Batman is the toughest vigilante in comics. Sure, he doesn’t have any powers, but he’s molded himself into the perfect fighting machine. He’s as strong and as fast as a human can get, has trained and mastered numerous martial arts, is an amazing detective, and an adroit weapons designer. He’s the total package and it takes some special villains to challenge. The Dark Knight has some of the best villains of all time, a varied, formidable group of enemies who are able to overcome the advantages the hero has. Being a crook in Gotham is an extremely difficult proposition because of the skill of the Caped Crusader. They have to have a little something extra and for some of them, that’s nothing more than an inhuman predilection for violence.
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Every Bat-villain is violent to some extent – every villain in comics is – but some of them take it to the next level. They’ve made an art out of aggression, known for their bloody masterpieces. Some of them have used violence to become well-known, their entire MO all about causing as much pain and suffering as they can to win. These five Batman villains live for the violence, each of them a massive threat to the hero and Gotham City.
5) Zsasz
Gotham City is full of eccentric villains of all types. Sometimes, you get people who become characters from fairy tales, other times they use animals as the basis for their identity, and some are just good old-fashioned crooks who rise to the top of the food chain. All of them are violent, but the vast majority of them pale in comparison to Victor Zsasz. Victor isn’t a thief or a gangster, like a lot of other Gotham crooks. He doesn’t want to create a criminal empire and he isn’t obsessed with killing Batman or has a grudge against the police, he’s just a serial killer. Every time he kills someone, he cuts a new hash mark into his flesh, a grizzly reminder to the world of just how deadly he is. There’s something especially chilling about him, even compared to some of the worst villains in Gotham. He just wants to add more numbers to his tally, tearing through anyone in order to cut another mark into himself.
4) Professor Pyg
Grant Morrison’s run on Batman took the character to some wild places. While the Scottish scribe mostly used known villains for their run, they did create a few, especially once Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne took over as the Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder. The two of them ended up going up against Professor Pyg, a twisted vivisectionist. Pyg was known for kidnapping people, especially little girls and turning them into twisted “dolls”, all to better spread terror through the city. While he’s not exactly a hand to hand maven, his whole MO is capturing someone, cutting them up, and making them into something new and terrifying. He’s the kind of monster that everyone is afraid of, a butcher with no use for his victims other than what he can make from them. He long ago lost any shred of decency or care for others, his whole life a series of bloody interludes and incarcerations.
3) Black Mask
Gotham City is full of some of the dangerous mobsters anywhere. It takes a certain kind of person to get to the top of crime in Gotham; there’s a ruthlessness and thirst for violence required to become one of the best and Black Mask has that in spades. He’s reached the level where he orders his underlings to do most of the violence for him, but when you think about it, that makes it even worse. Instead of just one man, like Zsasz, or one man and his brainwashed underlings, like Pyg, he has an entire gang worth of people out there, enforcing his bloody rule. Mask had to do terrible things to get to where he is and even worse things to keep his power. He’s known for recruiting the most brutal goons, which has been a key to his success. Black Mask has been able to defeat the most dangerous mob families in the city, his forces tearing into them like hungry dogs, leaving nothing in his way.
2) The Joker
The Joker is Batman’s most dangerous foe and violence is his life. He’s been the boogeyman of Gotham City since he first appeared there, a pale-faced ghoul, his ruby red rictus grin the last thing that thousands of seen. He’s one man, but it’s almost like there’s a legion of demons inside him. He’s able to spot “talent” – people bloodthirsty enough to do his terrible bidding – and his various Joker gangs have been some of the most feared in the city’s history. He’s all about the chaos of violence; sure, he’s going to steal things to sell, but he’s going to use the money to buy more implements of violence for himself and his lackies. It’s the blood and viscera that make him smile, the screams that are the music he performs to. Even when he’s by himself, you know there’s going to be a moment of completely shocking violence. He’s like a straight razor – at any moment, there will be a flash, a spray of blood, and a ghastly laugh.
1) Ra’s al Ghul
Ra’s al Ghul is one of Batman’s smartest villains and he’s undoubtedly the most violent. For centuries, he’s traveled the world, using the League of Assassins as his instrument. While the Demon’s Head is a mastermind of the highest order, he has ridden into battle with the van numerous times. He’s slaughtered his way through the years, sometimes with the sword and sometimes with plans and plagues, doing his best to create his vision for the world from the ashes of his conquests. Ra’s hasn’t feared death in ages, allowing him to test himself against the most formidable foes, which has allowed him to hone himself into one of the deadliest humans of all time. If you were to stack up everybody that was killed by al Ghul and the League over the years, it would almost certainly reach miles in the sky. His penchant for violence is unmatched; it’s been his preferred tool to shape the world.
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