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| Hush | |
|---|---|
.png) Hush as he appeared on a variant cover ofBatman #158 (2025). Art by Gabriele Dell’Otto. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Batman #609 (January 2003)[1] |
| Created by | Jeph Loeb (writer) Jim Lee (artist) |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Thomas Elliot |
| Species | Human |
| Notable aliases | Bruce Wayne, "The Identity Thief"[2] |
| Abilities |
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Hush (Thomas Elliot) is asupervillain appearing inAmerican comic books published byDC Comics. Created byJeph Loeb andJim Lee, the character first appeared inBatman #609 in January 2003 as part of the twelve-issue storylineBatman: Hush. Hush's background is parallel to the superheroBatman, and he serves as a criminalfoil to him, as an example of what Batman could have been if he came from an abusive family and had used his abilities and resources for malice. He belongs to the collective of adversaries that make up hisrogues gallery.
Thomas "Tommy" Elliot was a childhood friend of Bruce Wayne who attempts to murder his own parents and inherit their massive fortune. His plan fails when Bruce's father, Dr.Thomas Wayne, saves his mother's life, beginning his grudge against the Waynes. Tommy grows up to become a giftedneurosurgeon and, out of jealous resentment, allies with theRiddler to ruin Bruce's life upon discovering that he is Batman. Wrapping his face in bandages to conceal his identity, Tommy becomes a manipulative criminal mastermind called "Hush" to seek revenge against his former friend.
The character has been adapted from the comics into numerous forms of media, having been portrayed inlive-action television by Cole Vallis and Gordon Winarick inGotham, and byGabriel Mann andWarren Christie inBatwoman.Kevin Conroy voiced Hush in theBatman: Arkham video game series.
Hush resurfaced inBatman: Gotham Knights, and later inDetective Comics andBatman: Streets of Gotham. He was also the architect behind several of the events ofBatman Eternal.
Thomas "Tommy" Elliot was a childhood friend ofBruce Wayne, and was also born into a wealthy family.[3] The two boys often played aStratego-esqueminifigure game together, and Tommy taught Bruce to think like his opponents and to use their abilities against them to win, which proved useful years later when he became Batman. Thus, as a child, Tommy exhibits a genius level intellect due to his capability to think and plan strategically. Tommy despised both his abusive father and his frail, submissive mother, who came from poverty and willingly endured every abuse dealt to her and her son to keep her lavish lifestyle. For all their failings, however, Tommy's parents made sure he was well-educated, in particular teaching him about the philosophy ofAristotle, which he often quotes.
Driven by his desire for independence and wealth, Tommy severed the brake line of his parents' car, causing a crash that killed his father and injured his mother; his mother, however, was saved in an emergency operation by Thomas Wayne, which enraged young Elliot. While at a summer camp with Bruce, Tommy attacked a boy and ended up in a psychiatric ward; he blamed Bruce and his mother for his outburst. He is released by an intern namedJonathan Crane, who becomes the villain Scarecrow.
During the next few years, Tommy tended to his mother. When Bruce's parents were murdered, Tommy resented him for inheriting the Wayne family fortune, just as he had hoped to do with his parents' money. Shortly before Bruce returned toGotham City, Tommy befriended a young woman named Peyton Riley (who would later become thesecond Ventriloquist) – a relationship of which his mother never approved. When Tommy's mother recovered from cancer, she disowned him, subsequently cutting him off from the Elliot family fortune in retaliation for his continuing relationship with Peyton. As a result, Tommy murdered her by smothering her with a pillow, while Peyton killed their lawyer and destroyed Mrs. Elliot's new will. As far as the rest of the world was concerned, his mother had died of a household accident.
Finally the sole recipient of his family's fortune, Tommy abandoned Peyton and began traveling the world, as Bruce had. Although he went on toHarvard University and became a successfulsurgeon, Tommy continued to harbor an irrational grudge towards his childhood friend.
At some point in his career, Edward Nygma, also known as theRiddler, was diagnosed with terminal cancer and eventually hijacked one ofRa's al Ghul's Lazarus Pits to regain his health. During this mystical treatment, which renders the participant temporarily insane, the Riddler experienced an unexpected epiphany: he realized that Bruce Wayne was Batman. Soon afterwards, the Riddler attempted to sell Tommy the secrets of his newfound revelation in exchange for a large cash sum. Tommy, by this time having discovered Nygma's criminal background, instead offered to pay him to kill Bruce. Realizing that they shared a common hatred for Wayne, Tommy and the Riddler decided to pool resources to bring him down.
To this end, Elliot created for himself the persona of "Hush", becoming an antithesis to Batman. Riddler said that the name started out as a joking reference to the need to keep Tommy's identity secret, but became a more permanent alias when Scarecrow started to sing the lullaby "Hush, Little Baby".[4]
In their attempt to destroy Batman, Hush and the Riddler manipulated several other villains into unwillingly helping them. These included theJoker,Harley Quinn,Two-Face,Poison Ivy,Scarecrow,Killer Croc andClayface. They even manipulated some of Batman's closest allies (Superman,Huntress, andCatwoman) against the Dark Knight, utilizing such methods as Poison Ivy using herpheromones to control the Man of Steel and Catwoman and Hush's seemingly benevolent funding of Huntress's vigilante activities. Part of their plot included fooling Bruce into believing the Joker had murdered Tommy; Clayfaceshapeshifted into Tommy's corpse to create this illusion.
With these villains as their pawns, Hush and the Riddler set up an elaborate plot against Batman.Jason Todd, who was believed to be dead for years, entered the pact with the villains and gave them insights on how Batman thought. Using the shapeshifting abilities of Clayface, they created adecoy of the formerRobin; Hush collaborated with Riddler, Todd, and Clayface to use the Dark Knight's guilt over his ward's apparent death against him at Todd's gravesite.[5][6][7]
Around this time, Hush cured the disfiguredHarold Allnut, a longtime associate of Batman. In return, Harold 'bugged' theBatcave with several devices that altered Batman's mind, but nevertheless remained loyal to the Caped Crusader; he was certain that Batman would triumph over whatever followed. Hush then killed Harold in front of Batman, and immediately engaged the Dark Knight in battle. Batman was at first disoriented by Hush's quoting ofAristotle, prompting him to briefly wonder if Hush isMaxie Zeus. He noticed that Hush usedDeadshot's two-gun fighting style, and theorized that he was either the assassin himself or one of his protégés.
When Tommy finally revealed himself to a worn-out Batman, the Dark Knight was saved only by the intervention of Harvey Dent, whose Two-Face persona had been unwittingly wiped out by Tommy when he repaired Dent's disfigured face. Once again on the side of the law, Dent shot Hush twice, throwing him off a bridge. Although Batman was sure that Hush was his childhood friend Thomas Elliot, he was not able to unmask him.[8]
In 2022, a 20th anniversary editiontrade paperback of the originalHush storyline contained a newly produced epilogue. Written and drawn by the original authorsJeph Loeb andJim Lee, it detailed how Hush escaped to an air pocket in a sunken boat at the bottom of the Gotham river after his defeat on the bridge. After performing surgery on himself to remove the two bullets from Harvey Dent's gun, Hush is shown to crawl ashore only to run intoHarley Quinn and theJoker, who puts a gun to his head. The epilogue then ends with a To Be Continued.[9]
Still out to destroy Batman and determined not to let the rest of the villains get in his way, Hush quickly carved out a niche for himself, beating his former accomplice the Riddler to within an inch of his life. Hush even drives the Joker out of the city, thus proving to the Clown Prince that Hush can be a threat to him. He also temporarily killed Poison Ivy during a failed attempt to recruit her.
Following a short-lived alliance withJLA nemesisPrometheus, Hush began to torment Bruce Wayne with help from Clayface. Exploiting the latter's shapeshifting abilities, Hush was briefly able to shed doubt on his true identity and hadAlfred Pennyworth framed for murder, using samples taken from the new Clayface to infect Alfred with a virus that would allow Elliot to control him. Hush also attempted to analyse samples taken from Clayface with the goal of duplicating Clayface's shape-shifting abilities for himself without the usual side-effects such as loss of a default human form, eventually attempting to perfect this analysis by releasing Cassius Payne from prison, reasoning that samples from Cassius would be more useful as he is the only 'pure' Clayface... the only one who was never human in the first place. After Clayface realised that he was being manipulated, he provided Batman with a sample of himself to find a cure for Alfred's condition despite knowing that this would not leave Batman with time to cure him, and also ensured that Alfred's name would be cleared by ensuring that his final appearance after death would be a form whose fingerprints so closely resembled Alfred's that the detectives would assume that they had made a mistake (The aforementioned events occur in issue #50–55 and #61–72).
The Joker eventually returned toGotham City with an army of trained pigeons and retaliated (inBatman: Gotham Knights #73–74). He captured Hush and kept himsedated for three weeks, during which time he implanted apacemaker into his body, effectively gaining control of his heart. At the Joker's mercy and unable to remove the device himself, Hush turned to the one man he felt he could trust (or rather, predict): Bruce Wayne.
Bruce consented to help Hush on the condition that he allow himself to be treated in, and confined to,Arkham Asylum. Hush agreed, and then immediately escaped after being told that the surgery had been a success. He was intercepted by Batman before he could confront the Joker and demanded that Batman allow him to kill the Joker. Batman seemed to agree and began to leave, but then revealed that he had tricked Hush – the pacemaker was still in his body, and he had been allowed to escape from Arkham. At that moment, the Joker arrived, and Hush begged Batman not to leave him.
The issue (and theBatman: Gotham Knights series) ended unresolved. Hush returned in the laterMan-Bat miniseries,[10] and is later shown remembering how painful it was to remove the pacemaker alone, and how the time betweenGotham Knights andHeart of Hush was mostly spent recovering from the damage suffered, confirming that Batman did desert Hush at the conclusion of "Payback".
Hush returns inDetective Comics #846-#850, in the story "Heart of Hush", which ties together with "Batman R.I.P.". In this arc, set a few nights before the events depicted in "R.I.P.", Hush is portrayed in a slightly different thematic fashion than in his prior appearances. His past as a surgeon serves as an important thematic aspect of hismodus operandi. In the first issue, Hush reveals that his return was hastened when he began to hear whispers of theBlack Glove's upcoming attack on Batman. Hush seeks to prevent Black Glove from killing Batman, which Hush sees as his right alone. In the second part, Hush teams up withthe Scarecrow. He performs routineplastic surgery on his own face, which is later revealed to be nearly identical to Bruce Wayne's.[11]
Hush then ambushes and subduesCatwoman after she scratches off a portion of his facial bandages, recoiling in horror at what she sees. He then cuts out her heart, places her onlife support supplied byMr. Freeze, and delivers her to Gotham General Hospital. Hush ponders the formulation his plan in the wake of Batman's abandonment of him.
While Catwoman is left inDoctor Mid-Nite's care, Batman learns the location of Hush's headquarters from Scarecrow. Hush attacks Batman with a paralytic gas, and shows him the room containing Catwoman's heart, which is being kept alive through artificial means. He then confesses to Batman his plan: using his newfound resemblance to Bruce, he will kill and disfigure him to steal his identity, eliminating those who know him best and regularly interact with him, after which he will retire with the Wayne fortune, reasoning that Batman's fellow superheroes will accept that Batman has earned the right to end his career.
However, Batman is able to stave off the effects of the paralytic gas, recover Catwoman's heart, and warn Alfred of Hush's deception. Although Alfred disarms Elliot, Hush manages to get the Batcave, where he nearly kills Batman, but Alfred's continued interference and the arrival ofNightwing andRobin turned the tide. Hush retreats on the Whirly-Bat, a one-man helicopter, but his bandages become tangled in the rotor, causing the vehicle to explode.
In searching for traces of Hush, Batman, Nightwing, and Robin find only some bloody bandages, and conclude that he is dead. Doctor Mid-Nite surgically restores Catwoman's heart, but notes that she is unlikely to ever regain her physical prowess. While convalescing, she and her allies find all of Hush's secret bank accounts, and loots those funds for themselves, which she documents in a video that she ultimately leaves for Hush to find, in the event that he survived. Hush, revealed to be indeed alive but wounded and crutch-bound, sees this video, before limping off into locations unknown.
Later, posing as Bruce Wayne, Hush travels toAustralia andVietnam to loot the cash accounts ofWayne Enterprises' subsidiaries. He is captured by Catwoman, and along with Nightwing and Robin, incarcerates him in a secret safe house. Hush, still wearing Bruce's appearance, decides to fake his surrender, waiting for the right moment to escape.
InStreets of Gotham, Batman's biological sonDamian Wayne visited Hush in his cell as the new Robin, and they played chess. When Damian left to deal with a new crisis, Hush surmised thatFirefly was behind the attack. He noted how Gotham City had fallen apart in Batman's absence, and pondered how to use the current situation to his advantage.[12] Hush faked experiencing spontaneous combustion, and when Alfred arrived at his cell to assist, Hush overpowered him and escaped. He then re-emerged as Bruce Wayne, claiming that he would donate a billion dollars a month to Gotham City until the financial crisis was over. Dick and Damian, along with theOutsiders and assorted other superheroes, explained to Hush that they would always watch and control him- with the other heroes acting as a 'board of directors' intended to 'supervise' his financial dealings- and that someone will always be ready to take him down if he steps out of line. With no other option available to him, Hush reluctantly agreed to play Dick Grayson's puppet, posing as Bruce Wayne, and thus keeping the public from realizing that Bruce was dead.[13] Though this ruined his original plan to sap the Wayne fortune, Hush did not allow it to halt his scheming altogether. Hush had appeared, notably as a member of the Gotham Shield Committee, around Gotham quite frequently, often attempting to make connections. WhenRa's al Ghul arrived in Gotham, promising to ruin the Wayne family in retaliation againstRed Robin, he immediately sought out Hush.[14] Faced with the prospect of Hush using Ra's al Ghul's support to turn on the Bat-family again, Tim Drake activated a contingency plan set in place by Wayne himself to transfer controlling interest in Wayne Enterprises to Drake "if something should happen". This left Hush with no official standing in the company.[15]
Hush reappeared inStreets of Gotham for the story arc "House of Hush" beginning in #14.[16] He attempted to push the boundaries of his new role as Bruce Wayne, such as recommending that convicted criminals be allowed back on the streets. However, this plan backfired when the criminal Jane Doe—a woman who lost her face in an accident and had resorted to cutting off the faces of others—became obsessed with 'Bruce Wayne' after he had her released. She infiltrated his life by taking the face of his new assistant, and subsequently cut off Elliot's new face with the intention of becoming Bruce Wayne herself. The returned Bruce Wayne, once again acting as Batman, caught her and Hush, and they were both sent to Arkham, Bruce declaring that he was Batman's financial backer to make any attempt Hush might make to expose his identity basically irrelevant.
During the events ofBatman: Gates of Gotham, Hush was freed from Arkham by a new villain named the Architect. As this happened,Red Robin,Batman, andBlackbat realized that the Elliot family was connected to a series of bombings that destroyed three historical Gotham bridges. Batman found Hush, who had been betrayed by the Architect and strapped to a bomb, but was forced to sacrifice Wayne Tower to save his life.[17]
In September 2011,The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, Hush first appears in issue twenty-one ofBatman Eternal as the apparent mastermind behindCommissioner Gordon's downfall andCarmine Falcone's return. After injectingAlfred withfear toxin, Hush was seen communicating withJason Bard about taking control of Gotham.[18]
In issue twenty-six, a slightly revised origin for Hush was revealed; he was still Tommy Elliot, a childhood friend ofBruce Wayne, but in this version, his parricide is explicitly described as a way for him to get closer to Bruce (who had started distancing himself from Tommy after the death of his own parents) rather than as a way for him to receive his inheritance or escape abuse and neglect.[19]
Hush turned public opinion againstWayne Enterprises by blowing up one ofBatman's hidden weapon caches (known to be connected to Wayne Enterprises after the events ofBatman Incorporated) below Gotham, killing an unknown number of civilians, policemen and military personnel. He was able to enter the cache with DNA taken from Alfred Pennyworth.[20]
After having blown up another weapon cache and having been shot through the shoulder with agrappling hook by Julia Pennyworth, Hush gave up his location to Batman to face him in a final showdown. They met and fought in a weapon cache below theMartha Wayne Foundation hospital, which Hush had rigged to explode as a backup plan. Batman defeated Hush, but was then informed that the government had seized control of Wayne Enterprises and its holdings due to its involvement in the catastrophic explosions around Gotham. Hush then taunted Batman, stating, "Maybe you're right Bruce, maybe I'm not you. But right now, who would want to be?"[21]
Hush was then kept as prisoner in theBatcave, but broke out with the help of the then unknown mastermind behind the current threat. Hush proceeded to sabotage the equipment of several members of theBatman Family via theBatcomputer as they fought various villains, including crashing theBatwing with Batman still in it. He was then returned to captivity after having been ambushed by Alfred Pennyworth, Alfred harshly informing Hush that he was hardly going to be locked up in his own home.[22]
InAll-Star Batman #10, Hush secretly allies himself withPenguin,Black Mask, andGreat White Shark to trick Batman into procuring aMacGuffin called the Genesis engine for them. The ruse succeeds, but Hush and his allies are then ambushed and nearly murdered by the new villain Nemesis.[23]
After DC Comics' new line-wide relaunchRebirth, Hush first appeared in a single-panel cameo in issue 19 ofBatman (vol. 3), wherein he is an inmate atArkham Asylum and beaten up byBane.[24]
Then, in theone-shotBatman: Prelude to the Wedding: Nightwing vs. Hush #1, Hush is tipped off to Batman's upcoming wedding by theJoker. Hush attempts to attack Batman's bachelor party, causing an explosion to distractSuperman and then attacking Batman andNightwing. In the course of the confrontation, Hush's attack disrupts a dimensional gate Superman had provided that was intended to take Batman to a peaceful pocket universe, resulting in Hush and Nightwing being trapped in an in-between place for individuals who have lost all sense of individual identity. As Hush's rants affirm his inability to forge a life for himself outside of an obsession with Bruce Wayne, he reveals that he has given himself plastic surgery to look likeDick Grayson to try and recapture his old friendship with Bruce. Ultimately, Hush is left behind in the pocket dimension despite Nightwing's attempts to help him.[25]
However, inBatman (vol. 3) #70, Hush is apparently back inArkham Asylum as he is one of several villains Batman beats up during his escape after having been captured and subjected to mental torture byScarecrow,The Flashpoint Batman andBane.[26] Later, Hush is shown to be a member ofBane's police force after he had taken control over the institutions ofGotham. Hush duels with Batman, but loses.[27] He was likely kept obedient through hypnosis by thePsycho Pirate.[28]
Hush resurfaces inDetective Comics #1031, where he takes advantage of the confusion during an anti-vigilante riot to drug and kidnap several members of theBat Family:Batwoman,Nightwing,Red Hood,Signal, and two Batgirls (Barbara Gordon andCassandra Cain). Hush plans to harvest their organs to sell on the black market, but is stopped byBatman andDamian Wayne. It also comes to light that Hush tried to have Bruce Wayne murdered as a boy, using his father's half-sister Catherine (who worked as aGCPD detective) to cover up the attempts by botching the investigations.[29]
Two incarnations of Hush, Tommy Elliot and a clone ofDick Grayson, appear inBatman Beyond (vol. 3). Years prior, Elliot attempted to escape Bruce Wayne, only to be shot by a homeowner whose house he had broken into. Due to injuries he sustained prior to the chase and his poor reputation with the Gotham City Police Department (GCPD) at the time, Bruce was unable to examine Elliot's body. While he felt satisfied when the GCPD seemed to have confirmed Elliot had died for him, he feared that Elliot could have fabricated the scenario.
In the present, the clone emerges as a masked vigilante out to kill Bruce's rogues' gallery under the belief that doing so will orphan Bruce again. Despite resistance fromTerry McGinnis, Grayson's memories allow the clone to outmaneuver him.[30][31][32] In time, Bruce and Terry would learn the clone's identity and that he had been created byAmanda Waller via the original Grayson's DNA and memory readings taken from his last outing asNightwing in the hopes of having someone she could control more easily. Additionally, Waller's associate and the clone's co-creator Doctor Nora Reid reveals she is Elliot's granddaughter who seeks to atone for his sins.[33][34] When the clone attempts to cause an earthquake to destroy Gotham, Terry and Grayson join forces with the clone's former associateCatwoman to stop him. In the ensuing fight, Terry accidentally kills the clone before the latter's body disappears into a pit. Afterward, Waller forces Reid to claim responsibility for the clone's actions so the former can continue her work.[35]
An alternate timeline variant of Hush makes a cameo appearance inFlashpoint as one of several criminals who were killed byBatman.[36]
An alternate timeline variant of Tommy Elliot appears inSuperman/Batman #17. After using theLegion of Super-Villains' time-travel technology to avert his parents' deaths, Batman creates a timeline where he and Elliot remained friends as adults.[37]
An alternate universe variant of Tommy Elliot and a variant of Bruce Wayne / Batman partially based on Hush calledBatman the Silenced appear inTales from the Dark Multiverse: Batman - Hush. After the driver Elliot hired to kill his parents killedThomas andMartha Wayne by mistake, Elliot's family adopted the orphaned Bruce Wayne, who seemingly succumbed topsychosis and was remanded toArkham Asylum. After inheritingWayne Industries, Elliot goes on to become a senator in the independent yet oppressive city-state of Gotham. However, he is deposed by Bruce, who had faked his psychosis and used his time in Arkham to train himself into a vigilante.[38]
TheBatman: Arkham incarnation of Tommy Elliot / Hush appears in theBatman: Arkham Knight prequel comic. Sometime after escaping Batman and Arkham City, he receives a sample ofClayface's body from theArkham Knight, which he uses to quickly heal his surgery scars, in exchange for an alliance.[48]
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