“You don’t get heaven or hell. Do you know the only reward you get for being Batman? You get to be Batman.”
Lost his parents at the age of 9, travelled the world, learned under the tutelage of Ra’s Al Ghul, and finally became The Caped Crusader. Despite having no superpower, his intellect, sheer will power, and some billions of dollars make him the most dangerous man on Earth.
How does someone with no superpower command a group of literal gods, speedsters, aliens, and magic ring bearers? Simple. He is Batman. His resourcefulness is next to none. A master escape artist, Batman has found solutions under circumstances where gods have broken down.
His unbreakable moral code, vast experience, genius-intellect, peak conditioning, and his famous ‘prep-time’ makes him one of the greatest comic book heroes. His popularity is unmatched. Everything achieved without a single superpower.
His open disdain for superpowers makes him a peculiar character. His wish to never rely upon others sometimes make him a bad team player, but on the other side, adds weightage to his humongous swagger.
Comic book writers have always tried their level best to not make Batman another superpowered hero. But, there have been times when The Dark Knight has had yielded superpowers. Interested? Let’s hop in!
10. Lord of All Knowledge
The Mobius Chair grants its user all the knowledge of the entire universe. In the Darkseid War, Batman dethroned Metron from the Mobius Chair and took it for himself.
Using the Mobius Chair, he was able to know who actually killed his parents. Then, he came to know that there are three Jokers operating in Gotham City.
Like most cosmic devices, the Mobius Chair was not created for mortals. Yet, Batman used it unharmed as Hal Jordan used his powers to protect him from the effects of the Mobius Chair.
9. Batman becomes the Man of Steel for a day
In one of the lighter versions of Batman comics, Superman loses his powers in a fight with the mad scientist Professor Pender. As Pender collects Superman’s powers and intends to transfer them to his own self, Batman arrives.
In the ensuing fight, Batman accidentally gets the power of Superman for a day. To show the lighter side of things, Batman carries Robin around by flying while making Superman follow him using the Batmobile. Also, he uses the powers to fight crime, obviously.
8. Batman uses Venom
In the comics, Bane is one of the major foes of The Dark Knight. Bane uses a chemical called Venom to make himself much more powerful than Batman.
Before Venom was made into a liquid version, it was first available as pills. In an event where Batman failed to save a child from drowning, he was extremely guilt-ridden.
In order to ensure that it never happens again, Batman wanted to push his physical boundaries, he started to take the pills. As a result, his strength and reflexes improved. But on the downside, he became much more aggressive and unhinged.
At some point, he kicked off the pills for the good. At least, it was good to see even The Dark Knight succumb to addiction like other mortals.
7. Batman ft. Manbat
In an event where the Heretic killed Damian Wayne, Bruce was overcome with grief and vengeance. His vengeance made him inject the Manbat serum into his own body. With a powerful Bat-suit at hand, Batman now could command bats to do his bidding.
With over a thousand bats at his command, he took down Talia Al Ghul’s army with one attack and entered a berserker rage. Then, his sadistic side came out as he dragged the Heretic to punish him for a long time.
6. The allure of Yellow Lantern!
Batman’s ability to strike great terror among his foes is one of his well-known traits. Sensing this, the Yellow Ring approached him.
Despite being a worthy user, Batman rejected the ring after a few moments. In another storyline, Batman used a secret Yellow Lantern against the Crime Syndicate.
5. The Suit of Sorrows
In ‘The Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul’, Batman fights against Ra’s’ assassin ninjas and the Sensei.
He manages to defeat the ninjas. He also has to fight The Sensei. On verge of defeat, Batman lunges towards the Sensei and puts both of them in the Lazarus Pit. The Sensei dies instantly but Bruce comes out unscathed.
It was later found out that Talia had gifted Bruce the Suit of Sorrows in order to fight the ninjas and the Sensei. The suit grants its user heightened strength, speed, reflexes along with higher endurance. But on the downside, it makes the user lose his sanity when used for a long time. The suit was later used by Azrael.
4. The Red Death
In the massively popular Dark Nights: Metal, an evil version of the Batman comes from the multiverse to terrorize the planet. An amalgamation of the Flash and the Batman, the Red Death starts off by fighting crime with must faster efficiency, courtesy of the speedforce.
Despite having a connection with speed force, the Red Death is not able to stop the destruction of Earth-52.
3. The Merciless
This version of the Batman once again revisits his problem of addiction. In Earth-12, Batman and Wonder Woman fight a vicious and long war with the God of War, Ares. Ares having worn his helmet proves too powerful to defeat.
As Batman and Wonder Woman spend a lot of years together, they fall in love. But while fighting, Wonder Woman is killed by Ares. Overcome with grief, Batman wears the helmet of Ares and goes berserk. He swiftly kills Ares and goes on a rampage to destroy all life.
His addiction to death and destruction gets the better of him as he joins the other evil Batmen.
2. The Dawnbreaker
In Dark Nights: Metal, one version of the Earth had a different origin for Batman. When his parents were killed in front of him, a Green Lantern Ring found him. Using the ring, Bruce Wayne fought crime and became a hero.
As years passed by, Bruce pushed the ring’s abilities using his sheer will and rage. As a result, the other Green Lanterns came to intervene. But corrupted by the ring’s power by now, Bruce murdered hordes of Green Lanterns and Oans. Later, he joined the other evil Batmen to wreak havoc.
1. The Batman Who Laughs
The most dangerous version of Batman till date, he is the stuff of nightmares. Unlike other versions of the evil Batmen, this version of Batman found murder to be unacceptable.
But as fate was written, the Joker’s psychological play finally broke down the Batman. As a result, Batman killed the Joker. In the process, some Joker toxin entered the body of Batman.
With time, the toxin started unhinging Batman. His suppressed personalities came out which were aggressive and disturbingly violent. In the final act, he killed his Bat-Family before they could have stopped him.
As the most broken of all Batmen, he became the de-facto leader of the evil Batmen with some disturbing costume and zombified Robins at his side.
