Otis Flannegan (Earth-3846)

"Tear him up."

- The Ratcatcher Otis Flannegan once worked for his father's electronics business, which had been taken over by his business partner after his death. An antisocial loner who experienced consistent abuse from both his new boss and his own mother, Otis only had the colony of rats in his mother's basement for company and an obsessive crush on his coworker to occupy him. After a streak of bad luck cost Otis his home, his job and his best friend, the albino rat Socrates, he became a ruthless psychopath, using his rats to carry out his vengeance.

Early Life
Otis Flannegan was born in Gotham City, the only son of Lee and Henrietta Flannegan. Henrietta, a domineering and controlling woman, only married Lee for his income from his electronics business. She never wanted to have any children, so when Otis was born, she abused him at every opportunity.

Eventually, Lee decided he had had enough of Henrietta. When he told her of his intention to file for divorce, she beat him, threatening to kill Otis and Lee's sisters if he went through with it. The abuse continued until Lee broke down and hanged himself when Otis was nineteen.

Adulthood
After Lee's death, the business was taken over by his ruthless business partner, Martin Jones. Martin, like Henrietta, only worked with Lee for his money and cared little for Otis, constantly humiliating him at every turn.

After Henrietta fell ill, Otis was forced to start working overtime and on weekends to try and cover her medical expenses. Even through all of this, Henrietta was thankless of Otis's care and Martin refused all of his requests for a raise in spite of Otis's hard work.

Finding Friendship
One day, Henrietta told Otis that their house got infested with rats while he was at work that day and ordered him to deal with them. Otis initially complied, but stopped short of killing the rats because he pitied them. He ultimately allowed the rats to stay in the house. With time, Otis trained the rats to help him take care of the house - his favorite rat was a furry-tailed albino that he named "Socrates".

When Henrietta's health worsened, Otis again asked Martin for a raise at work. Martin refused once again and berated him in front of all his coworkers, claiming that Lee would be ashamed of him. Desperate for money to pay off his house's mortgage loans, Otis trained his rats to rob local households and small businesses, with the robberies becoming a newspaper sensation in Gotham. Otis set aside most of the funds to go to his house, saving the rest for the day when he asks his longtime coworker and crush, Claudia Stiles, out for dinner. Over the course of the robbery spree, a particularly large, black-furred rat named "Ben" started to assume a leadership position in the rat pack.

Otis was impressed by his friends' performances in the robberies, and subsequently ordered them to carry out some harmless revenge on Martin - chewing up the tires on his car.

Becoming the Ratcatcher
The day after Otis's pack tore up Martin's car, Henrietta finally succumbed to her illness. Otis had mixed feelings - he could now devote all his newly earned money to the house, but now the rats - Socrates in particular - were all he had left for companionship. Even worse, he went off to pay the mortgage loans only to find himself too late - the bank was already making preparations to foreclose on Otis's house.

Desperate for respite and companionship in these troubled times, Otis covertly took Socrates to work with him the next morning, only to find a note on his desk from Martin announcing his dismissal from the company - the company founded by Otis's own father, no less. Otis was furious and confronted Martin about the note. During their argument, one of Otis's coworkers discovered Socrates on the desk and screamed in horror. Martin heard this, and upon discovering the rat, bludgeoned Socrates to death with a broom, ignoring Otis's pleas.

Otis, already teetering on the brink, was devastated by the loss of his best friend. Ben saw Otis's pain and offered him the opportunity for vengeance. Otis and the horde of rats thus confronted Martin at work that night, and upon Otis's command, Ben and the other rats swarmed Martin and ate him alive.

Trivia

 * This version of the Ratcatcher's origin was adapted from The Ratman's Notebooks, a 1968 short novel by Northern Irish writer Stephen Gilbert. The novel was adapted into two films: once in 1971 starring Bruce Davison and Ernest Borgnine, and another in 2003 starring Crispin Glover and R. Lee Ermey.