There are many stories ofBatmanbecoming a villain and destroying everything, including the infamous Batman Who Laughs from the Dark Multiverse. While it’s usually Batman who becomes evil, he’s not the onlyBat-Familymember to have been corrupted.
With an infinite multiverse, there are an infinite number of different versions of a character. While most versions of the Bat-Family are heroic, there have been several times when each member has become one of the most dangerous people on Earth. While most fans know Batman as the world-ending threat,Bat-Family members other than Batman have often decided to turn evilfor one reason or another — sometimes not even of their own volition.
10Ghost-Breaker Is Ghost-Maker At His Most Villainous
Batman#134 by Chip Zdarsky, Mike Hawthorne, Adriano Di Benedetto, Tomeu Morey, and Clayton Cowles
Ghost-Maker is one of the Bat-Family’smost complicated members. Ghost-Maker knew Bruce before he became Batman and was trained by all the same teachers. When Ghost-Maker first arrived in Gotham, he fully intended to take the city from Batman. Eventually,Ghost-Maker was persuaded to instead join the Bat-Familyand help Batman combat crime. While Ghost-Maker doesn’t have any issues with using lethal force, he did his best to follow Batman’s example for the time.
Follow Ghost-Maker’s early adventures with Bruce Wayne inBatman: The Knightby Chip Zdarsky and Carmine Di Giandomenico, available now both digitally and in collected editions from DC Comics.
However, the multiversal Ghost-Maker variant known as Ghost-Breaker, seen inBatman#134, has no such moral connection to Batman.Ghost-Breaker is Ghost-Maker without any moralityor sense of heroism. Instead of wanting to make the world a better place, simply because it’s challenging to do, Ghost-Breaker only wants to fight the most powerful opponents he can find, so he can break them and ultimately prove himself stronger.
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9Duke Thomas Is a Multiversal Serial Killer
Outsiders#3 by Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Robert Carey, Valentina Toddeo, and Tom Napolitano
Duke Thomas is one of the most recent members of the Bat-Family. A teenager who nearly lost his family to the Joker,Duke ends up working with Batman as the Signal. Over the years, Duke became a valued ally and the only metahuman member of the Bat-Family, as he has control over both light and darkness. Duke has been nothing but heroic and has tried his best to help the Bat-Family protect Gotham City, but in a dark universe, Duke decides that Batman is the ultimate problem that needs to be solved.
InTales from the Dark Multiverse: Dark Nights - Metal#1, Duke is left as the last surviving member of his multiverse after Barbatos succeeds in destroying everything.This version of Duke becomes the Final Knight.Escaping his multiverse, he goes on a killing spree where he exclusively targets Batmen across the multiverse. His reasoning is that Batman is a narrative virus that infects and ultimately dooms everything, and considering he watched his multiverse die due to Batman, it’s hard to argue with him.
Tales from the Dark Multiverse: Dark Nights - Metal#1 by Scott Snyder, Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Karl Mostert, Trevor Scott, Norm Rapmund, Romulo Fajardo Jr., and AndWorld Design ties into the massiveDark Nightsstoryline, which is availably digitally and in various collected editions from DC Comics.
8Cassandra Cain Was Brainwashed into Turning Against Her Moral Code
Robin: Wantedby Adam Beechen and Freddie E. Williams II
Cassandra Cain is the Bat-Family’s best fighter, even being capable of defeating Batman in a one-on-one fight. Naturally, this makes the idea of her turning evil extremely dangerous, which is exactly what happened in the pages ofRobin: Wanted. During this storyline,Cassandra Cain was brainwashed by Deathstrokeand helped him and her father David Cain build an army of assassins. Cassandra also becamethe leader of a sect of the League of Assassins during this time, further bolstering Slade’s power.
Fans were distraught at Cassandra becoming a villain when she has one of the strongest moral codes of any Bat-Family member.
Eventually, Cassandra would be cured of the brainwashing and was allowed to rejoin the Bat-Family, but this wasa major mark on her history that fans and the Bat-Family themselves wouldn’t forget. Fans were distraught at Cassandra becoming a villain when she has one of the strongest moral codes of any Bat-Family member, which is why it was later retconned to be Deathstroke’s doing. Still, Cass was treated with disdain by most Bat-Family members after this, especially by Nightwing.
7Jason Todd Came Back to Life as Red Hood, a Major Villain
Batman#635 by Judd Winick, Doug Mahnke, Tom Nguyen, Alex Sinclair, and Pat Brosseau
One of the most well-known instances of a Bat-Family member returning as a villain is none other than Jason Todd.Jason was the second Robin and was honestly a fantastic Robin. A series of unfortunate events led to Jason being brutally killed by the Joker, and that was nearly the end of his story. Jason was dead for two decades, a new Robin was introduced, and everyone seemed to move on. That’s when Jason was brought back during the events ofInfinite Crisis. But he didn’t come back as a hero this time.
Jason Todd’s Robin died inBatman#428 by Jim Starlin, Jim Aparo, Mike DeCarlo, Adrienne Roy, and John Costanza, available now from DC Comics.
Jason eventually returned as the Red Hood, a brutal villain to the Bat-Family.Jason wanted to clean up Gotham City using methods that Batman never would, such as directly controlling gangs or killing any criminals that wouldn’t fall in line. For years, Jason was a recurring villain for both Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, with the story even framing Jason as Dick’s own personal Joker. Thankfully, Jason eventually rejoined the Bat-Family as a hero, but for a while he had a major villain era.
6Damian Wayne from the Dark Multiverse Was Pure Evil
Teen Titans#12 by Benjamin Percy, Mirka Andolfo, Romulo Fajardo Jr, and Corey Breen
Damian Wayne isone of the darkest members of the Bat-Family. When he first appeared, he was already bordering on evil, as he had been raised by Talia and Ra’s al Ghul and had no issue at all with killing criminals or anyone else who got in his way, as he demonstrated when he nearly killed Tim Drake. While Damian eventually redeemed himself and became a true hero, fans can see what would have happened if he never found redemption.
In the Dark Multiverse, after Batman murdered the Joker, he becamethe Batman Who Laughs.His first order of business was to massacre the entire Bat-Family, killing everyone he thought would be most likely to realize the change in his personality. The only people who survived were Alfred and Damian. The Batman Who Laughs eventually mentally breaks Alfred into serving him, butDamian immediately sides with now-evil father,resulting in Damian being transformed into a horrible monster of the night.
5Tim Drake Has a Dark Future as Savior
Teen Titans/The Legion Specialby Geoff Johns, Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Marc Campos, Sno-Cone Studios, and Rob Leigh
There’s been a lot of fan discussion over who should or shouldn’t take the mantle of Batman once Bruce retires, and most fans agree thatTim Drake should never be Batman.Tim himself has stated numerous times he has no desire to be Batman, and everyone should breathe a sigh of relief for that. Readers saw the horrific Batman Tim would be in the character Savior.Savior was a version of Tim who became Batman and began killing criminalsusing the same gun that killed Bruce’s parents.
Eventually, Savior was convinced that a great tragedy would happen if Jon Kent was allowed to live. To prevent this, Savior went back in time and tried to murder Jon. He was only stopped due to the combined might of theTitans of Tomorrow and the Super-Family coming together.
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4Barbara Gordon Became the Vampire Queen
DC vs. Vampires#12 by James Tynion IV, Matthew Rosenberg, Otto Schmidt, Francesco Mortarino, Pierluigi Casolino, and Tom Napolitano
Barbara Gordon has always been one of the most moral and stubborn members of the Bat-Family. No matter what, she always tries her best to make the world a better place. But in the world ofDC vs Vampires,sheends up becoming humanity’s greatest threat. After the death of the vampire king, Dick Grayson, Barbara took over as the next Queen. One of her first acts was killing Harley Quinn, who was the only person who had the vampire cure in her blood.
It’s truly one of the very few times that Barbara Gordon has been depicted as evil.
Anyone infected by the vampire virus immediately becomes a villain who only cares about furthering the vampire agenda. While Babs was one of the most lethal and effective vampire hunters as a human, she quickly became the next queen when she was infected - which is all the more notable because it’s truly one of the very few times that Barbara Gordon has been depicted as evil.
3Dick Grayson Was Once the Vampire King
DC vs. Vampires#1 by James Tynion IV, Matthew Rosenberg, Otto Schmidt, Francesco Mortarino, Pierluigi Casolino, and Tom Napolitano
While Barbara Gordon might be the vampire queen now, that’s only because she was turned by Dick Grayson, the vampire king.Nightwing was the perfect vampireand the last person that anyone expected. He was able to manipulate the heroes perfectly, and by the time they had figured out he was behind everything,Dick was able to attack and kill Batman. From there, he slaughtered the Bat-Family with very few managing to survive.
Dick is one of the greatest heroes in the Bat-Family, and it’s often stated that Dick is one of the best heroes that the Multiverse has to offer. But that certainly wasn’t the case in this universe, whereDick Grayson was the one who brought the world to its kneesand transformed the majority of the Justice League into vicious vampires.
2Alfred Pennyworth Became a Brutal Villain
Justice League#6 by Geoff Johns, Jim Lee, Scott Williams, Sandra Hope, Matt Banning, Mark Irwin, Alex Sinclair, Tony Avina, Hi-Fi Design, and Pat Brosseau
Earth-3 is a twisted planet where everyone’s moral alignment is reversed. Heroes are villains and the villains are heroes. This status quo has led to terrifying villains such as Ultraman and Owlman. Naturally, since Owlman is an evil version of Batman, it stands to reason that he’d also havean evil version of Alfred, which is where the Outsider comes in. This version of Alfred was homeless and was given everything by a young Thomas Wayne Jr - which didn’t stop him from firing the gun that killed Thomas' parents.
Alfred faithfully served Thomas and even helped Thomas form the Crime Syndicate and take over the entire planet, but naturally, the Crime Syndicate wouldn’t be happy with just one planet. Eventually, the Outsider found himself on Prime Earth, wherehe opened a portal that allowed the Crime Syndicate to come over, ultimately allowing them to defeat the Justice League and take over the planet.
1Batcow Once Killed Everyone on Earth
There is no denying that the most powerful member of the Bat-Family is Batcow.Batcow is the only member with a 100 percent success ratewhen it comes to saving people. But it also seems thatBatcow has a complete success rate for ending the worldas well. On one of the many terrifying planets in the Dark Multiverse, a virus breaks out that infects the Super-Pets. Stripey the Cat, Comet the Horse, and Batcow are all turned into murderous maniacs.
There’s no one who can stop Batcow’s rampage.
The Super-Pets then travel around the world, murdering every single human being on Earth. There’s no one who can stop Batcow’s rampage, and she plays a major part in ending the world. It’s unfortunate that such a powerful and well-respected member of theBat-Familywould turn to evil like this, but it’s just another reason to be thankful that Batcow is a hero on Prime Earth and not anotherBatmanvillain.
Batman
One of DC’s most iconic heroes, Batman is the vigilante superhero persona of billionaire Bruce Wayne. Forged by tragedy with the death of his parents, Bruce dedicated his life to becoming the world’s leading martial artist, detective, and tactician. Recruiting an entire family of allies and sidekicks, Bruce wages war on evil as the dark knight of his hometown, Gotham City.
