Greetings Bat-fans,
Today we are going to talk about a very charismatic character from the Batman universe, Calculator.
Noah Kuttler, also known as Calculator, was originally a Gotham City villain and was created by Bob Rozakis and Mike Greil, first appearing in Detective Comics #463 (September 1976).
Soon we would start to see him become a super intelligent enemy of Batman. Calculator has a worldwide communications network that provides supervillains with data, making him Oracle’s evil counterpart.
First steps
His criminal career began with him dressed up as a giant calculator to commit his crimes, but they were small and not very well thought out and so he was quickly arrested.
However, Kuttler was not locked up for a long time because he managed to escape from prison. It was at that moment that he decided to reinvent himself to be more than just a regular villain.
At one point, a friend told him about the Birds of Prey and Oracle’s work. This caught the attention of Calculator and played on his ego. He had always considered himself smart and looking for a challenge like that, so when he discovered the existence of Oracle, he decided to fill the same role but for the criminal underworld.
It was an extremely simple task due to him already having several friendships with villains. He began to get work for his peers and was soon able to create a large network of information and connections. This new role made him one of the founding members of the Secret Society of Super Villains, and he has also been a member of the Fearsome Five.
He is usually a villain who fights the Birds of Prey. Several times it was thought that he had been defeated by Blue Beetle, Atom, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Elongated Man, Hawkman, Batman and Air Wave. This was not the case.
Design
For the creation of this character the designers looked to the, then, new trend in technology – electronic calculators. Noah Kuttler took his powers and costume design from the recently popular pocket calculator that had taken the market by storm with its modern and current esthetic.
His costume had the characteristics of a calculator of the time. He had a large number pad on his chest and an LED screen on his helmet. When he typed on the keyboard, he could make “hard light” constructs of the helmet appear, creating tools and weapons, like the style of Green Lantern’s power ring.
Following this line, Noah used the online screen name and avatar called Babbage, after the inventor of the Calculator, Charles Babbage.
Once he had his defined identity, he began his criminal career looking for a way to stand out among the other villains. This was achieved when he specialized in creating useful information for the rest of the villains to make things difficult for Batman and his allies.
That’s all, Bat-fans. Remember that you can pre-order Calculator and the rest of the releases launched this month. Don’t miss out!
