The Walking Dead is an extremely popular series in America right now.
Peaking at over 14 million viewers in the US, the grim reality of a zombie apocalypse
seems to be on everyone’s minds.
Often I wonder how long I would survive in such a world.
If I’m honest with myself, I know I’d probably not last for more than 24 hours.
But then I got to thinking: what if someone with a better skillset for survival found
themselves in such a world?
What if our cast of survivors was comprised of some of our favorite characters from another
series?
It couldn’t just be any series- for example it’d be difficult to see the cast of Dragonball
Z having a difficult time against walkers, but what if we took characters from a more
realistic setting?
Today I wanna talk about a reality in which the world of the Batman Universe was plagued
with a zombie apocalypse.
How would our cast fair then?
More interestingly, how would the story go if we put a cast of villains together?
In 2002, a new villain- The Mortician, was introduced in an issue of Gotham Knights.
In the story, he injects corpses with an infested embalming fluid full of bioluminescent parasites
in an attempt to cheat death and bring back his mother and father.
He is successful in reanimating the dead, but in the end he is stopped by Batman who
finds an anti-virus.
What would happen if Batman didn’t stop him?
When I think of the Batman Universe, the first 5 villains that come to mind are The Joker,
Mr. Freeze, The Riddler, Poison Ivy, and The Penguin.
For this video, I want to explore the possibilities of a world in which these 5 villains were
grouped together, trying to survive.
Who would be the first to die?
Who would survive the longest?
How long could they last?
Starting with the most likely to die to who would survive the longest, we’ll analyze
each character’s survivability based on their skillset, personality, and how they’d
interact with the group.
Given the supervillain nature of our band of subjects, it’d be difficult seeing any
of these characters having a hard time against walkers alone, so I’ll be focusing more
on how they’d fair in the harsher survivalist environment set on by a zombie outbreak rather
than the zombies themselves.
So who would die first?
I’m sure a lot of people will be surprised to see their favorite villain up first on
the chopping block, and I’ll be honest, when thinking about who would be at the top,
I was personally vying for it to be The Joker.
He’s my personal favorite and would be the obvious leader amongst the group.
One of his greatest assets in his campaign for chaos is his extreme unpredictability.
If he were roaming on his own, his innate fearlessness would make it easy to subdue
walkers that got in his way.
Were he to encounter a group of survivors, I imagine his ability to talk a crowd would
either charm them enough to let him join, or be executed on the spot.
He does possess a tenacity to get what he needs when things get serious and his eccentric
charade could come in handy as a distraction from ulterior motives.
He isn’t one to let a good opportunity pass him by.
While there does seem to be an overall sense of planning and mastermind execution in his
comical operations against Batman, he does also show signs of a character who acts impulsively
and shows little to no sign of remorse or second thought.
This would make him an incredibly dangerous force to his allies in a zombie apocalypse.
If the group were somehow cornered by walkers or another band of survivors, I could easily
see him finding humor in the situation and either betraying one of his allies to escape,
OR throwing himself into the horde while laughing maniacally in the irony.
There’s always a method to his madness or so it would seem, but his wild card factor
coupled with the fact that his party gags would be exhaustible and impractical against
a horde would likely serve to just annoy his allies.
Also if he was in a standoff situation, a flag gun wouldn’t be very useful.
So what about if he were somehow the leader of a group?
A huge part of the reason why The Joker has so much influence in Gotham in the first place
is his status as a strong figure for anarchy.
What’s more chaotic than a world overturned by a zombie apocalypse?
In a dystopian society, I do not think his band of henchman would stay loyal, and The
Joker might only come across as an authoritative figure, exactly the opposite of what the textbook
anarchist stands for.
Stripped of his merry band of thugs, The Joker alone holds little chance of surviving.
And given the psychopathic, sadistic, and chaotic nature of his character, I think The
Joker would find the severely underpopulated world of a zombie outbreak miserable and boring.
Were he bitten, I can see him offing himself rather than turning.
Mr. Freeze has arguably the most effective offensive weapon amongst his allies.
A gifted cryo-engineer, he brings a strong value to the group since he’d be able to
craft freeze-weapons and ice-cold protection.
Walkers don’t do well in arctic temperatures.
There aren’t a ton of zombie films that showcase the undead in these kinds of environments
and that’s for good reason.
They’d be immobilized by the deep freeze and rendered too weak to move.
His full body armor encases him and protects his skin from potential bites all over, and
even if he was bitten, his unique physiology makes him immune to most viruses and bacteria.
So why is it that he would be the next to die?
While I do think Mr. Freeze is a powerhouse of offensive force for our team of survivors,
strip away his suit and he’s just a frail man obsessed with restoring his wife from
a degenerative disease.
Well actually, strip away his suit and he can’t survive in the first place because
of his cryogenic physiology.
Because his body runs on sub-zero temperatures, he can only survive in the cold.
While being immune to the virus is a good perk, for Mr. Freeze, it comes at the cost
of being heavily reliant on his cryosuit.
He’s as vulnerable as an astronaut in space.
Eventually, he would exhaust his suit’s energy stores and it might not be as convenient
to simply go back to a lab to recharge in this dystopian world.
The second the suit shuts down, or is damaged- he’s finished.
Also in his backstory, he’s almost entirely driven by his drive to either restore his
wife or get revenge on those that seem to get in his way of doing that.
I don’t think he’d be interested in sharing the post-apocalyptic world with this band
of villains and would probably attempt to travel away from the world up north where
there aren’t any undead or living.
Unfortunately for him, a clunky cryosuit doesn’t exactly go unnoticed and he’d likely be
killed by another survivor for his powerful technology en route.
While The Penguin isn’t a very physically strong or intimidating presence, he can be
an incredibly charming character who excels in business management, able to organize a
following both above and below the law.
His true nature however, is that of a brutal and sadistic crime lord.
His intellect and ability to play both sides would make him a great ambassador to organize
deals with other groups of survivors.
While he’d likely orchestrate others to do dirty work for him, if he did ever need
defend himself from walkers or survivors, his trick umbrellas are equipped with motorized
flight capabilities, flamethrowers, machine guns, and narcotic gas.
He is also a master of Judo and despite his physical stature, possesses some levels of
heightened agility.
His unassumingly timid and non-threatening physical presence would especially give him
a stark advantage against enemy survivor groups.
Over the course of the zombie outbreak, I can see Penguin charming his way into a position
of power and even eventually finding himself as the public leader of a group of survivors.
His campaign would be one run out of a fear based on his violent notoriety.
To a new group of survivors, he’d be the type of leader that while initially charming,
would still be unquestionably seen as a bad guy- similar to The Governor.
His downfall would come from his vicious tendencies.
In Tim Burton’s Batman, The Penguin bit off the tip of a man’s nose and wanted to
kill children.
In The Arkhamverse, Penguin gouged out a client’s eyes and pushed them into the freeway.
And in Gotham, Penguin fed his stepmother her own children.
He’s a lighter version of The Joker in terms of violence and in the end, his true sadistic
nature likely wouldn’t remain concealed for long- being considered too dangerous and
unpredictable for a team of survivors to follow blindly with respect.
It’s likely that if the undead don’t get to this loose cannon, he’ll eventually be
done in by his own team instead.
The Riddler would fill in the role of an adviser and tactician in the group.
His deductive and analytical skills are on par with Batman’s and like he did in pre-apocalypse
Gotham, he would use this to his advantage and be able to amass a system for great wealth
in the new world order.
Controlling a large mass of resources in the zombie apocalypse would grant him a certain
power.
With his mass wealth and manipulative charismatic skill, he isn’t too different from The Penguin-
and it’s likely he wouldn’t often need to get his hands dirty.
What gives him a greater rate of survivability than Penguin is his superior mastermind intellect,
extreme wit, and relatively calmer composure.
He would likely set actions in motion from the shadows, like a puppeteer.
In one Batman crossover where the inmates of Arkham Asylum roam free, The Riddler chooses
to flee Gotham rather than stay in the lawless chaos that ensues.
This shows a sense of rationality and caution that would be useful in a zombie apocalypse.
On top of that, his skill in escapology and mind games would make it difficult to keep
him a living prisoner in any situation.
Also throughout the canon, Riddler is shown to switch sides frequently, sometimes opting
to aid Batman in solving a crime, and at other times, growing bored of the simplicity in
crime-fighting.
He seems to be driven mostly by powerful intellect and above all else, serves himself.
He seems to be very similar to Hannibal Lecter from Silence of The Lambs, a powerful and
intelligent ally, so long as the alliance benefits him in some way.
His downfall would likely be his modus operandi.
An egomaniac, Riddler can’t resist the urge to show off how smart he can be, purposely
leaving clues that invite others to try and catch him.
He doesn’t simply kill off an enemy, not without first presenting some sort of riddle
or a trap.
Like a corrupted Jigsaw, he would probably set up his enemies in an elaborate trap and
present them with an opportunity to survive.
Treating other enemy survivors in this manner could very well end up backfiring.
It would certainly be interesting to see how he’d fare against a radical group like The
Saviors.
In addition to being an accomplished gymnast and skilled in hand-to-hand combat, Poison
Ivy greatly overpowers the competition with her unnatural abilities.
Given her greatly altered hybrid physiology, it’s likely that she wouldn’t even be
detected by walkers since she wouldn’t register as a flesh and blood organic being.
Even if she were somehow detected and bitten by a walker, her toxic immunity would render
any viruses or bacteria ineffective and her status as a hybrid plant-being would mean
that any serious physical damage sustained could regrow over time.
Her touch is deadly and she also has an ability to infect other humans with a mind-controlling
fungus that has been described to mutate in response to the host’s biology.
This means that not only would other humans not pose much of a threat, but that she may
very well even have control over the undead.
She can even hear and speak through plants, granting her a quasi-omnipresence in a zombie-ravaged
world.
Ivy wouldn’t have much to worry about in terms of enemy survivors or undead.
Out of our cast of villains, Poison Ivy is the only one with what could truly be considered
superpowers.
Her abilities to manipulate, communicate with, and rapidly create plantlife would be highly
valued by any group of starving survivors and I think it’s safe to say that a being
of her status would have major influence in the zombie apocalypse.
Even if she were captured and held prisoner, she’d be too valuable for any smart group
of survivors to kill off.
Her body emits pheromones that are capable of seducing both men and women and she can
even create truth serums which would be invaluable in a world where the living lie and steal
to survive.
It would be in her best interest to use this to her advantage.
Of course, she’s not all powerful.
Like a plant, she does require healthy amounts of sunlight, CO2, and water to survive.
Significant in-exposure would weaken her abilities over time and could leave her vulnerable to
attack.
But, in a world so devoid of humans, it follows to presume that the elements necessary for
growth would be in abundance and plant life would flourish.
Another thing to consider is that her connection with the plants she controls is similar to
that of limbs, and their destruction would likely cause her great pain.
Her biggest weakness and most probable downfall stems from her delicate grasp on sanity.
Just like her girlfriend, Harley Quinn, Ivy was driven insane when she became a supervillain
and although she is biochemical genius, she is a mad one, obsessed with creating and sustaining
her own family of sentient plant beings.
In the game, Arkham Knight, Ivy showed a motherly affection toward her plants and is distressed
whenever they were harmed or if she sensed that they were harmed.
All it would take to control her is someone clever enough to orchestrate a way of endangering
her plantlife- she would likely die before letting any harm come to the nature she created.
So that wraps up my list of who I think would survive the longest in a zombie-ridden Gotham.
What about you?
Who do you think would survive the longest?
And if it were the zombie apocalypse and you had to choose, would you align yourself with
The Joker, Mr. Freeze, Penguin, The Riddler, or Poison Ivy?
Let me know in the comments below!
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