CFP: Arkham’s Souls: A Multidisciplinary Analysis of Batman’s Villains and Villainesses (Edited volume – De Gruyter Comicstudien) “Do I really look like a guy with a plan?....I just do things. The mob has plans. The cops have plans. Gordon’s got plans. You know, they’re schemers...trying to control their little worlds. I’m not a schemer. I try to show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to control things really are.” - Joker (The Dark Knight film, 2012) Who are you calling a villain? The word “villain” is derived from the Latin word “villanus”. It referred to those bound to the Villa’s soil, who worked on a sort of plantation in Late Antiquity in Italy. The word later shifted to “villein”, which referred to a less than knightly status person, implying a lack of chivalry and politeness. Over time, all who commit unchivalrous or evil actions were indicated as villains in the modern sense. In modern Italian, the word “villain” is not translated as “villano” - a “rude person”, but rather with “il cattivo” - “the evil one”. However, to identify a villain just with a caricatural evil figure would be a gross mistake in our complex contemporary society. The Golden Age’s Mad Scientists or Evil Geniuses, motivated by “pure evil”, are not believable any more. Today, a villain is not necessarily “evil”, at least in a superficial and uncritical definition of the word. Even the monster is instead a Mostrum, a creature which is scary because it is nonhuman, but which is also marvellous and sublime. Not only the heroes are becoming more complex and multifaceted figures, but villains are evolving as well alongside our world. Are pure heroes and evil villains still believable in the moral complexity of the modern world? They are not just “evil” - sometimes they are even not antagonists, but protagonists, as a film like the Joker or a series like Loki show. Can we still talk about villains, then, if they exist independently of the hero, free of the hero-villain, good-evil dichotomy? With these figures' evolution and growing complexity, the need to analyse and study them becomes pressing; yet the heroes still almost monopolize the academic spotlight. The case of Batman is emblematic. Why Study the Villains of Gotham? Batman needs no presentations. The World’s Greatest Detective, the Caped Crusader. He is the vengeance, he is the night, he is BATMAN! The shadow of the Bat had reached every popular culture corner – and even more. The academy – the so-called “high culture” – did not remain indifferent to the charm of the Dark Knight: hundreds of monographs, articles, anthologies have been written on The Batman. Professors, scholars and researchers have analysed his psychology (Batman and Psychology, What’s the Matter with Batman), his philosophy (Batman and Philosophy, Batman, Superman and Philosophy), his history (Batman Unmasked), his politics (Politics in Gotham). Even his fans and cosplayers were researched and analysed (Batman: Fan Phenomena). And his enemies? Of course, it is not possible to talk about the Caped Crusader without mentioning his variegated rogues’ gallery. Travis Langley in Batman and Psychology dedicates several “Case Files” to the analysis of numerous of Gotham’s villains. However, Gotham City’s colourful villains and villainesses are often just a footnote in Batman’s