And he had one thing you haven't got. A great, big, bushy beard!

I didn't think I had read this, but had seen this plot resolved before. Or maybe Hugo always tends to try the same thing! From 1983, Batman #356, "The Double Life of Hugo Strange!" Written by Gerry Conway, pencils by Don Newton, inks by Dick Giordano.

After a date with Vicki Vale gets interrupted by her work, Bruce Wayne gets gassed in his own car, but still makes it back to Wayne Manor, apparently on autopilot. (Figuratively, not a fancy add-on!) As he stumbles into the house, Alfred is waiting with a cup of tea, that looks suspiciously off. Alfred then tries to backstab Bruce, forcing him to knock him out; then when he turns around Alfred is there waiting, and the one he knocked out was gone! Meanwhile, back at Wayne Manor, Vicki Vale has returned to continue her date with Bruce, and Alfred and Dick haven't seen him! What is going on here?

Bruce gets attacked in the shower by Dick...is not a sentence I expected to ever type, but here we are...and defending himself, seemingly kills Robin. Except Robin's body disappears, and Dick asks Bruce what's wrong. What's wrong is Hugo Strange has apparently had a lot of time and resources to devote to gaslighting Batman; including a convincing copy of Wayne Manor, and multiple Life Model Decoys--er, lifelike android replicas. I'm not sure which is more impressive, actually: faux-Wayne Manor might have to be bigger than the real one, since there was an elaborate turntable system for swapping rooms, hence the disappearing act. And Hugo was able to set all this up, and get Batman-size-swole? Where does he find the time...?

Intent on taking his place, Hugo dresses up as Batman, which is pretty traditional for him; but he does shave his usual distinctive beard this time, which is less so. Usually he leaves that thing sticking out of his cowl, which somewhat undermines the effect. Giving Bruce a costume, the two Batmen fight it out; seemingly evenly matched until the real Robin arrives, having followed Bruce's homing signal. Hugo tries to get Robin to kill Bats; which is a big clue as to which one is which. Outmatched, Hugo opts to blow his fake manor, with Batman and Robin still in it...unless they simply leave while he's making a speech: without his glasses, he was nearly blind.

Still, I think Hugo Strange had a solid track record of dying in explosions. He made it back before too long--Batman Annual #10, I'd guess. And points to anyone who remembers what movie today's title is from!