Every Evil Version of Batman From DC’s Dark Nights: Death Metal Event

Warning: Spoilers for all Dark Nights: Death Metalbooks!

In the aftermath of the massive crisis-level event known as Dark Nights: Death Metal, the heroes and villains of the DC Comics universe have conquered the evil that is The Batman Who Laughs and given birth to a mysterious new future timeline called Future State. And while the Future State initiative is currently sweeping across all DC books, giving fans original stories for new and old characters alike to enjoy, the lasting effects of Death Metal’s epic finale are still fresh in fans’ minds.

With upward of twenty books total exploring all aspects, angles and corners of the Death Metal event, the sheer amount of evil Batmen populating each book is truly a sight to behold, and now with Death Metal firmly in the rear view mirror, it’s time to look back and make sense of the seemingly never-ending number of Dark Multiverse Batmen. From sight gags, to actual named Batmen, to blink and you missed it mash-ups, to hilarious one-off appearances, Batman had a lot of page-time by the end of this crisis (and for good reason), so strap on your utility belts, rev that Batmobile and get ready for a spin around the Dark Multiverse, Death Metal-style.

The Dark Knights of Evil

Holdovers from the original Dark Nights: Metal event, it goes without saying that the initial dark Batmen who invaded the DC universe are some of the best. Returning in a much lesser capacity the second go-around, The Dark Knights consisted of The Drowned (an Aquaman/Batman hybrid), The Dawnbreaker (a Green Lantern Batman), The Merciless (Batman wearing Ares’ helm), The Devastator (a Doomsday/Batman hybrid), The Murder Machine (an Alfred A.I. corrupting Batman’s mind through his mechanical body), The Red Death (a Batman who stole The Flash’s speed), and of course The Batman Who Laughs (a Jokerized Batman), as well as his ultimate form, The Darkest Knight. Death Metal immediately hit the ground running and didn’t look back.

Following up these greatest hits, future issues introduced the magically inclined Bat-Mage, the anti-life equation corrupted Darkfather, the Cthulu-like monstrosity Bathomet, the size-changing Batom, the Solomon Grundy composite Black Monday, the Chemo looking Batman Chiroptor, the Amazo Batman Batmazo, and the Punisher-esque Grim Knight. Not to be outdone, the Mongul composite of Warbat, the Brainiac/Batman hybrid Collector, the Red Lantern Atrocitus mash-up Batrocitus, the Martian Manhunter meld Mindhunter, the Silver Surfer-esque Night Glider, the Hugo Strange-like doctor Dr. Arkham, and the hilariously over-the-top Lobo Batman, The Batman Who Frags, continued to lay the smack down on the entirety of the DC universe as their fellow Batmen did the same.

More Dark Knights of Evil

Waiting in the wings for their moment to shine, the A.I. consciousness of Batman was put into both a monster truck (?) called Batmobeast, and the Batcave’s very own robotic Tyrannosaurus Rex trophy (!), perfectly named Batmanasaurus, or to reference his even better nickname, “B. Rex.” Along with these wildly unique Batmen, there’s Castle Bat who’s quite literally a Batman Gotham City, Ark, who is the composite of all super villains held in Arkham Asylum, the omnipotent Batmanhattan, who is a Batman with the powers of Watchmen’s Dr. Manhattan, Quietus, the Lazarus Pit combination of Batman, Ra’s Al Ghul and The Signal, and even the cutie pie that is The Batman of Two Lifetimes, a cloned version of Batman that accidentally comes back to life as a literal infant, complete with a psychotic outlook on life. There’s also a team of power ring warriors brandishing all colors of the Emotional Spectrum called the Rainbow Batman Corps.

In a final push to help the bad guys win, the vampire Batman (hailing from Earth-43 aka Red Rain Batman), a Starro Batman, controlled by an evil Starro (duh!), and a handful of unnamed but still “in-costume” Batmen put it all on the line to try and help the forces of evil come out on top (spoiler: it didn’t work out well for them). Consisting of a bunch of composite characters that might not have proper names but can easily be sorted out based on their costumes and overall look, these hybrid Batmen took cues from other heroes and villains residing in their corners of the Dark Multiverse, and became something more. As seen throughout the event, Etrigan, Plastic Man, Deathstroke, Scarecrow, Metallo, Clayface, Penguin, Red Tornado, Firefly, Prometheus, armored Lex Luthor, the Court of Owls, the Bat Tribe, Mr. Freeze, Bane, and scores of other villains and heroes have each singularly combined with a different version of the Dark Knight to produce even more evil versions of him, with each being more sadistic and wicked than the last.

Honorable Mentions

With all of these evil Batmen running around, there are a few that aren’t technically versions of Batman, but still count as they were pulled from the depths of the Dark Multiverse along with the rest to lay siege to the worlds above. Daughter of Wonder Woman and Batman, the bloodthirsty character of Kull, The Pearl aka Martha Wayne, Owlman, the evil version of Batman from Earth-3, The Black Fleet consisting of all of Batman’s aquatic vehicles and weapons commanded by the Death Metal version of Aquaman, and even the Robin King, a young Bruce Wayne who never fully made it into Batman-hood (because he himself killed his parents in Crime Alley), are all versions of Batman in a sense that they have twisted and bastardized the crime fighting ideals of a man who puts his life on the line every night into something nearly unrecognizable, becoming monsters and psychopaths in the process. Regardless of their Bat-worthiness, the threat these other characters posed to the remaining heroes of the DC universe throughout Death Metal can’t be denied.

So while there might be a few more unnoticed or unnamed Batmen still kicking around the pages of Dark Nights: Death Metal, this “Where’s Waldo?” of Batmen is a fun exercise in seeing the creative minds behinds DC Comics’ biggest event tell a wildly epic story while at the same time still having fun in between panels. Death Metal might be over, but Batman’s evil brethren will always be there, lurking in the shadows, ready for another chance to claw their way from the dark.

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