Character Spotlight: Hush (Tommy Elliot)

I want to shine a spotlight on who I think is one of the most versatile and threatening villains in Batman’s entire Rogues Gallery. Yes, that means I put this rogue above Joker, Ra’s, and any other villain to come into Batman’s life. That character is Thomas Elliot — more popularly known as Hush. I’m unsure if it was intended for him to be such a long lasting and impactful rogue, but he is. I think, that out of Batman’s entire Rogues Gallery, Hush is the only one fully capable of overcoming and destroying Batman.

Hush first appeared in 2003 in Batman #609, as part of the Hush storyline which finds Bruce Wayne’s childhood best friend Tommy Elliot coming back into the picture after Bruce has a horrible accident as Batman which requires brain surgery. Afterwards, Bruce and Tommy start to rekindle their friendship, but unbeknownst to Bruce; Tommy is more sinister than meets the eye. We find out just how sinister Tommy is as the story progresses.

When Bruce’s family died Tommy and his family was there for him, and when Tommy’s father died in a car accident, Bruce was there for him too. What he didn’t know, was that it was Tommy that cut the break lines to the car in an attempt to mirror Bruce and be an orphan with full access to the Elliot fortune. Unfortunately for him, his mother was still alive, and constantly compared Tommy to Bruce.

This led to a lifetime of envy and hatred for Bruce, which in turn lead to Tommy doing whatever he could to outshine Bruce. I’m not going to tell you the full Hush storyline, you can find that on any website out there like Wikipedia, Google, Amazon, even the DC Fandom Wiki. What I will say is Tommy used his skills as a surgeon to impersonate Bruce once he was able to piece together that he was Batman. After that, he began a slow and gradual assault as Bruce to take down everyone in the Bat-family to isolate Bruce.

I think this is what makes Hush such a versatile and dangerous character. He is able to disguise himself as Bruce, he knows that he’s Batman, and knows where the cave entrance is. He’s also not afraid to use this knowledge to his advantage in order to take Batman down. Tommy is the only villain to really go all out in his attempt to ruin and kill Bruce/Batman, and he’s the only one consistently smart enough to do it. He hits Bruce where he knows it’ll hurt the most — his family. By isolating him, and taking away his support system, he makes Bruce vulnerable.

Hush is my absolute favorite Batman villain, and I honestly think that if written well enough, he’d actually succeed in taking down the Bat family for good. I would love to see this kind of storyline whether it be in their Black Label imprint, or maybe a Tales of the Dark Multiverse storyline. I want to see a Hush unhinged, where he goes all out in taking down Batman and doesn’t let anything stand in his way.

I love Batman, and I admire his perseverance. But I really want to see a story where despite his best efforts, his prep time and perseverance aren’t enough. I think a Hush story is the best one to do that with.