He is depicted as a hybrid of both Batman (Bruce Wayne) and Batman's arch enemy Joker, and is a member of the Dark Knights and the overarching antagonist of the Dark Multiverse Saga, alongside cosmic deities Perpetua and Barbatos, from 2017 to 2021, following DC Rebirth. His first appearance was in the crossover storyline Dark Nights: Metal, before receiving his own series and serving as the main antagonist in Batman/Superman in 2019 and DC Comics' Year of the Villain alongside Lex Luthor.
His name is an allusion both to the original Batman’s seriousness and to the 1928 film The Man Who Laughs featuring Conrad Veidt, whose performance inspired the creation of the Joker.
Publication history
The Batman Who Laughs was created by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo first appearing in the comic book Dark Days: The Casting. The character was depicted as an alternate universe Batman who does not have a code against killing. Snyder explained his intent on the character in an interview by The Hollywood Reporter: "He's basically Batman's worst nightmare come to life: Batman, if he was infected by the Joker toxin and lost all sense of ethics. What he wants to do in Gotham is bring Bruce’s worst nightmares to life".[1] Snyder's hope was that his character would be popular enough to get his own comic book series, and Snyder believed that "Jock would be the perfect person to do it"..[1]
Fictional character biography
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The Batman Who Laughs is a version of Batman from Earth -22 of the Dark Multiverse. In that reality, the Earth -22 Joker learns that he is dying owing to the chemicals in his body, and sets out to push Batman harder than ever before, killing most of Batman's other rogues, and subjecting Gotham City's citizens to the chemicals that transformed him, killing parents in front of their children to mock Bruce. Batman snaps and kills the Joker in a struggle, releasing a concentrated form of the toxin in Joker's body. The toxin results in an irreversible fusion of Batman and the Joker, one with Bruce Wayne's intelligence and physical strength and the Joker's psychopathy and warped, sadistic sense of humor. The Batman Who Laughs takes over Earth -22, killing off most of his allies and turning his son Damian Wayne into a mini-Joker, while recruiting the children infected by the Joker Toxin as his "Rabid Robins". The Batman Who Laughs acts as the leader or second-in-command of Barbatos' Dark Knights and recruits the other members.[2]
After arriving on Prime-Earth (Earth 0), the Batman Who Laughs takes control of Gotham and oversees events at the Challenger's mountain. Accompanying him are Dark Damian and three Rabid Robins, having intended to destroy all of reality by linking the Over-Monitor to Anti-Monitor's astral brain. The Batman Who Laughs is defeated by the Prime Universe Batman, aided by the Joker, who notes the alternate Batman's failure to perceive this scenario due to still being a version of Batman.[3]
Assumed dead, The Batman Who Laughs is held captive by Lex Luthor, who offers him a place in the Legion of Doom.[4]
The Batman Who Laughs eventually recruits alternate versions of Bruce Wayne to launch a mass assault on Batman. The Batman Who Laughs is allied with the Grim Knight, a version of Batman who uses guns and turned his Gotham into a military dictatorship. With no other way to stop his other self, Batman is forced to 'accept' a twisted 'transfusion' from the Joker that begins to turn him into a variation of the Batman Who Laughs, relying on the psychosis of the technically-treated James Gordon Jr. to try to predict his foe. Batman defeats his other self by during a confrontation at the Waynes' graveyard and is restored to normal, while the Batman Who Laughs is locked up in the Hall of Justice dungeon.
A year later, The Batman Who Laughs is still locked up in the Hall of Justice, but having previously infected several heroes including James Gordon, sets a plan in motion with the help of his new Secret Six. He starts by having Gordon lead Batman and Superman to the cave under Crime Alley where King Shazam seemingly infects Superman. The Batman Who Laughs tells Superman that he plans to infect the world with his serum. Superman attacks The Batman Who Laughs, blowing his cover. The Batman Who Laughs muses to himself that he is on a collision course with Lex Luthor, but isn't too concerned because as he puts it, "Batman always wins".
During the "Dark Nights: Death Metal" storyline, The Batman Who Laughs becomes Perpetua's lieutenant, aided by an army of evil Batmen from the Dark Multiverse called the Dark Knights. Wonder Woman is confronted by the Batman Who Laughs, whom she proceeds to gut with an invisible Chainsaw of Truth. Though dead, the Dark Knights set to work to unleash the Batman Who Laughs' true plan: preparing the body of the final Bruce Wayne.[5] This body happens to be Batmanhattan, a version of Bruce Wayne who copied the formula that created Doctor Manhattan.[6]
The Dark Knights succeed in transferring the Batman Who Laughs' brain into Batmanhattan. After Perpetua warns the Batman Who Laughs of beings who might sense her actions and destroy her, he proceeds to wipe out the remaining Dark Knights with the exception of Robin King. The Batman Who Laughs then shifts into a new form called the "Darkest Knight" exclaiming that he wants to create "52 Planets of Nightmares".[7]
The Darkest Knight and the Robin King break into Valhalla Cemetery. Knowing that they are after Wally's power, Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, and Wally West run with the Darkest Knight giving chase.[8] Barry, Wally, and Jay team up with Kid Flash and the rest of the Flash family to outrun the Darkest Knight and his army of Dark Multiverse Flashes in order to reach the Mobius Chair.[9]
After some convincing from Wonder Woman who traveled back in time to the Infinite Crisis, Superboy-Prime shatters the Crisis worlds, saving Batman and Superman in the process, and directs all energy to Wally, but it does not work. Before they had a chance, the Darkest Knight rigged the Mobius Chair so it would always direct the power to himself. He has everything he needs to remake the Multiverse in his own image called the Last 52.[10] With his new god-like powers, the Darkest Knight orders Castle Bat (which turns into a colossal Batman) to attack the heroes. The heroes stand no chance against the giant whose structure is made of every material in Kane County.
After Lex gives Wonder Woman a journal that was written by Carter Hall, the Darkest Knight (who was unable to get free of Perpetua) sends his evil Earths out to kill the united army of heroes and villains.[11] As Batman uses the Black Lantern ring to recreate The Batman Who Laughs' body to fight for him, the battle between Perpetua and the Darkest Knight rages as the celestial being chastises the former Dark Knight by claiming she's the only one protecting the Multiverse from detection from her kind. The Darkest Knight proceeds to trap Perpetua in the fragments of the Source Wall that originally held her and kill her. Realigning the Prime Earth so the Crisis Energy continues to empower him, he sends his "favorite soldiers" to attack Earth's heroes in their last moments while also reviving Devastator, Drowned, and Red Death.
As the heroes stand as one universe against the horde of the Darkest Knight, they start remembering their entire history as a golden-clad Wonder Woman erupts from the ground to confront the Darkest Knight.[12] A final battle clashes between the golden-clad Wonder Woman and the Darkest Knight; a battle that spans across time and space. She is finally brought to the birth of creation where the Darkest Knight reveals that Perpetua's people (referred to as the "Hands") will simply erase the universe and without a restart, half of Diana's friends will be dead. Diana has two choices: keep fighting and lose or surrender to the Darkest Knight and use their combined power to kill the Hands.
Refusing to give up, Diana strikes back at the Darkest Knight, pushing him forward through time, sending him into the dying embers of Earth's sun. Seeing the Hands arrive and her friends struggle like Batman resurrecting his Bat-Family and foes against the Robin King where B-Rex and Batmage were resurrected and Lex sacrificing himself to save Superman from the evil Last Sun, Diana imagines the Universe young and alive again and shoves the Darkest Knight into the sun, killing him once and for all.[13]
Collected editions
Title
Material collected
Published date
ISBN
Dark Nights: Metal — Dark Knights Rising
Batman: The Red Death #1, Batman: The Devastator #1, Batman: The Merciless #1, Batman: The Murder Machine #1, Batman: The Drowned #1, Batman: The Dawnbreaker #1, The Batman Who Laughs (vol. 1) #1, Dark Knights Rising: The Wild Hunt #1
The Batman Who Laughs is depicted as having the same abilities as Batman, combined with the twisted nihilism of the Joker. This contributed to the reasons why Batman was forced to ally with the Joker to stop his counterpart, as he anticipated that his other self retained his existing tactical abilities and therefore an alliance between Batman and the Joker was the only thing his counterpart could never anticipate. Hailing from the Dark Multiverse, he is able to see people's dark urges and fears, visualized as alternate realities of their current actions. His characteristic metal crown functions as a futuristic visor made out of "Dark Metal", allowing him to filter these actions and pinpoint his opponents' next moves during combat and manipulate them psychologically by using his knowledge of their fears. Unlike Batman, he opts for lethal weapons that allow him to kill swiftly, including but not limited to machine guns, knives, a chain weapon with a batarang attached at the end, and an assortment of bladed weapons.
The Batman Who Laughs also uses batarangs made of "Dark Metal" that can bring out the worst version of the victim. He used these when he created a new incarnation of the Secret Six using infected Justice League members.
During the events of Dark Knights: Death Metal, The Batman Who Laughs gains the powers of Dr. Manhattan by having Dr. Arkham surgically integrate his mind into that of a Bruce Wayne with Manhattan’s powers, granting him nigh-omnipotence, flight, and teleportation among other powers. After absorbing Wally West’s Manhattan powers, his power drastically increases.
Like other inhabitants of the Dark Multiverse, The Batman Who Laughs has a weakness to Nth Metal.
Reception
The Batman Who Laughs has been commonly described as "horrifying" by website authors.[14][15][16]Comic Book Resources describes The Batman Who Laughs as comprising all the "best" parts of Batman and the "worst" parts of the Joker.[17]
The character has been compared to Judge Death in design.[18]Scott Snyder, the creator of The Batman Who Laughs, noted that the two characters have a similar aesthetic.[19][20]
The character appeared as an expansion for the second edition of the board game Zombicide.[24]
Merchandise
Knight Models has a line of gaming miniatures based on the DC comics run. Funko has released action figures of the character.[25] Various figures from companies such as Diamond Select Toys and Prime 1 Studios have produced figures as well.[20]McFarlane Toys has also made a version of The Batman Who Laughs for their new DC Multiverse line of 7-inch figures. McFarlane Toys also made a 5-inch Super Powers figure of The Batman Who Laughs in 2022..
