Professor James (or Jim) Moriarty

Jim Moriarty... he'll burn the heart out of you!

The character of Professor James Moriarty is considered the blueprint for all "arch-nemesis" since the characters introduction in 1891. And you would think how frequently the character would reappear in various movies and television shows, one would think Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had Holmes and Moriarty squaring off in every other story.

In fact, Professor James Moriarty only "officially" appears once in the original tales.

He was created for the story The Final Problem as a way for Doyle to kill Holmes off. Both Holmes and Moriarty would fall to their deaths at Reichenbach Falls. Doyle had every intention of making this the very last Holmes story, having grown tired of the brute (in his own words) and wishing to move onto other artistic endeavors.

Based on real life "Napoleon of Crime" Adam Worth, Moriarty was created to be Sherlock Holmes's intellectual equal. The two men in all appearances are intellectually matched. And because of that Holmes has become a threat to expose Moriarty's criminal empire. Everyone sees Moriarty as nothing but a kindly old Professor of Mathematics when he is infact the most dangerous man in England. A spider at the center of a criminal web.

And Holmes knows that the only way to end Moriarty's grip on the British Government is to kill the man himself. Even at the cost of his own life.

But of course we know public demand would eventually bring Holmes back. What's interesting is the fact that Watson never sees either man fall to their death. Watson in fact is only left to imagine what that final confrontation might have been like.

I honestly think that little loophole Doyle left himself was unintentional. I think at the time he wrote that Sherlock Holmes was dead and his mortal remains lay smashed on the rocks below alongside Professor Moriarty's at Reichbach.

However, this unintended loophole did make it easy for Doyle to concoct a senario of just how Holmes survived.

Holmes may have returned. But Professor Moriarty never did.

His name is mentioned in the story The Valley of Fear. However, Doyle had written that tale as a past adventure of Holmes and Watson taking place shortly before the events of The Final Problem. And Doyle seems to have difficulty keeping his own continuity clear when he wrote that story. Or its just the fact readers were probably not as "hung up" on continuity as we are now.

But for the sake of being anal.

In the Final Problem Watson mentions he has never heard of Moriarty. Whereas in The Valley of  Fear he seems to know Moriarty exists. He even goes so far to chide Holmes making far too much out of that kindly old Professor of Mathematics.

But that's a whole other debate.

Its funny to think that Professor James Moriarty would leave such an indeligable mark in that one (or two if you like) appearance. But he was a good character. And I think much like Sherlock Holmes, having Moriarty based on a real life criminal mastermind, helped make him a more interesting character rather than just a one-dimensional baddie.

And even though Moriarty would never officially return in any of Doyle's stories, it is interesting that his remains were never officially found either.

One of the best Moriarty scenes never filmed on the pages of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Try and forget the movie version. The graphic novel is much better.