Who the Clix? is a series of articles featuring information on comic book characters that have been made into figures for the popular tabletop game Heroclix. These articles are meant to help Heroclix players learn more about the characters behind their favorite pieces.
Today we look at one of the villains who started in the classic Batman Animated Series before moving to comics: Lock-Up
Appearances in Heroclix: Batman: The Animated Series, No Man’s Land
First Appearance: Robin #24
Team Affiliations: Secret Society of Super-Villains
Created by: Paul Dini
Note: Lock-Up originated as a character in the Batman Animated Series. The below history covers his comic past, for more info on the cartoon version you can view the episode here on Amazon Prime
Lyle Bolton was a very “enthusiastic” police academy cadet which led to his removal from the academy. From there, Bolton went on to seek out several security jobs where he was similarly dismissed for being too violent. Feeling that the police are being too soft on criminals in Gotham, Bolton creates a suit and adopts the codename Lock-Up. He first comes into conflict with the Batman family after capturing the villains Charaxes, Allergent, Two-Face and Alvin Draper (Tim Drake’s undercover identity).
Lock-Up has all of the super-villains and several gangsters in a personally constructed prison. Nightwing, seeking out Tim Drake, discovers Lock-Up’s base in time to find out that Bolton has decided to drown all his prisoners in an underwater death-trap. Batman arrives on the scene in time to defeat Lock-Up and save all of the villain’s prisoners.
Lock-Up later takes control of Blackgate Penitentiary after the earthquake that rocked Gotham. He recruits KGBeast and the Trigger Twins to act as wardens and operates under the weak support of Batman. Once Batman has restored some semblance of order to Gotham, he and Nightwing overthrow Lock-Up and return Blackgate to police control. Lock-Up goes largely unseen until the Infinite Crisis, when he is used to break out all the villains on Earth and attack Metropolis.
Lock-Up has more recently worked with Ventriloquist II, Killer Moth and Firefly. He is among those villains sent to the prison world, Salvation.