Hat Vs Bat

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The first appearence of a Mad Hatter in Batman's universe was in an issue of DC Batman comics.

The year was 1948 and the Golden Age of comic books was bringing the best of our well loved superheros into existence.

Among the elite crime fighters was Batman.

Jervis Tetch, soon to be known as the Mad Hatter, made his debut in issue #49 of the first Batman series.

Batman #49

His character was not as popular as the Joker or catwoman perhaps but certainly made an impression.

As the taste of the audiences and indeed makers of comics has changed so has the character. He is alot more sinister then he used to be but there are some things that never change.

The original Jervis Tech was a funny little man with brown hair who was obsessed with Lewis Carrolls Alice books.
 
Adopting the alter ego of the Mad Hatter to commit crimes, the scientist attempts to steal a trophy followed by a crime spree that only ends when Batman lands him into Arkham Asylum.


It wasn't known then how Jervis would evolve.

At this stage the Mad Hatter used his hat to conceal weapons but the weapon he later became best known for had not yet made an appearance. This, of course, was the idea of his over sized hat being a mind control device or concealer of mind control gadgets .

 The hat, nevertheless, was there along with the basic idea that poor old Tetch was manically depressed, possibly schizophrenic.

He obsessed over Carolls books as well as hats and tended to rhyme or quote when agitated as a defense mechanism. He disappeared for a while after his debut to be replaced by an imposter...