Cluemaster

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Cluemaster


Detective Comics #810, art by Jock

Publisher DC Comics
First appearance Detective Comics #351(May 1966)
Created by Gardner Fox
Carmine Infantino
Characteristics
Alter ego Arthur Brown
Affiliations Injustice League
Justice League Antarctica
Suicide Squad
Notable aliases The Reformer, Aaron Black
Abilities Cluemaster has a number of plasti-glass pellets attached to the front of his costume that he can hurl as weapons. These pellets variously contain a blinding incendiary flare, smoke bombs, paralyzing gas and high explosives

The Cluemaster (Arthur Brown) is a DC Comics supervillain and enemy of Batman. A failed game show host, he became a criminal who left clues toward his crimes, though unlike the Riddler these clues weren't riddles.


Arthur Brown has a daughter named Stephanie, but rarely spends any time with her due to long periods of incarceration. When he returns to Gotham, "rehabilitated," Stephanie becomes furious when she discovers that he has returned to crime without his need to leave clues behind. Making a costume for herself, she calls herself the Spoiler, finds out her father's plans, and leaves clues so that the police and Batman can stop him. Robin tracks her down, and she joins in the capture of the Cluemaster. Each time the Cluemaster escapes or start some new plan, Stephanie dons her costume again in order to foil him. Eventually, she realises she enjoys being a hero, and begins regular patrols as Spoiler. For a brief period of time she even replaces her boyfriend, Tim Drake, as Robin.

Cluemaster mourning the loss of his daughter. Art by Pete Woods.
Cluemaster mourning the loss of his daughter. Art by Pete Woods.

With several other villains, Cluemaster becomes a member of the Injustice League, then later the Justice League Antarctica, attempting to reform. Cluemaster and his teammates volunteer to join the second Suicide Squad, a group sanctioned by the US government, in return for a full pardon of his crimes. The Cluemaster also hopes to make Stephanie proud of him.

On his first mission he appears to be killed in action, but manages to survive (albeit hideously scarred). He spends a year in a hospital, the only thing keeping him alive the thought of his daughter.

When he got out and discovers that his daughter has been killed, he takes on the secret identity Aaron Black and creates the "Campaign for Culpability", blaming Batman for his involvement in Stephanie's death, saying that she was not the first child working with Batman to die and that Batman should be brought to justice.

Cluemaster as seen on The Batman.
Cluemaster as seen on The Batman.

A considerably distorted and obese version of the Cluemaster has appeared on the animated series The Batman where Arthur Brown gets revenge on the people he blames for rigging the last question on "Think Thank Thunk", a game show that he competed in when he was a child, and was defeated by Batman. Cluemaster is voiced by Glenn Shadix.

Brown was a child genius, and the continuing champion on the children's gameshow, "Think Thank Thunk". But one day, after twelve straight weeks of victories, he lost when he gave an incorrect date, and in his child mind, this was nothing short of a life-shattering tragedy. His mother ruined the show's future by filing a lawsuit, claiming the show was rigged. However, Ross, the host, and Bert, the producer, had some friends in high places, and cancelled the lawsuit. Ever since, Brown was under the delusion that he had been cheated out of his title; he dropped out of school, and never attempted to build his life up. In the episode's events, he still lives with his mother, who has gone blind with age, and still thinks Brown is a boy. He spends his time rewatching the point where his life was destroyed, and eating Kremelos, a fictional cream-filled chocolate bar, as he received a lifetime supply as a consolation prize.

Cluemaster attempts to take his revenge on the show's producer, host, and the contestant who had beaten him. After humiliating them in public, he kidnaps them, and places them on a ridicously unfair gameshow, where a loss means death. Batman manages to save them by playing "all or nothing". He stumps the Cluemaster with the one question he does not know: the identity of the Batman. Throwing a temper tantrum, the Cluemaster attempts to unmask him, but is defeated and (presumably) taken to Arkham Asylum.

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