Crime Doctor
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The Crime Doctor (Dr. Bradford Thorne) is a supervillain appearing in the DC Comics universe, primarily as an enemy of Batman. The Crime Doctor's first appearance was in Detective Comics #77 (July 1943), where his name was given as Matthew Thorne. He was reintroduced in Detective Comics #494 (September 1980). He is affiliated with the Secret Society of Super Villains.
In the post-Crisis continuity, it has been revealed he is the brother of the Gotham City gangster Rupert Thorne.
Initially, the Crime Doctor took his career as a doctor seriously, and would not commit crimes that conflicted with his Hippocratic Oath. In later appearances however, he seemed to abandon this principle.
The Crime Doctor's recent appearances have all depicted him wearing star-shaped glasses, evocative of Elton John's eyewear. It was later revealed that those glasses were a trophy taken from his first victim, a young nurse named Katherine Wheyhall, who had suspected his sadistic inclination to murder and torture while witnessing him deliberately botching a surgery.
Later, the Crime Doctor paid a visit to the nurse and killed her, thus setting the basis of his newfound criminal career.
The Crime Doctor's most prominent recent appearance was in the pages of Villains United, where he tortured the Secret Six for the identity of Mockingbird. Breaking his restraints, Catman stabbed the Crime Doctor in an eye and blinded him. [1]
In the "Progeny" arc of Birds of Prey, the Crime Doctor tries to 'defect' from the Secret Society of Super Villains. The Society sends Prometheus to repay the Crime Doctor by torturing and killing his daughter as he had done to his victims. After a gruesome battle, the Birds of Prey almost manage to subdue Prometheus, but the Crime Doctor decides to kill himself, thus ensuring his own punishment, and sparing his daughter, who, alone and outcast by the other children, subsequently falls prey to the ambition of Lady Shiva to have a young apprentice to mold in her image. (Simone 2006, Birds of Prey #95)
[edit] In other media
The Crime Doctor appears in episode #53 ("Paging the Crime Doctor") of Batman: The Animated Series, in which he is made into a sympathetic character. In this portrayal, Thorne's brother Rupert pushed him into the role. He attended medical school with Thomas Wayne and Leslie Thompkins, the three becoming close friends, but he lost his medical license after failing to report his brother's gunshot wound. His license gone, he now worked as "The Crime Doctor" for Rupert and his men in hopes that Rupert would one day use his influence in Gotham City to get Matthew his license back.
In the episode Rupert needed surgery and since he was paranoid that his enemies were going to attack him during his moment of "weakness", he asked Matthew to perform the surgery. Needing an assistant, Rupert abducted Matthew's old friend,Dr.Leslie Thompkins. Rupert Thorne wanted to have Thompkins killed after the surgery to prevent her from telling anything to the police, but Matthew ultimately went against his brother's orders and helped Leslie to escape from Rupert, and both were aided by Batman. Afterwards Matthew turned himself in to the police. He was visited by Bruce Wayne, and although Matthew thought Bruce would try to exploit him like Rupert had, Matthew found that Bruce only wanted Matthew to tell him about his father.
[edit] References
- Simone, Gail (w), Siqueira, Paulo, Prado, Joe (p), Riggs, Robin, Giordano, Dick (i). "Progeny" Birds of Prey v1 #92-95 May-August 2006 DC Comics.
