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The DCAU’s newest supervillain has the strength of Bane and the pragmatism of the KGBeast — and he exists solely to torment the Dark Knight.
WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Batman: The Adventures Continue: Season 2, on sale now from DC Comics.
The ordinary criminals of Gotham City, people like Rupert Thorne or the Falcone Crime Family were on top of the world before Batman came along. Then they had to adjust to a world where they couldn’t go out at night without feeling afraid. Their usual hired thugs were no match for the Dark Knight and any enemy who could match him were either too unstable to trust or too ambitious to take orders for long. But that all changed with the introduction of the DCAU’s newest supervillain, Muscle. This professional hitman is a mix between the physical prowess of Bane and the assassination skills of the KGBeast.
Muscle seems to be a recent addition to the DCAU, and became known to the criminal underworld as a “fix-it” for Batman-level problems. Rupert Thorne, who was under heavy scrutiny from Renee Montoya, hired Muscle to take care of the by-the-book cop.
Muscle intended to take down Montoya quickly and easily. He waited for her to let her guard down, watching as she busted one of Thorne’s operations and keeping a sniper leveled on her until after everyone was arrested. Muscle believed that once she thought the danger was passed, shooting her would be easy.
Fortunately, he was spotted by Harvey Bullock, leading to a fight on the roofs with Batman. But Muscle was not one to pick a fight he couldn’t win. With Batman in his face and police undoubtedly heading up to them, he fled the scene, preferring to fight another day.
This highlights how different he is from Bane. Muscle is, appropriately enough, heavily muscled, but he doesn’t have the same code of conduct as Bane. He’s a practical fighter, calling it quits when the risk outweighs the reward, but not giving up on the job, preferring to go at it another way. In short, he’s the perfect example of fighting smarter, not harder.
And he tried being smarter, waiting for Montoya to be on an isolated road before ramming the car she was in, trusting the disorientation would keep her off her feet long enough for him to end her. But as always, Batman, or more accurately, Bruce Wayne, was there to save the day. He held Muscle off long enough for Montoya to fight back and wait for the other cops.
This led to Muscle’s most sadistic attempt yet, kidnapping Montoya’s girlfriend, Gloria, to use as leverage. He forced Montoya to an isolated location to end her, laying out an ambush ahead of time because he knew not to underestimate her.
This is where the assassination skills of the KGBeast can be seen, with Muscle using intimidation tactics and guerrilla warfare to try and kill Montoya. In all honesty, had Batman not been there every time, there was an excellent chance that Muscle would have succeeded.
He still lost the fight, but he fought and evaded Batman enough times to prove that his status as a “fix-it” for the Dark Knight was no exaggeration. It took Batman and Montoya to subdue him in their final confrontation, but it was a reminder that the criminals of Gotham, the ones who existed before Batman, are starting to adapt. They’re finding ways to fight back against people like Batman and that makes Gotham even more dangerous than it already is.
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