Summary
- The Riddler's costume, with its question mark motif, is designed to draw attention and create a strong criminal identity tied to his clothes rather than his features.
- The explanation offered in the podcast series "The Riddler: Secrets in the Dark" reveals that the Riddler can go unnoticed if he's not wearing his signature costume.
- This costume justification for villains is similar to how Joker in "The Dark Knight" was able to blend in by removing his clown makeup and wearing a police uniform. It adds an amusing twist to the superhero trope of disguises.
In recent years, it has been difficult to marry darker tones in superhero media with their hammy origins – but DC has just justified one of the silliest costume traditions in a way befitting of one of its most iconic rogues. The Riddler is a Batman villain whose main power is his exceptionally sharp mind; much like his caped adversary, but without the muscle to back it up. The Riddler is also a Batman villain who traditionally sports one of DC's silliest getups: an all-green suit covered in question marks.
Back when the Riddler was first introduced in 1948, Batman's Detective Comics was rife with villains at their silliest, and having a villain whose M.O. was to commit riddle-related crimes wear a spandex suit covered in question marks was pretty fitting in every sense of the word – something decidedly the opposite of modern villain iterations in the likes of the DCEU timeline. For The Riddler specifically, later, darker renditions have toned down the gaudiness slightly, but the question mark motif very much remains. It might be difficult to take seriously a DC villain in an ostentatious costume, were it not for an explanation offered in the new podcast series The Riddler: Secrets in the Dark.