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Hamilton Hill was the mayor of Gotham City during the early years of Batman's crime-fighting.
History
Hamilton Hill began as a successful lawyer in private practice. He took the same commuter train as Temple Fugate. One day, trying to give Temple some advice, he recommended that he vary his rigid schedule, unknowingly causing him to be late to an important appointment. This inadvertently triggered the chain of events which led to the birth of the Clock King and a long-standing vendetta between the two.
Unaware of Temple's fate, Hill ran for public office and was elected Mayor of Gotham City. In his role as mayor, he would oversee many projects to improve the city. He supported the building of Stonegate Penitentiary with sponsorship from the Wayne Foundation, as well as the dedication of a new courthouse and improved public transport. In professional terms, he proved to be a capable politician. As mayor, he expertly dealt with a number of crises while in office. He was able to gloss over the problems he faced while in office and win re-election at least once. For the most part, he had a good if occasionally adversarial relationship with James Gordon but because of their differing approaches of solving problems the two clashed. One of these subjects was the activities of Batman, of whom Hill greatly disapproved, although Hill's opinion of Batman would change drastically for the better when the Dark Knight saved his son, Jordan Hill, from the Joker.
Temple Fugate reappeared during Hill's re-election bid. Though at first he worked to publicly discredit and embarrass the mayor, he eventually tried to kill Hill, but Batman prevented it at the final stroke. This act won Batman Hill's full trust and respect. Hill would also be saved several times later on by Batman from villains such as H.A.R.D.A.C., Scarecrow, Lock-Up, and once again from the Joker and Fugate.
Decades later, he passed away, but the Hamilton Hill High School would be named in his honor as a reminder of his mandate.
Background information
Hamilton Hill first appeared in Detective Comics #503 and was created by Gerry Conway and Don Newton. According to the original story, Hill was a corrupt politician who competed against Arthur Reeves during the election campaign by the Gotham City mayoralty. After Reeves lost, Hill assumed the city's mayoral mandate, but in reality, Hill was only a henchman of crime lord Rupert Thorne, which is why he cooperated with him in trying to capture or kill Batman repeatedly. At one point in the comics, Hill tried to murder Harvey Bullock via shooting him and even fired James Gordon from the Gotham Police Department, replacing the latter with Pater Pauling, one of Thorne's men. However, after trying to blame Batman for a crime committed by the Night Slayer, Batman defeated the villain and exposed the true nature of Hill, causing him to be removed from the office. In Batman: The Animated Series, however, Hill is represented as an honest man and Rupert Thorne didn't have any link or connection to him.
As an interest fact, Hart Bochner, the son of the late Lloyd Bochner, the actor who voiced Hamilton Hill, ended voicing Arthur Reeves in the series' first feature film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, although in the film, Reeves doesn't seem to know Hill a like in the comics (apart that in the comics, Reeves runs for mayor while in the film he is a councilman).
Appearances and references
Batman: The Animated Series
- "On Leather Wings"
- "Pretty Poison"
- "Be A Clown"
- "Joker's Favor" (Cameo)
- "Fear of Victory"
- "The Clock King"
- "The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy" (Mentioned Only)
- "If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich?" (Mentioned Only)
- "Heart of Steel, Part II"
- "Birds of a Feather" (Cameo)
- "His Silicon Soul" (Cameo on a computer screen)
- "Shadow of the Bat" (Cameo)
- "Blind as a Bat"
- "Trial"
- "Harlequinade"
- "Time Out of Joint"
- "Catwalk" (Cameo)
- "Baby-Doll" (Mentioned Only)
- "Lock-Up"
Feature film
- Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (Cameo on photograph)
The New Batman Adventures
- "Cold Comfort"
- "Never Fear" (Mentioned Only)
- "Over the Edge" (Hallucination)
- "Critters" (Cameo)
- "Chemistry" (Cameo)
Gotham Girls
- "Gotham in Pink" (Mentioned Only)
References
- ↑ Pedersen, Ted, Hayes, Steve (writers) & Paur, Frank (director) (September 16, 1992). "Be A Clown". Batman: The Animated Series. Season 1. Episode 11 (airdate). Episode 9 (production). FOX Kids.