Wonderland Villainy

I've been playing a friend's copy of ARKHAM ASYLUM, a terrific videogame that has a remarkable number of references to Batman's extensive rogue's gallery, from the popular to the obscure. I started to notice that there were a number of Batman villains taken from the pages of Alice in Wonderland over the years...

Mad Hatter (AKA, "Jervis Tetch"). First appeared in 1948.

Tweedledum and Tweedledee (AKA, "Deever and Dumfree Tweed"). First appeared in 1943.

Humpty Dumpty. (AKA, "Humphry Dumpler"). First appeared in 2003.

If they all appeared in the comics around the same time, I would've thought that there was a specific Wonderland narrative that was cooked up, but from what I can tell these characters entered the stories independently.

I'm not a comics scholar so I don't know if anyone's written about the tie between Batman and Wonderland. A lot of writers cook up a lot of narratives over the course of an iconic franchise like this and I'm curious how a trend like this occurs and whether there are discussions about the greater meaning behind it.

Discuss among yourselves. Or forward me an article to enlighten me.