The Grim Knight is what happens when you combine Marvel Comics’ Punisher with DC’s Batman. A violent, ruthless, and merciless vigilante hailing from an alternate universe, The Grim Knight is Nightmare Incarnate. Here are some interesting facts about the most bloodthirsty version of the Batman.
Doesn’t Hesitate To Use Guns
Unlike Batman who has a strict no guns policy, the Grim Knight never shies away from using explosive force to get the job done. Firearms are basically his go to tactic for any situation be it extortion, kidnapping, assassination or hijacking. The Grim Knight indirectly drew heavy inspiration from Marvel’s Punisher. Frank Castle has a penchant for using high caliber guns in battle. And he is quite good at it. Batman is also proficient in firearms but he has vowed never to use them. The Grim Knight is under no such obligation. He is a trigger happy and is more than willing to spill blood. With no moral code limiting him, the Grim Knight is more or less unstoppable.
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He Killed Joe Chill
In the parallel universe of the Grim Knight, Bruce Wayne was taking a stroll through a dark alley in that fateful night when Joe Chill appeared out of nowhere and shot the Waynes. But in this world, Chill did a fatal error. His greed overtook him. Dropping the gun on the floor, he started collecting the broken pearls that fell off of Martha Wayne’s necklace. In this world, Bruce took the initiative. He grabbed the gun and shot his parents’ murderer in cold blood. Joe Chill never saw what was coming for him. And with that pull of the trigger, the world never saw the rampage and onslaught they were going to witness after the birth of a true monster.
Killed Cops
The Gotham City Police Department had a no tolerance rule for vigilantism. Grim Knight had already toppled the organized criminal elite of Gotham City, throwing the city into utter chaos. Gang and turf wars were rife and the GCPD witnessed looting and murders in unprecedented numbers because the Grim Knight had taken out the upper echelons of the Gotham Underworld. This needed to stop. So Jim Gordon hatched a plan to capture the Grim Knight. He used a specially made Bat Signal with Wayne Tech Magnets underneath to attract the Grim Knight. He almost captured him before Bruce Wayne exploited the Magnet’s weakness to break free, murdering all the GCPD cops that were present there to apprehend him. He is a Cop Killer.
Uses Wayne Tech to Spy on Gotham
This version of Batman wants total control over Gotham. He is a tyrant with a mission. To make sure he has absolute control over the entire city of Gotham, he forced the Mayor of Gotham Harvey Dent to sanction a contract for Wayne Enterprises surveillance modules be placed all over the city. If you want to know who he ‘convinced’ Dent to do so – he used a little bit of radiation to burn a part of his face. After having the technology installed all over Gotham, the Grim Knight could stop crime even before it happened. His crusade took an even more violent turn. The Grim Knight started killing people even if they were merely planning to do something illegal. Technically, Grim Knight had then comedown to taking innocent lives.
Killed the Joker
On one of his first missions as the Grim Knight, Bruce Wayne encountered the Red Hood and his gang that had infiltrated Ace Chemicals. In the Prime Universe, the Red Hood would fall into a vat of chemicals and later get flushed out from a drainage pipe, having had his skin turn white and hair turn green. The Red Hood would then become the Joker, Batman’s arch nemesis. But in the Grim Knight’s universe, that outcome never came to happen. Bruce killed the Red Hood when he fought his gang in Ace Chemicals. As a result, the Grim Knight never had the need to fight the Joker since he was never born. At least some good came out of it.
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Killed Most of Gotham’s Criminal Elite in His First Mission
After Killing Joe Chill, the Grim Knight would then spend the next couple of years travelling the world and learning from the world’s most renowned murderers and assassins. When he came back, Bruce Wayne was a changed man. He decided to take up the symbol of a Bat after killing one that had managed to sneak into his home. The Grim Knight’s first mission involved him infiltrating a party of the Rich and the Elite of Gotham City. People like the Black Mask, the Penguin, Carmine Falcone, and Waylon Jones, and Tony Zucco were attending the party. For decades, these people had been using their money and influence to keep the guilty out of prison. The Grim Knight locked all the doors and burned the entire party alive. Without the head of the snake, the City erupted into chaos.
Alfred Left Him
The Grim Knight’s tricks were too violent for even his greatest and staunchest ally to digest. He killed a thief with an automated gun and drove a child predator’s car off a bridge. He even made a corrupt judge’s medical implants fail him in the nick of time. Alfred did not agree to such ultra-violent tactics to contain Gotham’s criminals. Not able to see the Bruce Wayne he loved with all his heart become so corrupted and consumed with vengeance, Alfred left his job as the Butler of Wayne Manor. Bruce contemplated killing Alfred by detonating a neck implant he had placed on him but refrained from doing so in the end.
Jim Gordon Took Him Down
Jim Gordon had already deduced the fact that the Grim Knight is actually Bruce Wayne. Convincing Harvey Dent, Gotham’s Mayor, to issue a search warrant for the Wayne Manor, Gordon and the GCPD raided Bruce Wayne’s home. Having been cornered, the Grim Knight pulled a gun on Harvey Dent. That was all the proof he needed. Now having plausible rights to arrest Bruce Wayne, Jim Gordon put Bruce Wayne behind bars and the saga of the Grim Knight came to a screeching halt. Or did it??
Second in Command of the Batman Who Laughs
After the Jim Gordon of his universe finally nailed him, the Batman Who Laughs traveled to the Grim Knight’s world and offered him a place at the high table. In exchange for his services as his trusted second in command, the Batman Who Laughs allowed him to continue his violent crusade against all crime of the DC Multi Verse. The Batman Who Laughs wanted to infect the Prime Universe and turn it into his personal playground and the Grim Knight was hired by him to help him achieve those objectives. The Grim Knight impersonates Batman of the Prime Universe and kills Mister Freeze. He then lets Batman Who Laughs kill the Joker of this world. This brings the attention of the Batman of the Prime Universe. All hell breaks loose pretty soon.
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Instrumental To Perpetua’s Plan in Death Metal
Perpetua, the Cosmic Goddess, has summoned an army of evil Batmen from all over the Dark Multiverse to aid her in reshaping creation. She has resurrected the Batman Who Laughs, having placed his brain inside the body of a Batman/Dr Manhattan hybrid called Bathattan. The Bathattan has created a few universes where the Crisis events keep on happening over and over again, thus supplying Perpetua with Chaos Energy. This Chaos Energy Source is located within Castle Bat, Perpetua’s stronghold. And the task of guarding Castle Bat against all incoming DC Heroes is given to the Grim Knight, who has set up multiple deadly booby traps and trip-wires to take down even the greatest heavyweights of the Justice League.
