Calendar Man


Calendar Man is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, as an enemy of the superhero Batman, belonging to the collective of adversaries that make up Batman's rogues gallery. Calendar Man is known for committing crimes that correspond with holidays and significant dates. He often wears costumes to correlate with the date of the designated crime. In his first debut, the character was presented as a joke villain, but in later years, writers developed Calendar Man as a dark, disturbed serial killer that toys with Batman.

Publication history

Calendar Man first appeared in Detective Comics #259 and was created by Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff. He returned after twenty years to plague Batman again in Batman #312.

Fictional character biography

Criminal career

Calendar Man is fascinated by dates and calendars. His crimes always have a relationship to the date that they are committed. The theme may be related to what day of the week it is or to a holiday or to a special anniversary on that date; he will plan his crime around that day. He often wears different costumes which correspond to the significance of the date, though he does have a main costume which has various numbers sprouting from the shoulders.
He next appears in Batman #312, in which his crimes are based on the days of the week, and his costumes reflect the Norse and Roman gods they were named for, e.g. Saturn. Calendar Man fires an ultrasonic sound weapon at Batman, nearly killing him. While Batman recuperates, Calendar Man commits crimes on Friday and Saturday. He plans to leave Gotham City on a train called the Western Sun Express on Sunday, knowing that the police would be waiting for him to attempt to steal an artifact of the Egyptian God of the Sun, Ra. Batman captures him at the train station before he boards.
This issue also marked the first appearance of his most commonly known "calendar cape" costume. His next appearance in Batman #384-385 and Detective Comics #551, sees the Calendar Man at the onset of the Crisis being used as a pawn of the Monitor in an attempt to find an assassin to eliminate Batman. In this instance, the Calendar Man's theme is holidays, and he attempts to use the young Jason Todd, as Robin, as the Batman's Achilles' heel, with the promise of his demise on the first day of Spring. Ultimately, however, Robin himself captures the villain.
His best-known modern appearance is in the miniseries ', where he is portrayed as a Hannibal Lecter-like figure, offering insight in Batman's search for Holiday, a serial killer who uses holidays as his modus operandi. Like Lecter in the novels of Thomas Harris, Calendar Man knows who the killer is and keeps this information to himself, choosing instead to taunt the heroes with cryptic clues. He returns in that story's sequel, ', in which he impersonates deceased mobster Carmine Falcone in an effort to drive his children, Alberto and Mario, insane. When Calendar Man tries to get Alberto to kill himself, however, the younger Falcone detects the ruse; Alberto knows that his father abhorred suicide, and thus figures out that Calendar Man is manipulating him. At the end of the story arc, Falcone's daughter Sofia Falcone Gigante beats him to a pulp as revenge for his role in her father's death. In both stories, Calendar Man is bitter that the new murderous rogues have taken the attention off him; he fears that he is being forgotten.
Calendar Man teams up with Catman and Killer Moth as part of The Misfits, a group of villains trying to prove themselves in ' #7–9. Also, he is among the Arkham Asylum inmates freed by Bane in ', but he is easily recaptured by Power Girl shortly after his escape. In Team Titans #14 Calendar Man and several other villains whose crimes center around time-based motifs, including Time Commander, fight the title's heroes over a valued hourglass. Calendar Man appears in "All the Deadly Days", a story in 80 Page Giant Batman Special Edition #3, in which he has acquired a new high-tech costume, and moves up to more grandiose crimes. He makes an appearance in the alternate reality story "Superman: Arkham", which was also written by Jeph Loeb. Calendar Man appears in the series Harley Quinn, as an inside informant to the title character.
In Week 20 of the weekly series 52, a radio broadcasts a message saying that Calendar Man was left tied up for the cops in Gotham City, even though there is no Batman. It is revealed the new heroine, Batwoman, was responsible for his capture.

The New 52

In September 2011, The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, the character appears as a lifestyle reporter in a series of backup stories called "Channel 52". In one, he claims to have kept up a video diary out of scavenged materials because basic human civilization has fallen.

DC Rebirth

In the books of DC Rebirth, Calendar Man's body ages and rejuvenates according to the seasons.

Powers and abilities

Calendar Man is a successful inventor, capable of designing the machinery needed to deploy his various schemes. His talents aid him as he pursues his obsession with quirks of the calendar, carefully planning and theming his crimes around holidays, weekdays and the seasons. Calendar Man is also an experienced hand-to-hand combatant, although his main reason for his success is his intelligence. In his latest incarnation, as written by Scott Snyder and Tom King in the pages of the Batman Rebirth special, the Calendar Man now ages with the seasonal weather of Gotham City. Every spring he is reborn, with his DNA altered, but retains his memories, and then ages rapidly until winter when he dies, only to be reborn again the next spring by crawling from the husk of his own corpse.

Other versions

''Batman: Brave and the Bold''

The version of Calendar Man appears in the story "Last Christmas!" He plans a Christmas crime, only to encounter Batman. When a zeta beam teleports Batman away, he claims it to be a Christmas Miracle, minutes before Earth is destroyed. After Batman and Adam Strange restore Earth, Batman proceeds to easily defeat Calendar Man.

''Batman Beyond''

An older Calendar Man appears in the Batman Beyond comic book arc "Hush Beyond". From his wheelchair, he builds a greeting card rigged to explode, intending to kill Commissioner Gordon. Batman arrives to stop him, only to be confronted by Hush. Hush mentions that Batman's "true family" is his many enemies and he plans to destroy it. He then proceeds to kill Calendar Man.

''Injustice: Gods Among Us''

Calendar Man appears in 's prequel comic, where in Arkham Asylum, he is frustrated when Robin does not recognize him, and attempts to remind Wonder Woman of an encounter they had where she broke one of his ribs as she thwarted a crime he was attempting to commit, and becomes despondent when she only glares at him. Later, he takes part in Harley Quinn's riot and helps Killer Croc hold Batman down as the Riddler prepares to crush his skull with a large rock, but Batman breaks free thanks to Green Arrow. Calendar Man is next seen fighting Nightwing, but is easily held back by the hero. Calendar Man is last seen among the inmates who sorrowfully watch Batman carry Nightwing's body out of the Asylum.

''Batman: Arkham Knight''

Calendar Man appears in comic. On Labor Day, Calendar Man murdered several people inside the Campbell Calendar Company. It was all just a plan to draw out Batman, however, the Arkham Knight had given him Electrocutioner's gauntlets to disable Batman's communications. To Batman's great surprise, Calendar Man had gathered seven clones of Solomon Grundy, named after each day of the week, whom Calendar Man claimed to have created. Over the week it took Batman to defeat all of the creatures, Calendar Man had kidnapped a newborn baby. He then gave the exhausted Batman a list of names and told him that those people had been poisoned and had 24 hours to live. He instructed Batman to save them all and then return to him. If Batman failed to save all of the people on the list or brought any of his allies with him when he returned, Calendar Man would execute the baby. The listed citizens were saved but before Batman returned as ordered, Scarecrow visited Julian to dissuade him of his attempt to kill Batman. Grudgingly, Calendar Man relented and gave up the baby without a fight.

''Injustice 2''

In the prequel comic to Injustice 2, Calendar Man is shown to be a member of this universe's Suicide Squad. When the Impostor Batman takes over the Suicide Squad, he deems Calendar Man useless and tries to blow him up with other villains he found worthless, but Calendar Man was lucky for the bomb on his neck was defective. The impostor Batman leaves him behind at the Pentagon.

In other media

Television

Live-action

Alongside a panel from Detective Comics #259 in which the Calendar Man is wearing a festive "Spring" outfit while the caption says "and elsewhere, the Calendar Man makes a grim vow," Scott Saavedra writes in Comic Book Heaven: "Even if he could lose the stupid grin I doubt that anyone could possibly make a "grim vow" in that outfit. That sound you hear is the bottom of the Bad-Guy Barrel being scraped."