Hey there and welcome to Top 10 Nerd! I’m Kat Jovey and today we’re going to be looking
at the Dark Night. Superheroes have to hold themselves to certain
rules to make sure they themselves don’t let the power of being a vigilante get to
their heads. But sometimes these rules get broken and that’s
what we’re talking about today. Batman made his vow as early as Batman issue #4 in 1940.
Let’s get into the Top 10 Times Batman Broke His Own Rule.
10) At 10 we have Random Henchmen We’ll warm up here with just a henchmen
in the Detective Comics issue #572. In it we have a few main character, Batman, of course,
the Elongated Man, Slam Bradly and another great detective Sherlock Holmes.
This story happens over centuries and involves Sherlock nemisis Moriarty and a plan to kill
the Queen of England. In one of the battles Moriarty’s henchman
open up fire on the Caped Crusader who then grab a close henchman and uses him as a human
shield as he moves along. Now you don’t actually see him take his last breath but
it’s safe to say, he doesn’t make it since he looks like swiss cheese.
9) At number 9 we have some Junkyard murders Now, technically this is before his vow of
not killing, honestly the early years of Batman are pretty messed up so I’ve included a
few from then but tried to stick to after that vow. Now this was a popular place for
him to kill bad guys back in the day. But we’ll just have it count as one for this
list.
In in the 80s in Batman issue #425 he’s fighting a drug dealer who is looking to get
revenge on Robin because he dropped his brother off of a rooftop (yes, Batman did give Robin
a talking to that killing people, even a drug dealer is wrong) The drug deals has a gun
and is running after Batman through a junkyard and Batman pushes a huge pile of cars onto
him killing him.
In the early 90s in the Detective Comics Issue #613 he’s looking into a turf war between
to rivalling disposal companies and a man tries to throw a chair at Batman at the junkyard,
Batman decides the best course of action is to kick him into another baddie, which then
toppels them into an already on garbage grinder. Flashbacks of Fargo anyone? Seem like a bit
of over kill.
8) At number 8 we have the death of a Count This one is just so brutal it had to be there.
In Detective Comics issue #37 we have a monocle-wearing count who is stupid enough to throw is sword
at Batman and miss and it gets stuck in a wall. Batman is not impressed with this move,
calls him a rat and then shuts the door to the room they are in, get on the other side
of the man (while the count begs for his life because now he’s unarmed) then hits him
with such force the count flys back and is impaled through the neck with the sword. This
death is a lot more frightening then heroic for sure. But it was a time before his vow
technically.
7)At number 7 we have Joker in The Killing Joke
This one is at number 7 because it’s highly debated and no one really knows for certain.
However, things are alluded to so you be the judge.
At the end of the issue Batman and the Joker and sharing a laugh about a joke the Joker
just told when the police are arriving. The joke goes like this: two not-so-smart
criminals are trying to get across a gap between two buildings. One of them suggests that they
use a flashlight to make a bridge out of the beam of light but the other says “what do
you think I am? Crazy? You’ll turn it off when I’m halfway across.”
Batman realizes the two of them will likely never be able to put aside their grudge and
he grabs his arch nemesis shoulders to hold himself up as he laughs at the ridiculousness
of it. In the final frames the light goes out and
Jokers laughter stops making many readers believe that Batman snapped Jokers neck. What
do you think happened?
6)At number 6 we have he hung a mental patient from the batplane
You did not miss hear me. Now, this is the first time Batman was in a solo comic, so
I think they really wanted to shock people. The caped crusader is going after an evil
scientist who has made a serum that when administered turns people into muscular, out-of-control
monsters. This evil scientist starts using it on mental
patients. One such patient is in a van with some other henchmen on the way to wreak havoc
when it crashes into a tree and Batman jump on the chance.
The patient gets out and starts running when Batman hangs a noose from his Batplane, gets
it around his neck and then lifts him up to hang him to death. DARK
5)At number 5 we have KGBeast and friends Now, a lot of fans have a hate on for Zack
Snyder’s Batman. He’s so violent and breaks his rule too much. Man are they right.
During the Dark Knights rescue attempt of Martha, Superman’s mom, he:
Deep breath Stabs people
Throws a henchman into hallways with live grenades
Forces the henchmen to fire their guns at their people
Uses one as a human shield And smashes a guys head open on a big crate.
Now, theoretically some of them might have survived with medical care BUT KGBeast was
not so lucky. He was walking around with a flame thrower and fuel tank strapped to his
back, when along comes Batman who shoots the tank with a machine gun making it explode.
Realllly not sticking to that vow here.
4)At number 4 we have killing a group of Crooks Now, many fan hated the way this was depicted
from Frank Miller because it so aggressively breaks the vow but lets dig into it.
In this one, The Dark Knight jumps a group of bleach thieves. Yup, you heard it right.
He beats the hell out of them and then turns the bleach against them by mixing it with
thermite making a bomb. Which he then tosses on them igniting the group. While they are
all burning to death to beats the hell out of them then he noticed Black Canary looking
on, who gets turned on by the scene and they make out...next to the pile of burning corpses.
3)At number 3 we have DARKSEID death. Now, might have some technical people on the
crowd so you be the judge BUT in the climax of Final Crisis it gets real.
Batman teams up with Flash to get the better of Darkseid. Batman has a gun loaded with
a a god-killing bullet given the dire circumstances. He tells him that is would be willing to break
his one rule just one time. He shoots it off intending to kill him while as the same time
Darkseid fires off the Omega Beams killing Batman.
Now technically, the shot gets Darkseid in the shoulder and he might have died from it
but really the other heroes step in and finish him off. BUT Batman was explicitly trying
to kill him so that’s why it made this list.
2) At number 2 we have when he killed every Villain in Gotham
This deserves this place just from sheer numbers.
In Dark Nights: Metal we’re looking at an alternate universe. In this ons there are
7 different versions of Batman, each of which was combined with some of the powers of another
Justice League member. They are also living on a doomed Earth. Tough Deal.
In in the series in Red Death he merges with Flash while trying to save the Earth and with
the extra power of Speed Force he’s able to zip around Gotham and slaughter every,
single, evil, villain residing there. But sadly, this doesn’t help him save the Earth.
Womp womp.
1)At number 1 we have the Lord Death Man Now, I debated putting this at number one
but it’s sort of like an unlimited amount of deaths in one individual. I’d have to
say that this is the most diabolical “death” and the vow will be broken for eternity.
This time Lord Death Man is the star super villain who is immortal technically. This
time the story is based in Japan. Lord Death Man is working on a plan to kill everyone
of Japan’s superheroes. Of course, his plans are stopped with the help of the Tokyo Batman,
known as Mr. Unknown. At get rid of him for good he is locked inside of a safe, inside
of a satellite that is launched into space without any air. This means that for all eternity
(or until it one day crashes) Lord Death Man will suffocate to death, revived and then
do it all over again. What tourture.
There you have it. The Top 10 Times Back Man Broke His One Rule.
What do you think was the most brutal one? What are some you think should have made
the list?