Professor Zero

PROFESSOR ZERO

Real Name: Unrevealed

Class: Human technology-user

Occupation: Scientist, criminal

Group Affiliation: None

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Gotham City, Earth-2, 1940s era

First Appearance: Detective Comics I #148 (June, 1949)

Powers: Zero used a shrinking ray that could reduce a person to a few inches in height for a period of three days.

History: (Detective Comics I #148) - Mr. Carlyle, a financier, contacted Commissioner Gordon to say he was being blackmailed. Gordon activated the Bat-signal, but when the Dynamic Duo arrived Carlyle was nowhere to be found. Batman and Robin were then hit by a shrinking ray, and brought to the laboratory of Professor Zero. Zero made good on his threat to shrink Carlyle for not paying him, and decided to dispose of the heroes by tossing them into the sea in a burlap bag. Batman had snagged a parrot claw from Zero's office, using it to rip the sack, and then they hitched a ride on a paintbrush that floated to shore. Batman saw animal feed aboard Zero's boat, and deduced that he owned a nearby private zoo. The tiny duo hitched a ride with a man selling Batman and Robin mechanical dolls, but when confronted by Zero he ordered his henchman Beefy to kill them. Beefy couldn't stand the idea of killing tiny people, so Zero murdered him for his compassion, and put Batman and Robin in bell jars. He sucked the air from the jars, but they escaped, so Zero went after them with a shotgun. Batman used a pepper shaker to blind him, and he accidentally shot and killed himself. There was no antidote to the shrink-ray, but Batman figured out that it was a temporary effect, lasting only 3 days.

Comments: Created by Bill Finger & Dick Sprang.

Professor Zero's appearance in Detective Comics I #148 was reprinted in Batman I #182.