5 Most Controversial Batman Stories Ever Published

Batman is easily one of the most popular and well-known fictional characters of the past century. Even among non-comics fans, the Dark Knight’s story is familiar — a wealthy playboy philanthropist and industrialist who, after witnessing the murder of his parents as a child grows up to become the vigilante Batman, protecting Gotham City and waging his own personal war against its crime and criminals. It’s a story that’s been adapted across just about every form of media you can imagine and told across the pages of countless books since his debut in 1939.

Over the years, many Batman stories have become iconic in their own right. They’re well-known, beloved tales that help reshape or further define the hero and even comics themselves. But then there are also stories that have gained notoriety for other reasons. In nearly a century of stories, there are some Batman tales that have been extremely controversial and for various reasons. Sometimes, it’s questionable art choices while others, it’s problematic representations. Others are less controversial and just more uncomfortable to read because of their heavy subject matter. Here are five of the most controversial Batman stories ever published. It’s worth noting that we’re not including a few higher profile stories here — specifically “A Death in the Family” and Batman: The Killing Joke — and are instead looking at some other controversial stories that don’t often make the list.

5) Batman: Damned

Violence, language, and nudity are all hallmarks of more mature-rated entertainment, but when it comes to mature Batman stories it turns out that there is a limit to the nudity aspect. Written by Brian Azzarello with art by Lee Bermejo, Batman: Damned was a three-issue limited series that ran between September 2018 and June 2019 on the DC Black Label imprint, an imprint specifically designed for mature readers. The story is loosely a sequel to Azzarello and Bermejo’s 2008 graphic novel Joker and saw Batman enlist the help of John Constantine to help solve the mystery of what actually happened to the Joker as Batman fears he may have murdered him. It’s an interesting premise for a story.

The controversy about Batman: Damned is actually about the art, specifically a scene in the first issue. In some of the panels in the scene, which sees Batman in the Batcave analyzing injuries he’s suffered, readers got a full-frontal nudity view of the hero. It was something that was only present in print copies of the issue — digital copies did not have the full-frontal nudity — but it caused a stir. The controversy caused the initial print run of the issue to sell out and subsequent ones featured edited art. In the grand scheme, it feels like a lot made out of nothing, but the nudity issue and the backlash did have significant impact, causing editorial changes for other Black Label titles in order to prevent similar issues in the future.

4) “Joe Chill in Hell” (Batman #673)

The murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne by Joe Chill when Bruce was a child is the corner stone of Batman’s story. It’s what inspires Bruce to become the bat-themed vigilante and (in some tellings) is why Batman doesn’t use a gun. However, Batman has never been a character who seeks straight up revenge — at least not until Batman #673.

In the “Joe Chill in Hell” story, Batman is shot by Bat-Devil and goes into cardiac arrest, prompting him to have various visions and hallucinations. One such hallucination sees Batman terrorizing Joe Chill every night for a month, making the man more and more unsettled in the process. On a final visit, Batman gives Chill the very gun used to kill the Waynes. It prompts the man to realize who Batman really is and he takes the gun, with it being implied that Chill uses it to kill himself — meaning that Batman terrorized the man into suicide. While the story is a “what-if” sort of situation, it was very out of character for Batman and a controversial story for many fans.

3) Batman: Night Cries

1992’s Batman: Night Cries is a case of a story being less controversial and more disturbing — but for some, those two things are one and the same. The story, from writer Archie Goodwin and artist Scott Hampton, sees Batman and Commissioner Gordon investigating drug pushers but notice a trend in a series of murders. As the links all become clear, the reality of things is disturbing: the victims were all somehow involved in cases of child sexual abuse and the killer appears to be trying to avenge the abused children. Not only must Batman try to find the killer and reconcile that he may never be able to truly stop these kinds of crimes, but Commissioner Gordon is forced to come to terms with aspects of his own past as well.

Night Cries doesn’t do anything inappropriate. It handles the subject matter with care and respect but it also doesn’t shy away from showing the impact this kind of abuse has. The book’s raw, authentic nature makes it a very difficult read and very much not what many Batman fans might expect so while it’s not controversial in the traditional sense, it’s a story that does raise some eyebrows.

2) “The Wedding” (Batman #50)

Even the most casual of Batman fans don’t need this one explained; almost 8 years later it is still a bit of a sensitive subject. Batman #50 was meant to be a landmark issue for the Dark Knight. Written by Tom King (and the midpoint of what was supposed to be a 100-issue run), Batman #50 was billed as being the issue where Batman (Bruce Wayne) and Catwoman (Selina Kyle) would finally tie the knot. It’s something that fans have been waiting for for years and the eagerly anticipated “Batrimony” is largely what the run had been leading up to until that point.

And then the wedding is called off at the last moment. It was a twist that subverted reader expectation and completely upended the status quo of not only that particular Batman run, but Batman and Catwoman’s relationship (which still hasn’t really recovered). The issue proved to be extremely controversial, with some fans feeling like the twist was interesting, but more fans than not being outraged by the bait and switch. It’s still a sore topic for Batman fans and the issue is considered by many to be a huge disappointment.

1) Holy Terror

It can’t be a most controversial Batman story list without something from Frank Miller on it, but this time it’s not All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder — and it’s not exactly a Batman story, though it started out as one. This time, it’s Holy Terror. Published in 2011, Holy Terror is a graphic novel from Frank Miller that was originally pitched as a Batman story to DC as “Holy Terror, Batman!” The plot, as originally announced, centered around Batman defending Gotham from an attack by the terrorist group Al-Qaeda” and Miller even self-described the story as one in which Batman “kicks Al-Qaeda’s ass”.

However, the book never came out as a Batman story. Instead, Holy Terror was ultimately published by Legendary Comics and featured a new character called The Fixer making it definitely not a Batman story. Except there are a lot of similarities between the Fixer and Batman. And the Fixer’s city is a lot like Gotham City. But that wasn’t what made the book controversial. The book was controversial for its offensive depictions of Muslims and its Islamophobia.

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