Twice-Told-Tales: Strange Days Indeed... Day 2

Each mastermind informed his old foe what became of him during the long years since they last battled.

The master plans of each Strange, obtaining the means to insert themselves into the home of their hated enemies, the Batmen!

Yes indeed, you can't keep a good criminal mastermind down. And so it was that our tale of Hugo Strange goes towards two divergent paths. The Hugo of Earth-One did not fall on the rocks after his third encounter with Batman. And so, realizing the futility of continuing conflicts with the Caped Crusader, Strange retreated to Europe where, unopposed, he developed a considerable criminal empire. Returning with renewed animosity, Strange hatched a scheme whereby he drugged Batman, leading to his foe's capture and Hugo's end game, unmasking the Bat! Now knowing that underneath the cowl is industrialist Bruce Wayne, Strange disguised himself as Bruce in order to take over the Wayne Enterprises empire from within! He even went so far as to disguise himself as the Dark Knight himself on occasion, while living in the Wayne Towers penthouse to orchestrate some business for a time. Simultaneously, Strange organized the sale of Batman's alter ego by inviting three of his recurring adversaries, the Joker, the Penguin and crime lord Rupert Thorne! However, it was Thorne who caught Strange in an ambush, dispatching Hugo's herculean mutated guards. After some time in captivity, Thorne finally gave up on Hugo revealing the caped crimefighter's secret identity, and thought that the mastermind was killed. In fact, Rupert sowed the seeds of his own defeat at the hands of a vengeful Strange.

 

Around this same time, the Hugo Strange of Earth-Two had reacquired or rebuilt his lightning generator and developed holographic technology in order to flush out his Gotham's current protector, Robin the Ex-Boy Wonder. Alongside his ally Ted "Starman" Knight, the pair sought out the source of the electrical disturbance, which revealed itself as the disembodied voice of Strange himself. Using an electrical charge to attract hold of Starman's Cosmic Rod, Hugo generated a dimension rift through his storm, with the express purpose of pulling to his world the counterpart of his recently deceased foe. With Starman hospitalized, Robin and Earth-One's Batman met at the Justice Society's brownstone headquarters in the middle of Gotham, and after being joined by Batwoman they trio tracked Hugo to the Batcave underneath Wayne Manor. Apparently, this Strange also ascertained the identity of the Dark Knight, not by unmasking him but perhaps due to two decades of contemplation while crippled. Here he would employ a more direct attack again Batman and his family than that of his counterpart, using weaponry from the Caped Crusader's former foes rather than employing the criminals themselves in a bidding war, as had his doppleganger. What would become of Earth-One's Hugo, seemingly perishing at the bottom of Gotham Harbor? Would Earth-Two's Hugo succeed in overwhelming the Bat Family with all types of gadgetry, including the awe-inspiring power of the Cosmic Rod? Another day will tell...