Gotham City is the physical incarnation of horror itself. As if it weren’t enough that the whole place is dark and gloomy, its infamous, corrupt reputation allows horrific and unspeakable crimes to take place daily. In many cases, this has led to the creation of some of the scariest villains ever, not just in Batman comics or even DC comics, but in all of fiction! From mob bosses to psychopaths and even serial killers, we’re going to go through enemies of the Dark Knight and see which of them is the king of fear!
Honorable Mentions: Hush, Dollmaker, and Penguin
I was surprised to find out that people hated Hush, given how this guy almost brought Batman to his knees! For instance, Hush incorporated villains like Killer Croc, Poison Ivy, and even Clayface in a massive and complicated plot to push Bruce over the edge. He even manipulated Batman into almost killing the Joker after having Clayface pose as his corpse, and Bats probably would’ve killed him if Jim Gordon didn’t step in. Finally, while some fans criticize this, his irrational hatred towards Bruce (basically, Bruce’s father saved Thomas’ mother, preventing him from gaining his inheritance) adds to his unstable nature and makes him all the more dangerous.
However, as scary as Hush is, Dollmaker is one of the villains who truly creeps me out. In the comics, he’s a serial killer who creates “dolls” using the body parts and skins of his unfortunate victims. As if that wasn’t disturbing enough, later iterations of the character somehow get even worse. In CW’s “Arrow,” he’s still a serial killer, but I still remember getting chills watching him suffocate women before encasing them in a lasting substance and rearranging them like dolls on stands. In the animated “Batman vs Robin” movie, he’s a big dude with a balding head and a creepy doll mask, and he also abducts children to turn them into essentially mindless robots. Finally, the “Gotham” TV series shows him abducting people and keeping them locked up downstairs like animals, to harvest their organs and experiment on them. No matter what the version, Dollmaker proves to be one of Batman’s most disturbing enemies.
However, despite that, the Penguin is a much scarier villain than the previous two. With Hush, his irrational hatred is focused solely on Batman and rarely anyone else. With Dollmaker, his focus is broader in terms of his targets, but largely unprovoked. But Penguin? Let’s just say if you even look at him while walking past him on the street, you’ll be lucky to see tomorrow. The perfect example of this is the time when Penguin went out to a restaurant with his girlfriend, and everything was going fine…until the chef was unfortunate enough to laugh in Penguin’s direction. Thinking the guy was making fun of him, Penguin systematically ruined this poor man’s life: buying and closing the restaurant, framing his best friend, deporting his girlfriend, bulldozing his favorite park, infesting his church with killer bees, and even opening a liquor store across from his apartment (because the chef was a recovering alcoholic). All of it was enough to drive the poor man to suicide! So yeah, Penguin may look like a fat and deformed old man, but his power and influence make him a horrifying and formidable threat.
5. Professor Pyg
Truth be told, I never heard of this villain until I watched “Beware the Batman” and saw the ecoterrorist version of the character. But after learning about the original version of Pyg, I realized that BTB played it SUPER SAFE compared to this!
A former associate of a rogue U.N. organization, Lazlo Valentin was driven insane via exposure to mind-altering drugs he created. This would create an insatiable drive to make people “perfect,” which I was surprised to find out is also fueled by an obsession with the myth of Pygmalion (a sculptor tried to make a statue of a woman and bring it to life with Aphrodite’s power, so he could love her). Anyway, to create his version of perfection, he would abduct people and perform very bizarre and often unnecessary surgeries. He doesn’t even limit himself to your typical surgical tools, but he also uses things such as bone saws, butcher knives, cordless drills, and many other horrific methods. Eventually, the poor victims are transformed into mindless minions that he calls “Dollotrons,” the process of which is usually completed by Pyg melting or grafting abhorrent masks onto their faces. To make this whole process twice as disturbing, he wears a creepy pig mask while either singing opera or squealing like a real pig during the whole procedure. At least with Dollmaker, you’re either barely changed or lucky enough to be dead and done with it. But Pyg never grants you that courtesy. You’d live the rest of your life forever changed, but never knowing the full extent of that change.
4. Absolute Bane
With what’s been going on in the Absolute Batman comics, I honestly could’ve put any of the modified villains in this list. But after seeing this iteration of Bane in action, there is no doubt in my mind that he’s the worst out of all the other villains put together (at least until we get more on Absolute Joker).
Now, one thing to keep in the front of your mind is how huge and muscular Absolute Batman is. Seriously, the guy is so big that he rides around in a freaking dump truck for a Batmobile! Not to mention, he can also swing a giant battle axe with ease! So imagine the fear and humiliation when Bane kicked Batman’s butt in five seconds flat. This happened when Batman was infiltrating the “Ark M” facility in Gotham, only to be met by Bane, who is somehow even taller than him! But to show how powerful he is, Bane actually allowed Bats to attack him, but it ultimately doesn’t do anything, so Bane pins him down. Oh, but it gets worse: Bane reveals he didn’t actually use the Venom drug yet, but when he activates it, HE BECOMES A FREAKING GIANT! Seriously, he makes an already buff and jacked Batman look like a kid in a costume by comparison. Bane can actually close his massive fist around Batman’s head! As if that weren’t enough, Bane is also very intelligent, not just in battle but also with the human body. He uses this knowledge to go after Bruce’s childhood friends (who are the villains in the main timeline): for Oswald, Bane literally breaks and folds him like a pretzel, yet somehow missing every vital organ and making him two feet shorter; burns and mutilates half of Harvey’s WHOLE body; and shakes Eddie’s head so much that he has immense brain damage, which actually resulted in part of his brain sticking out of his head, with it being plugged from his specialized helmet and into machines. Absolute Bane is a 100% genuine MONSTER! I’d argue that not even our Bane would stoop to such a level. After all, all he did was break Batman’s back, and he did operate on a somewhat honorable code. Absolute Bane, on the other hand, doesn’t care who he has to hurt or kill to reach his goal. One thing’s for sure, though: he broke Absolute Batman in a way our Bane hasn’t…and couldn’t.
3. Scarecrow
It really hurts to put Scarecrow this low. Not only is he a popular fan-favorite (and one of my favorites, too), but he’s quite literally the very definition of fear itself (next to Batman, of course). Unfortunately, though, the next two villains surpass Scarecrow in the horror factor.
Nevertheless, Jonathan Crane’s potential should NOT be overlooked or understated! This dude is a huge menace to society itself, as many forms of media such as “Batman Begins” or “Arkham Knight” suggest. No matter the version, Crane has always used the one thing that’s made him so iconic over the years: his fear toxin, which targets your greatest fears and forces you to see them. However, Scarecrow is way more than his toxin, and that’s the worst part. For instance, since Crane has been obsessed with fear all his life, he engrossed himself in studying it in college. Eventually, he would even become a professor of psychology, until he got fired for his unethical experiments on his students. Even so, not only does Scarecrow know how to make a fear gas, but he also combines that with his experience in psychology. With this combination, he can truly dive deep underneath your skin and find out what makes you tick, adding to the fear (both before and after the gas) and controlling it like a master puppeteer. But according to batman.fandom.com, Scarecrow actually stopped using his gas recently and relied solely on his psychological experience, in hopes to prove to the inmates he was more than his gas. Horrifyingly, he would prove them right, as he actually drove two inmates to suicide, manipulated guards into freeing him, and went on a murder spree without using his gas (batman.fandom.com). Scarecrow actually got so bad that he was found worthy of a Sinestro Corps ring during the “Blackest Night” event, and while it was disappointing to only see him wield it briefly, we should honestly be more grateful. I mean, can you imagine a psychotic madman with so much knowledge and experience in fear running rampant across the galaxy as part of a Lantern Corps that LITERALLY feeds off the emotion of fear itself? Scarecrow is so terrifying that he could’ve easily graduated from a typical street villain if he had been given the chance.
2. Joker
I seriously can’t believe I almost didn’t consider Joker as part of this list, much less at this rank. Mainly, I wanted to give other villains a chance to shine, since Joker is already popular enough. But when I stop to think, REALLY think, about the Clown Prince of Crime, I’m reminded of how many times this psychotic clown gave me goosebumps!
For example, one moment that is seared into the brains of myself and fans everywhere is the torture and murder of Jason Todd, the second Robin. Joker kidnapped the poor kid, beat him within an inch of his life with a crowbar, and then blew him up before Batman could get to him in time. The Arkham game iteration of this event didn’t treat him any better, because Joker not only tortured him with a crowbar, but also used other methods such as branding and psychological torture for a whole year! No matter which version, no matter how long one event was compared to the other, NO ONE should have to endure such a horrible fate! But that’s nothing compared to what the Joker did in “The Killing Joke.” Due to the extremely graphic nature of the crime, I won’t get into it here (but if you’ve read or at least heard of it, you already know). But basically, Joker shot and paralyzed Barbara, then he kidnapped Jim and put him on a twisted carnival ride, where he showed him horrifying photos of Barbara to drive him insane. I seriously don’t understand how Jim kept his sanity after enduring what he went through, but he DEFINITELY deserves a year-long vacation and a huge promotion or something! Anyway, the most horrifying part about all of these is that Joker doesn’t have a reason for what he does. Much like the other crazies in this franchise, Joker just does whatever he wants, no matter how twisted it is, because he just can and wants to. Sure, sometimes he’s motivated because he wants to prove everyone can be just like him from one bad day, but 90% of the time, it’s just because he’s completely nuts. However, that doesn’t mean he’s irrational in his schemes. He surprisingly puts a lot of thought, effort, and even contingencies into his plans, which seriously test Batman to his limits. And when you have villains such as Riddler or Hugo Strange to match brain against brain with Batman, that’s saying a lot for a madman like the Joker. There is no limit to what the Joker could do, no linear goal, nothing. All he wants is to play with Batman and other people, if not break them first.
1. The Batman Who Laughs
What’s worse than a psychotic murder clown? A psychotic murder clown who is also BATMAN! Much like Absolute Bane, this living nightmare fuel hails from another universe, from Earth -22 of the Dark Multiverse, to be precise. And let me say that title more than lives up to its name, because that world’s Batman would be driven so deep into insanity that he became a global and even multiversal threat.
But how did he get to this point? And what makes him scarier than a monster like the Joker? Well, it all started when the Joker went on a MASSIVE killing spree in Gotham. Batman, unable to handle Joker’s chaos any longer, finally snapped his neck, but was infected by Joker Venom released from the corpse. After only a few days, Bruce straight-up shot the members of the Bat Family to keep them from warning the heroes, infecting Damian, and retrieving the other Joker-ized kids to be his twisted little minions! Oh, but he doesn’t stop there because he follows that up with annihilating the WHOLE Justice League (even Plastic Man)! He even infects Superman and Supergirl with black kryptonite to make them kill their own families and each other! Conquering the whole world was a cinch after that, but The Batman Who Laughs moved on to gathering other evil Batmen from the Dark Multiverse and launched an attack on our universe. Although The Batman Who Laughs would be killed, his story doesn’t end there. To make a long story short, Laughs was able to resurrect himself in another body with the powers of Dr. Manhattan, meaning he just became a cosmic-level threat! He can now warp or destroy reality, outrun the Flash, become omnipotent and omniscient, and could even take on Perpetua (a cosmic deity who created the multiverse). Seriously, Laughs literally threw planets, stars, and even galaxies at her during the fight! He was even able to imprison her using pieces from the Source Wall! So, yeah, Batman Who Laughs is not only the scariest Batman villain ever, but he’s arguably the most dangerous one as well.
