Despite being surrounded by iniquity for much of his life , Batmanhas managed to become a beacon of hope in Gotham City . Rather than allowing his trauma to ruin his life , the DC caption became a poor boy who wanted to check that no one ever went through the same hurt as him . There is no denying the hero ’s imposing goal , but lamentably , not every Batman in the DC multiverse amount out on the same path .

After all , some of the worst villain in cartoon strip bear the most traumatic backstories , and there ’s no refuse Batman perfectly fits that placard . Bruce Wayne sound through one of the worst traumasany nestling could suffer with his parents ' murder , but he deal to come out of it as a hero . Still , with such a monolithic multiverse on handwriting , not every adaptation of Batman turn out the same way . Some were driven harebrained by their harm while others were turned into villains down the line . The DC multiverse is full of unfeignedly twisted variation of Batman , and we have found some of the out-and-out bad on record :

10Zombie Batman Was A Horrifying Look For The Hero

Blackest Night#5 by Geoff Johns, Ivan Reis, Oclair Albert, Joe Prado, Alex Sinclair, and Nick J. Napolitano

Blackest Nightwas one of the dark stories that DC Comics ever told . The total tale roll around Nekron , the loss leader of the Black Lanterns , arriving on Earth and attempting to wipe out all life in the population . To make this happen , he had an army of zombies at his bid , which he sent after the Justice League . The zombie spirit were revivify DC heroes and villains who were all pressure to wear Black Lantern rings . This dirty trick made all the gentle to annihilate threats as Nekron ’s minion had an emotional link to toy with .

The true identity element of an imposter Batman resurrected in the crossover Blackest Night has never been revealed , and not even Batman has solved this case .

With most of the Justice League having been good friends with Batman , Nekron aright deduced that revivify Batman as a zombi would be just what was needed to catch the team off guard . Thanks to this move , Nekron was capable to transform Superman , Kid Flash , Superboy , Wonder Woman , and even Green Arrow into zombies . While this interlingual rendition of Batman did n’t have any literal dialog , he was still a horrifying sight . The only understanding he does n’t rank higher on our list is the fact he wasn’treallyBatman ; Instead , the zombi was a clone made by Darkseid .

Black Lantern Batman

9Thomas Wayne Took Batman In A Dark Direction

Flashpoint#1 by Geoff Johns, Andy Kubert, Sandra Hope, Alex Sinclair, and Nick J. Napolitano

In most universes , it is Bruce Wayne who becomes Batman after the death of Thomas and Martha Wayne , but that ’s not always the case . After theFlash created the Flashpoint Paradox , he changed the chronicle of everyone in the DC Universe . Instead of Bruce ’s parents being kill in that back street , it was Bruce himself who died . This destruction drove Martha insane , get out her to become the Joker , but that ’s not all . Bruce ’s deathresulted in Thomas hold up his own brutal mission against felon , becoming a condemnable version of Batman .

While Bruce was traumatize by guns after witnessing his parent ' death , the was n’t the same for Thomas . alternatively of becoming frightened of guns , he simply transformed a gun - toting maniac , using their top executive to his reward . Thomas prowled the streets of Gotham City , murdering any criminals that he came across under his mantle of Batman . This shadow became so all - ware for him that when he read Bruce was Batman in the main universe , he decide to go and beat his boy into submission . The passing of Thomas ' son change the military personnel forever , and it sullied the Batman mantle .

8The Grim Knight Was A Batman With No Limits

The Batman Who Laughs#1 by Scott Snyder, Jock, David Baron, and Sal Cipriano

One of the most iconic trait of Batman is that he does n’t kill , and the wedge does n’t apply guns . Of of course , this decisions comes from the thick trauma that Batman stomach when he see the decease of his parentsl . Because of this incident , Batman aver to never expend gunslinger , no matter what . However , that backstory played out differently in another univerwse , one where Joe Chill was pall by a bat and drop down his handgun , leaving it to fall into the hands of a untried Bruce Wayne .

It was this moment that changed everything for Bruce . Instead of being for good traumatize about guns , Bruce picked the gun up and shot Joe Chill , pop him instantly . It was this mo that make Bruce to become the Grim Knight instead of Batman . The Grim Knight was the brutal defender of Gotham City , someone who hunt down criminals and slay them in inhuman blood . If anyone start out in his way , like the GCPD under James Gordon ’s command , he had no topic slay them as well . So really , perhaps it is for the safe that Batman produce to abhor guns .

7Failsafe Was A Batman Without Humanity

Batman#125 by Chip Zdarsky, Jorge Jimenez, Tomeu Morey, and Clayton Cowles.

For near or worse , Batman is infamous for having contingency plans . With Batman being one of the most severe men on Earth , it is not a surprise he felt threatened by his own king . Batman ’s subconscious feel he call for a contingency plan against himself , and that ’s why Failsafe was created . The brutal mechanical man was make so as to take Batman down if necessary , but its technology had a rather pernicious fault .

After all , Failsafe is just a machine . The humanoid had no substance or human beings ; All he need was to fulfill his motivation to pop Batman . Failsafe was designed to kill Batman if Batman ever went over the line and started obliterate criminals , and so the bot was activated afterthe Penguin faked his death and blamed Batman for it . The ultimate unsuccessful person of Failsafe is the fact he could n’t think for himself . All the android cares about is his mission and nothing else , making him a rather hapless eventuality plan in Batman ’s station .

6Zur-En-Arrh Was A Batman Without Empathy

Batman#129 by Chip Zdarsky, Jorge Jimenez, Tomeu Morey, and Clayton Cowles.

Zur - En - Arrh is a complicated character . Originally appear inBatman#677 by Grant Morrison and Tony S. Daniel . Zur - En - Arrh was a backup personality created indoors of Batman to protect his mind in case Bruce was ever attacked . If Batman ’s thinker broke down and his original personality was no longer useable , Zur - En - Arrh would take over and allow Batmanto continue functioning . However , the new personality is more than a bit of a feral .

Batman ’s backup personality , Zur - En - Arhh , is Bruce Wayne without morals or restrictions , with this character let the perfect cosplay adaptation .

In DC ’s updated take on the personality , Zur - En - Arrh is presented as an existent personality that exist indoors of Batman ’s read/write head . The personality is the ultimate distillation of Batman himself , one that only cares for the foreign mission , nothing else . To Zur - En - Arrh , family is nothing more than a distraction from the mission . And whileZur wo n’t go as far as violent death , he has no issues with scarf out criminals in prison and brainwash them . Zur - En - Arrh is the spoilt part of Batman ’s personality all fused together , truly .

Split image between Batman Zurr-En-Arhh on the right half and regular Batman on the left half

5Owlman Is The Opposite Of Everything Batman Should Be

JLA: Earth-2by Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely, Laura Martin, Wildstorm FX, and Ken Lopez

The Multiverse is a adult place , and there are a destiny of unlike universe with a band of different rules . One such world , often address Earth-3 , is a world where all coalition are countermand . All villain are heroes , and all heroes are villain . For instance , Superman becomes Ultraman , one of the most brutal dictators in the human beings . Likewise , theBatman of Earth-3 is bed as Owlman , and Owlman has the opposite values of everything Batman believes in .

There have been a lot of unlike versions of Owlman over the years , andeach one is a differently twisted reflection of Batman . The first version of the character witness the death of his parents , just like Batman did . Owlman grew up wanting to eradicate criminal offence , but instead of contend it like Batman , he attempt to apply his immense wealth to control crime flat . Other edition of the fibre have go dark-skinned as one Owlman even killed his own parent with the service of his pantryman . Yikes , huh ?

4This Batman Was A Literal Creature Of The Night

Batman and Dracula: Red Rainby Doug Moench, Kelley Jones, Malcolm Jones III, Les Dorscheid, and Todd Klein

Batman has been compared to a lamia a luck over the long time . Some criminals even think that he might be a vampire . After all , he almost exclusively appears at night and seems to be able-bodied to disappear into the wickedness at will . The comparisons are obvious , and these similaries were taken to an extreme when Batman ended up being bitten by a vampire . ThoughBatman endeavor to fight his bloodlust at first , he succumbed to his impulse and became a monster .

All star sign point to DC pulling off a insidious yet genius move to translate Batman into a vampire in mainstream continuity — and it ’s beyond brilliant .

After tasting human blood for the first time , Batman went on a rampage . The hero mow down every villain in Gotham City in a brutal fashion to get a fix . His bloodlust was so hefty that he even ended up kill Dick Grayson ’s parents in a dark alley , right in front of them , recreating a trauma that originally produce himself .

Detective comics #1093 cover art feature

3The Darkest Knights Were Batman’s Worst Nightmares

Dark Days: The Castingby Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Jim Lee, Andy Kubert, John Romita Jr, Scott Williams, Klaus Janson, Danny miki, Alex Sinclair, Jeremiah Skipper, and Steve Wands

Batman is a deeply paranoid man . He has a tidy sum of fears about the world : Alfred dying , Superman turn evil , and so much more . Batman has a plenty of bad - case scenarios in idea , and that ’s exactly what populate the Dark Multiverse . Every direful thought and nightmareBatman ever had found life in the Dark Multiverse . This include things like Batman having to metamorphose himself into Doomsday to down a genocidal back breaker . There was also the clock time Batman taste to create an AI adaptation of Alfred after the material man died , which terminate up possess him .

These morose and twisted edition of Batman ended up invading Earth and trying to pull it down into the nightmares they were born from . There are so many horrific version of Batman from the Dark Multiverse , literally hundreds of them . Even though Batman and the Justice League were capable to defeat the Darkest Knights , they still exist as a hideous reminder of how many different fashion Batman could ended up .

2Robin King Was Batman At His Most Broken

Dark Nights: Death Metal#2 by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion, FCO Plascencia, and Tom Napolitano

Most versions of Batman characters who turn evil do so because of some change in their catastrophe . For model , the Grim Knight was only born because Joe Chill drop his gun in the alley . However , that was n’t the character for Robin King . This version of Bruce Wayne was just bear impoverished . It ’s not exactly absolved why , but Bruce was plainly bear a teras in this persistence . After all , it was Bruce who murdered his own parents , and when multitude ground out what he had done , Bruce simply observe killing citizenry under the name Robin King .

Despite being so young , Robin King kill just about every submarine on the planet . The Robin King has item in his smash to kill anyone he comes up against , all the items he had used back on his own planet . Some of these include the Bind of Veils , Bottled Mister Mxyzptlk , Neron - spirt knife , and Smallvillain , and even a ring containing every potential color of kryptonite .

1The Batman Who Laughs Is The Darkest Knight

Batman and the Joker are swan enemies . They are extreme of one another , and that is why it was so horrifying when they were melded together . The issue began when the Joker launched a beastly attack on Gotham City that forced Batman to offend an important normal . Batman ends up off the Joker , and the villain infects Batman with a toxin before run out . This toxin slowly turnedBatman into the Batman Who Laughs , someone with Batman ’s physical science with the Joker ’s cruelness and insanity .

The Batman of Laughs go on to savagely slay every paladin on his planet before attacking the multiverse several time , about succeeding in destroying it . He even reach the mightiness of a divinity at one point which is wild . The Batman Who Laughsis one of the most grave scoundrel DC has ever infix , and they are absolutely the most twisted version of Batman in the entire multiverse .

Batman Dark Patterns to the left, comic Batman in the middle and The Batman poster to the right

Custom Image by Brian Colucci

Batman Stands in Detective Comic Art by Jason Fabok

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