15 Ordinary Photos That Became Historical Without Anyone Realizing It

Most historical photographs were never meant to become ‘historical.’ Someone simply picked up a camera and captured a family gathering, a day at work, a street scene, or a few friends posing together, without knowing the moment would eventually be used to document that specific period in time. Years later, those ordinary snapshots can become remarkable records of places, people, fashions, and traditions that no longer exist. Sometimes the historical importance is obvious only in hindsight. These photographs show how easily an everyday moment can become an unexpected piece of history.

The post 15 Ordinary Photos That Became Historical Without Anyone Realizing It appeared first on Den of Geek.

Throughout the final trailer for the DC horror movie Clayface, dialogue and images loop and repeat, creating dissonance that only sometimes comes together into a recognizable sentence. For example, we hear scientist Dr. Caitlin Corr (Naomi Ackie) utter “Matt Hagen” over and over, until she finally completes the sentence: “Matt Hagen can change his face.” Of course, any of us watching the trailer for Clayface know that Matt Hagen can change his face, because he’s the titular Clayface: a long-established Batman villain who can not only shape-shift, but often takes the form of a giant gloop monster who pummels the Caped Crusader with his fists.

While we get glimpses of Hagen’s shape-changing abilities, and even a silhouette of him turning his fist into a big, blunt object. However, the repetition of the name “Matt Hagen,” combined with all the images of that character (played by Tom Rhys Harries) stressing out shows us that Clayface isn’t really all about superpowers. Instead, Clayface seems to be more psychological horror, just like the great Batman villain stories before it.

Batman first did battle with Clayface in 1940’s Detective Comics #40, in a story written by Bill Finger and penciled by Bob Kane. The Clayface in that story wasn’t Matt Hagen, nor did he do any type of shape-changing. Instead, he was Basil Karlo, an actor known for the grotesque characters he brings to life through special effects (think Lon Chaney). As Batman explains to Robin in a two-panel info dump, Karlo had gone mad after being replaced by a younger actor and started acting like the monsters he played.

cnx.cmd.push(function() {
cnx({
playerId: “106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530”,

}).render(“0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796”);
});

While clunky by today’s standards, Batman’s analysis gave Karlo greater depth than the average supervillain. Where contemporaries such as Lex Luthor, the Red Skull, and Solomon Grundy did evil things because they were evil, Clayface acted out of a fractured psyche. Such was the case for most of Batman’s colorful villains, even in the more simplistic Golden Age. In fact, one of his first reoccurring antagonists was Dr. Hugo Strange, a psychologist who used his knowledge of the mind to torment his enemies.

The psychological element started to fall away from Batman comics in the 1950s and ’60s, when the character veered away from his pulp and noir roots and embraced the silly sci-fi of the era. Thus, when the Matt Hagen Clayface debuted in 1961’s Detective Comics #298, by Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff, he was a treasure hunter who was exposed to a mystical liquid that gave him shape-changing powers. Rather than waste much time thinking about how the ability to become a giant goop monster affected his sense of self, Hagen immediately started doing crimes, crimes that Batman and Robin stopped through fisticuffs.

However, the psychological elements weren’t gone for long, and by the time creators like Steve Englehart, Dennis O’Neil, Neal Adams, and Marv Wolfman were revitalizing Batman in the ’70s, his enemies became complicated figures with feet of clay, including, fittingly enough, Clayface. In fact, Wolfman, along with co-writer Michael Reaves, took that concept to animation for the excellent Batman: The Animated Series two-parter “Feat of Clay,” which combines the previous versions of Clayface. Here, Matt Hagen is a former actor who has been using an experimental drug to keep his youthful looks, a drug that allows him to change his shape and drives him mad.

“Feat of Clay” had a huge fan in Mike Flanagan, who cites the episode as a key inspiration for the Clayface script. So while Clayface will certainly have at least one action sequence involving a giant brown monster, most of the horror will likely come from Hagen’s fractured mental state—just like most Batman baddies.

Clayface comes to theaters on October 23, 2026

The post Clayface Final Trailer Leans Into Classic Batman Tropes appeared first on Den of Geek.