Disclaimer: I do not own Grreen Lantern, Blackest Night, Batman, or Clayface.
Another Blackest Night story focusing on one of the many overlooked legacy villains in the DCU, Clayface II, Matt Hagen.
Green Lantern: The Blackest Night
Drabbles of the Dead
"We Are Clayface"
G.C.P.D. Evidence Locker 298
Cornelius Stirk's cookbook.
Swagman's left-hand pistol.
Condiment King's ketchup gun.
Mirage's illusion-casting contact lenses.
One of Ratcatcher's ventilation masks.
These are just a few of the mementos kept in this city storage locker. A few unsavory memories of the many lunatics, murderers, and amoral clowns that infest this city like lice on a dog. A very ugly dog, mind you. Oh, and how could we forget, the mortal remains of Matt Hagen. Clayface.
The second Clayface, actually. Although, there is plenty of doubt as to Matt knowing if there WAS a Clayface before him. Then again, it was the media that called him Clayface, and it just stuck to him. What was he going to do, call himself Mudface? That would have been stupid.
All that remains of him now is a bottle of brown goop. Not even a bottle. More like a flask. There was barely anything left of him, when the police mopped him up at that abandoned movie theatre. Basil Karlo, genius that he is, thought he could bring him back to life just by mixing him water. Putz. He may have been the first Clayface, but he had just about as much brains as the rest of them. Has. Had. Karlo's still alive. Just like the two after him and their little snot. Oh sure, everyone remembers the guy who can melt someone just by touching them, and the chick with the wings. But no one remembers the little guy. No one remembers the guy, who, if not for him, hadn't revived the idea of Clayface. Had not made the name Clayface associated with the ability to shape change.
No one ever remembers the little guy. And for most of his life, Matt Hagen was the littlest of the little. The kind that don't register on the radar. Dirt poor and looking for a break. How was he supposed to know that sunken ship would be his ticket to "fame"? What was it called again? The Bella Hersa or something like that. The Belina Hermosa, that's it! What was that mean in English? Doesn't matter. But it's not the ship that was important. It was what he found inside the ship that changed everything.
To this day, no one knows just where or what that weird goop was. Strange, unearthly muck, protoplasm, bright and changing color every second. Shimmering like a rainbow. It stuck to Matt's skin when he touched it, until his whole body became hard, brown, lumpy, like clay. He thought it was over for him. He could never go back to being a normal person. Stuck looking like a freak forever. What he would've given to look like Matt Hagen again. And then, presto! He's Matt! And then he's a bird! A plane! And suddenly Matt Hagen wasn't a little fish anymore.
Matt did his best as a villain. Striked fear into the hearts of all those stupid Gothamites. Made a bundle. Even had his own gang for a while. Then he bumped around for a bit doing the bad guy thing. And then that the Crisis happened. The first one. Maybe. There are too many of them happening to keep track. It was the one with the big guy in armor, and all those shadow things flying around, killing people. Killed Matt.
And that was the end of Clayface II. What started out as little fish Matt Hagen, going to shape-changing super-villain, now ended inside a dusty storage locker in a police station.
Born a little fish. Die a little fish. That's it.
"The Blackest Night falls from the skies…
…the darkness grows as all light dies…"
…
To Be Continued.