Quote1 You will regret trying to outsmart me. You will find my challenges and you will solve my riddles. You may not want to, but you must. It's a matter of life and death. Quote2
-- The Riddler src

The Riddler was a constant nemesis of Batman who always challenged him by leaving tricky clues for the Dark Knight to find.

Arkham Origins


Edward Nashton was originally a detective for the Gotham PD Cybercrimes division. Like his SWAT counterparts, Nashton was highly corrupt, using his position and technical skills to create a secret spy network, accumulating a treasure trove of extortion data on Gotham City's most prominent citizens. During the Christmas Eve of Bruce Wayne's second year as Batman, Nashton's plans reached fruition, as he had uploaded his extortion data into an encrypted, tamper resistant server, with the intent of releasing it onto the Internet on Christmas Day. However, Batman was able to destroy his network relays and capture his data handlers. Nashton escaped capture and went underground, assuming the identity of Edward Nigma, the Riddler.

Assault on Arkham

Roy Harper Cry for Justice
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Arkham Asylum

Main article: Batman: Arkham Asylum

In Arkham Asylum, he has left dozens of clues hidden in various places at the mental facility and "congratulates" Batman for every one that he finds; oftentimes with spite.

Once Batman had successfully found all of the Riddler's challenges, he was successfully able to pinpoint the villain's location; as well as tip off the police on Nigma's whereabouts.

Arkham City

Main article: Batman: Arkham City
Edward Nygma wants revenge for his humiliation and subsequent recapture following the Arkham breakout.


Edward Nigma plays a larger role in Arkham City. In the 18 months since he was captured by Batman's efforts and, as he sees it, humiliated by the Dark Knight, he has been nursing a large grudge. Arkham City is littered with his puzzles and trophies and he even made some death traps. During the course of the story, he kidnaps a team of doctors and guards and holds them as hostages to make Batman play his games.

When these last are rescued, Riddler is captured and set into his own humiliating trap, with some of his former prisoners there to keep an eye on him.

He's revealed to employ a large number of thugs who mainly work for the more overtly powerful gang-leaders--Two-Face, Penguin, and Joker--into doing things for him. Presumeably these involve setting the traps and puzzles he designs.

He also tried taunting Professor Strange with personal knowledge of Strange's own habits. Eventually, Strange one-upped him by revealing that he alone deduced Batman's real identity through a simple psychological profile. When the Riddler demanded to know Batman's identity, Strange cast the Riddler's own superiority complex into his teeth, saying that if he could figure it out, it must child's play for the Riddler's mighty intellect, rendering Edward Nigma at a loss for words.



  • Mental Illness: Riddler suffers from fanatic narcissism, egocentrism and megalomania crossed with severe obsessive compulsion. Hence why he thinks he's the perfect being and is easily to figure out.
    • Riddler doesn't believe he suffers from a mental illness, ironically; Batman had the unintentional effect of making Riddler's mind state worse over the years, ultimately leaving him convinced even a rigged challenge was fair.




  1. Batman: Arkham Knight
  2. Batman: Arkham Knight

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Batman Villain(s)

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Suicide Squad member
