The entertainment industry has lost another talent, as it was announced on July 31, 2023 that Paul Reubens died at the age of 70 following a six-year battle with cancer. Of course, in the wake of this bad news, a lot of people are bringing up how great he was as Pee-Wee Herman, and for good reason. The childlike protagonist is a pop culture icon, chiefly known for leading two movies, a TV series and a stage show, but having also made a variety of other big and small screen appearances. There's no question that Pee-Wee will always be Reubens’ best-known role, and I’m hopeful future generations will appreciate it just as much as we do now.
However, as someone who’s a massive DC Comics fan, after learning that Paul Reubens had passed away, I couldn’t help but think of the various ways he left his stamp on this corner of the superhero media landscape. From his time as Bat-Mite on Batman: The Brave and the Bold to playing a Chucky-inspired serial killer in the Arrowverse, the actor deserves a lot more attention for how he contributed to DC. So let’s spend some time going over this portion of his resume, starting with the aforementioned imp from the Fifth Dimension who’s been a Batman fan-favorite for decades.
Bat-Mite
Just like in the comics, Paul Reubens’ Bat-Mite was Batman’s biggest fan, but went about showing his enthusiasm in ways that annoyed the Caped Crusader and made his life a lot more complicated. But along with boasting his traditional reality-warping powers, this Bat-Mite also frequently broke the fourth wall, allowing him to poke fun at the Batman movies, past TV shows and DC Comics fans. He was even the catalyst for bringing Batman: The Brave and the Bold to an end in 2011 with the series, “Mitefall,” though that ironically led to his own erasure. Along with voicing Bat-Mite voiced Bat-Mite in four episodes of the animated TV series and the tie-in video game from 2010, Reubens later reprised the role in the unconnected animated movie Lego DC Comics: Batman Be-Leagured. He wasn’t the first actor to voice Bat-Mite, but I’ll always hear his voice when reading the character’s dialogue in a comic.
The Penguin’s Father
Paul Reubens first appeared as the father of Oswald Cobblepot, a.k.a. The Penguin, in the opening minutes of Batman Returns, with Diane Salinger by his side as Penguin’s mother. However, Reubens didn’t say any lines in this appearance, and it simply served as an opportunity for him to collaborate with director Tim Burton again after they’d worked together on Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. More than two decades though, Reubens played a different take on Penguin’s father in the TV show Gotham. This version, named Elijah Van Dahl, learned about his son’s existence not long after Oswald’s mother, Carol Kane’s Gertrud Kapelput, was murdered, and he didn’t waste time welcoming his son to his family. However, Elijah was poisoned by his wife Grace and her children when they learned that he’d decided to leave his fortune to Oswald, which pushed Robin Lord Taylor’s Penguin to exact revenge and return to a life of villainy.
The Riddler
In the mid-2010s, the Adult Swim series Robot Chicken released three DC Comics-focused specials, and Paul Reubens participated in all of them as Edward Nygma, a.k.a. The Riddler. This version of the longtime Batman foe was chiefly shown as a member of the Legion of Doom, the super villain team introduced in the 1970s animated series Challenge of the Super Friends. Needless to say that Robot Chicken’s Riddler wasn’t a complex role, but it did provide Reubens another platform to show off his comedic chops (side note, I’m a big proponent of Riddler’s dream The Punctuation Posse to be featured in the comics). I also find myself imagining what it would have been like if Reubens had gotten to play Riddler in live-action, specifically if he’d been hired for Batman Forever instead of Jin Carrey.
Mike The Spike
The events of Legends of Tomorrow Season 4 saw the protagonists hunting down magical fugitives dispersed throughout time, including serial killer Mike the Spike. Becoming a dybbuk following his death, Mike’s spirit inhabited a young girl’s doll in 1856 New Orleans and attempted to resume his murder spree, but was stopped by the Legends, with Mick Rory burning the doll. Once aboard the Waverider, Mike’s spirit transferred itself to the Martin Stein puppet and attempted to slice and dice its inhabitants, but they defeated him once more, and he remained in that puppet for the rest of his appearances. Mike the Spike wasn’t the most dangerous threat in this season of Legends of Tomorrow, but it was nice to have Reubens contribute to the Arrowverse show in this special way.
Paul Reubens’ appearances in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Batman Returns, Gotham and Robot Chicken can all be streamed with a Max subscription, and Netflix subscribers have easy access to his Legends of Tomorrow episodes. Of course, these are just some of the great non-Pee-wee characters he played over his lifetime, so don’t hesitate those movies and TV shows a watch too if you’re interested in revisiting the man’s career following his passing.
For those of you curious about what DC has coming up, our upcoming DC movies and upcoming DC TV shows guides are at your disposal. The company’s next big screen offering will be Blue Beetle in August, and animated shows like Harley Quinn and My Adventures with Superman are currently keeping things going on the small screen front.
