This is part 2 of a series of topics I am going to post (One for each day this week) about how to make "lame" Batman villains cool. I seriously need some feedback from you for a Batman project I'm working on. All ideas have to be totally original. No comic book rip offs. Today's villain is: Killer Moth. And yes, Charaxes and Killer Moth are two different things. The one I am talking about is the rainbow colored flunky who could be taken down by a blast of Walmart variety insecticide. Tomorrow's will be: Maxie Zeus. Let the posting begin!

I like Killer Moth. :P

I'd say.

make his backstory be something like as a kid his parents died in a bank robbery. He then had to live in an abusive foster home, where his foster parents used to beat him and lock him in a closet for days at a time, and the only other thing in there was a single dirty light bulb, and the moths which he considered his only friend since he was ugly and kids at school bullied him. When one day when he is 18 he leaves his foster home. He spends a few years just being homeless. When a young boy one day decides to sit down and share a lunch with him, The Boy and he become friends. Killer Moth finds out that the boy is in an abusive foster home like he was, they become good buddies for about 8 months when Drury Walker (aka Killer Moth) reads in the news paper that his friend has been beat to death by his foster mother. Drury takes upon himself to get a visit for a lunch date at the prison where the foster mother is, he kills her with a fork as they sit down to lunch, all the time screaming "this is for my friend! this is for my friend". Drury is then incarcerated himself. But he is found to be mentally unstable so they send him to a nut-house. A few years later he is released, He makes himself a costume. And begins to hunt down and kill foster parents, nuns, and orphanages. To save the kids.The news-papers refer to him as the Killer-Moth.

make him albino white, give him red eyes, long black hair/dreads, a motorcycle capable of space-travel, superman strength, an incredible healing factor, and make him a funny psychopathic killer. Oh and change his name to Mobo. 

 Caligula:

Cool backstory. It sounds dark and abnormal, two things that any good Batman villain should be.
 
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I don 't know how to respond to that. I honestly don't.

I'd make him more supernatural a la the Mothman that was seen in Point Pleasant.  Have like horrific accidents and stuff occur around the character but never make it quite clear that he's the cause of it.

or make him look like that one panel of Batman RIP which shows a Mothman type Bruce Wayne.  Awesome pic!

Give him red eyes, pale skin and a gaunt appearance. 

make him have minion bots  that each have  diff skills  

You could make Killer Moth a former entomologist, AKA a bug expert, who goes crazy after being fired from his job, and resorts to insect themed criminal activities as he seeks his revenge (like many other Batman villains who modeled themselves after something they felt best represented him, like Scarecrow or Penguin, etc). Alternatively, he could be an Eco-terrorist who considers humans to be pests & vermin to be exterminated, like how Poison Ivy loves plants over people, he'd love insects over people. Perhaps he was once a scientist who failed to save a very rare species of moth that went extinct after greedy developers destroyed their habitat. So, in retribution, he dons a costume modeled after the moth species he loved so much and begins hunting down and killing everyone involved in the poor animal's extinction, hence the name "Killer Moth."

Give him an edgy, deranged personality to complement his costume. And his back story shouldn't have anything to do directly with his occupation or name, but maybe the moth theme and all that should come from something emotionally relevant to his childhood. And as far as his childhood, he shouldn't have some tragic childhood that's twisted him into some monster... It should be a bit more creative than that. Maybe he could be just some smart ass lab intern who was working on an experimental adhesive on the side (that he'll later weaponize into his cocoon gun) and there's an accident there that exposed him to dangerous chemicals or something... So his mind got warped out of the norm and he decided to turn to crime after he becomes convinced that his old life would go nowhere since he might've been held responsible and he has no way to support himself. After, he'll just become a petty thief until he can get his cocoon weapon started, and after that launches him to success he decides to go full scale as a masked villain, maybe teamed up with the Firefly on occasions and get some connection with his flight gear off of him.... And from there he ought to make it as a decent B-lister if they can get him into a decent enough hero/villain relation with Batman or something.

Ninja.

I would argue that the 'lame' Batman villains are actually something of a necessity.  Not every Batman book needs to run one ultra-gritty scenario after another.

Possible origin: The family that raised young Drury Walker had a business of making sheepskin garments such as rugs and coats as well as other animal pelts. They were also taxidermists. Drury Walker was given a weekly chore of sweeping, dusting, vacuuming, etc. as well as placing mothballs in the garment storage areas to keep the pesky insects from destroying the merchandise. However, the boy soon discovered an addictive high to napthalene, the main component in mothballs, which caused him slight euphoria and even delirium from inhaling its pungent stench. He also learned that bats would eat moths; so anything associated with the death of moths was not to the boy's liking. Instead of placing the mothballs in their designated areas, the boy would grind and smoke them to feed an increasing drug addiction and dependency.

Soon the family business became more and more of a burden because of increasing damage to merchandise. The father would go mad at the fact that so much of his work in preparing these rugs, garments etc. would get destroyed by the moths that crept in through the air ducts and eat at his commodities. Resorting more and more to alcohol, the father would beat the boy as a way to take out his anger on the realities of a failing business. In the father's eyes, the boy did nothing to maintain the family business other than getting high. The boy cowered in fear at the sight of rage in his fathers' eyes and subsequent beatings. The boy was beaten senseless on numerous occasions. This only generated more and more hatred for life and nature in the mind of Drury Walker. Often the boy would dream of killing his father whose work was being destroyed by these moths. Drury's delusional hatred of mortal species also included the moth eating bats as well as humans working in major corporations involved in pest control and animal rescue. So one night, after another beating at the hands of his father, the drug induced boy placed a highly concentrated napthalene mixture in his intoxicated fathers drink. The father overdosed and died. The boy was apprehended, placed in the insane asylum and the rest is history.

Ever since reading the Batgirl year one, Killer Moth has become one of my favourite villains.

However, I think him and FireFly should remain a constant duo.

My friend gave me a comic recently of a story involving this villain called Lock Up who captures "charaxes" as well as Two Face and that guy who always has a cold. When I learnt that Charaxes was a demonized Killer Moth I was so pissed.

I want more Killer Moth and Firefly!!

Get rid of the moth motif altogether and omit the moth in the name. Seriously. Moths are not frightening or cool and neither is their name.

Wow, good question...

Better costume? Cooler name?

Take away the more silly elements like the Mothmobile, for starters. He doesn't need to be "Batman with a moth motif," there are enough anti-Batmans in Batman's rogues gallery already, and most of them are better.

Make him a genius in entomology, and perhaps have him create a swarm of flesh-eating moths? I'm thinking just go full-on horror movie with this character. A pale skinned, bloodshot-eyed, bug-obsessed lunatic who uses genetically modified insects as biological weapons. Give him an interesting motive, something deep and psychotic yet original... no "Insects are superior, humans must be eradicated!" crap, it's cliche and everyone has seen it before. I'll try and come up with a solid motivation and post it later.

Seriously though, just go horror-movie with Killer Moth. I want hordes of insects that swarm around victims and devour them... something so bizarre, yet grounded in just enough genetic realism, that it could be terrifying.

how about taking the role Teen Titans Go but make it one of the children of Trigon. they were not well establish any way. I am not sure which sin Kitten should she establish as. How about Envy but she only annoys every one. I feel like a good laugh Dc need to work on their magic characters

@Caligula said:

I'd say.make his backstory be something like as a kid his parents died in a bank robbery. He then had to live in an abusive foster home, where his foster parents used to beat him and lock him in a closet for days at a time, and the only other thing in there was a single dirty light bulb, and the moths which he considered his only friend since he was ugly and kids at school bullied him. When one day when he is 18 he leaves his foster home. He spends a few years just being homeless. When a young boy one day decides to sit down and share a lunch with him, The Boy and he become friends. Killer Moth finds out that the boy is in an abusive foster home like he was, they become good buddies for about 8 months when Drury Walker (aka Killer Moth) reads in the news paper that his friend has been beat to death by his foster mother. Drury takes upon himself to get a visit for a lunch date at the prison where the foster mother is, he kills her with a fork as they sit down to lunch, all the time screaming "this is for my friend! this is for my friend". Drury is then incarcerated himself. But he is found to be mentally unstable so they send him to a nut-house. A few years later he is released, He makes himself a costume. And begins to hunt down and kill foster parents, nuns, and orphanages. To save the kids.The news-papers refer to him as the Killer-Moth.

He doesn't need to be ugly, poor guy.

I hope that Scott Snyder will do an arc in the Batman series featuring a more badass Killer Moth, looking like this:

Killer moth started out as the anti batman similar to Wrath. To be an anti batman, killer moth has to has many years of training similar to batman and Wrath. Killer Moth can be rebooted as a domestic terrorist who has many years of training.

Think for a second about how different people's taste are for food, like if you took a person born and raised in Asia to the southern U.S. and gave them grits they more than likely wouldn't like them. So now think if he was raised by a father who was a cannibal and was taught from birth to be one. He wouldn't kill people because it was his job, just because like all people he gets hungry and he doesn't see a reason that he should have to change what he's been eating his whole life when society gets to stay the way it is.

The moth thing could come from say his dad was a little off his rocker, not from actually being crazy but from years of cannibalism and being a single parent he had fell to drug abuse, he would've just been high every night singing a song about how moths are the guardians of the light and how the light is so good.

Killer Moth is a cool character and I love the idea of creating Moth Swarms maybe by shooting a sticky light on to enemies?

As a child, he was lonely. He was bullied and had abusive parents. His only "friends" were the moths, which were the class pets. As he grew older, he was shunned, and grew lonely. He eventually became homeless, and turned to a life of crime. He was once caught by batman in an attempt to traffic some drugs. He thought to himself, if batman could do stuff like that, why cant I? He stole a experimental weapons, including bombs, that when exploded, would release a sticky string like substance, wrapping the target in a cocoon. He also stole a cocoon gun, and a glider pack, allowing him to glide over buildings. He considered himself, Batmans equal, as relentlessly trained himself in martial arts, and strategy. Inspired by his only friends, the moths, he fashioned a costume based on them. As killer moth, his first little crime, was cocooning his old school in his moth silk, and suffocating everyone inside. This was enough to convince batman, that he was a threat to him.

Set Mr. Freeze on him.

Remember in the Batman when he turned into Mothra's acid puking baby?

Do that.

For starters, make him look like this:

Use the original backstory of a anti-batman gun for hire for the criminals of Gotham, give him a reason to wanna destroy Bruce, and give him a calling card of sorts. Killer Moth could be a great villain in comics or movies.

perhaps focus his "moth" motif on something like the Death's-head Hawkmoth from "Silence of the Lambs"? Moths are generally seen as a bad omen, being essentially darker versions of butterflies, and symbolize things like poison or death and rebirth

I know this is an old topic, but Batman: Bad Blood made him extremely awesome. Clearly influenced by Marvel's Beetle.

The three green nodules on his back detach as bots. Also has wrist mounted guns. Just wish they had given him some sort of energy blades, and, you know, actual skill.

Old topic; not trying to necropost; but, I think having his wings be pure energy constructs would be cool. He could use them as cutting weapons in a fight. He could also be able to call in moth drones that have mounted guns or something. I just hate how they butchered him in The Batman.