| “ | Ladies and gentleman of the Un-United Nations and… our mystery bidder, may I present Antonio Diego! Serial murderer serving life in prison, and sole surviving volunteer! And what a charmer he is. By merely drilling three concentric holes directly into Antonio's cranial cavity, I have created viaducts into the most primitive part of his brain: The limbic system. And now I add my Super-Soldier serum codenamed… Venom! To which I add my very own recipe of steroids and toxins. Plug him in. Time to scream. | „ |
| ~ Jason Woodrue before experimenting on Antonio Diego and turning him into Bane. |
Dr. Jason Woodrue is one of the two overarching antagonists (alongside the Joker) of the 1997 film Batman & Robin, the fourth installment of Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher's Batman film and comic series.
He is a maniacal and corrupt former scientist settled on South America who carries out experiments in order to create physically-enhanced super humans with Venom, a drug of his own creation stimulates a person's physical feats but diminishes their mental capabilities. Experimenting with the serial killer Antonio Diego, Woodrue achieves his goals to make a super human, but his co-worker Pamela Isley finds out about his true intentions, leading him to accidentally mutate Isley in an attempt to kill her.
He was portrayed by John Glover, who also played Theodore Maddox in Fear The Walking Dead.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
In General[]
- While he moved to South America and continued his work there after Wayne Enterprises cut the funding for his experiments, this is not a Freudian Excuse as his actions completely outweigh his somewhat "tragic" background.
- It has also been heavily theorized that he was also inspired by the Joker's madness, meaning that he enjoyed the horrible chaos that the Clown Prince of Crime caused when he was alive and it caused Woodrue to become a mad scientist. It has also been theorized that he even once worked with the Joker, too, since he was possibly one of the scientists at Axis Chemicals who created Smylex, which could be the reason why Wayne Enterprises cut his funding.
- He never cared about his co-worker Pamela Isley, and there are also some indications that he even sexually harassed her.
- While the movie has a fairly comedic tone with Mr. Freeze himself having many comical and silly moments that make it hard for the audience to take him seriously, Jason himself is never presented in a funny light and is taken completely seriously whenever he is onscreen, with even Poison Ivy of all people hating him for who he is, though this is out of hypocrisy rather than disgust towards his actions. While he lets out an exaggerated scream while trying to kill Pamela Isley, this doesn't come close to detracting from his heinousness as it is coupled with his sadism and cruelty.
- Even though it's true that he is not as heinous as Poison Ivy, Two-Face and Penguin, he still stands out due to having fewer resources as he is a scientist whereas Ivy is a supervillain, Two-Face is a crime lord and Penguin was temporarily the mayor of Gotham City. He also has less screentime as he gets killed off early in the movie.
- He overall has no redeeming qualities of any sort, showing no sense of remorse for the enormity of his inhumane experiments.
Batman & Robin[]
- Before the events of the film, he created a super-serum named Venom, and the substance basically enhances a test subject’s physical stimulations at the cost of diminishing their mental capabilities, and it is even shown to be painful as seen when Antonio Diego experiences it himself. Even though he would usually deserve to suffer, he was already in prison, so Jason did not have to go that far.
- He conducted several experiments on many prisoners against their will. Plus, it's also implied that the majority of the test subjects died as Antonio Diego is considered as the "sole surviving volunteer".
- Additionally, him experimenting on unwilling people and ignoring their basic human rights is not justifiable as they were already serving a prison sentence, even if it's true that Diego was a serial killer and the other people were prisoners for unknown reasons. Thus, Jason did not have to torture all those prisoners and could have simply let them stay in jail instead.
- He had two of his henchmen kidnap Antonio Diego and he then forced him to get injected with venom through a hose. After that, Jason would then proceed to brutally torture Diego by pumping venom into his body and experimenting on him despite having no reason to, causing him to be moulded into the murderous brute known as Bane. Even worse, this act shocked Pamela Isley herself, which led to her wanting to betray Jason and end her partnership with him, so it is basically Jason's fault that his relationship with Pamela ended on bad terms.
- Due to Jason's actions, Bane would go on to assist Poison Ivy and Mr. Freeze in their attempt to commit omnicide, kill several Arkham Asylum guards and threaten the lives of everyone in a gang just for entering a bathhouse.
- When Pamela Isley discovered his true nature and called him out on it by threatening to quit working with him, Jason pretended to respect her opinion only to end up killing her (albeit temporarily) by pushing her into a lab table with numerous plant chemicals on it, causing her to die for a few seconds and then be resurrected as Poison Ivy, which resulted in her attempting to wipe out humanity alongside Mr. Freeze.
- Although it's true that he didn't intend for Pamela to become Poison Ivy, he isn't shown to care and shows absolutely no signs of remorse for corrupting her.
- After trying to get rid of Pamela out of spite, he proceeds to take a call from a client to discuss the idea of selling his research for profit, showing no remorse for his actions. However, he soon meets his demise when he gets kissed by Pamela Isley (now Poison Ivy) in a fatally poisonous way.
- Speaking of which, although he suffered a gruesomely brutal death at Poison Ivy’s hands, it’s not played for sympathy or laughs, and he deserved it for his horrible actions.
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
- He suffers from Fridge Horror, as it's unknown how many people he experimented on before the movie's events, and he is only shown to torture one person onscreen. This is partially due to his lack of screentime as he doesn't actually elaborate on how many prisoners he forcibly tortured, and it might've only been Antonio Diego instead.
- He fails the Heinous Standards to Mr. Freeze, who attempted to commit omnicide with the same resources. Although him almost killing Pamela Isley resulted in her becoming Poison Ivy, this was an unintentional effect (even if he showed no remorse for it).
Trivia[]
- In Akiva Goldman's original Batman & Robin script, Dr. Jason Woodrue was noted to have been sexually harassing Pamela Isley sometime before the events of the film. Had this been confirmed in the finished version, it would have made Woodrue even worse.
External Links[]
- Dr. Jason Woodrue on the Villains Wiki
- Dr. Jason Woodrue on the DC Wiki
- Dr. Jason Woodrue on the Batman Wiki
- Dr. Jason Woodrue on the Batman Anthology Wiki
- Dr. Jason Woodrue on the Hate Sink Wiki
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 Near Pure Evils
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Comics Other Earths Theatrical Movies Direct-to-video Movies Television Novelizations Video Games See Also | ||
 Near Pure Evils
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Live-Action Features Video Games See Also | ||
