Hamilton Hill
Publication information
PublisherDC Comics
First appearanceDetective Comics #503 (June 1981)
Created byGerry Conway (writer)
Don Newton (artist)
In-story information
SpeciesHuman

Hamilton Hill is a character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He is a known Mayor of Gotham City and an adversary of Batman.

Publication history

Hamilton Hill first appeared in Detective Comics #503 (June 1981) and was created by Gerry Conway and Don Newton.

Fictional character biography

Hamilton Hill is originally presented as a corrupt politician running against city councilman Arthur Reeves in Gotham City's mayoral election.[1] Hill defeats Reeves and becomes the new Mayor of Gotham City after the councilman's photos purporting to reveal Batman's identity turn out to be faked. Unbeknownst to the citizens, Hill is in league with crime lord Rupert Thorne, who helped him become mayor in exchange for Hill granting him favors.

During his time in office, he assists Thorne's attempts to identify and defeat Batman.[2] He also hires an assassin to take out police detective Harvey Bullock.[3] When Bullock survives the hit and confronts Hill, he shoots Bullock (who survives), although Hill is able to cover up the shooting and preserve his public image.[4]

Hill later fires Police Commissioner James Gordon and replaces him with one of Thorne's cronies, Peter Pauling. After Thorne is brought down and Pauling is murdered in cold blood, Hill re-instates Gordon, but spends the rest of his tenure as Mayor trying to shift the blame for Gotham's problems onto Gordon's shoulders.[5]

Hill makes his own attempt to get rid of Batman by accusing him of a crime that was actually committed by the Nightslayer. When Batman defeats Nightslayer and exposes Hill's plot, Hill is exposed for the man he really is and is promptly removed from office.[6]

In 2016, DC Comics implemented another relaunch of its books called DC Rebirth which restored its continuity to a form much as it was prior to "The New 52". While Hill's corruption is still intact, he is revealed to have a son named Hamilton Hill Jr. who works as the deputy mayor of Mayor Michael Akins. During a discussion with Akins, Batman even brought up his choice of having Hamilton Hill Jr. be his deputy mayor.[7]

In other media

Television

  • Hamilton Hill appears in series set in the DC Animated Universe (DCAU), voiced by Lloyd Bochner:
    • Introduced in Batman: The Animated Series, this version is not shown to be corrupt and is determined to make Gotham a safer city, to the point of initially considering Batman to be as dangerous as the criminals he faces. However, he comes to respect and trust him over time. Additionally, he unintentionally contributed to Temple Fugate's transformation into the Clock King.
    • Hill appears in The New Batman Adventures.
    • In Batman Beyond, the high school that Terry McGinnis attends is named Hamilton Hill High School (or "Hill High") after Hill.
  • Hamilton Hill appears in The Batman two-part episode "The Batman/Superman Story", voiced by Lex Lang. This version is African-American, and became mayor after Marion Grange's resignation.
  • Hamilton Hill appears in the Young Justice episode "Alpha Male", voiced by Corey Burton.
  • Hamilton Hill appears in Harley Quinn, voiced by Jim Rash. First appearing in the first season episode "The Line" during a video conference with Harley and her crew, he takes on a more significant role during the third season which premieres with him in an election against Gordon. Although impaled by a pipe following a bus crash, he survives and maintains a commanding lead over Gordon in the polls until Two-Face (Gordon's campaign manager) poisons him.
  • Hamilton Hill appears in Gotham Knights, portrayed by Randall Newsome. This version is an ally of the Court of Owls who is ultimately killed by them.

Film

  • A character inspired by Hill named Roscoe Jenkins appears in Batman Returns, portrayed by Michael Murphy. In the film, industrialist Max Shreck plans to take over Gotham by building a machine designed to siphon Gotham's power but disguised as a power plant, but is opposed by Jenkins, who is also mentioned to be a friend of Bruce Wayne. In retaliation, Shreck grooms Oswald Cobblepot to discredit and usurp Jenkins as mayor by having the Red Triangle gang cause chaos and havoc in the city and frame Batman for murder. Bruce manages to expose both Oswald and Shreck, and Jenkins continues his term as mayor until being replaced by an African-American mayor as seen in Batman Forever.
  • Hamilton Hill makes a non-speaking cameo appearance in the DCAU film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm.

Video games

Mayor Hamilton Hill as seen in Batman: The Telltale Series.
  • Hamilton Hill appears in Batman: The Telltale Series, voiced by Robert Pescovitz. This version has a personal relationship with Carmine Falcone and is currently campaigning to keep his position against crusading district attorney Harvey Dent, whom Bruce Wayne is supporting. After information about Bruce's father Thomas being an old friend of Falcone's is released to the press, Hill authorizes a police search of Wayne Manor in an attempt to intimidate Bruce into dropping his support for Dent's campaign. When Batman confronts Falcone, he learns that both he and Hill had a secret alliance with his parents. After he is revealed to have been working with Penguin and the Children of Arkham to protect himself from their wrath, Hill is confronted by either Bruce Wayne or Batman, with Hill revealing information about the trio's use of Arkham Asylum to gain control of Gotham. After the Children of Arkham show that Hill was partially responsible for Penguin's late mother being committed to Arkham. Penguin breaks his deal with Hill and kills him. Following his death, Dent is sworn in as Mayor.

Miscellaneous

References

  1. ↑ Detective Comics #510. DC Comics.
  2. ↑ Detective Comics #511. DC Comics.
  3. ↑ Detective Comics #544. DC Comics.
  4. ↑ Detective Comics #546. DC Comics.
  5. ↑ Batman #349. DC Comics.
  6. ↑ Batman #381 (March 1985). DC Comics.
  7. ↑ Detective Comics #969. DC Comics.
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