The Penny Plunderer stands out as one of the weirdest Batman villains for two key reasons. First, he famously set a trap for Batman involving a giant penny—a prop that has lived in the Batcave ...

Batman writers also often have an amazing talent for making even the strangest character concepts work, lending darkness and depth to characters who might otherwise be dismissed as one-off jokes.

Much of that depth was shaped by the villains he faced and the nature of the crimes he sought to solve. One of the best examples of this can be found in Batman (1940) #47.