Gotham's Most Twisted Villain Was Inspired by Haunting Real-World Experiments

Batman villains tend to have a lot of different facets to their insanity. Professor Pyg, for example, used to go hand in hand, in his pre-Flashpoint appearances, with his wire mother, which was inspired by a disturbing real-life experiment.

Professor Pyg's obsession with making people perfect and transforming them into doll-o-trons is well known, but over time, that's become his primary goal, and the protection of his sickening wire mother is often forgotten. Pyg's obsession with the wire mother experiment was explained by writer and Pyg co-creator Grant Morrison in the backmatter of the collected edition Batman and Robin: Batman Reborn by Morrison, Frank Quitely, and Phillip Tan.

Morrison explains more about why Pyg cares about the wire mother and the real-life explanation for it. While the wire mother might seem like a random addition to Pyg's character, it's another disturbing element that is often forgotten - which is a shame, because it adds a level of twisted vulnerability to Pyg's character.

Professor Pyg's Only Source of Comfort Is the Wire Mother

Professor Pyg First Appearance: Batman and Robin #1 by Morrison and Quitely

The wire mother experiments were, in reality, conducted by American psychologist Harry Harlow. These experiments were based on giving a group of monkeys two "mothers": the cloth mother and the wire mother. Both were essentially just stick figure statues, but one was covered in cloth, and one was covered in wire. The tests revealed that the monkeys overwhelmingly preferred the cloth mother, even if the cloth mother had nothing to offer them. The only times the monkeys chose the wire mother was when she had food, and only when they were starving.

Professor Pyg prefers the hideous and terrifying to the warm and loving.

It's interesting to note that Professor Pyg doesn't seem to have a cloth mother to go alongside his wire mother. The monkeys in the original experiment overwhelmingly preferred the cloth mother in all situations, likely because she seemed softer and more warm. But Professor Pyg is shown twice using the wire mother, exemplifying how demented Professor Pyg is - that he prefers the hideous and terrifying to the warm and loving. Either way, this is a great character trait that really hasn't been explored nearly as much as it deserves, with Pyg's focus shifting to his obsession with perfection over the years.

Professor Pyg Is More Complex Than Most Fans Think

This Gotham Villain Has More to Give

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All of Batman's greatest villains are more complex than they might first seem. The Riddler, for example, might just seem like a guy leaving riddles for the sake of the gimmick, but he's actually someone with a deep inferiority complex who needs to prove that he's correct due to his obsessive-compulsive disorder. Likewise, Professor Pyg is more complicated than he seems. While most creators just use him as a generic serial killer obsessed with perfection, the few appearances of the wire mother demonstrate that there's more to Batman villain Professor Pyg than meets the eye.

Batman and Robin: Batman Reborn is available now as a collected edition from DC Comics!