Detective Comics #298 (October 1961) introduces a Silver Age counterpart to an old Golden Age Batman villain: Clayface. Batman and Robin are attending a charity benefit when suddenly a lumpy man in a trenchcoat appears. If I had a nickel for every time that happened. Suddenly Clayface turns into a giant snake, then an eagle and steals the $100,000 in charity money.
Batman deduces that no animal or creature would steal money, so it must be a human. Greatest detective in the world. The audience learns that Clayface is Matt Hagen, a criminal who goes deep-sea diving, finds a hidden grotto with a pool of weird protoplasm in it. He trips on a rock and falls into the pool, gifting him with shape-shifting powers.
He does the smart thing and decides on a life of super-crime, hiring some stupid henchmen along the way that he terrifies with random shape-shifting.
These bumbling henchmen eventually lead Batman and Robin to Clayface’s hideout. During the ensuing battle, Clayface learns of his shape-shifting limitations and that the effects of the pool wear off after 48 hours and he is captured. Yet he manages to keep the secret of where he gets his powers from so we can have later Clayface stories.
