Is it that surprising that a man who dresses up like a bat to fight crime may have a few screws loose? Bruce Wayne has billions of dollars, spends his free time beating on criminals – with his bare hands, and his parents were murdered in front of him as a child. Bearing that in mind, Batman may not represent the sanest members of society.
In fact, some of the most insane Batman comic book moments come when the Dark Knight let’s his crazy side shine. Read the list of some of the best Batman freak outs of all time below. Batman knows how to cross the line: he has murdered mentally-ill people, launched enemies into space, and lost his marbles on more than one occasion.
1. Batman Makes Robin Eat Rats
In All Star Batman & Robin, Batman chooses an insane methodology to help train up his new sidekick. He insults him, abuses him, and isolates him in the Batcave so he can learn to fend for himself. But it gets crazier: Batman makes Dick Grayson eat rats for survival practice. Why? Because Batman did it on his own path to Caped Crusading. When Alfred feeds Grayson actual food, Batman freaks out and tells him that Dick needs to learn the hard way. Batman has clearly lost his mind.
2. Batman Swings a Murdered Corpse from His Batjet Like a Piñata
Golden Age Batman is arguably the best Batman. Not only does he speak like a Saturday-morning PSA, he also has some serious issues. And old Batman doesn’t always shy away from horrific actions. Take the time in his first solo comic, Batman #1 in 1940, when he strung up a genetically enhanced – and mentally ill – person by his neck. Batman then used the Batjet to show his victim off to all of Gotham. Readers see the man struggle, then go limp, and Batman says, “he’s probably better off this way.” As in, better of dead. That’s dark – even for the Dark Knight.
3. Batman Murders KGBeast like a Twisted Psychopath
How’s that old saying go? If you can’t beat him, simply lock him up in an inescapable room until he withers away and dies? Yeah, that’s the one. Batman does exactly that when he locks up KGBeast in Batman #420. The brute proved too much a challenge for Batman – je could neither outsmart nor beat the brute into submission. So he lured his enemy into a secure room, locked the door, and threw away the key. Not exactly Batman’s most heroic moment, this page reads more like a scene from Saw.
4. Batman has Sex with Black Canary While Criminals Burn Behind Them
In the most WTF moment from All Star Batman & Robin, Batman dispatches a dock full of criminals with maniacal glee. On top of that, he gets Black Canary all kinds of turned on with his fighting prowess, and she kisses him right then and there. Things get even more heated (pun intended thanks to the criminals literally burning to death in the background) when the two start having sex. And of course the two leave their masks on for the whole shebang (pun intended here, too). This is pretty dark, even for Batman.
5. Batman Laughs Alongside the Joker
Many people hotly debate the ending of Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke, one of the more controversial comic endings in history. After the Joker cripples Barbara and almost shatters Gordon’s psyche, Batman looks like he’s finally had enough. The two enemies stand in the rain together and the Joker can’t help but crack a joke about the two long-time enemies. In one of the most crazy Batman moments ever, the Dark Knight cracks a small smile, and then proceeds to laugh – at a joke from his most iconic villain. Then the floodgates open and Batman and the Joker laugh like two old friends reminiscing about the good old days. Then Batman gets quiet, the graphic novel ends, and it sure looks like Batman has finally killed the Joker.
6. Batman Gets Addicted to Venom
Many Batman writers agree on one thing: the Dark Knight can accomplish anything. His enemies know him as much more than just a man in tights and he’s proved that time and time again. In the comic series Batman: Venom, writer Denny O’Neil shows what happens when Batman starts taking Bane’s famous Venom steroid in order to become stronger. First he gets addicted. Then he loses it a little. The results are predictably horrifying and readers may wonder if Batman has finally met his match. He becomes so deranged and crazy that he locks himself up for a month – away from the people he cares about – in order to beat his addiction. Now that’s dedication.
7. Batman Purposefully Takes a Dose of Joker’s Toxin
In the comic series Batman: The Man Who Laughs, Bruce Wayne decides to do something incredibly crazy in order to stop the Joker. He purposefully injects himself with the Joker’s deadly Joker Toxin in order to test a possible antidote. He wasn’t even entirely sure the antidote would work, but he was crazy enough to try anything. Batman will go to almost any length to stop the Joker – in this case he purposefully takes a chemical that has killed a lot of people – which is pretty insane, even for Batman.
8. Batman Almost Beats the Joker to Death
What would Batman be without his Joker? The two have tangoed on many an occasion, with plenty of victories and losses in their rivalry. One of Batman’s victories nearly ended in a permanent loss of the Joker, though. Batman follows a strict code that includes not killing the people he apprehend, but nobody’s perfect. Take this instance in Batman: Hush, where Batman decides that he’s going to end it once and for all. He mercilessly beats the Joker to a pulp, while pushing away people like Harley Quinn and Catwoman when they try to stop him. Finally Commissioner Gordon steps in and Batman realizes he’s on the verge of making a horrible mistake. He stops just in time.
9. “I Love Being the Goddamn Batman!”
Frank Miller’s All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder raises many a reader’s eyebrow. The man who brought us the groundbreaking Dark Knight Returns revisits the Caped Crusader with an unforgettable – and very dark – new story. In this series, Batman frequently laughs as he fights criminals. He says, “I love my job” as he beats villains into the dust and he also keeps referring to himself as “Goddamn Batman,” which is a tad out of character. Frank Miller always writes dark stories, but Batman begins the comic unhinged and only gets worse from there in All Star Batman & Robin.