Who's This? A muddy villain.
The facts: Matt Hagen, the second Clayface, is the Clayface everyone WANTS, or else Basil Karlo wouldn't have been turned into him after Hagen's death. He first appeared in Detective Comics #298 (December 1961), appearing many times, particularly in stories guest-starring Superman as his power level grew. In 1978, a third Clayface was introduced, and though Hagen wasn't out of the picture exactly (if usually on the "powers wore off, oh no, they're back" train), it would lead to his death in Crisis on Infinite Earths (a mistake). When all the Clayfaces band together in Mud Pack, he's just a small clay figure propped up by a fork.
How you could have heard of him: Matt Hagen, though given a different back story, is the Clayface of the Animated Series, voiced by Ron Perlman. In fact, I first encountered Clayface in animation too, albeit in The New Adventures of Batman in the late 70s (he must have been in the title sequence for me to have such a strong memory). For Batman '66 fans, Matt Hagen becomes False Face on that show instead.
Example story: Detective Comics #312 (February 1963) "The Secret of Clayface's Power" by Bill Finger, Sheldon Moldoff and Charles Paris
At this early point in his criminal career, Matt Hagen needs to return to the source of his powers every 48 hours to re-up - a strange pool of protoplasm in a cave. And after his escape from prison, that's exactly what he does.
He turns into a vulture and flies off to Gotham to 1) settle the score with Batman and 2) commit a crime that will rock Batman like a bombshell. Indeed, sometime later, Batman evacuates a bank because of a bomb threat posed by Clayface. Except when the Dark Knight walks out of the bank with the bomb in a suitcase, he runs into himself! Do you know what happened there, kids?
When Clayface can't replicate Batman's actual fighting skill, he turns into a muddy lobster monster and pounces. Now he's talking my language! And as soon as he can, he turns into a pterodactyl, grabs the satchel and is off. Everyone's like "it's okay, Batman, you did your best, it's just, you know, Clayface is way over-powered for a Batman villain". (I'm paraphrasing, but that's actually what they say.) So maybe he can stop the next crime. Our boy Hagen turns into a weird statue and uses a con man to play the artist who sells it to a rich old woman. She's gonna put it in her impregnable room of treasure, and Hagen plans to rob her blind from the inside. Batman and Robin figure it out and race to the lady's mansion and fight the "statue", only to see it turn into... a giant blowfish?
And again he escapes, although without the loot, this time. Batman becomes convinced that if he wants to stop Clayface for good, he must get to the source of his powers, so he follows the clues to Hagen's mansion hide-out, then to the cave. But in trying to get the jump on him, Batman makes a stupendously stupid move:
So now BATMAN has the Clayface powers too and it becomes Clayface vs. Clayface!
"Trunk", not "truck", Clayface! After a cool shape-shifting fight, Clayface seems to have won, but wait! That tree WASN'T Batman. THIS tree is!
Batman sedates Clayface for the next 48 hours and delivers him back to prison. Further, he's blown up the cave to bury the pool. Matt Hagen will never be Clayface again! Except Hagen hid a bottle of the stuff somewhere else in the cavern system, so he'll be back, just you wait. (But can you swim in a bottle's worth?)
Obviously, the joy of having Clayface in Batman's rogues gallery is to pit the Dynamic Duo against all sorts of weird creatures, which the strip was very much into in this era. The Animated Series would show that this works in more grounded stories too, but you could say animation, like 50s and early 60s Batman comics, thrives on such visuals. By 1986, they've decided to unceremoniously get rid of this version of the character, and from Basil Karlo's transformation, it seems they came to soon regret it. That's why you don't unceremoniously kill characters, DC!
Who's Next? Goop Midas.
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