Super villains aren’t the only ones who can have terrifying aesthetics.
There’s a slew of heroes whose physical personas sends chills down the spines of criminals
everywhere.
In other words, they’re scary AF, to the point where some probably think they’re
the ones who should be locked up.
So today, we’re taking a look at the top 10 scary superheroes that should be locked
up in Arkham Asylum.
We’re operating under the hypothetical assumption that these heroes, for whatever reason, decided
to turn evil, and therefore find themselves facing some serious jail time inside of Gotham’s
facility for the worst of the worst.
These are all characters who would fit right in with the kinds of characters already behind
Arkham’s bars.
For the purpose of this list, we’re going to keep this to solely DC characters, since
it’s Arkham Asylum that we’re talking about having them locked up in.
So with all that in mind, let’s get to it!
10 Deadman Deadman is definitely one of DC’s more strange
and absurd superheroes.
He’s also one of the only superheroes who is technically dead.
Like, not alive in the slightest.
Deadman, aka Boston Brand, first appeared in 1967’s Strange Adventures issue 205 (how
apt).
He’s a ghost of sorts, who can possess any sentient being, but when not in possession
of another being, he’s entirely invisible and intangible; he’s a disembodied spirit
who can not be seen or heard by anyone alive, with the slight exception of some mystics
who can still perceive him.
If Deadman were to ever become more sinister in his disposition, it’s likely that, out
of all of the prisons kicking around the DC universe, Arkham would be the most fitting
for the spirit character, and have the best chance at holding him (for a while - Arkham
doesn’t have the best track record with breakouts, now does it?)
9 Etrigan Etrigan the demon is a creation of Jack Kirby’s,
and he’s from Hell.
First appearing in 1972’s The Demon issue 1, Etrigan is a character who is technically
a good guy, despite using a whole lot of violence when fighting against evil.
But his alignment is largely thanks to his bond with human Jason Blood.
He’s teamed up with Batman a bunch of times, having been based in Gotham City for a while,
and his abilities range from being immortal, having extrasensory powers, precognition,
the projection of hellfire, and being an expert in maleficium, which is witchcraft used with
the intention of harming another.
And with skills like that, it would be easy for GCPD forces, or other authoritative forces,
to presume a character like himself deserves to be locked up in Arkham.
And, let’s be honest, the whole yellow skin and horns thing probably wouldn’t help his
case much.
8 Negative Man Negative Man, most popular for his role in
the team Doom Patrol, first debuted in 1963 in My Greatest Adventure issue 80.
Since, he’s become one of the most fascinating yet strange characters in the publisher’s
roster of heroes (which, to be fair, can be said for most of the members of the Doom Patrol
team).
Negative man, aka Larry Trainor, looks like he crawled out of an old sci fi pulp novel.
A test pilot who was exposed to a radioactive field during his test flight of an experimental
aircraft, Larry would endure horrible burns that forced him to wear bandages over his
body, looking like a mummy meets invisible man (the latter is what his powers are often
mistaken as).
His body radiates negatively charged radiation and he can project a pure energy being out
of his body that can travel through matter for a brief period of time.
You can easily imagine a character with that kind of disposition using his powers for evil.
Luckily, Larry doesn’t, so it’s likely we’ll never see him as an inmate in Arkham,
but we could definitely imagine him fitting in there, regardless.
7 Ozymandias Jumping into a number with a character from
Watchmen, let’s talk about Adrian Viedt aka Ozymandias; the smartest man in the world
who managed to pull off the most insane scheme that killed millions and millions of people,
but also saved the world from nuclear war and a much greater death toll.
Ozymandias is responsible for the mass genocide at the end of Watchmen, having worked on a
plan that would inevitably bring nations together to fight a common foe (in the comics, a giant
squid creature presumed from an alien threat, and in the live action 2009 film, Doctor Manhattan
himself).
It’s a brillant plan that works, and he’s even able to outsmart the almost omnipotent
Doctor Manhattan in the process, using science to misdirect Manhattan’s clairvoyance abilities.
All in all, it’s an evil plan for the greater good, but considering he pulled the wool over
almost everyone’s eyes, that’s the kind of man some may argue should find himself
better suited locked up behind bars, where he can’t hurt anyone.
Even though he managed to save everyone else in the process.
6 Brother Power the Geek At first glance, you’d probably assume that
Brother Power the Geek WAS a villain.
This short lived superhero was crafted by Joe Simon and stuck around for two comics
in 1968 before he drifted into obscurity.
Essentially, this fellow was a mannequin who was brought to life thanks to being struck
by lightning.
Fun fact - Joe Simon largely based the character’s concept on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstien.
Anywho, this gave the character superhuman strength and speed, and, guided by a desire
to do what was right, positioned as Simon’s wandering outcast philosopher, he would eventually
try to run for Congress but was shot into space (actually) by then Governor Ronald Reagan.
Now, maybe this is a little harsh, but that description sounds like it could easily be
twisted into something horrendous in terms of Brother Power’s abilities and intentions.
Just saying.
5 Swamp Thing Swamp Thing may not have the kinds of morally
grey approach that some of the others on our list possess, but he is a character who physically
fits the bill; you bet your butt that if he were to commit crimes, get caught, and then
be sentenced to a facility, it would most definitely be Arkham.
The Asylum’s facilities are the most suited for characters who have some sort of metahuman
or extreme physiology, which is definitely the case for all of those who have held the
Swamp Thing mantle over the years.
With the levels of superhuman strength, durability, elasticity and the ability to connect to the
Green and manipulate plant life, Swamp Thing would require a specially made containment
cell, and that’s something Arkham has provided for other inmates in the past, the likes of
Killer Croc, Mister Freeze and Clayface, to name a few.
4 Ragman Ragman is pretty nightmarish.
The hero, Rory Regan, first appeared in Ragman issue 1 in 1976 as a mystic superhero whose
suit is literally made up of corrupted souls.
He taps into souls in order to increase his strength, speed and stamina, and he generally
avoids being wounded thanks to his souls taking the hits instead.
When he’s defeated an enemy, he can also absorb their soul into his suit, although
this can only be done with souls that classify as truly evil.
He can’t consume the souls of those who are innocent, and he even had trouble attacking
Billy Batson’s Shazam because of how pure hearted he was.
So all in all, if Ragman was a baddie, that probably wouldn’t be in his best interest
thanks to his unique skill set.
But he also would surely find himself in Arkham if he were to swap sides.
https://hobbylark.com/fandoms/dc-strange-superheroes - 9
3 The Spectre The Spectre first appeared in More Fun Comics
issue 52 all the way back in the golden age, in the year of 1940.
He’s an anti-hero with the ability to warp reality, to manipulate cosmic level energy,
space and time, a cosmic awareness, he’s omniscience, has limitless control of matter,
he’s borderline omnipotent, and he’s immortal, to boot.
When he debuted, he was Jim Corrigan, a hard boiled cop who was murdered by thugs while
he was on his way to his engagement party with his fiancee Clarice.
Stuffed in a barrel filled with cement and then thrown into a body of water, Corrigan
refused to pass on, returning as the Spectre to seek vengeance.
And Vengeance he gets.
But it wasn’t until the modern age that the character became even more complex and
found his stories thrust into incredibly morally ambiguous territory, raising ethical questions
that intrigued readers.
Over the years, various different concepts pertaining to his origin and history have
fluctuated, including a back story where he was the Angel of Death who murdered firstborn
Egyptian children (ie plagues of Egypt).
He was a fallen angel who participated in Lucifer's rebellion.
And the embodiment of the wrath of god.
In addition to that, the Spectre has had made some morally ambiguous decisions over the
years (like that time he pushed Wally West to mind wipe the entire world to forget his
identity as the flash, which led to Wally forgetting himself and a noticeable rise in
crime).
So what we have here is a hero who could easily be seen as a public threat and find himself
in Arkham, although we doubt that he’d ever be caught by the authorities if they tried.
2 Rorschach In Watchmen, Rorschach was literally caught
by the police (after he was set up by Ozymandias, of course) and then shipped off to prison,
where he endured some psychological testing.
We didn’t need a fictional doctor to tell us Rorschach has a few loose up in that cranium
of his (he’s also had a sh*t life filled with trauma, so we’ll cut him some slack).
Rorschach aka Walter Kovacs is the definition of a vigilante who falls into criminal territory.
And this is largely thanks to how he sees the world in black and white; there is no
ethical grey areas, you’re either good or evil, and evil deserves to be eliminated,
which, in Kovacs case, elimination is by any means necessary, and often involves extreme
uses of violence or straight up homicide.
1 Batman The
most obvious choice on this list is perhaps the most fitting hero to belong in Arkham.
A man who dresses up like a bat and runs around the city, dishing out his own brand of vigilante
justice, with only his own moral compass counting him accountable.
There have been numerous times in his crime fighting career where the authorities have
hunted him down, seeing him as more of a threat to public safety than a beneficial one.
It took a long time for the GCPD to work alongside him, and much of that is thanks to the outside
the box thinking of Commissioner James Gordon.
But if many other authoritative figures in Gotham had their way, Batman would be locked
up with the rest of the lunatics dressing up in Gotham, in both the comics and in live
action adaptations.
There’s a love hate relationship between the police force and the caped crusader, with
him constantly walking the line of ally and opponent (and let’s not forget about the
corruption on the force that Batman has helped yank the wool off of from time to time).
Needless to say, a character the likes of the dark knight fits the bill for the GCPD
as far as Arkham inmates are concerned, plus with Bruce’s psychological state wavering
in some depictions like the Dark Knight Rises, or even during the Court of Owls story arc
in the new 52, it’s easy to imagine someone like him becoming an inmate (if he wasn’t
so damn moral and smart, that is).