Facing the Muddy Truth: Is Clayface in DC a Villain?

Originally published October 9, 2026. This article covers the origin story, power set, and live-action appearances of the DC character Clayface.

Shapeshifters are notoriously difficult to trust. How can you ever know the face they’re showing you is their real one? And even if it is their true face, there’s no telling that it won’t shift at a moment’s notice. But this is also why we, as readers and audiences, find them so fascinating to behold.

Batman’s Rogues Gallery is filled with a whole menagerie of super-villains whose unique powers are matched by their even more unique backstories. After all, if they were simple, their popularity wouldn’t be so enduring. Is DC’s Clayface a villain, an antihero, or something else entirely? Ahead of the DCU’s next big cinematic release, Clayface on October 23, it’s time to get to know the face(s) behind the muddy mask.

• Clayface is more than one person, including Basil Karlo and Matt Hagen.
• Clayface has a vast range of shapeshifting powers.
• Clayface has been in live action on TV, but Clayface is the first time in a movie.

Clayface is more than one person, including Basil Karlo and Matt Hagen.

• Most Well-Known Clayface Names: Basil Karlo, Matthew Hagen
• Comic Book Debut: Detective Comics #40 (Basil Karlo), Detective Comics #298 (Matthew Hagen)

While the original Clayface of the comic books was Basil Karlo, Matt Hagen has actually been the most frequent animated representation of the villain. Officially, there have been eight Clayfaces. It all began when Basil Karlo, a famous movie star, crashed his car. The accident left his face horribly scarred so he turned to a dangerous chemical called Renu that his father had manufactured. Like so many villains before and after him, circumstances caused Karlo’s body to be submerged in Renu.

After that, Karlo could change his appearance into anyone and anything. He was often used as a pawn in wars between other super-villains, like The Joker, Riddler, and Bane, even working as a frequent henchman of Poison Ivy. On the other hand, the second Clayface, a treasure hunter named Matthew Hagen, was transformed when he discovered a subterranean pool of protoplasm. It granted him similar abilities to Karlo, though Hagen needed to revisit the pool from time to time.

Over the years, other criminals have also adopted the Clayface persona. At one point, Basil Karlo even assembled them all to form the Mud Pack, which included Hagen, Preston Payne, and Sondra Fuller AKA Lady Clay.

Clayface has a vast range of shapeshifting powers.

• Source of Powers: Chemical called Renu that molds and reshapes any material
• Clayface’s Main Abilities: Shapeshifting, duplication, regeneration, enhanced physiology

Like his name implies, Clayface appears to be made up entirely of a brown, shifting mass of clay. This malleable state of being allows him to transfigure his body into any person or thing he can think of (or absorb). Certain incarnations of Clayface have even had the ability to work with a victim’s DNA to imitate genetic structure and superpowers.

For the most part, Clayface is largely indestructible. He’s even capable of regenerating himself. In Karlo’s case, combined with a theatrical background, Clayface can pass undetected as nearly anyone. Often the only successful methods of subduing Clayface involve freezing or electrifying him.

Has Clayface been in live action before?

• Tom Rhys Harries will be the first Clayface to appear in a live-action film.
• Other live-action versions of Clayface have appeared in Gotham and Arrow.

As far as big screen adaptations go, Tom Rhys Harries will be the first to portray Clayface in live action. However, on the small screen, the super-villain has gotten more variability on his resume. In the animated DC catalogue, both Basil Karlo and Matt Hagen have appeared extensively, beginning with Matt Hagen in Batman: The Animated Series up until today in HBO’s Harley Quinn.

Elsewhere in the DC Omniverse, versions of Clayface have appeared with other civilian and criminal aliases. The Batman ’66 TV series had False Face, while the Arrowverse adapted its own versions of Clayface in Arrow and Batwoman during crossover episodes. Lesser-known Clayface Cassius Payne popped up in Birds of Prey. Plus, Gotham and Pennyworth featured a shapeshifting criminal known as Virginia Devereaux while the recent HBO series The Penguin introduced a theatrical sex worker known as Eve Karlo. Coincidence? You can never really tell with Clayface.

Though Clayface has had bouts of heroics, his mercurial natures keeps him in the villainous category. Karlo was too obsessed with revenge while Hagen always focused on a life of crime in the pursuit of treasure. Ultimately, Clayface just can’t be trusted. What’s your favorite Clayface story or Clayface fact?

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