This page is for the first Tally Man. For the second Tally Man, see Tally Man.
Origin
As a boy, Tally Man’s family was poor and his father owed money to a group of criminals. He lived in constant fear and starvation. Soon his father died leaving his mother to pay the money. He begged his mother to stop giving them money but she disagreed.
One day, when the debt collector arrived, the mother didn’t have any money, so the collector beat her. Angry, the 12 year old boy attacked the man and killed him with a fireplace poker. The boy was arrested and taken to prison, where the boys dubbed him ‘Momma’s Boy” and horribly abused him. When he was released from prison, he returned to his home, only to find that his mother had committed suicide and that his sister had died of starvation.
The deaths of his mother and his sister sent him over the edge. He dressed in the dark robes of an old-fashioned tax collector, but his job was not to collect money. His job was to kill those who owed it.
Story Arc
During Knightfall, Bane broke Batman‘s back and Azrael took his place as Batman. After, Azrael/Batman defeated Bane, the Butto family hired him to collect some ‘debts’ owed by Bruce Wayne. However, Bruce had already left Gotham to search for Shondra Kinsolving. Tally Man then crossed paths with Batman. The two fight and Az/Bats defeats Tally Man but after the fight, Azrael becomes further insane and uses his claws to carve the Batman logo on Tally Man’s chest.
Tally Man returns during Prodigal. During this time , Dick Grayson puts on the Bat suit while Bruce leaves for further training. The Tally Man, kidnaps Dick and ties him up. He loads his six chamber gun with one bullet to make Batman feel what he felt like, to know what it’s like when death is coming. During this time, it is revealed why Dick agreed to become Batman. As the time came closer and closer, Dick manages to anger Tally Man by calling him a ‘Momma Boy’, making him sloppy. Dick escapes from his binds and the two of them fight. However, during the fight, Tally Man’s robes got caught in the machinery , he would have died unless Dick saved him. Tally Man offers his gratitude and says that the debt he owes him is over. However Dick wasn’t going to let him go away that easily and Tally Man makes a run for it. He was about to jump off a Crane and into the water but Dick caught him with the bat rope and tied him up for the cops. The Tally Man was last seen along with the other villains during the Infinite Crisis in the Battle of Metropolis.
The final fate of the original Tally Man is unclear, although in the novelization of the No Mans Land arc, it is revealed that Two Face killed him.