10 Alternate Versions Of Batman That You May Not Know About

To many, Batman is the perfect superhero. His mythology is full of iconic elements - Gotham City, his origin story, his rogues gallery - and the character himself embodies the tireless thirst for justice and incredible courage better than any other comic book hero. Still, that hasn't stopped an endless amount of writers and artists from chucking out all the usual elements of the character and completely reinventing him over the years. Want to see Batman as an Arthurian knight? Then you're in luck. Wonder what Batman would be like if he was from Communist Russia? It's been done. How about a pirate Batman? Yes, there is a pirate Batman! In short, any variation of Batman that you can think of has already been done. To be clear, this list isn't about the other characters who've taken on the mantle of the Batman apart from Bruce Wayne - for example, Dick Grayson, Azrael and Terry McGinnis. No. Instead, over the following pages, we'll take a look at the strangest, most shocking reinventions of the Dark Knight around. We think we've rounded up the weirdest and most bizarre, but if you have another one in mind that we've missed, be sure to remind us about them in the comments section down below. 10) Batman Of Zur-En-Arrh The 1950s were a crazy period for Batman comics. Once the Comics Code Authority was formed in 1954, the book moved away from the more adult, crime-based stories of the 1940s and took on more kid-friendly sci-fi elements - Batman was often caught up in wacky, psychedelic adventures with rainbow monsters, robots and aliens. It was pretty fun stuff. One of the most infamous outings is the tale of the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh. A benevolent alien scientist by the name of Tiano had studied Bruce Wayne's actions closely on Earth and decided to become his own version of Batman - complete with a garish purple, red and yellow costume In 2009, Grant Morrison bravely reinvented the character for a modern audience in his Batman R.I.P. arc. In that story, Zur-En-Arrh was a backup personality of Batman's designed to take over if his mental state was near collapse. His name came from a blurred memory of the last words he heard his father say before he was murdered: "If Zorro was real, they'd lock him up in Arkham." 9) Steampunk Batman On and off from 1989 onwards, DC released dozens of tales under their Elseworlds label. Freed from regular continuity, these stories could offer fresh takes on the usual DC mythology. Naturally, a common choice to play around with was the Dark Knight. The first Elseworlds tale was Gotham By Gaslight, which offered a Victorian-set steampunk version of the usual Batman story. Written by Brian Augustyn with art from Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, it sees masked vigilante the Bat-Man on the hunt for Jack the Ripper, who has escaped London and is now operating in Gotham City. The actual story of Steampunk Batman might not be remembered all that well, by some, at least, but the blending of the Batman mythos with the steampunk aesthetic was such a perfect match that Gaslight has now become one of the most popular Elseworlds stories of all-time. 8) Nazi Batman The final issue of Grant Morrison's 52 introduced Earth-10. Just like in The Man in the High Castle, the Nazis won World War II in this world and went on to take over the globe. To ensure his hold, Adolf Hitler personally formed his own superhero team - the JLAxis, which was led by Uberman (AKA Superman). Their aim was to weed out the weak from humanity, leaving the strongest to be taken to breeding centres where they're forced to mate. The Nazi Batman is called Leatherwing. Though he looks identical (apart from the swastika on the bat-symbol) to how you'd normally see the character, he's pretty much the exact opposite of our hero. Not only is he a Nazi, but he's also a sleazebag. When the hero Forerunner ends up on his world and takes down some Nazis, Leatherwing is attracted to her despite, in his words, usually being "averse to interracial relationships." When he asks to show her a good time, Forerunner threatens to castrate him - which sort of puts the dampers on that romance. 7) Green Lantern Batman Ever wondered what Batman would be like if he had actual powers? Wonder no more... In Batman: In Darkest Knight, Abin Sur doesn't choose Hal Jordan but gives Bruce Wayne his power ring instead. At first, Wayne - taking up the identity Bat-Lantern - does a lot of good with his powers (for instance, arresting the Red Hood and stopping his transformation into the Joker). However, when he foils Sinestro's plan, the Yellow Lantern runs amok in a bid to get revenge on the hero, killing Alfred and Jim Gordon. The act causes the Guardians of the Universe to request that Wayne give up his powers, but he refuses and goes rogue. In short, we can safely say that, while he could do some good with them, superpowers would definitely go to Batman's head and he's far better off without them. It's worth a mention though that the hero has temporarily sported various different Lantern rings in DC's regular continuity. You may remember that Jordan actually let him test out his ring once and on another occasion, Batman tried on a Yellow Lantern ring. In Blackest Night, Bruce Wayne was apparently resurrected from the dead by Nekron and became one of his Black Lanterns (well, sort of. It was actually later revealed to be a clone because, comics). 6) Superman Batman Superman and Batman have very different outlooks on the world - but what would happen if the former had endured the later's tragic personal history? That's what Superman: Speeding Bullets endeavoured to explore, and as it turns out, he would actually be pretty terrifying. In this Elseworlds tale from 1993, Kal-El's pod doesn't land in Smallville but crashes into Gotham City instead and is found by billionaires Thomas and Martha Wayne, who raise the boy as their son. Unfortunately, as they always do, the Waynes are murdered in front of the boy's eyes when he's ten. This time, however, little Bruce responds by incinerating their killer with his heat vision. So begins his career as a vengeful vigilante with the powers of a god, fighting his disfigured nemesis Lex Luthor AKA the Joker. This is still the Kal-El we know and love, though, so eventually Lois Lane manages to convince him to become a more hopeful kind of a hero - Superman. 5) Vampire Batman Batman as a vampire is such an obvious alternate Batman concept that it's no surprise that Batman and Dracula: Red Rain was one of the first Elseworlds comics back in 1991. It was so popular, in fact, that the Batvamp's adventures were continued in 1994's Bloodstorm and 1999's Crimson Mist. After defeating Dracula, Bruce Wayne suffers from a vampire bite and slowly transforms into a vampire. At first, he's able to use his vampiric, superhuman abilities to his advantage while still retaining his humanity. Eventually, however, the vampire side wins out and he goes on to kill EVERY SINGLE VILLAIN in Batman mythology - and Alfred! It comes to the point where Gordon needs to team-up with Two-Face and Killer Croc to take the Batvamp down. Unfortunately, this fails, but it does cause a spark of the old Batman to return and he walks out into the sunlight, killing himself. Though not before poor Commissioner Gordon gets crushed by a rock. Seriously, everyone dies in this story. 4) Stan Lee's Batman In 2001, Stan Lee did the unthinkable - he jumped ship from Marvel to DC and made the intriguing Just Imagine... limited series for them. The concept was simple: what would DC's heroes be like if Lee had created them? The most notable was Batman - even if it was mostly notable for how goofy it was. Just look at that ridiculous helmet. African-American Wayne Williams (Lee had to give his Batman an alliterative name) shares an origin with Marvel's Luke Cage in that he's wrongly imprisoned. Once he gets out, Williams becomes a wrestler - using the moniker the Batman, obviously - before turning vigilante, using his inheritance to create a kevlar suit with working wings. This, everyone, is a prime example of why Stan - great as he is - should definitely stick with Marvel. 3) Wolverine Batman Who are the two coolest, most badass heroes out there? Why, Batman and Wolverine, of course. So, wouldn't you like to see them merged into one character? You wouldn't? Oh, too late, it's already happened. Back in 1996, Marvel and DC teamed up to create Amalgam Comics - a limited series that blended together various icons from the two companies to create a new universe of heroes. For instance, Superman and Captain America became Super-Soldier, Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel became, er, Captain Marvel and Lobo and Howard the Duck became Lobo the Duck. Wait, what? The most interesting was Dark Claw, otherwise known as Logan Wayne. An orphan given an adamantium skeleton by the Weapon X program, Dark Claw had a sidekick called Sparrow (a blend of Robin and Jubilee) and his arch-enemy was Hyena (Sabretooth/Joker). Oh, and he had one absolutely hideous costume. 2) Owlman This alternate Batman isn't a one-off Elseworlds creation but a long-running pain in the Justice League's side. Hailing from Earth-3, Owlman is Batman's evil counterpart and part of the Crime Syndicate - the Justice League's evil doppelgangers. Owlman is really Thomas Wayne Jr., the older brother of Bruce. In this reality, the Waynes (including young Bruce) were killed by a policeman when Thomas refused to come in for questioning. Thomas went on to be raised by criminal Joe Chill (the usual killer of the Waynes) and grew up to become a pretty bad dude, possessing a drug-enhanced intellect. Just like the usual Bats and Supes, Owlman clashes with the evil Ultraman. This, however, is because Owlman had an affair with Ultraman's wife Superwoman (Wonder Woman's doppelganger). An alternate version of this alternative version of Batman (are you still with us?) was also introduced in The New 52, when an agent of the Court of Owls believed himself to be Thomas Wayne Jr., the secret brother of Bruce. 1) Flashpoint Batman Speaking of The New 52, that new continuity was kickstarted by the Flashpoint arc. When Barry Allen goes back in time to save his mother, he entirely changes the course of the DC universe. For instance, Aquaman and Wonder Woman are at war, Superman is imprisoned by the government and Bruce Wayne... is dead. You see, in the Flashpoint world, it was little Bruce who was killed in Crime Alley. This resulted in his father Thomas becoming the Batman, one not afraid to kill his enemies and cut deals with criminals. Even more shocking is that this timeline's version of the Joker is none other than Martha Wayne, with the death of her son sending her over the edge into insanity. Since Flashpoint, the Thomas Wayne Batman has become hugely popular with fans. Many often call for a Flashpoint adaptation in the DCEU, with Jeffrey Dean Morgan reprising his role. The actor himself is actually up for it, too, so who knows, it might actually happen at some point.