Source: wbgames.com

3. Hugo Strange

And now we’re transitioning from people who just mirrored Batman’s gimmicks to people who actually pretended to be Batman.

First up, Hugo Strange. Strange was hired to profile Batman for the GCPD’s anti-vigilante task force. Strange became obsessive in his attempts to figure out what was going on inside the Dark Knight’s head. As a result he decided that the best way to think like a crazy person in a Batman costume was to become a crazy person in a Batman costume. So he made his own costume.

It’s funny because he so rarely has done this, but it’s the best image of him so later writers would replicate it frequently. Less frequently replicated is the golden age idea of Hugo Strange making giant monsters.

Both collided in the Rebirth era for “Night of the Monster Men” in which Hugo Strange made some very big monsters and then wired himself into a Batman costume that was rigged to kill him if Batman tried to hit him. It did not work.