The Terrible Trio

The Terrible Trio.

You may also be looking for the episode "The Terrible Trio".

"Scoundrels like these are worse than the Joker. At least he's got madness as an excuse." — Batman

The Terrible Trio were a group of Gotham city businessmen who moonlighted as thieves, stealing from other wealthy socialites. The Trio's animal personas of a fox, shark and vulture were representations of to land, sea and air, respectively, an allegory as to their respective fields of business.

Their names were, as follows: Fox, real name Warren Lawford, the De facto leader of the group, Vulture, real name Armand Lydecker, and Gunther Hardwick as Shark.

History

The Trio were originally three rich, powerful and spoiled youths in Gotham City, who first became friends in Delta Sigma Alpha, a fraternity at Gotham University catering almost exclusively to the rich. After trying every pursuit normally open to the rich, such as big-game hunting, treasure hunts and deep sea diving, they became bored with those activities and elected to a new challenge, mastering crime.

The Trio enjoy their playboy images.

Each of them adopted aliases that mirrored their families' businesses: Warren Lawford, who inherited an oil fortune, became "The Fox"; Armand Lydecker, whose family owned an aerodynamics firm, "The Vulture"; and Gunther Hardwicke, the son of a shipping magnate, "The Shark".

The Trio make their getaway.

They committed a series of daring heists throughout Gotham, and were thrilled with their success. They were even more thrilled when they once even managed to escape from Batman.

Lawford was romantically involved with Rebecca Fallbrook, daughter of businessman Sheldon Fallbrook, one of the Trio's heist victims. When Rebecca stumbled onto their criminal activities, Lawford was paranoid enough (and emboldened enough by their string of successes) to decide she was a threat and tried to kill her, much to the horror of Lydecker and Hardwicke. Batman saved her and apprehended the Trio. Lawford was last seen as his prison cell at Stonegate Penitentiary slammed shut behind him, leaving him terrified out of his wits.

Powers and abilities

The trio had no extraordinary powers, but all three of them were physically fit, inventive, and audacious. They had the resources to plan their crimes carefully, and to equip themselves with a high-tech arsenal similar to Batman's, including a harpoon gun with a cable for quick escapes, and a car outfitted with a hidden weapons system.

Background Information

*The Terrible Trio were a lesser known criminal team opposing Batman, first appearing in Detective Comics back in 1958 in issues 253. Originally, Warren Lawford, Armand Lydecker and Gunther Hardwick were three inventors who specialized in the fields of land, air and water vehicles, respectively. Similar to their animated counterparts, the three men became criminals in order to pursue greater challenges.

*Another inspiration may have been the James Bond villain Auric Goldfinger from the book and movie of the same name. Goldfinger recruits mobsters into his master plan to rob Fort Knox by pointing out man's accomplishments in many disciplines, "...except crime!" A key difference is that while the Terrible Trio is already rich, Goldfinger seeks to make himself fabulously wealthy from raiding Fort Knox.

Appearance

Batman: The Animated Series

• "The Terrible Trio"