On 1989's Secret Origins #44

As you're probably already well aware, one of the next movies based on a DC Comics character is going to be Clayface, currently scheduled for an October release. It doesn't strike me as a very good idea, as a solo film starring a C-list villain of an A-list superhero suggests 2022's Morbius to me. But then, no one asked me...and I think it's safe to assume that James Gunn knows more about making movies than I do. 

Now, movies based on Big Two comics characters tend to influence the publishers in two ways. First, it generally gooses them to collect comics starring that character to release in trade to potential new readers inspired to seek out said characters' comics origins. Second, it can lead to the publisher commissioning new comics starring that character. 

I was thinking the other day about the former in regards to Clayface, a character—well, a whole group of characters who share the same name—who doesn't really have all that many classic storylines for DC mine for trade paperback fodder. 

In fact, they've already published two comics for the mainstream, beyond-the-comics-shop market, 2017's Batman Arkham: Clayface, a collection of 14 stories published between 1940 and 2013 starring at least a half-dozen different Clayfaces, and 2023's Batman—One Bad Day: Clayface, a Killing Joke-inspired original graphic novel starring what has become the most popular and default version of the character, actor Basil Karlo-with-Matt Hagen's-powers. (In what I think is probably telling regarding the Clayface character/s status in Batman's rogues galleries, these books aren't unique to him; a whole bunch of Batman villains have their own Batman Arkham anthology collections and Batman—One Bad Day OGNs.)

When thinking of Clayface comics DC could collect in the hopes of the existence of Clayface-curious demand this fall, the one story arc that came to mind was 1989's "The Mud Pack", a four-part Detective Comics epic by the creative team of Alan Grant, Norm Breyfogle and Steve Mitchell (One of the best creative teams to ever tackle the Dark Knight).

Here, let's look at the covers:

This is basically the ultimate Clayface story, starring all four of the Batman villains to bear that name up until that point kinda sorta teaming up: Clayface Basil Karlo, a horror actor turned murderer who wore a clay mask; Clayface II Matt Hagen, a thief who discovered a radioactive pool in a pool that gave him the ability to change shape; Clayface III Preston Payne, a madman whose body would melt away like candle wax if not encased in a special suit and whose deadly, burning touch can reduce his victims to formless protoplasm; and Lady Clayface Sondra Fuller, who was given shape-changing powers similar to Hagen by Kobra in an issue of The Outsiders. (I say "kinda sorta" only because Hagen is, at that point, dead, and didn't have much choice over whether Karlo propped his remains up at the meeting table or not). 

In the end, Karlo manages to turn himself into the ultimate Clayface, assuming the powers of all of the other Clayfaces for his own, while the other living Clayfaces are kinda sorta written off.

I don't recall seeing a whole lot of any of the Clayfaces between this story's publication and the 2011 New 52 relaunch, an issue or two appearance aside. In the new New 52 continuity, thatwhole history and legacy of the Clayfaces was done away with, and DC basically just smooshed Karlo and Hagen into a single character, following the lead of Batman: The Animated Series, in which the sole Clayface had Hagen's comic book powers, but was, like Karlo, an actor. (That episode, by the way, aired in 1992, and I suppose therefore owes something to Grant's "Mud Pack", which first blended the actor Clayface with the shape-shifting Clayface). 

Batman: The Animated Series is probably the most influential Clayface story; for most comic book appearances of a Clayface to follow, he resembled the design seen in the cartoon. 

Anyway, if DC Comics wanted to publish a trade featuring a big Clayface story, "The Mud Pack" is pretty much all they've got, if you ask me (Do correct me if you have other suggestions, though!). Of course, they have published "The Mud Pack" in collected form before, in 2015's Legends of The Dark Knight: Norm Breyfogle Vol. 1 and 2021's Batman: The Dark Knight Detective Vol. 4, but not as a standalone story, one that would be visibly a Clayface story rather than a Batman one, you know?

Of course, "The Mud Pack" is only 88-pages along...is that maybe not enough for a trade? Well, luckily, there is a tie-in that could help fill out some trade paperback pages, 1989's Secret Origins #44, a special, all-Clayface issue published in conjunction with Detective's "Mud Pack" storyline. (Other candidates? In 1994, Grant checked back in with Clayface III and Lady Clayface in a Bret Blevins-drawn two-parter in Shadow of the Bat #26 and #27, and then in 1998 Grant and pencil artist Mark Buckingham had "Ultimate" Clayface Basil Karlo return for the first time since "The Mud Pack" in Shadow of The Bat #75).

I didn't expect to be able to find Secret Origins #44. I've been fairly fascinated with that series lately (as you may have noticed from my posts on stories from it featuring Detective Chimp and company, Rex the Wonder Dog and the Justice League of America), and have found myself increasingly wishing DC would collect (I think a couple of DC Finest collections would be perfect, DC). 

But to my surprise, DC did actually already collect issue #44 though, in the pages of the aforementioned Batman Arkham: Clayface. "Mud Pack" proper isn't in there—I assumed due to its length, as the Arkham collections obviously favor shorter stories, although they do include the four-part "The Shape of Things to Come" from Batman: Gotham Knights circa 2005, starring Clayface V—but the Secret Origins issue is.

I was particularly surprised to see this was the case, as it retold the origins of Clayfaces I-III...and the original origins are also collected in the Arkham trade. Still, I'm not complaining! Not only did it finally allow me to read a tie-in to "The Mud Pack" (although it's tangential at best, and totally unnecessary to understanding and enjoying the arc), but it features some extremely interesting artwork, from Keith Giffen and Bernie Mireault (!!!), plus Tom Grummet, who's not exactly a slouch.

So, after like 14 paragraphs of preface, let's take a look at the actual issue, shall we...?

The first fourteen pages are devoted to the origin of Basil Karlo, as retold by writer Mike Barr, pencil artist Giffen and inker Al Gordon.

The shape-changing Lady Clayface uses her powers to infiltrate Arkham Asylum, where the now elderly Karlo is in a hospital style bed with IVs and other medical apparatus all around him. 

"You're the one they call 'Clayface'--the first one, aren't you!"  she demands. "Why do you care?" he replies, and she responds, "I'll tell you--if you first tell me why they call you 'Clayface.'"

He then launches into his story, a 12-page retelling of 1940's "The Murders of Clayface" by Bill Finger, Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson, which, as I said, is also included in this Arkham collection (At least, that's what the credits in the table of contents say! I can't personally vouch for how much Kane actually drew of it!).

Barr and Giffen stick fairly close to the original, although it's quite a bit of fun to flip back and forth, and to compare and contrast various aspects of a Batman story in 1940 vs. 1989, where the plot is so similar, and you can see things like, say, how Kane/Robinson might have drawn Robin leaping feet-first at the murderer, or how Golden Age Batman varies from late-eighties Batman or just how different Julie Madison looks between the two eras:

Aside from the one-page prologue and epilogue set in the present and the opening splash, the entire story is broken into strict, six-panel grids, and it's quite fun to see Giffen's post-Dark Knight Returns take on Batman here. He's a big, boxy, perpetually shadowed shape of a man, the only details emerging from the blackness that seems to always fall across him are his furrowed brows, narrow white eyes and a bright yellow bat-symbol (Even when he's out of costume and presenting as Bruce Wayne, he's huge and boxy, sort of like a Dick Sprang Batman/Bruce Wayne as filtered through Frank Miller's style). 

(Among my favorite images are a long-shot of the Dynamic Duo swinging on their bat-ropes in front of a big, full moon, where they look more like talking capes than human beings.)

On the final page, Karlo raves a bit about his intention to avenge himself against Batman, and his visitor reveals herself: "My real name doesn't matter! You can call me the new Clayface!" She spends two panels relaying her origins, an asterisk telling us she is referring to Outsiders #22. Karlo asks her to free him, she refuses and departs, and, left alone in the dark again, Karlo tells himself, "The Batman has not seen the last of me...nor have you."

I guess it's the exchange here that most directly ties into "The Mud Pack"...although I guess knowing the origins of all the players would have been helpful going into Grant's story arc.

A turn of the page takes us to "The Tragic Though Amusing History of Clayface II", written by Dan Raspler, penciled by "BEM 89" and inked by Dennis Roider. 

It was this story that most interested me in checking this issue of Secret Origins out, as I was eager to see Mireault playing in the DC Universe again (Mireault is the creator of The Jam, collaborated with Mike Allred on Madman comics and Matt Wagner on Grendel comics, and also illustrated the "When Is a Door?' story in Secret Origins Special #1; written by Neil Gaiman*, it was a great last, ultimate Riddler story, and though obviously the character has been in fairly constant circulation since, I think it would have been a fine story to retire him after). 

Raspler and Mireault's story is played as a comedy, something helped tremendously by Mirelaut's cartooning, which gives this technically-still-a-superhero story the look and feel of an underground comic.

"Lucky" Matt Hagen seeks out sunken treasure, and finds a chest full of little pots of "oily, mucus-like stuff". When he departs for the surface, he accidentally swims into a rocky out-cropping, only to discover, with a "SPURB!!" sound effect, that he has been irrevocably changed!

It takes him about three pages and a failed suicide attempt, but he soon realizes he can regenerate his own head, he is now bullet-proof, and he can change shape. 

Naturally, he turns to a life crime in Gotham City and thus begins his career as a Batman villain. The World's Greatest Detective often catches him, but Hagen's powers and ability to survive pretty much anything keeps him coming back again and again.

Then comes Crisis on Infinite Earths, which Mireault draws like this—

—where Hagen finally meets his end, when a Shadow Demon flies through him, killing him with a "BLOOOSH!". (This story has some pretty great sound effects). 

And that's pretty much the end of Hagen...although, in the final panels, we see Karlo collecting Hagen's remains, which will be integral to the plot of "The Mud Pack".

Finally, we get to "His Name is Clayface III", by writer Len Wein (who had created this Clayface in a 1978 issue of Detective Comics) and artists Tom Grummett and Gary Martin.  While I never read Wein's original story starring Preston Payne (although it is collected in this Arkham book), I was fairly familiar with this particular Clayface's powers, look and particular brand of madness (talking to a mannequin, with which he seems to have a romantic relationship), as he was a fairly frequent cameo in Batman comics that featured scenes in Arkham Asylum in the 1980s.

Here, he sits in an Arkham cell in an easy chair with his mannequin, holding a copy of TV Guide and watching the television in front of him. They watch an episode of the show The Notorious, hosted by Jack Ryder, which is apparently a documentary series featuring criminals. 

This episode features him, but, unimpressed with the five-panels detailing his criminal career, he then tells his mannequin mate his origin in his own words. A genius scientist who suffers from acromegaly, he seeks a cure via Matt Hagen's blood. It works, allowing him to reform his deformed face into that of a very handsome man...but its efficacy is short-lived.

Soon his face starts to melt, and when he grabs his screaming date, she too melts away. Going forward, a burning pain will build up in his body, and the only way to temporarily relieve it is by touching and thus melting a victim. While Batman doesn't appear beyond a single-panel cameo, the serial-killing obviously made him an enemy of Batman's, and the whole experience seemed to drive him mad.

Aside from constantly ranting to a mannequin, the last panel reveals that there's not actually anything playing on his TV set, just static, and everything else seems to be in his head.

I really like Grummett's art, and his is like a Platonic ideal of superhero comic art, although in the context of this particular issue, it seems a little plain and even bland, given how distinct Giffen and Mireault's contributions are.

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Ironically, the Clayfaces relatively minor position in the hierarchy of Batman villains make them well-suited to a collection like Batman Arkham: Clayface, which featured a cover by artist Guillem March (Which originally appeared on 2013's Batman: The Dark Knight #23.3; though it features The New 52 Basil Karlo Clayface, note that the design is clearly inspired by that of Batman: The Animated Series' Matt Hagen). 

I didn't read the whole collection, just the new stories that interested me (a few of the stories within are ones that I had read elsewhere before). As I said before, it features the first appearances of most of the Clayfaces, and there's a handful of really great artists whose work appears here. 

What then will you find, beyond Secret Origins #40...? 

•The first Clayface story from 1940, which I mentioned above.

•1961's "The Challenge of Clay-Face" by Bill Finger, Sheldon Moldoff and Charles Paris, introducing Matt Hagen (and, through him, the concept of the shape-changing Clayfaces).

•1978's Detective Comics #478 and #479 by Len Wein, Marshall Rogers and Dick Giordano, introducing Clayface III.

•1987's Outsiders #21 by Mike Barr and Jim Aparo, introducing Lady Clayface and some even goofier villains, sicced on Batman, Metamorpho, Black Lightning and the goofballs that filled out the ranks of the Outsiders by the supervillain Kobra.

•1998's Batman #550 by writer Doug Moench, with pencil art divided between then regular Batman artist Kelley Jones and J.H. Williams III. This issue's Clayface was Clayface IV, Cassisus, the son of Clayface III and Lady Clayface. Jones was obviously well-suited to the body horror aspects of a Clayface (in the scene above, this Clayface uses the people-melting power inherited from his father to melt a policeman) and as for Williams' presence, well, he was drawing the upcoming Chase ongoing series, which this issue was a lead-in for. In fact, this issue is the first appearance of Cameron Chase and the Department of Extranormal Operations.

•2002's Catwoman #4 by Ed Brubaker, Darwyn Cooke and Mike Allred, pitting the Feline Fatale against an all-new Clayface, this one created in a military experiment. I think this would be Clayface V...unless you count Lady Clayface as Clayface IV, in which case he's Clayface VI...? At this point, I think it's safe to say there are officially too many Clayfaces.

•"If a Man be Clay!", a story by Steve Purcell, Mike Mignola and Kevin Nowlan, that was originally published in 2005's Batman Villains Secret Files and Origins #1 and featured Batman and the original Robin taking on Matt Hagen for the first time. From what I understand, this one was sitting in a drawer for a while, but was rescued to be published here...and why wouldn't DC rescue it...? It was Mignola drawing the shape-changing Hagen! Though it follows the plot of "The Challenge of Clay-Face" closely, and contains much of the same imagery, it's great fun to see those scenes drawn in Mignola's moody style, particularly with Nowlan's evocative inking.

•The aforementioned "The Shape of Things to Come" from Gotham Knights, by A.J. Lieberman, Al Barrionuevo and Bit. I didn't read this one, either when it was originally published (I had dropped Gotham Knights by that point) nor in this collection, but it apparently features the Johnny Williams Clayface, the one previously seen in Catwoman.  Also, Hush is in this one. 

•2013's "Not Just Another Pretty Face" by John Layman and Cliff Richards, from Batman: The Dark Knight #23.3, the previously mentioned comic from which the collection's cover is taken. It seems to star the New 52 Basil Karlo.

So, to review, this collection features art by Bernie Mireault, Kelly Jones, Darwyn Cooke and Mike Mignola, plus Sheldon Moldoff, Marshall Rogers, Jim Aparo, Keith Giffen and Tom Grummett. That's not bad company to spend time in...!

*Yeah, him again. This then is another comic now more or less ruined by the presence of Gaiman's credit, his recently revealed actions tainting all of the quality work he helped produce over the decades of his comics career.