From DC Database

Contents 1 History 1.1 Personal History 1.2 The New Ten-Eyed Man 2 Powers and Abilities 2.1 Powers 2.2 Abilities 2.3 Weaknesses 3 Notes 4 Trivia 5 See Also 6 Links and References 6.1 Footnotes

History

Personal History

Philip Reardon served as a soldier in the U.S. Special Forces in Vietnam until he was honorably discharged after a grenade fragment hit him between the eyes. He returned to civilian life as a warehouse guard. One night, he was knocked out by thieves who had planted a bomb to blow up the warehouse. When Batman arrived at the scene, Reardon had recovered, but his vision was blurred. He mistook Batman for one of the thieves, and attempted to battle him. By the time he did recognize Batman, the warehouse exploded and Reardon's retinas were burned, which impacted his war injury and blinded him permanently in both eyes.^[1]

A brilliant doctor named "Dr. Engstrom" reconnected his optic nerves to his fingertips, enabling him to see through them. Reardon blamed Batman for what had happened to him, and under the identity of "The Ten-Eyed Man" tried to take his revenge on him. He hijacked a plane to Vietnam, and held the passengers hostage until the Batman agreed to meet him. He led Batman through a cat-and-mouse game in the jungle, using the weapons his platoon had left there during the war as traps. At the end he tried to blind Batman with a chemical grenade as his final revenge, but Batman quickly captured him right afterwards. Batman had been watching his fingers throughout their whole confrontation, and thought to cover his eyes when the Ten-Eyed Man put his hands behind his back. ^[2]

Because of his indisputably unique abilities, the Ten-Eyed Man was employed by persons unknown as the only villain worthy to attack Man-Bat.^[3]

The Ten-Eyed Man is often easily defeated simply by injuring his sensitive eyes/fingers; i.e., by tricking him into catching or touching something. Or theoretically giving him a high-five. It has been shown he can only be kept in a jail cell by keeping his hands locked in a special non-see-through box, because with eyes on his fingers, "escape would be child's play for him," although precisely how this would be the case was not elaborated upon.

The Ten-Eyed Man was later killed during the Crisis on Infinite Earths, although he appeared again in Animal Man #23 along with other characters who were wiped out by the Crisis.

The New Ten-Eyed Man

Recently another Ten-Eyed Man has appeared in Gotham City, a terrorist and renegade member of the "Ten-Eyed Men of the Empty Quarter," who appeared in 52 Week Thirty. It is assumed he has no connection with Reardon.^[4]

Powers and Abilities

Powers

• Can see out of all of his fingertips.

  Abilities

• 360° vision.
• Trained as a US Special Forces Soldier fighting in the Vietnam War, has abilities that would develop as such.

  Weaknesses

• Conventional eyes are blind
• Hands are extremely vulnerable.

Notes

• Reardon's existence in Post-Crisis continuity is confirmed by his appearance in "Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe XXIII."

Trivia

• The Ten-Eyed man was killed during the Crisis on Infinite Earths, reportedly at the specific request of Marv Wolfman, among a list of characters he wanted to kill first.

See Also

• Discuss Philip Reardon (New Earth) on the forums
• Appearances of Philip Reardon (New Earth)
• Character Gallery: Philip Reardon (New Earth)
• Quotations by Philip Reardon (New Earth)
• Images featuring Philip Reardon (New Earth)

Links and References

• The Ten-Eyed Man at Wikipedia
• The Ten-Eyed Man: An Appreciation
  

Footnotes

Batman Villain(s) This character, team or organization, is or was primarily an enemy of the Batman, or members of the Batman Family. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Batman Villains category."