7 Most Controversial Batman Stories

Batman is one of the most popular fictional characters of the last century. There’s really no other way to say it. Everyone knows who Batman is and nearly everyone, at least in the English-speaking world, has experienced a Batman story of some kind. There’s even been Batman manga in Japan. Batman is the biggest of the big, and has starred in every type of story imaginable. Over the years, some Batman stories have risen to the top of the pile, for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, it’s because they’re the best superhero stories out there. Other times, it’s a little different. Some Batman stories have caused an uproar, attracting controversy with a Bat-magnet.

The most fun thing about these controversial Batman stories is that several of them are among the most well-known Batman tales of all time. Many creators have taken Batman to some wild places, and fans have responded. These seven Batman stories are the most controversial of the bunch, with fans still discussing them, sometimes many years after they were first published. Let’s fire up the Bat-signal and check them out.

All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder

The above panel and it’s use of a jarring slur is just a taste of the insanity that is All-Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder. Once upon a time in the ’00s, DC decided that they needed something to compete with Marvel’s Ultimate line. That led to the creation of the All-Star line, and immediately fans thought they were going to be gifted with something wonderful. Writer Grant Morrison and artist Frank Quitely were teamed up for All-Star Superman, and writer Frank Miller and artist Jim Lee were going to give readers All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder. Those are four of the greatest talents of all time, so the success of the All-Star line seemed assured. One of those comics is among the greatest comics of all time, creating a story that has enthralled readers for two decades. The other one is the attrocity that is All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder.

All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder wasn’t written by 1980s Frank Miller, and that was entirely the problem. Miller had changed over the years and he brought those changes to this Batman book. The Batman of All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder was quite literally insane. Fans were baffled by the book they were reading. Miller’s writing of women was also terrible in a lot of ways, making them into weird sex objects rather than actual fully realized characters and that’s before you get to some of the strange things that happen in the book. An example? Batman has sex with Black Canary while bodies burn behind them. Jim Lee’s art is gorgeous, but somehow that makes Miller’s portrayal of the women even worse. Some of parts of the script have been released, namely Miller’s instruction for drawing a lingerie clad Vicki Vale, and the insight they give on the creative process for this book somehow makes things even worse. Add to all of this the book featuring Batman verbally abusing Dick Grayson right after his parents were killed and then locking him in the Batcave with no food. It’s the most insane Batman book ever, and fans continue to talk about it even today and not in good terms.

Batman: Venom

Drug use has always been a controversial subject in the world of superheroes. For years it was completely ignored, but all of that changed in 1971. Marvel and DC both put out stories that dealt with characters taking drugs — Harry Osborn in The Amazing Spider-Man #96-98 by Stan Lee and Gil Kane and Green Arrow’s sidekick Speedy in Green Lantern/Green Arrow #85-86 by Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams. Drugs were suddenly relevant in comics and eventually that reached all the way to Batman in Batman: Venom, by Denny O’Neil, Trevor von Eeden, Russel Braun, and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez. This story introduced the drug Venom, the super steroid that would fuel the Batman-breaking Bane, and saw Batman get hooked on it.

Batman as a drug addict was a pretty big step, and the fact that DC even went for it at all was huge. O’Neil, himself an alcoholic in recovery, understood addiction in ways that other writers wouldn’t and gave readers a chilling portrait of a strung-out and violent Batman. Making Batman a drug addict caused a stir among the fandom; Batman was supposed to be all-powerful, with an iron will, so seeing him give in to vice — for the best possible reason, using the strength Venom gave him to work harder as Batman — was enough to cause fans a tizzy. It’s a huge story with repercussion for the future and showed a vision of Batman unlike any seen before. The story remains controversial even today, but it is an example of a Batman story that is controversial for its subject matter, not for its quality as many Batman fans still hold it in high regard.

Batman: Death in the Family

Death in comics is nothing new. Often, characters are killed because of fan reaction to them, but there are few times that readers were directly involved in the death of a character. That brings us to Batman: Death in the Family. Dick Grayson had grown up and left Batman, working with the Teen Titans and eventually becoming Nightwing. This left a Robin shaped hole in Batman’s life and DC filled it with Jason Todd. Jason, at first, was a simple character. Fans didn’t really take to him, and that led DC to changing the character, making him harder edged. However, fans still didn’t warm up to Jason, and that led to “Death in the Family”, by Jim Starlin and Jim Aparo. Fans were given the chance to call a 900 number and vote on whether to kill Jason Todd. Unfortunately for Jason, readers chose death.

Jason Todd was killed by the Joker in the story, who used the young hero’s mother to lure him in, beat him with a crowbar, and then blow up the warehouse he was in. Todd was a victim of the fans, killed because they didn’t like him. It’s a wild moment, and one that has been talked about for years. DC has since brought back Jason Todd as Red Hood, and his death has long been one of Batman’s biggest regrets. In recent years, DC has even released the version of the story where Jason Todd actually lived. Batman: Death in the Family left an indelible mark on Batman, the Bat Family, and DC as a whole.

Batman: War Games

Batman: War Games is a Batman crossover, running through Batman, Detective Comics, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Nightwing, Batman: Gotham Knights, Robin, Catwoman, and Batgirl in 2004. This took place around the time when Spoiler — Stephanie Brown — took over as Robin for Tim Drake. Brown decided that she had to prove herself to Batman, which led to her finding some of his contingency plans, one of which was titled “War Games”. This plan was meant to wipe out Gotham City’s gangs, and Brown thought that if she could make it work, she’d earn Batman’s respect. However, the whole thing backfired and it ended with Stephanie Brown’s death.

[RELATED: DC’s Best Robin Just Quit (Yes, Really)]

The death of Brown is what made this story so controversial. It was basically a variation on the “women in refrigerators” trope, a trope that involved killing off female characters in order to mine the aftermath for drama, particularly drama impacting male characters. Brown had only just been made Robin, and it seems like the plan was always just to kill her. Many fans were outraged, and that outrage actually saw DC make the right decision down the road — they brought Stephanie Brown back to life and made her into Batgirl. Of course, this was not long before the New 52, so it didn’t last very long, and Brown has had a long run back to relevance, all fueled by fan esteem. Sometimes, controversy pays off.

Batman: Damned

Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo are a team that are great on their own, but special together. The two’s first major collaboration, Lex Luthor: Man of Steel, was amazing, and they teamed up again for a Joker story in the wake of The Dark Knight, when Jokermania was at its height. Azzarello and Bermejo do brilliant work and DC chose them to begin their all-new mature imprint, DC Black Label. That led to Batman: Damned, an out of continuity story that took Batman to the more magical side of things when he went after the Joker, who was already dead and still causing havoc. It had many things that were quite normal for mature readers comics — language and violence — and even had some nudity. However, the nudity in this case was full frontal Batman nudity.

Fans got to see more of Batman than they had ever wanted to before and it caused a stir. DC immediately backtracked on the book, even censoring later version of Batman: Damned. The whole controversy seemed extremely overblown to most; if there was full frontal nudity of someone like Harley Quinn or Catwoman, it likely wouldn’t have been as much of a problem.

JLA: Tower of Babel

Batman is just a normal human being in a world full of gods, monsters, magical beings, and the most powerful superhumans imaginable. However, over the years, Batman has also become one of the most formidable superheroes in the game. This started with The Dark Knight Returns, where Batman showed that he was able to defeat Superman — albeit a weakened Superman. Future writers started to give Batman greater and greater feats, which culminated in JLA: Tower of Babel, by Mark Waid and Howard Porter. This story saw Ra’s al Ghul steal Batman’s Justice League contingency plans, ones meant to kill the team if they ever went bad. Batman’s plans were foolproof and the whole thing showed that Batman could even defeat the most powerful beings on Earth.

This is a classic story in the legend of Batgod, the most controversial aspect of Batman. Batgod is simple — he’s the unbeatable hero, the one who knows everyone’ weakness and has numerous plans to exploit them. Batgod always wins, and for a lot of fans, this conception of the character is the worst and, in turn, this is what makes JLA: Tower of Babel so controversial. Batman is great; his stories are all about a human using the greatest tools of our species — our intelligence (and our opposable thumbs, obviously) — to triumph. However, the fun of the whole thing is Batman struggling to win. When Batman can beat anyone, something is lost in the character. JLA: Tower of Babel is when Batgod truly became ascendant, something that changed Batman forever, and in a way that not all fans have enjoyed.

Batman: The Killing Joke

Batman: The Killing Joke, by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland, is one of the most acclaimed comics of all time. Batman: The Killing Joke was Moore unleashed on the Joker, telling a story that showed the pathetic past of the Clown Prince of Crime, leading him to become a monster who believed that anyone could become him if they went through one bad day. This led to the Joker going after Jim Gordon, trying to break the police commissioner. He began this by shooting Barbara Gordon in the stomach, then taking lewd photos of her all as part of Joker’s efforts to torment her father. Barbara ended up paralyzed, her career as Batgirl ended.

Batman: The Killing Joke was partly meant to get rid of Barbara Gordon as Batgirl. The book’s editor, Len Wein, famously told Moore to “cripple the b—-h”, and Moore has regretted the whole thing ever since. This is one of the prototypical examples of “women in refrigerators” and fans have soured on it more and more as the years have gone by. Batman: The Killing Joke is an important part of the Batman canon — every Batman fan has read it — and everyone has an opinion on the book’s most well-known moment, making it one of the most controversial Batman stories to date.

What do you think? Let us know your most controversial Batman story in the comments!