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.