Batman is often treated like a god among mortal superheroes by dedicated comic fans.
After all, he's basically a genius ninja detective billionaire with enough money to build weapons
designed to beat the most powerful heroes and villains in the DC Universe.
Still, comics writers like to remind readers that Batman is totally capable of having his
bat-butt kicked up and down the streets of Gotham.
Even though he always bounces back, let's take a look at some of the heroes and villains
that have destroyed Batman.
Bane
Let's start with the obvious one: the big bad guy that beat Batman so badly that it
made the evening news.
In the summer of 1993, DC kicked off a major Batman event called Knightfall, in which Batman
becomes burnt out after Bane releases all of his greatest villains from Arkham Asylum
at once.
While Bats is overworked and overstressed, Bane discovers that the Dark Knight is Bruce
Wayne — which leads to a violent showdown in the Batcave.
Things don't go well for Batman: Bane dominates the fight against a weakened Caped Crusader.
He lifts Batman over his head and brings him crashing down over his knee, breaking Batman's
back and putting him completely out of commission.
It's become such an iconic takedown, that it made its way to the big screen in The Dark
Knight Rises:
It really is the most devastating hit that Batman has ever taken — but it's not the
only one.
Superman
Even within the ridiculous medium of comics, where anything is possible, it takes a lot
to believe Batman has a realistic shot at defeating Superman in a one-on-one fight,
but somehow, Batman often seems to come out on top.
Often...but not always.
There was the time villain Maxwell Lord made Superman hallucinate that he was battling
Darkseid in a gladiatorial arena, when in reality he was beating on Batman so badly
that Bruce ended up in a coma.
In the story Lex Luthor: Man of Steel, Batman is planning to attack Superman with kryptonite…
only to have Supes literally blow the rock out of Batman's hand, then pound Batman to
within an inch of his life, again.
Or how about the time an alien parasite called Blackrock took over Batman's body, granting
him superhuman strength, flight, and a whole lot of crazy?
Even fighting a Batman with super powers, Superman was able to punch the parasite right
out of his body.
By the way!
Punching is typically not a good solution for dealing with parasites.
Wonder Woman
In the 2016 graphic novel Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia, Batman is on the hunt for a woman
responsible for the deaths of sex slavers and drug dealers in Gotham.
And she just so happens to be the very same person Wonder Woman has been honor-bound to
protect.
When the two titans of the DC universe collide, things get ugly — mostly for Batman.
Diana beats him into submission and stands with a foot on his head.
If that isn't the ultimate symbol of Batman getting owned, we don't know what is.
He escapes by invoking an Amazonian ritual, but it's a pretty close call.
Prometheus
Though he's a villain you don't hear much about…
"Oh no, Promootheus!"
"Prometheus!"
...Prometheus is Batman's twisted mirror image, and in an even more literal way than Joker
or Two-Face.
Batman's family was gunned down by a street thug, but Prometheus' parents were criminals
killed by the police, leading him to swear vengeance upon those who attempt to bring
justice to the world.
Like Batman, he's a trained fighter, he's filthy rich, and he's got a sharp mind.
But despite sharing the same name, he has very little to do with the Prometheus who
makes an appearance in the Arrowverse.
Prometheus masquerades as the hero Retro and walks straight into the Justice League's Watchtower
with a helmet that grants him the skills of the 30 greatest martial artists in the world,
including Batman.
He then beats the snot out of everyone, and his trouncing of the Justice League only ends
when Catwoman whips him in the nethers.
Deacon Blackfire
The Cult is one of the darkest, most brutal stories in the Batman canon, thanks to the
vicious Deacon Blackfire, leader of a cult of Gotham's homeless, who've been brainwashed
into doing his murderous bidding.
During his investigation into the cult, Batman is captured by Deacon's forces and spends
a huge chunk of the tale being tortured… and kissed gently on the cheek… while high
on psychotropic drugs.
It's all an attempt to brainwash Batman into fighting for Blackfire's underground army.
Batman's eventually saved by Robin, but not before being reduced to a sobbing husk of
his former self, and having his entire worldview shattered.
The best part?
Robin finally gets Batman back for all of those meme-friendly slaps to the face.
Blackfire isn't even the only opponent to use drugs to take down Batman, either.
Swamp Thing
You might think that Swamp Thing is a joke, and if you've ever heard his old cartoon theme
song, you wouldn't be wrong.
"Swamp Thing… you are ama-zing."
Bad cartoons aside, Swamp Thing isn't just one of the most fascinating characters in
all of DC comics — he's also one of the most powerful.
In fact, he's won pretty much every fight he and Batman have gotten into.
When Batman chases Killer Croc into Swamp Thing's… uh, swamp, the big green guy takes
out Bats with a puff of hallucinogenic pollen.
The most memorable beatdown happened in Swamp Thing #53, when the muck man's wife is in
police custody and he responds by turning Gotham into a jungle.
When Batman confronts him, Swampy divides himself into many Swamp Things and just beats
the snot out of Batman like it's a gang initiation ritual.
Poor Batman never had a bat-chance.
Deathstroke
Slade Wilson is one of the deadliest characters in any comic book universe, regardless of
the publisher.
He was the world's greatest killer even before the government experimented on him, making
him even deadlier.
One of his first fights after getting his own comic book in the early '90s was with
Batman.
At this point the Dark Knight was already something of a legend, able to defeat any
foe that crossed his path.
So, it was kind of a big deal when Deathstroke and Batman threw down in an old-school fistfight,
and Deathstroke beat him into unconsciousness by tossing him into a bookshelf.
The only reason Batman is alive today is because Deathstroke spared him, and they ended up
hanging around together for a couple of issues afterwards.
Lady Shiva
The assassin known as Lady Shiva is one of the greatest martial artists in the world,
according to Batman himself.
When she's not an ally of Batman, she's kicking his butt, like in the pages of Nightwing #0,
when Shiva did battle with both Batman and Dick Grayson at the same time.
She downed Batman with a poison-tipped shuriken, then beat up Dick until she felt sorry for
him, and offered to train him.
He declined, but it was Lady Shiva's influence that convinced Dick Grayson to stop being
Robin and become his own man.
It was then that he decided to become Nightwing.
Not too many career decisions come from watching someone beat up your dad, but hey — comic
books are weird.
Joker
Crushing Batman psychologically and pushing him to the edge of his own sanity is the Joker's
primary objective, and the list of Joker's offenses is disturbing and endless.
But the only time that the Joker has been able to completely destroy Batman was when
he stole the awesome power of an interdimensional imp.
Using the abilities of Superman antagonist Mr. Mxyzptlk, Joker warps reality to kill
Batman over and over… until Superman makes him realize that even though Joker is all-powerful,
he just can't bear to let go of Batman.
"No, you... you complete me."
Darkseid
It's not surprising that someone like Darkseid, who's basically a god, can take out a flesh
and blood mortal like Batman.
What was surprising, however, was just how Darkseid did it.
During the Final Crisis storyline, it looked like Darkseid simply fried Batman to a crisp
with his weird eye lasers.
Of course, no one really ever stays dead in comic books for long...
As it happened, Darkseid replaced Batman's body with a dead clone — fooling Superman
and most of his Superfriends — and sent the real Batman traveling uncontrollably through
time.
Why would he bother with all of that?
Because Batman was turned into a weapon, whose forced time-travel adventures threatened to
undo all of reality.
Eventually Batman — with a lot of help from the Justice League — managed to escape back
to the present day without destroying all of existence.
Still, the important thing to keep in mind is that he got his butt kicked — and all
it took was a single glance.
"Holy spontaneous combustion!"
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