Martin Bain

A Gotham City gangster who imper­sonates Professor Carter Nichols, well-known au­thority on time travel, as part of an elaborate scheme to persuade the authorities that a current wave of Gotham City gold thefts are actually being committed by fa­mous villains from the past, including Jesse James, John Dillinger, Genghis Khan, and Captain Kidd.

After locking the real Professor Nichols inside a closet and donning an elaborate Carter Nichols disguise, Bain, as Nichols, informs Batman, Robin, and Police Commissioner Gordon that his latest inven­tion – a "time-ray machine" designed to "bring things out of the past" – has been stolen, thus leading the police and public alike to the inevitable but erroneous conclusion that the gold thieves running rampant in Gotham City are villains from the past, summoned to the present by whoever stole Professor Nichols's time­ ray machine.

Ultimately, however, after Batman and Robin have apprehended the gold thieves with the aid of the Gotham City Police Department, Batman unmasks "Professor Nichols" as gangster Bain, exposes the so­ called historical villains as modern criminals in disguise, and frees the real Carter Nichols from the closet where he has been held prisoner.