Terrible Trio

The Terrible Trio appear in the fifth season of The Batman. The Terrible Trio are university students and social outcasts named David, Justin, and Amber. Instead of costumes, they mutated by using formulas stolen from Dr. Kirk Langstrom's computer. David—the brains and de facto leader of their group—remade the forumla and put it into dissolving patches. After applying one each, David became a therianthropic Fox, Justin became a therianthropic Shark (resembling a hammerhead shark), and Amber became a therianthropic Vulture. Throughout the episode, their schemes were mostly for amusement and vindication, rather than financial gain. One recurring theme was turning others into therianthropes against their will. Since Batgirl went to the same college, she assisted Batman in capturing them. After receiving a DNA sample from a feather belonging to Vulture, Langstrom also provided an antidote to the mutations. After some difficulty, Batman and Batgirl administered the antidote to Justin and Amber, respectively. David, however, was accidentally covered in a mutagenic fluid meant for several other students when Batman destroyed the mutagen detonator. This turned him into a horned Griffin-like creature. After being electrocuted by the stadium sign and presumably cured, David was sent to prison with Justin while Amber was presumably sent to a women's prison.

Origin
Each member of the Terrible Trio concentrates his inventions for a particular battleground. The Foxspecialises in inventions for committing crimes on land, the Sharkdevotes himself to commiting crimes at sea or underwater and theVulture concentrates on advanced aircraft for committing crimes in the sky. The Trio do not wear costumes except for head masks resembling the animals for which they are named.

The Terrible Trio are based in Gotham City and have often been faced by Batman and Robin (Dick Grayson). They first came to Batman's attention when they sucessfully robbed a cruise ship (sea crime) and a Gotham City Bank (land crime). The Vulture then robbed a plane while it was in mid-air. Batman and Robin then clashed with the Trio, who escaped, but without the loot from the Vulture's robbery. The Trio had committed a crime on sea, land and air, and Batman deduced that they would continue in that sequence. He and Robin hid aboard the SS Cairo, which was transporting valuable Egyptian artifacts. As Batman had hoped, the Trio looted the ship and brought the Mummy cases (in which the dynamic duo were hiding) to their hideout. Batman and Robin caught the Trio by surprise and aprrehended the three villains.

The Terrible Trio then escaped from prison and turned to smuggling. They smuggled diamonds using homing pigeons (air crime) and plates for counterfeit money using dolphins (a sea crime). Believing the Trio would next transport fugitives from the law out of Gotham City as their land based smuggling operation, Batman contacted the Trio in the guise of an escaped convict. Once at the Trio's lair, Batman summoned Robin and they fought the inventors, but this time it was the Trio who captured the crime fighters. Batwoman helped the Caped Crusaders escape the death traps that the Trio had left them in and they once again pusued and captured the villains.

Among the unusual vehicles the Trio used were the Fox's "burrow machine" which can drill through the earth or steel walls; the Shark's "eel machine" which can travel underwater, his "pilot fish machine" which can drill holes in the sides of ships, and the Vulture's "missile machine" for high speed air travel. The Trio also used robots in the forms of flying stingrays and vultures.