Over the past year, DC has added some pretty terrifying new villains to Batman’s rogue
gallery.
And they’re not any old villain; they’re alternate versions of himself, straight out
of the evil dark multiverse.
In the aftermath of the Dark Nights Metal event, a new Batman who calls himself the
Batman Who Laughs has returned, and with him, he’s brought a deadly henchmen that may
just be one of the most threatening foes that Batman has ever faced; the Grim Knight.
But who is he?
What does he want?
And what is he capable of?
Well, today, we’re aiming to answer some of those questions with our list of the top
10 Grim Knight Shocking Facts.
Keep in mind that there’s still issues on their way from the Batman Who Laughs limited
series that will reveal more about the Grim Knight over time, so this is by no means a
comprehensive list, but definitely contains a lot of gruesome details about the brand
new character.
So with that in mind, let’s get to it!
10 Who is he?
The Grim Knight is another evil alternate of Bruce Wayen, brought forth from the Dark
Multiverse that we were introduced to during the Dark Nights Metal event.
That story event saw a demon named Barbatos trying to pull the regular multiverse into
the dark multiverse, and was stopped by Batman, but not before unleashing a group of evil
Bruce alternates to take out the Justice League in the process.
Their leader was the Batman Who Laughs, an amalgamation between Bruce Wayne and the Joker
after Batman is exposed to a toxin inside the Joker’s body that is released when he
dies on Earth -22.
Anywho, the Grim Knight is said to be the worst Batman alternate next to the Batman
Who Laughs, who the latter saved in order to carry out his own plan in the aftermath
of that story.
He describes the Grim Knight as the deadliest man alive.
9 His Origin How does Batman become someone like the Grim
Knight?
Well, turns out that this version of Batman si what Bruce Wayne would have become if he
were to have picked up the gun that Joe Chill dropped after he murdered his parents, and
then shot Joe Chill, killing him.
According to the Batman who laughs, I quote, “It’s not just the guns though.
No, on his world, he has Wayne Enterprises weaponized.
Chips in your GPS.
Valves in your water filtration.
Your minivan drives off a bridge; you never know who killed you.
He’s us at total war.”
He’s also got chips and things in every possible piece of technology you own that
you’ve purchased from a company owned or controlled by Wayne Enterprises.
It’s scary AF, especially in the digital age.
According to co-creator Scott Synder, the Grim Knight is a cosmic character of sorts,
one that the Batman Who Laughs found after traversing the Dark Multiverse, and felt was
a valuable asset since he uses lethal force indiscriminately to win his battles.
Synder also described him to be like a Punisher Batman, referring to the famous Marvel character,
The Punisher.
8 Arkham Asylum In the Batman Who Laughs issue 1, where the
Grim Knight is first introduced, he takes a little trip to Arkham Asylum to pay some
familiar faces a visit.
That’s where he immediately makes a jarring first impression by obliterating several security
guards, and then attacking Mister Freeze, almost burning him to death after Freeze pleads
for his life, saying that this isn’t like him, and that he’s getting better at controlling
his anger.
But the Grim Knight is on a very specific mission to help aid the Batman Who Laughs
in finding the Joker, but more on that in a bit.
7 He Kills If our last point wasn’t a dead giveaway,
no pun intended, this alternate version of Batman kills.
Within the first few panels of his first appearance, he’s slicing innocent security guards in
half.
He point blank shoots a guard in the head.
Another one he steps on, smashing his boot into the face of a guy whose already knocked
out.
6 He uses guns When we referred to shooting in our last number,
we definitely meant guns.
This is a point that one of the Arkham Asylum guards notices; Batman, after killing the
first set of guards, reveals a whole loaded arsenal stashed beneath his cape.
One guard exclaims that it can’t be Batman, because Batman doesn’t use guns.
That’s when this alternate utters the line “he does now” and proceeds to murder them
all.
It’s not just guns he’s limited himself to either.
The Grim Knight’s bullets even have bullets inside of them; at one point, in issue two
of the Batman who Laughs, he shoots Batman with a sniper rifle, and the bullet lodged
in Bruce has a bat taser within it.
In addition to fire arms, the Grim Knight also uses weapons that burn his victims, throwing
knives, rocket launchers, carbines, grenades, you name it.
5 Accuracy Speaking of other weapons, let’s take a
quick moment to discuss the terrifying accuracy the Grim Knight has.
In the first issue of the Batman Who Laughs, as the Grim Knight is about to open up the
Joker’s cell, he overhears a guard radioing in for help.
So what does he do?
Obviously, he murders the poor guy, throwing a knife through the man’s head without ever
looking at him.
Intense.
4 His Introduction One of the biggest questions press had for
the creative team behind the Batman Who Laughs series and the Grim Knight character is why
the Grim Knight wasn’t introduced during the Dark Nights Metal story event.
According to Synder, I quote, “the worry I had about bringing him in for Metal, honestly,
was that the other evil Batmen would pale in comparison to him.
I wanted to save him for this story because I feel like if we’re going to go dark and
we’re going to pull out all the stops, we might as well do it.
I want this to be kind of one of the most nightmarish challenges Batman has ever faced
and one of the best books that I’ve done.
So that means going to the darkest, most nightmarish places and being okay with that.”
3 Killed the Joker Sort of.
He was part of a plan to murder the prime earth Joker, hence why he entered Arkham Asylum.
Unlocking the Joker’s cell, the clown prince of crime mocked him, saying, “don’t tell
me you’re actually here to KILL me?”
To which the Grim Knight responded, no, but he is, and stepped aside to reveal the Batman
Who Laughs.
The latter impales the Joker through the skull, and it’s later revealed that that Joker
was simply a decoy, with the real one situated in the Batcave, undergoing surgery in an attempt
to find the toxin in his heart that when released, is the same toxin that transformed the Earth
-22 Batman into the Batman Who Laughs.
2 He Blew Up Wayne Tower In the Batman Who Laughs issue 2, Batman and
the titular character duke it out in Wayne Tower.
Right after the Grim Knight has shot Batman from afar, the Batman who laughs reveals that
the Grim Knight had dismantled all of the safety protocols for safely demolishing the
building; something that isn’t supposed to be active until no one is actually inside
the building.
Batman makes it out at the nick of time just as the Grim Knight blows up the whole tower.
1 His Own One-Shot It was announced at the very end of 2018 that
the Grim Knight would be getting his own spin off one shot comic.
According to the description of the issue, I quote, “The Grim Knight is his world’s
most dangerous vigilante, unafraid to use any weapon and go to any lengths to stop those
whom he deems worthy of death.
Trained with the finest arsenal Wayne money can buy, learn the secret origin of the second
deadliest Batman.”
It’s a 28 page story, with Jock returning to do the cover art for the issue and Synder
co-writing.
The issue will be out in March.
There we have it friends!
Are you excited for the Grim Knight solo issue?
We’ll likely do a part two of this list once more issues of the Batman Who Laughs
comes out, so keep your eyes peeled!
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