The Tally Man is a surprisingly adept opponent. He’s a formidable gunman, capable of laying down an accurate volume of fire with a machine pistol in each hand, and an excellent acrobat with whipcord-like muscle. He’s also an experienced hand-to-hand fighter who can punch really hard and take a lot of punishment.

History

The Tally Man is the son of an unknown criminal who racked up a huge debt with loan sharks before dying. The shark’s enforcers turned upon his wife to have their money back, and the woman and her two children lived in terror for years. Every single dollar they could put aside went to the shark, and when she attempted to pay for any toy or small luxury for her children, she’d get late on payment and viciously beaten up in front of her kids.

Eventually, the future Tally Man, aged 12, savagely beat one of the shark’s men by hitting him with a hooked gaff from behind. He was taken to a correction center as a murderer, but couldn’t understand why - he had just defended his mother. His stay at the detention center was a nightmare, and when he came back his mother, unable to repay her debt, had killed her daughter and hanged herself.

The kid’s goal was, at that point, clear - he wanted to be a big man, a bad man, a debt collector no one could resist and who would be all-powerful. He soon became a professional hitman, his rationale being that people marked for death had accrued a “debt” toward the person putting up the contract, and that the Tally Man was hired to “close the account” of the target. He killed 66 targets during his early career.

The Tally Man clashed with the Batman several times - once with Azbats, thinking him to be the original Batman, and then with Dick Grayson wearing the Batman costume, thinking him to be Azbats. He inflicted significant wounds on Azbats, but didn’t fare too well against Master Richard.

During the No Man’s Land, the Tally Man was hired by Two-Face as one of his main gunmen. At one point, he was sent to capture Sarah Gordon as a diversion, and successfully held off the Blue Boys until Batman arrived and captured him.

Personality

An intense psycho and professional hitman. He always presents his action as a form of twisted, inevitable justice - he makes people pay for some nebulous; abstract “debt” they have, and sees himself as a terrifying but neutral agent. He’s very determined to carry out his contracts and sees himself as unstoppable, although he doesn’t boast too much about it.

He’s relatively smart, tactically speaking, and will usually quickly notice if he’s been feinted.

The Tally Man prefers to avoid shooting women and children, but will do so if necessary. He keeps a list of his current targets in a small book with blank pages, and crosses them out as he takes them out.

Description

See illustrations. The Tally Man’s proportions and movements are pretty weird - it looks like he has impossibly long legs. Seeing him maneuver acrobatically is also odd, as such a tall person would usually be assumed to be clumsy and unstable. It is possible he wears Stilt-Man-style “leg extensions” under his robes.

Azbats left the Tally Man with a large, bat-logo-shaped scar on his chest.