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Batman: One Bad Day: Clayface is the latest in a series of The Killing Joke-themed one-shots looking at a variety of Batman villains, and what made them the men (or woman) they are today.
There have been a variety of Clayfaces over the years, but this is the first, Basil Karlo as created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane for Detective Comics #40 in 1940, originally a B-list actor who began a life of crime using the identity of a villain that he had portrayed in a horror film. Appearing twice, he would later inspire the Silver Age versions of the character, Matt Hagen, a treasure hunter, scientist Preston Payne in the seventies, terrorist Sondra Fuller in the eighties, her son Cassius “Clay” Payne in the nineties, and Todd Russell and Johnny Williams in the noughties. The New 52 brought Basil Karlo back briefly, but it was DC Rebirth that reimiagined him as a handsome actor disfigured in a car accident who used industrial make-up chemical Re-Nu which warps flesh into new shapes and forms.
And now? A pieced-together face on a bathroom mirror? Is this who Basil Karlo used to be?
With what remains of him, coagulating and gathering in the bath?
He’s able to get the arm right at least. Is he being called to set?
With another young man looking down across the city?
I suppose he appreciates the view…
BATMAN ONE BAD DAY CLAYFACE #1 (ONE SHOT) CVR A XERMANICO
(W) Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing (A) Xermanico (CA) Xermánico
All Basil Karlo ever wanted to be was an actor…no…one of the greatest actors there’s ever been. However, his life went off course when he became the shape-shifting monster known as Clayface. After years of doing battle with Batman in Gotham City and distancing himself from his dream, Clayface goes out west to Los Angeles. Creating a new identity, he pursues his dream of acting only to find that Gotham City isn’t the only place with an overwhelming sense of dread to it, and that he might not have what it takes to make it in the City of Angels. So he’ll reshape the city to fit his needs in a deadly pursuit of stardom. From the rising-star creative team of Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing (Batman Beyond: Neo-Year, Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty) and Xermanico (Flashpoint Beyond), this is an epic tragedy not to be missed!
Retail: $7.99 In-Store Date: 2/21/2023