50 free The Riddler trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The Riddler has been tormenting Batman since Detective Comics #140 in October 1948, when Bill Finger and Dick Sprang introduced Edward Nigma, a carnival cheat whose surname is a pun on enigma. He is the rare villain whose gimmick is a compulsion: he cannot commit a crime without leaving a clue, which makes him both Batman's most intellectual adversary and, in some eras, his most ridiculed. This quiz runs through every major version. The comics side covers his Golden Age origin, The Long Halloween, Hush, his reformed private-detective years, the New 52's Zero Year takeover of Gotham and The War of Jokes and Riddles. The screen side covers Frank Gorshin's Emmy-nominated cackle in 1966, Jim Carrey's Box-building Nygma in Batman Forever, Cory Michael Smith's slow-burn Edward on Gotham, Paul Dano's Zodiac-inspired killer in The Batman, plus the animated series, the Arkham games, Lego, Harley Quinn and even a Nightwish song. Fifty questions, four options each, with a short explanation after every answer. Play in sets of ten or print the lot for a DC trivia night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who co-created the Riddler with artist Dick Sprang?
Bill Finger
Finger, long uncredited, co-created Batman himself and much of the rogues gallery.
Q 02In which issue did the Riddler make his debut?
Detective Comics #140
That was October 1948, eight years after the Joker and Catwoman arrived in Batman #1.
Q 03In what year did the Riddler first appear in print?
1948
He debuted in October 1948, in the Golden Age, but only became a headline villain after the 1960s TV show.
Q 04Which punctuation symbol is the Riddler's visual motif?
question mark
It turns up in black, green or purple, on his suit, his staff and in the New 52 even his mohawk.
Q 05What headwear does the Riddler commonly pair with his green suit?
bowler hat
The suit-and-bowler look was invented for television and later imported back into the comics.
Q 06Which three-word line does the Riddler commonly say before posing a puzzle?
Riddle me this
The line became so attached to the character that a 2012 DC Nation short was titled after it.
Q 07The Riddler's original surname, Nigma, is a pun on which word?
enigma
Later writers respelled it Nygma and, in the New 52, swapped it for Nashton.
Q 08In his Golden Age origin, young Edward won what prize for solving a school puzzle contest?
a book of riddles
He had broken into the school at night to practise the puzzle, so the prize rewarded cheating.
Q 09Before turning to crime, the Golden Age Riddler worked where, cheating customers?
a carnival
His bizarre puzzles and mind games on the midway were practice for challenging Batman.
Q 10In The Long Halloween, the Riddler works as an informant for which crime boss?
Carmine Falcone
Falcone has him thrown out on April 1, and the Holiday killer fires blanks at him as an April Fool's joke.
Q 11In Batman: Hush, the Riddler used a Lazarus Pit to cure himself of what?
a brain tumor
The same illness afflicted Thomas Elliot's mother, which is how the two villains' schemes became entangled.
Q 12In Hush, the Riddler had Clayface impersonate which dead former Robin?
Jason Todd
A later story, Under the Hood, revealed Todd was alive and had taken part in the scheme himself.
Q 13In Hush, which crossword inventor's name in Elliot's records exposed the Riddler?
Arthur Wynne
Wynne published the first crossword in 1913; only a puzzle obsessive would use him as an alias.
Q 21On Earth-Three, the Riddler's heroic counterpart is called what?
the Quizmaster
He belongs to the Justice Underground, that world's mirror of the Crime Syndicate.
Q 22Who originated the live-action Riddler on TV in 1966 and earned an Emmy nomination?
Frank Gorshin
His manic turn elevated a second-tier villain into a permanent fixture of the rogues gallery.
Q 23Who played the Riddler during the 1966 series' second season?
John Astin
A pay dispute kept the original Riddler away; he returned for season three's 'Ring Around the Riddler'.
Q 14Which hero's mace blow put the Riddler into a year-long coma during Infinite Crisis?
Shining Knight
He woke cured of his riddle compulsion but with his ego and genius intact.
Q 15After waking from his coma, the reformed Riddler took up which profession?
private detective
His first case proved that a photo implicating Bruce Wayne in a murder showed an impostor.
Q 16The Riddler's henchwoman Query works alongside a partner named what?
Echo
The biker duo tried to rob a customer at gunpoint who turned out to be the Riddler himself, and he hired them.
Q 17In the New 52, the Riddler's Arkham redesign gave him a green mohawk shaped like what?
a question mark
Batman (vol. 2) #1 introduced the look; by Zero Year he was back in a suit and bowler.
Q 18In Zero Year, the Riddler's takeover left Gotham as what kind of place?
a flooded wasteland
Only the intelligent were meant to survive, a premise The Batman (2022) borrowed for its finale.
Q 19Which villain shot the Riddler in the stomach after he proposed a partnership in 2017?
the Joker
Riddler healed, carved a question-mark scar over the wound, and went to war across Gotham.
Q 20In The War of Jokes and Riddles, whose son did the Riddler poison, creating Kite Man?
Charles Brown
Kite Man's real name is a nod to Charlie Brown, the Peanuts kid who could never fly a kite.
Q 24The 1960s TV Riddler's cackle was inspired by Richard Widmark's villain in which film?
Kiss of Death
Widmark's Tommy Udo famously pushed a wheelchair-bound woman down a flight of stairs.
Q 25The 1966 TV Riddler disliked which comic-book costume piece, prompting a suit alternative?
the unitard
The green suit and question-mark derby created for TV was later adapted by the comics.
Q 26On Fox's Gotham, Edward Nygma starts out in what job at the GCPD?
forensic scientist
He delivers his findings as riddles long before he adopts the name.
Q 27Which actor played Edward Nygma on Gotham?
Cory Michael Smith
He prepared by reading a stack of Riddler comics spanning different decades.
Q 28On Gotham, Nygma has a complicated love-hate relationship with which fellow criminal?
Oswald Cobblepot
A decade on, a bat-inspired vigilante captures the pair after they both try to kill Gordon.
Q 29Who voiced the Riddler in Batman: The Animated Series?
John Glover
Producers deliberately avoided a cackling trickster and made him a smooth intellectual.
Q 30In Batman: The Animated Series, what was Nygma's job before his boss Daniel Mockridge fired him?
video game developer
The writers admitted they rarely used him because devising the riddles was so hard.