Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Batman.

The Batman is the latest live-action re-imagining of the popular character, the first since the Zack Snyder films in the DCEU. Featuring Robert Pattinson in the lead role starring alongside Zoe Kravitz, Paul Dano, and Jeffrey Wright, The Batman leans more towards a detective story than a superhero one. At the heart of the film’s mystery is The Riddler, an enigmatic serial killer targeting Gotham’s corrupt elite class.

Batman’s enduring popularity and status within pop culture has created a phenomenon unique to the character: stories featuring Batman often reflect the shifting politics and ideologies of the modern era, which factors in the long-lasting appeal of the character. In The Batman, that phenomenon is expressed through The Riddler. Thanks to the harmony between a tight script with well-realized ideas and Paul Dano’s outstanding performance, The Riddler is one of the most memorable Batman villains since Heath Ledger’s Joker, indeed, one of the best of the genre.

Paul Dano’s Performance

     Warner Bros. Pictures

Matt Reeves wrote the role of the Riddler in this film with Paul Dano in mind. Watching the film, it’s clear why: Dano’s performance strikes a careful balance between an abused, maladjusted man with hidden intelligence and a caricature of psychopathy. At no point does he seem like a parody of an evildoer, to the credit of the actor and the script. Instead, the madness that radiates from within the character is clearly the product of a mind broken by cruelty of unbelievable scale. Dano, who has made a career of playing introverted genius types, brings a quiet air of malice to the role. When the character explodes in rage, the contrast between that and his previous stillness is jarring and unsettling in all the right ways. The Batman thrives because of the intensity and energy that Dano brings to the role, which is sure to be a memorable performance that stands the test of time.

Locating the Origin of Evil

In plenty of superhero media, villains are the weakest link of the story. Either they exist to provide conflict for the protagonist, or the film’s focus on the main character doesn’t allow the villain the same kind of development and attention. The Riddler isn’t the most sympathetic villain ever put to screen, but the film gives him enough screen time for his perspective to be critical to the unfolding of the story. As it turns out, The Riddler is a product of intense childhood trauma. Though the audience isn’t shown the details of the trauma, it’s clear that this is a man that developed violent tendencies after a history of abuse and mistreatment. What matters about this backstory is that it’s personal and, to a degree, understandable.

The Riddler isn’t evil for the sake of being evil, and he certainly wasn’t born as an innately hateful being. Understanding one’s enemy as the product of mistreatment is the beginning of extending empathy to them. Too many superhero films characterize their antagonists as evil without cause — and though there is space for villains like that, that kind of story is inherently far removed from the reality of what makes people hurt others. Even Heath Ledger’s Joker, considered to be one of the best Batman villains, suffers from this strange idea: that, at large, some people are inherently evil. That choice has its own narrative value, but it loses much of the potential to have the audience connect with the villain and put themselves in different shoes.

A Product of Institutional Failure

Not only is the audience told that the Riddler’s past is tragic, The Batman eventually goes further into the event that created his trauma. Thomas Wayne’s death, orchestrated to cover up another murder by Gotham’s organized crime syndicates, created a massive institutional oversight. A relief fund, intended to support Gotham’s orphans, became the target of crime bosses, police officers, and the elite class, all of whom navigated bureaucratic loopholes to take the money for themselves. At the heart of what motivates the Riddler is a deep failure of the institutions designed to nurture and protect the poorest and most alienated people in Gotham. This is affirmed by the mayor in the film’s final moments, who identifies these failings explicitly and pledges to implement a more foolproof system. It’s often said that people are products of their environment, a saying that rings true for both Batman and the Riddler in this film. The hole in the system incentivized certain groups to actively harm another, a pattern reflecting a painful reality that causes real-life harm every day. The Batman chooses to explore crime, harm, and their consequences according to their real-world analogues, which is what makes the Riddler such a fascinating antagonist.

In a twisted way, both Batman and The Riddler are working towards the same end: punishing the source of evil in Gotham. Unlike many superhero stories, Batman’s third-act epiphany is that there is functionally almost no difference between his quest for vengeance and The Riddler’s. The audience is told that crime has actually increased during Bruce Wayne’s tenure as Batman, and the man himself is bogged down by doubt about whether his actions have made a substantive difference in the world. In a clever mirroring of the Batman-Riddler dichotomy, the events of the plot are actually continuously carried forward by the two working together, unbeknownst to Batman. As he solves the Riddler’s puzzles, the answers lead him to escalating violence and puzzles that seemingly don’t end.

The Riddler seeks vengeance by enacting violence against the people that exploited the system at the cost of himself and the orphans disadvantaged by the incomplete relief fund. Batman seeks vengeance against criminals who enact violence against others. Both of them actually address the same issues in deeply flawed ways, a quality of the script that drew Dano to accepting the role. The Batman balances this juxtaposition carefully, finding truth inside the conflict between these twin forces and that vengeance isn’t a path towards healing. The Riddler isn’t just instrumental to that end — his story is as important as Batman’s in understanding the message of the film.