Fearsome Five: Five Scariest Batman Villains

Batman, the Caped Crusader, the Dark Knight, is celebrating his 80^th anniversary this week. Sure, John Constantine battles demons regularly and Swamp Thing is as his name implies, a thing that lives out in the swamp, but Batman comics have always seemed horror adjacent, and not simply because he chooses to dress like what Dracula turns into when he wants to fly. Sure, Batman is obsessive about avenging the death of his parents to the detriment of any lasting relationships with people who aren’t part of his crusade, but look at Batman’s villains. To name all of Batman’s villains that could be in a horror movie would be to list most of his rogues’ gallery, but here are his five scariest.

5) Scarecrow—Dr. Jonathan Crane has devoted his life to the study of fear, what it is and also how to cause it. He usually employs fear toxins which forces people to hallucinate their own worst nightmares. The idea of losing control is scary, particularly for someone like Batman who likes to be in control, but how do you regain control when the reality around you is suspect? Everything from the comics to the Batman: The Animated Series (TAS) has played with these hallucinations and what they do to Batman each time he is unlucky enough to get a dose of Scarecrow’s toxin.

Also, keep in mind that Scarecrow, who literally studies fear, is number 5.

4) Professor Pyg—Fans of body horror may find something intriguing or disturbing in Professor Pyg’s modus operandi. No, he doesn’t seek to free his porcine brethren before they are slaughtered, nor is he a huge fan of mud. Professor Pyg is a surgeon and what he remakes are innocent people. He remakes them through surgery and torture into Dollotrons, mindless automatons who Pyg believes are perfect. While he does snort and does wear a pig mask, Pyg’s exploits are terrifying because he sees imperfection everywhere and will not stop until he remakes the world into his own idea of perfection. Fans of the Arkham series of video games might remember the Pyg mission where Batman must track down people who are kidnapped and surgically altered by Pyg. A pretty recent character, having been created by Grant Morrison in the 2000’s, animated television never delved too much into the surgery aspect of Pyg’s character, possibly not knowing how to deal with what exactly happens to his Dollotrons once Pyg is captured.

3) Clayface—There are many men who have taken the moniker (and there was even a female version who called herself Lady Clay), but many focus on two aspects/powers of the characters: the ability to shapeshift and the ability to melt flesh with physical contact. Another aspect that seems constant is the Phantom of the Opera trope used to give these characters tragic backstories as monsters who must live apart from humanity. Alan Moore’s story of Clayface Preston Payne, who could dissolve flesh, plays into this when this Clayface discovers the love of his life, a mannequin immune to his touch, but creates a character that is dangerously unstable and unquestioningly sympathetic as he tries to figure out his relationship with Helena as Batman tries to recapture him.

The animated series gave us Matt Hagen gave us a shapeshifting Clayface whose backstory mimics the infamous Phantom, an actor who has become disfigured is given a chance to resurrect his career with a chemical that lets him change his face, but an overdose of the chemical, thanks to some criminals shaking him down, mutates him into his current Clayface form.

Some might say that he could simply pick a shape, that he doesn’t have to be a monster, but Clayface, in his introductory TAS episode “Feat of Clay,” explains tragically why that can’t work. Hagen explains that his shapeshifting is “like tensing a muscle,” meaning he has to concentrate to maintain a form that isn’t his clay one. Matt Hagen can walk among people, but it’s only for a short while. No matter who or what he becomes, he must still live with the knowledge constantly of what image will be waiting for him in the mirror.

2) The Joker—Arguably Batman’s most famous villain, comics like Death of the Family and The Killing Joke have played up the dichotomy that Batman and the Joker have shared. Batman, a man who studies friends and foes alike, creating multiple dossiers on them, has very little information on the Joker. Even the Joker himself, according to The Killing Joke, says that he has trouble remembering his own past. The uncertainty factor is there, meaning the Dark Knight cannot always see his nemesis’s motivations, sometimes only arriving after Joker’s horrific acts, and the Joker has had more than a few. From paralyzing Batgirl to beating Robin to death with a crowbar to cutting off his own face, the Joker never runs out of ways to disturb Batman and the audience. In fact, the only really clear motivation for Joker’s crimes seems to be to get the Batman’s attention. He sees himself as Batman’s greatest rival and that ultimately gives the Joker purpose, and he has no qualms about how he gets Batman’s attention. Joker has ended up the ultimate test of Batman’s No Killing rule because of this. Imagine Batman knowing that the Joker’s horrific acts are committed basically to get the Dark Knight’s attention and continue their eternal struggle.

1) The Batman Who Laughs—From the pages of Dark Knights Metal comes what would happen if Batman actually gave in and murdered the Joker. This alternate Batman is from a dark multiverse where Batman finally kills the Joker, releasing a chemical that infects Batman. Similar to Joker’s Joker Venom, this chemical not only gives Batman the same skin condition, but also renders him brutally insane, a perfect amalgam of hero and villain, who then goes on to kill every one of his universe’s heroes. The Batman Who Laughs is scary because he keeps a crew of feral Jokerized Robins chained at his side. He even has a history of killing superheroes throughout multiverses, but there’s also Batman’s analytical mind irrevocably twisted to evil that makes the Batman Who Laughs truly terrifying. Batman is all about control, everything from his metahuman battle strategies to his No Killing Rule reflects this. The Batman Who Laughs is basically Batman, with his knowledge and skills on how to take down virtually anyone of any power set, with no control, no moral backstop. He is basically a combination of the two most dangerous aspects of Batman and the Joker and a literal nightmare for our world’s Bruce Wayne.