The Best “Forgotten” Batman Characters Of All Time

The Batman canon is long and illustrious, and with 81 years under its bat belt, it’s home to a lot of memorable characters. Most fans follow Batman and his Bat Family, his primary foes like Joker and Penguin, and the most notorious members of his Rogue Gallery, but there are dozens of other characters who get lost in the scuffles. When they only appear for an issue or two, or a few episodes of an animated series, it’s not hard to see why fans can’t recall them.

Forgotten Batman characters sometimes get a second chance when they’re re-imagined with a different look, a different backstory, or simply get selected to finally appear as a main character themselves, like Kite Man in Harley Quinn. They may have had brief introductions and story arcs, but there was always something about them that was at least entertaining.

10 Merrymaker

Like Dr, Harleen Quinzel, Byron Meredith was a psychiatrist who studied The Joker at Arkham Asylum, but when Dr. Quinzel ran off with The Joker when he escaped, Meredith decided to open a practice specializing in serving the Joker-obsessed.

Eventually his patients became members of the League of Smiles, a gang that perpetrated violence all over Gotham City but was in actuality a front for Meredith -now going by “Merrymaker”- taking his anger out on those who wronged him. Unlike Joker, Merrymaker wasn’t certifiably insane, though he was later committed to Arkham as a patient.

9 Reaper

Though he first appeared in Detective Comics #575 in the ’80s, Reaper was a character that was “created” in the ’50s when a wealthy socialite named Judson Caspian pledged himself to vigilantism after his wife was murdered. He cut up criminals with scythes on his hands, scythes that also doubled as guns, and contained many other wicked accouterments.

He was the impetus behind elements in Batman: The Mask of the Phantasm, and has had his mantle assumed by even Joe Chill, the man responsible for murdering Bruce Wayne’s parents. In recent incarnations, he’s taken his vigilantism too far and become a villain that Batman has to hunt down.

8 Nocturna

The alluring Nocturna was the adopted daughter of notorious crimelord Charles Knight in Detective Comics #529, who chose to work at the Gotham City Observatory, where radiation exposure changed her body’s composition and made her sensitive to light. While trying to rob a Wayne sponsored gala she encountered Batman, and became his Catwoman-like lover.

Prior to Crisis on Infinite Earths, she almost adopted Jason Todd and successfully married Batman, but once the continuity of all DC characters was reset, her storyline changed. She still remains one of the only characters to know Bruce Wayne’s true identity, and in recent incarnations is implied to be a vampire-like femme fatale.

7 Deacon Blackfire

Deacon Blackfire was one of the fasted villains to burn out in Batman’s Rogue Gallery, appearing and dying in 15 issues of Batman Eternal. Nevertheless, he had an interesting impact on the series despite not being very prominent in the greater Batman canon.

He was a villain who appealed to Gotham City’s impoverished population through evangelical means, which seems like an interesting angle that could be incorporated into modern Batman stories in a better way than his appearance in the Batman Arkham Asylum series.

6 Calendar Man

A minor supervillain known for committing crimes on corresponding dates and special holidays, Calendar Man’s longest and most impactful appearance was in Batman: The Long Halloween. He took on the enigmatic role of a Hannibal Lecter like figure who Batman approached to gain information on a serial killer with a similar modus operandi.

While he hasn’t been featured but a handful of times in The New 52 and DC Rebirth storylines, his recent acquiring of super powers that allow him to regenerate according to specific dates on the calendar have made him a less fascinating character.

5 Jason Blood/Etrigan the Demon

Batman has consulted noted demonologist Jason Blood on several different supernatural missions since he first appeared in The Demon #1 in 1972. His “companion”, Etrigan the Demon, appears from Hell and acts as an anti-hero aid to both Batman and the Justice League.

Etrigan the Demon took the form of a muscular human-like demon with yellow skin, red eyes, and a ridged forehead with thorns. Like Marvel’s Eddie Brock and Venom, the characters had a symbiotic and contentious relationship, but ultimately found ways to work together.

4 Red Claw

Red Claw (voiced by Kate Mulgrew) was an indomitable super villain who had strongly held beliefs tied to eco-terrorism, and made her first appearance in Batman: The Animated Series where her corporation Multigon participated in illegal enterprises that got the attention of the Caped Crusader.

Red Claw wasn’t in the series a great deal, but she stood out as a bold foe for Batman to face, and her final episode left her fate unknown. She would be an intriguing enemy to see resurface, perhaps even re-imagined with a different backstory.

3 Onomatopoeia

Created by Batman superfan Kevin Smith and mostly known through his works, Onomatopoeia is one of the more curious Batman villains to appear in recent years, specifically in Cacophony and Widening Gyre.

Batman is used to encountering some bizarre foes, but Onomatopoeia hunts down mediocre superheroes like trophies, placing their used masks on his mantle. He’s economic with his words, often preferring to verbalize sounds. There’s a lot more to be done with the character under new writers if he can be used in different areas independent of Smith.

2 Maxie Zeus

Having recently appeared in Harley Quinn, Maxie Zeus has made a brief appearance into the consciousness of Batman fans, but not enough to have a great impact. He first appeared in Detective Comics #483 as a history teacher who went insane after the death of his wife, using his incredible intelligence  and knowledge of ancient civilizations to seize power in Gotham City.

He’s made amusing appearances in JLU and The Batman, with plenty of quotable lines and a larger than life personality. If anything, his character should be repackaged as a member of Wonder Woman’s Rogue Gallery instead, unless the male dancer gig sticks in Harley Quinn.

1 Amygdala

A giant of a man named Aaron Helzinger, who was committed to Arkham Asylum for his violent outbursts had his amygdala removed in an effort to calm him down, but the procedure turned him into a more violent lunatic.

He was broken out by Bane, and while he teamed up with the Ventriloquist for a time, he eventually formed an unlikely bond with Dick Grayson. It was through knowing Nightwing that he redeemed himself, and in a way became a cautionary tale of what happens when the medical community only treats the symptoms and not the cause of a problem.

About The Author

Kayleena Pierce-Bohen
(1344 Articles Published)

Kayleena has been raised on Star Wars and Indiana Jones from the crib. A film buff, she has a Western collection of 250+ titles and counting that she’s particularly proud of. When she isn’t writing for ScreenRant, CBR, or The Gamer, she’s working on her fiction novel, lifting weights, going to synthwave concerts, or cosplaying. With degrees in anthropology and archaeology, she plans to continue pretending to be Lara Croft as long as she can.

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