Everyone knows Batman, the iconic dark knight and world's greatest detective, but also the
man behind the mask is the billionaire orphan Bruce Wayne.
While his adventures in both Gotham city and across the world have been recognized throughout
his life, there are also other characters in the dc universe who have also put on the
cape and cowl to either protect his identity or protect Gotham city.
I'm Renash30 and today I'm counting down the 10 characters who became batman besides bruce
wayne.
#10 Plastic Man: - Starting with the former criminal, who fell
into a vat of chemicals, and was transformed and rehabilitated into becoming a superhero,
there was an episode in Batman the brave and the bold where he dawned the cowl as bruce
was temporarily out of commission.
After reading about his injuries in Aquaman’s new novel, the one where Batman almost died,
Plastic Man decides to become Batman to protect Gotham.
As he has the ability to transform into anyone or anything, he alternates and switches through
Batman various outfits through the decades, but for some reason chooses his own outfit
where he isn’t wearing pants and has goggles for eyes.
While finding Catwoman in her latest plot, to free tigers, he gets distracted by her
glamorous charms and almost forgets his role, but he regains his focus and is able to stop
her.
#9 Shazam: - Onto the superhero with the power and abilities
of the Greek gods, Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury, he has always
been known to be the protector of faucet city and is seen with bright red and yellow colours,
so in what scenario would he ever dawn the cape and cowl.
Well, returning once again to the same episode from Batman the brave and the bold, batman
is indisposed and Gotham is left unprotected.
As Shazam also decides to become Batman, he also dawns his own version of the batsuit,
where we see his own style cape and a sash instead of a utility belt.
When it came to fighting large supervillains, like Solomon Grundy and killer croc, he was
able to knock them out with one punch, leaving the other villains in shock, but as they get
the upper hand on him, he questions how Batman does this alone though ends up defeating all
of them.
#8 Aquaman: - Now the king of the sea, who is known as
the ruler of Atlantis and his ability to communicate with creatures of the ocean, he has oddly worn
a batsuit to become Batman.
Though he doesn’t have fighting skills, motivation and darkness like Bruce, he definitely
tries his best to become him.
Returning back to the same episode in Batman the brave and the bold, where Batman suffered
an injury that forced him to heal and not fight crime, Aquaman is another hero who decided
to dawn the cape and cowl to protect Gotham City.
As he also wears his own version of the batsuit, as we see he still uses his own belt and decides
to keep his yellow facial hair, he makes his entrance using his own grapple and battles
the penguin and his henchman.
Struggling to catch up with penguin's land submarine, he questions how Batman does this
alone, but we see later that he captured him.
#7 Green Arrow: - Continuing with the world-famous archer,
vigilante and superhero, we have seen many appearances of both he and the dark knight
working side by side.
Through many adventures together, Green Arrow, has picked up on many things that define what
Batman stands for.
Now for the last time, returning back to the same episode where batman has serious injuries,
Green Arrow is the final hero who decides to become batman and protect Gotham.
As he tries his best impression of batman to scare criminals, he lacks the level of
intimidation and fails to throw a Batarang.
Resorting back to using arrows to take down many criminals from Batman the Brave and the
Bold's rogues gallery, he also questions how batman does this alone but emerges victorious
in the end.
As all batmen converge to stop the joker, the joker knocks them all out, resulting in
batman coming to the rescue and them realizing that there is only one true Batman.
#6 Superman: - One of the most popular superheroes, just
like batman, of course, we know both Superman and Clark Kent to be iconic.
While both Batman and superman are opposites of each other, except for both being superheroes,
it's difficult to believe that the man of steel could transition into the role of the
dark knight.
Well other than not having the knowledge of various martial arts, among other things,
Superman has often dawned the cape and cowl on many occasions.
Seen twice swapping outfits with batman to try and trick lex luthor, the most awesome
time he became batman is shown in a crossover episode with the new batman adventures.
As superman learns that batman is missing in Gotham, he finds robin handling the city
alone during a crime spree and decides to become him to let the city know that batman
hasn't disappeared.
Though he initially struggles pulling it off, with Robin's help, Superman is able to convince
others of batman's return and is able to intimidate criminals.
Now while staying in the shadows and using his powers to his advantage, he uncovers that
Brainiac is behind Bruce's sudden disappearance and puts a stops to his plot, so definitely
honouring the title.
#5 Thomas Wanye: - We all know the origin story of Batman,
where after the Wayne family exited a movie theatre or soap opera in some cases, they
walked along crime alley where Thomas and Martha were murdered in front of Bruce, giving
him the fear, anger and motivation to become Batman.
Now for those who aren't familiar with the flashpoint storyline, the flash ran back in
time to save his mom from being killed and inadvertently created an alternate timeline
called flashpoint.
In this reality, instead of Thomas and Martha dying in crime alley, it was Bruce who died
instead which gave Thomas the motivation to become batman.
Funding his vigilante crusade through various casinos, which he also uses to spy on criminals,
we find a very different version of Batman.
Other than the batsuit being completely different, we learn that Thomas doesn't follow Bruce's
code of not killing and uses dual handguns to eliminate criminals, very similar to red
hood.
Now, after learning from barry that Bruce is alive in his timeline, Thomas helps barry
get his powers back, joins other heroes in preventing WW3 and helps defeat zoom so the
flash can reset the timeline, so basically, all in a days work of being batman.
#4 The Joker: - The Clown Prince of Crime, known best for
his antics to make everyone smile and becoming batman's archenemy, but is maybe a character
you didn't see coming.
Sure he has played the hero a couple of times but when has the most iconic and popular supervillain
ever dawned the cape and cowl.
If you've seen and remembered the animated series, The Batman, which in case you haven't,
I would recommend it, you may recall an episode where Batman was infected by the Joker.
The episode begins with the joker dawning his own version of the cape and cowl and starting
to fight crime, except rather than sending criminals to jail, he infects them with joker
gas.
When Batman confronts him, he reveals if he couldn't beat him, he would join him, and
since batman needs a joker, he infects bruce with a toxin that will slowly kill him from
laughter.
Though his intentions should be good, as he's dressed as batman, the offences he targets
barely qualify as crimes and his punishments are far from minor.
While his transition into becoming batman only happens in one episode, it's still cool
to see the joker in the role of the dark knight, I mean he even has his own suit-up sequence
and a batmobile.
#3 Alfred: - Moving onto the butler, who we recognize
as Bruce's most trusted ally, is one I would say holds batman and the batfamily together.
He heals bruce's injuries, always keeps a batsuit ready for him and is always in service
when someone needs him, so in what scenario would he ever wear the cape and cowl to become
batman.
Through various shows in the decades, we see that he dawns the suit to protect bruce's
secret identity, whether being serious
or as a joke, or to come to the rescue as bruce is indisposed.
I'm not saying he can't handle himself, cause he can, but rather than beating up criminals,
his responsibilities fall under helping bruce.
In the Batman 1966 series, we find Alfred climbing a building and using the gadgets
in the utility belt to rescue robin and bruce from the joker.
In the batman series, when a reporter becomes suspicious when bruce arrives just when batman
leaves, Alfred dawns the suit to fool them.
Finally in the batman the brave and the bold, when lex luthor discovers the Batcave, Alfred
uses the gadgets to distract him and buy time for bruce to suit up.
In a nutshell, Alfred is always ready to become batman and willing to do anything to protect
bruce.
#2 Terry McGinnis: - Travelling to Gotham's future, otherwise
known as neo Gotham, we meet the black and red batman beyond.
Coming from a very loving family, those unfamiliar with Terry's origin might question why he
would ever want to become the dark knight.
Well, he disobeyed his father a lot, and when he was killed due to investigating an issue
at Wayne-powers, like bruce, he blamed himself for not doing more and had regret.
After meeting Bruce and accidentally discovering the Batcave, Terry shows him the evidence
of the issue but loses it to the man responsible for his father's death, Derek powers.
Wanting vengeance like bruce and thinking that no one will do anything to stop Derek,
he steals the bat-suit from the Batcave and goes after him, where we see new additions
to the suit like rocket boots and retractable wings.
While terry doesn't get the revenge he initially wanted, bruce offers him a job and decides
to train him to become his protege and Gotham's new protector.
Like Batman, Terry gets new tools, like a better batmobile, and faces off against the
usual irregular supervillains, such as shriek and blight, but as bruce said when it came
to fighting the joker.
#1 Dick Grayson: - Finishing off with batman's partner, the
original robin and boy wonder, we know that he left the cave to make a name for himself
and become Nightwing, the defender of bludhaven.
While he originally looked up to bruce and batman, after being adopted and joining him
on his crusade, the older he got, the more he realized that he never really knew him
at all.
Sure there's that one episode in batman the brave and the bold where dick willingly took
up the mantle when bruce retired, but in every other scenario, he would normally decline
because it would be less of a chance he might become like him.
This is first seen in an episode in the new batman adventures, where after realizing that
he doesn't approve of his tactics and that being batman's partner takes up a lot of his
time, he quits as robin and leaves.
Now if we take the film batman bad blood as the final example, we see that after bruce's
disappearance, dick is forced to put on the cowl, as he knows that if batman doesn't return,
chaos will break loose.
While he's great as batman in any show or film, he usually resents
the idea of putting on the suit, as he's struggled for years to get out of bruce's shadow.
And those are the 10 characters who became batman besides Bruce Wayne.
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