages is shown to be watching them from above and flipping a coin.
Batman comes back to his bat cave where he seeks help from Nightwing on the chain of events involving all the villains of Gotham. They get notified about Riddler who was then robbing a bank with an armored truck. They stop him but Batman is left confused. He joins the pieces of his puzzles and learns that whoever is the mastermind behind these has left out the Riddler as he was the only one who was doing something which he generally does.
He uses his ultraviolet light and notices ashes from the Lazarus pit scattered all over the armored truck. Batman at his Batcave explains to Catwoman how his life was ruined by his attempts to live two lives at the same time. Meanwhile, the man with the bandages arrives at Arkham prison and talks to the joker and then he removes the bandages and reveals himself. It’s Harvey Dent with his face fixed. Batman traps Talia under Catwoman’s supervision and leaves to meet Ra’s Al Ghoul to find answers but he has no idea.
Harvey Dent meets Commissioner Jim Gordan and tells him that Batman needs help. Catwoman is shown to have been chased by Huntress who is speaking gibberish. They both get into a fight with Batman and Robin watching them. Batman asks Robin to watch them and leaves. He helps Catwoman while Robin gets sucker-punched by the man with bandages. The scene has a new member and that is Scarecrow.
One seeing Scarecrow Batman equated that he is the man who has been poisoning the minds and setting up all these and just as he was about to question him and Battarang comes flying knocking out Scarecrow. He turns to see the man in Bandages standing holding Tim Drake. Batman demands to know his identity and he removes his bandages to reveal that he is Jason Todd.
Tim tells Catwoman that this is not Jason but an imposter. He later finds out that it was Clayface. Batman is frustrated as none of it makes sense and till now all clues made him believe that the man behind everything was Jason Todd. Batman goes down to question his old worker Herald and there comes the same man with bandages shooting Herald down to death. This man was shown to be Harvey Dent, Jason Todd, and even Clayface and Batman get into a fight with him. He sees the necklace around his neck which had belonged to Thomas Elliot’s mother.
He is Thomas Elliot and had previously faked his own death. Earlier during their childhood, it was him who had planned his parent’s car accident so that he could inherit all of their wealth. He never had a problem losing his father but having his mother still alive is what made him take this path. He had an unforgiving grudge against the Waynes for saving his mother. Batman nearly loses but is saved by Harvey and Jim Gordan. Harvey shoots Elliot across his chest making him fall from the bridge where they were fighting.
It was also the venue where his parents had faced the accident. Batman questions Harvey and learns that Elliot had fixed Harvey’s face in exchange for his help. Batman unfolds the mystery and he goes to visit the Riddler who along with Elliot had planned out the bandaged man whom they called “Hush”
What makes him such a powerful opponent?
Hush, one of Batman’s most intellectual foes, possesses an extraordinary, genius mind, as seen by his remarkable abilities in both medical science and strategy. Hush is a prodigy with incredible talent in surgery. He is truly an elite surgeon and neurologist, able to perform incredibly difficult or practically impossible medical advancements such as removing Harold Allnut’s chronic Kyphosis. His contemporaries considered him untreatable, including Batman, who had used all of his reserves to find a way to remedy Harold’s Kyphosis to no avail.
He also cured Harold’s muteness, giving him the ability to speak. He had saved Bruce’s life by removing Catwoman’s heart and placing it in a machine built by Mr. Freeze to keep it pumping without causing irreversible damage. Hush also expertly fixed Harvey Dent’s half-disfigured face, restoring his original appearance, and performed cosmetic surgery on himself, utilizing minimal anesthesia and pure power of will to change his face to look identical to Bruce Wayne. Hush is an exceptional master strategist and manipulator, his tactical genius rivaling Batman’s.
His greatest asset is his ability to think like his opponents and use their strengths. Hush had demonstrated his tactical genius at a young age, teaching Bruce the fundamentals of relying on strategies and tactics to achieve his goals, ingeniously plotting to commit parricide by having his parents die in a car accident he staged, which partially failed due to Thomas Wayne’s surgical skills. He had nearly vanquished Batman with well-planned strategies. Hush is an expert marksman with two M1911.45 caliber handguns in his hands.
From behind Batman, he was able to murder Harold Allnut with precise rounds to the head and heart. He could match Batman’s accuracy with his Batarangs, effortlessly shooting down two of them in mid-air and detonating the C4 explosive he had attached to the Batmobile with a single shot. Hush keeps himself in top physical condition; he possesses extraordinary strength, speed, and reflexes and brawling with Batman in a fist battle. He has incredible physical power, frequently exacerbated by his hate for Bruce Wayne.
Our Final Words
Being a victim of violence and having a neglected, obedient mother made Thomas Elliot psychopathic. Before he was a teenager, he was already functioning on a high degree of sociopathy, even disconnecting the brake line of his parents’ automobile in order to obtain freedom from them and inherit the Elliot family money. Bruce had obtained all he desired as a result of his parent’s deaths. This deep-seated animosity would last throughout Tommy’s maturity, prompting him to assume the Hush character.