Condiment King Would Be Great For The Batman 2

The absurd Batman villain Condiment King was jokingly named as a potential villain in The Batman 2, but this comedic criminal could actually work for Matt Reeves’s dark and serious DC film series. Condiment King has long been one of the most intentionally goofy DC villains, and as such, often joked about when the discussion of prospective villains in upcoming live-action DC movies and shows comes around. However, the specifics of the bizarre character’s life and origin story suggest the expanding world of The Batman would be able to adapt him for its world, despite how tonally jarring this would otherwise seem.

Condiment King debuted in Batman: The Animated Series’ “Make ‘Em Laugh” episode, in which he was an unwilling pawn of The Joker. The popular Gotham City comedian Buddy Standler was brainwashed by The Joker (using technology stolen from The Mad Hatter) to become a “silly” criminal, armed with ketchup and mustard guns and hot sauce packets. While Condiment King was never a true supervillain in the animated series, he proved popular enough to receive a counterpart in DC’s mainstream post-Crisis and post-Flashpoint continuities: the relatively harmless Mitchell Mayo. Due to this set up, The Batman 2 story could add Condiment Man to the movie far easier than it might otherwise seem.

Related: 10 Lessons The Batman 2 Can Learn From The Dark Knight

Condiment King Would Make Riddler & Joker Scarier In The Batman 2

While Robert Pattinson and Matt Reeves were obviously joking when they considered Condiment King as a potential The Batman 2 villain, including a new version of him could work. While more serious and threatening Batman villains, such as Riddler and Joker, would be the main antagonists of the film, Condiment King could easily be a minor antagonist, whose easily-foiled antics prove how frightening Joker and Riddler truly are. This does not, however, mean that a more serious and terrifying take on a goofy character like Condiment King is impossible.

Why Matt Reeves Batman Can Still Use Silly Villains (Even If It’s A Serious Series)

The Batman 2 could adapt elements of Batman: The Animated Series and have Condiment King be a silly, non-threatening, criminal without sacrificing too much seriousness. If Condiment King is portrayed as a brainwashed innocent civilian, he could easily be depicted as terrifying on a conceptual level. Condiment King himself presents little threat to Gotham’s citizenry, let alone Batman, but the fact that The Joker could brainwash people into serving him is frightening in and of itself.

Condiment King could simply be reimagined as a serious Gotham criminal as well. The unofficial Batman book, An Unauthorized Detailed Account of Gotham: 1919-1939, presented a realistic and genuinely threatening iteration of Mitchell Mayo, who murdered citizens at random with poisoned bottles of Condiment King products, co-opting the moniker for himself and blackmailing the company. Whether Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson use the brainwashed version of Condiment King or a deadly reimagining of him, adapting the outlandish criminal is not an impossible task for The Batman 2.