Amygdala (Comics)

 

AMYGDALA

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Real Name: Aaron Helzinger Aliases: Amygdala Occupation: Villian Marital Status: Single Base of Operations: Gotham City Height: 8ft. 10in. Weight: 560lbs Eyes: Brown Hair: Bald Relatives: Unknown Affiliation: Batman Villains First Appearance: Batman: Shadow of the Bat #3 (August, 1992) Created By:  Alan Grant & Norm Breyfogle

Aaron Helzinger was a giant of a man prone to fits of homicidal rage. Due to these violent episodes he was remanded to the care of Arkham Asylum. A surgeon at Arkham removed Helzinger's amygdala cluster in the hopes of curing the psychotic episodes. This procedure yielded unexpected results however as Amygdala became exceedingly angry in opposition to what the surgery was supposed to achieve.


While residing at Arkham, Amygdala became a pawn of the hospital's latest director, Jeremiah Arkham. In the hopes of breaking the spirit of his most recent patient, Batman, Arkham prodded Amygdala into attacking him. Batman fought and quickly subdued Amygdala, but was then forced to face a larger throng of blood-crazed patients.


A short time later, the super-villain known as Bane orchestrated a massive breakout at Arkham Asylum and all of the patients, including Amygdala were freed.  Amygdala found himself befriending Arnold Wesker, aka, the Ventriloquist who decided to take advantage of the brute's strength. In exchange for helping him find the misplaced dummy, Scarface, the Ventriloquist promised Helzinger that he would help him find his meds. Armed with a surrogate dummy known as "Socko" (which was just a discarded sweat sock), the Ventriloquist and Amygdala visited the Tap Room bar in the hopes of finding Scarface. The bar patrons laughed at the Ventriloquist, not realizing that Amygdala was ready to defend him. Seeing the Ventriloquist being mocked and laughed at drove Amygdala into a frenzy and he went berserk, brutalizing nearly everyone in the bar. Once he calmed down, Amygdala immediately regretted his violent outburst and was desperate to earn the Ventriloquist and Socko's approval.


Amygdala and the Ventriloquist then broke into the Joyboy toy store in the hopes of finding a partner for Socko. Batman learned of the break-in and had a rematch with Amygdala. He defeated Amygdala with a Karate chop to the back of the neck — the same way he defeated him when first they met.


Amygdala was arrested, but since Arkham was now uninhabitable, he and the other recaptured inmates were instead transferred to Blackgate Penitentiary. Amygdala immediately found himself at odds with the prison guards and even knocked one out by smashing him over the top of the head with one of his huge fists.


At the suggestion of Jeremiah Arkham, Amygdala became part of the prison softball team. He was first placed in the position of team pitcher, but this was revoked after he broke the Riddler's arm by throwing a softball too hard. However, under the tutelage of coach Doc Faustus, Amygdala became the team's star hitter.


Amygdala was later released into the community on numerous occasions, where he became an ally and friend of Dick Grayson. He lived in the hero's apartment building and worked as a warden in Lockhaven Prison. When Blockbuster was in the process of breaking Nightwing down both physically and emotionally, he blew up Grayson's apartment complex with Amygdala inside. Amygdala survived, but was heavily traumatized by the death of his friends.

Aaron kept a low profile for many years, but turned up once again as a patron at the Penguin's Iceberg Lounge. After having a few drinks, he became rowdy with the other guests and the Penguin had to use one of his gimmick umbrellas to calm him down.

    Superhuman Strength: Amydala's strength level is many times greater than that of the average human being.

    Superhuman Durability: Amygdala is physically heartier than the average human being. He can withstand massive amounts of physical punishment and does not suffer injury as easily as a normal human. He can shake off or ignore injuries that would otherwise cripple another human being.

Weaknesses


    Mental Instability: Amygdala is prone to violent fits of rage. When properly medicated, he is usually quite docile, but it takes very little prodding to turn him into a rampaging engine of destruction.

    Diminished Intellect: Amygdala's personality and intellect is similar to that of a young child. Similarly, his violent outbursts are akin to a child throwing a temper tantrum, albeit with more dangerous results.

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Amygdala has appeared in the animated series Justice League Unlimited.

Amygdala Main Page

Character Profiles: Batman Villains 

 

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