Was Clayface the first looksmaxxer? Gotham's hard glow-up
No — asking was Clayface the first looksmaxxer gets a clear answer: not literally. The term arrived decades later. Still, Matt Hagen's all-or-nothing chase for a perfect face in comics and Batman: The Animated Series mirrors today's looksmaxxing logic, which is why DC's new R-rated Clayface film feels so current.
Key Takeaways
- Looksmaxxing is a modern label from 2010s forums and TikTok; Clayface predates the word by decades.
- The Matt Hagen Clayface closest to a "hardmaxxer" took shape in 1992's Batman: The Animated Series episode "Feat of Clay."
- DC Studios' new R-rated Clayface, directed by James Watkins and starring Tom Rhys Harries and Naomi Ackie, opens Oct. 23 after a July 22 trailer drop.
- Hagen's belief that a restored face will restore his life echoes blackpill and hardmaxxing logic without matching today's slang.
- Male cosmetic surgery rose 95% worldwide from 2018 to 2024, per ISAPS data cited in coverage of the trend.
Long before mewing, mogging, and jawline scoreboards filled For You pages, Gotham's Matt Hagen was already gambling everything on a better face. That obsession is the emotional engine of DC's first full-fledged horror movie, and it is why nostalgia fans are reframing an old villain through a new internet lens. For more then-and-now pop culture deep dives, browse our Nostalgia: Then & Now hub.
According to Mashable's breakdown of the Clayface trailer and looksmaxxing parallel, Warner Bros. released the official trailer on Wednesday, July 22, ahead of the film's theatrical debut on Oct. 23. Director James Watkins (Speak No Evil) helms the R-rated origin story. Tom Rhys Harries plays Hagen opposite Naomi Ackie as scientist Dr. Caitlyn Corr.
What is looksmaxxing, and why does Clayface fit?
Looksmaxxing means trying to "maximize" attractiveness. Methods range from skincare, exercise, hair, and clothes to surgery and riskier self-modification.
The term grew out of incel and manosphere forums in the 2010s, then spilled into mainstream TikTok culture. Communities treat looks like a measurable system: jaw width, eye shape, cheekbones, symmetry, body fat, even eye-tilt angles.
"Softmaxxing" covers conventional grooming and lifestyle upgrades. "Hardmaxxing" can mean procedures, steroids, weight-loss drugs, unapproved peptides, and other aggressive face or body changes. "Mogging" means visually outclassing someone. "Mewing" is an unproven tongue posture said to reshape the jaw. Some users rank faces on the PSL scale from "subhuman" to "Chad."
Visible creators have pushed extremes. Streamer Braden Peters, known as Clavicular, has documented appearance changes for millions of followers and claimed practices such as "bonesmashing" and early hormone use. Coverage notes he has framed health risks, including possible fertility effects, as an acceptable cost of looking better.
The audience for masculinity content is huge. A 2025 study found 60 percent of men aged 16 to 25 regularly consume material from at least one masculinity influencer. That does not mean all of them chase looksmaxxing tips, but recommendation systems can nudge users from ordinary fitness videos toward harsher advice.
The trend also tracks with more men seeking cosmetic work. The International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery reported surgical cosmetic procedures on men rose 95 percent worldwide between 2018 and 2024, with younger patients drawn to stronger chins, sharper jaws, and angular faces.
Was Clayface really the first looksmaxxer?
Not by the dictionary. "Looksmaxxing" did not exist when Clayface first appeared, and several DC characters have used the name.
Basil Karlo, the original Clayface, debuted in 1940's Detective Comics No. 40. He was an actor who murdered while wearing a horror-character mask. He did not shapeshift and was not chasing a glow-up.
Matt Hagen became the second Clayface in 1961. As a treasure hunter, he touched a protoplasm pool that turned his body clay-like. He could briefly reshape into other people but needed the substance to refresh his powers.
The version that feels like a modern looksmaxxer arrived in 1992. Batman: The Animated Series fused earlier histories in the two-part episode "Feat of Clay." That Hagen was a successful actor whose face was badly disfigured in a car accident. When reconstructive work failed, he used Renuyu, an experimental cream.
Renuyu restored his looks and let him reshape his face for roles, but the effect was temporary. Each dose deepened his dependency on businessman Roland Daggett, who controlled the supply. In exchange, Hagen impersonated others and committed crimes. The cream that promised to give his identity back slowly forced him to surrender it.
That is the hardmaxxing parallel: not mewing for TikTok clout, but believing a face decides whether you can work, appear in public, and keep the life you want. It mirrors blackpill thinking that traits like bone structure and height lock in romantic, social, and financial outcomes. If appearance rules the future, changing appearance looks like the only escape hatch.
How does the new Clayface movie update that myth?
In the new film, Harries plays a rising Gotham actor whose face is mutilated just as his career takes off. Convinced that restoring his appearance is the only way to reclaim his life, he seeks Dr. Corr's experimental treatment.
The trailer makes his stakes blunt: "Even if it kills me, I'll be better off than I am now." The treatment first returns movie-star looks, then his face melts and shifts uncontrollably, birthing the shapeshifting Batman villain.
It is body-horror first. It is also uncomfortably timely. Young men are still being told to measure, rank, and radically alter their faces. Hagen's conviction that looking better will fix everything lands less like campy comic lore and more like a cautionary mirror.
DC fans celebrated the trailer's gruesome effects and the character finally getting a solo movie after decades in comics, animation, and games. The nostalgia hook is real: an early-1990s animated tragedy remixed for an era that already has a vocabulary for facial optimization.
Why does this then-and-now comparison matter now?
Because the slang is new, but the insecurity is not. Calling Hagen the "original looksmaxxer" is a meme-friendly shortcut, not a literal history claim.
What holds up is the underlying story logic: appearance equals value, flaws can be engineered away, and almost any intervention seems justified if it buys an ideal face. Renuyu was the ultimate hardmaxxing product before anyone coined the phrase. The 2026 film simply puts that bargain on a bigger, bloodier screen.
So was Clayface the first looksmaxxer? By name, no. By worldview, Gotham's clay-faced actor got there early. The terminology changed; the hunger for a perfect face did not. Clayface opens in theaters Oct. 23.