Arkham Asylum: Patient Files

Victor Zsasz

FULL NAME
Victor Zsasz

OCCUPATION
Serial Killer

BASE OF OPERATIONS
Gotham City

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

HAIR
None (Formerly Blonde)

EYES
Blue

HEIGHT
5ft 8in (1.73m)

WEIGHT
150 lbs

A true sociopath, Victor Zsasz grew up in a life of ease, but nonetheless became a serial killer. Indiscriminate in his prey, body count was the only thing that mattered to Zsasz. He took pleasure in arranging the corpses of his victims in life-like poses before carving a mark for each of his victims into his own body. He saved a special spot for Batman. Above all else, Zsasz represented what Batman hated most - pure, unadulterated and remorseless evil.

Zsasz proved more capable than regular Thugs who were employed by the super criminals, as he had no care for his own life. Zsasz possessed so little care that he was willing to kill a hostage if he got bored of waiting for his attacker to make a move.

Between Christmas Eve and the infiltration of Arkham Asylum, Zsasz lost his parents. He inherited millions of dollars, but missed them very dearly. To cope with his misery, he turned to gambling. Zsasz himself admitted that he wasn't very good, though.

One summer evening, he was playing poker at the Iceberg Lounge. Somehow, he did very well that night. He eventually worked his way up to the Owner's Table. Zsasz started playing alongside card-sharks, thugs, and princes. He kept winning hand after hand. Little did he know that the only person who won in the Iceberg Lounge was the Penguin. Zsasz went all in because he thought his four 6's would win. When Zsasz laid down his cards, Penguin laughed. Penguin laid down a 3, a 4, a 5, a 6, and a 7 (Cobblepot cheated during that game). Penguin's flush beat Zsasz's four of a kind. Zsasz lost all of his money and was thrown out of the Iceberg Lounge.

After that, he wandered the streets crying. Eventually, he made his way to the Sprang Bridge and prepared to jump off. As Zsasz contemplated suicide by jumping off the bridge, a homeless man threatened him with a knife, demanding his money. Zsasz became infuriated, took the knife, and held it to the man's throat. Something overcame Zsasz and he killed the man. Zsasz felt pure euphoria afterwards. Suddenly, without thinking, he carved a mark into his own arm.

Believing he'd found a new purpose, Zsasz became a serial killer, who believed that he did others a favor by liberating them from the mundane lives that they had lived. As he had no qualms about who he chose, Zsasz was hard to pin down, even for Batman. Two of his notable murders were a young artist, whom he forced to draw the most depraved images of chaos and murder imaginable, before he stabbed him four times in the back and left him to die; and a GCPD Officer, whom he strung up and sliced his throat.

After multiple murders, Zsasz was apprehended by Batman and was sent to Arkham Asylum, where he was under the care of Dr. Sarah Cassidy, who tried to help him rebuild his humanity. However, by their second interview, Zsasz had revealed that he had somehow been stalking her, learning where she lived and her habits. Disturbed by that news, and that Zsasz had picked a place on his flesh to carve a tally for her, Dr. Cassidy had him transferred to Dr. Gretchen Whistler, while she was given some leave time. Zsasz was left depressed that one of his victims had eluded him and loudly stated that he wanted the mark during his next interview.

By the time that Dr. Whistler was ready for their next interview, Zsasz had gotten a hold of a knife and was mumbling to himself about cutting. When a guard was told to remove him, Zsasz attacked the guard, only to be subdued by reinforcements, who disarmed him and forced him into solitary. Zsasz managed to break out and head out into Gotham City to find Dr. Cassidy and make her his next victim.

Zsasz surprised Dr. Cassidy at her apartment, ironically at the exact moment that Dr. Whistler had called to warn her not to answer the door. After he managed to overpower her, Zsasz took Dr. Cassidy to the Old Country Hospital, where he planned to commence "liberating" her in an ironic fashion. However, Batman managed to track him down, knocked Zsasz out, and saved Dr. Cassidy's life.

A defeated Zsasz was sent back to Arkham, who was left with nothing to do but count his marks, wait for the next chance to escape, and resume his "righteous work". That wait wasn't long, as Batman soon returned with The Joker, who began an all-out riot on Arkham Island.

Personality

Victor Zsasz was masochistic, sociopathic, sadistic, remorseless, murderous, psychopathic, and was completely capable and willing to kill and mutilate innocent people.

Zsasz was born into a life of ease due to his aristocratic status and family fortune, but when his parents died and he lost his entire riches to gambling, Zsaaz retorted to a fatalistic mindset, and once even considered suicide. Everything changed for Zsasz one day when he was nearly mugged upon Gotham Bridge, and came to understand that every man, woman, and child were all standing on the "brink of oblivion" and by ridding them of life, he was (he believed) helping them. On an impulse, Zsasz cut the mugger's throat, carved a mark into his arm, and began his descent into a serial killer.

Zsasz displayed multiple times of being a compulsive killer and that was what separated him from the Rogues' Gallery was that he HAD to kill rather than chose to. Examples of such were when he held Dr. Young hostage, Zsasz stated that she was "begging to be slaughtered" and should Batman wait long enough, he would actually kill her, and ignored the fact that then Batman would attack. That was also shown during his capture in Arkham City where he screamed: "I need to make the mark! It's all I have left!"

His opinions of humanity and life in general became extremely bleak, a case of nilihism and misanthropy were pulled into question. Though it was ironic that if he was a misanthrope, who had nothing more than disdain and hatred towards humanity, Zsasz actually believed that he was helping the people that he killed by liberating them of life which he viewed as a "disease." Zsasz's obsession with collecting as many tally marks as possible led him to no longer view his victims as people. More than once, he referred to them as "zombies" and "piggies." His tendency to pose his victims in lifelike stances was a further testament to how, even in death, Zsasz believed them to be the same.

Zsasz did not only take intense joy in marking his skin, but was intensely proud of his first kill which he remembered in explicit detail that he told Batman in Arkham City.