D.A.V.E.

'D.A.V.E.' is an original villain in ''The
Batman''. He is voiced by Jeff Bennett. He first appeared in ''Gotham's Ultimate Criminal Mastermind'', Season 3 finale.

Contents

Character History

Powers and Abilities

Inspiration

See also

External links

Character History

D.A.V.E. (Digitally Advanced Villain Emulator) is an Artificial Intelligence created by Dr. Hugo Strange that includes several villains' psychology profiles: the Joker, The Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Riddler, Clayface, and even Strange's. Strange claims that the AI is so advanced he doesn't even realize he is a computer program, instead under the pre-programmed notion that it is a human criminal genius, an amalgam of all the psychological profiles within his brain, whose mind has been sentenced to life in a computer. However, D.A.V.E. goes on a rampage, builds a powerful, robotic body and breaks from Arkham Asylum to create chaos.
D.A.V.E. hacks into Gotham City's computers and introduces itself to the citizens, claiming to be the "Ultimate Criminal Mastermind", and dresses himself in a trenchcoat. His warning messages begin appearing on all of Gotham's lights and signs, including a countdown to the revelation of Batman's secret identity. Batman shows up and battles him, but D.A.V.E. is too powerful. D.A.V.E. continues his criminal rampage by emptying all of the citizen's bank accounts by hacking the bank's main computer. Batman discovers that Strange let D.A.V.E. loose deliberately in order to capture Batman.
When Batman returns home after visiting Strange, D.A.V.E. kidnaps Alfred Pennyworth and discovers Batman's true identity. It offers Batman two choices: rescue Alfred and have D.A.V.E. reveal his identity to the public, or save his identity and lose Alfred. Batman chose neither, and again battles D.A.V.E., this time in the Batcave. Batman finally defeats D.A.V.E. by asking it about its origin. D.A.V.E., confused by the other villain's origins, malfunctions when it learns that it doesn't have an origin and isn't even human, and Batman crushes D.A.V.E. with a giant penny.
A new version of D.A.V.E. returns in an issue of the comic book spin-off, ''The Batman Strikes!'', to rival Riddler in who gets the right of defeating The Batman. This new version is badly damaged, both physically and mentally. D.A.V.E.´s mind is also messed-up, with him not even remembering how he was beat by Batman last time when Riddler asks him, and now using only the mentality of the Joker and Riddler, instead of the many other villains in its database. Its intellect also starts to decrease.

Powers and Abilities

D.A.V.E. has the brainwaves of several Batman villains, thus allowing it to guess correctly most of Batman's moves, and can imitate other villains', such as the initial acrobatic feats the Joker was capable of accomplishing or Catwoman's agile gymnastic routines, or the Penguin's total mastery of martial arts, making him a tough opponent to battle hand-to-hand. Its robotic body is light, resilient and flexible enough to take on Batman on far more than equal terms. D.A.V.E. is as intelligent as Riddler and Hugo Strange, giving it the psychological advantage. It can hack into any computer and control every machine it encounters.

Inspiration

Most obviously, D.A.V.E. is a parody of HAL 9000 and HAL's technician Dave, while the three-dot pattern in his face is similar to Brainiac, and the way D.A.V.E. figured Batman's true identity is similar to Ra's al Ghul or Bane. The voice actor for D.A.V.E. was Jeff Bennett, who also voiced H.A.R.D.A.C.. D.A.V.E. is very similar to H.A.R.D.A.C., which originally appeared in the . D.A.V.E's destruction also pays tribute to the closing scene in The Terminator. Both instances show the characters' electronic eye slowly blinking out, after he is crushed by a heavy object.

See also

Hugo Strange
List of The Batman villains

External links

★ D.A.V.E.'s Profile at World's Finest

★ D.A.V.E. Chat Bot

★ D.A.V.E. Chat Bot (Haptek)