Dr. Karl Hellfern

Dr. Karl Hellfern, better known as Doctor Death, is one of Batman's earliest foes — a criminal scientist who used deadly chemical poisons to extort victims, making him among the very first supervillains the Dark Knight ever faced.

A genuine piece of Golden Age history, Dr. Karl Hellfern first stalked the pages of Detective Comics #29 in 1939 — one of the earliest villains to cross paths with Batman himself, conjured into existence by the legendary team of Gardner Fox and Bob Kane. Across a remarkable seven decades of DC publishing, this sinister figure has resurfaced to trouble Gotham's finest, sharing pages with Bruce Wayne, Batman, Batgirl, and Cassandra Cain. With appearances spanning Detective Comics, Batgirl, and 52, Hellfern is a rare thread connecting the very dawn of the Dark Knight's world to the modern era — a name that serious Golden Age collectors and Batman historians alike will want on their radar.