You actually want to be able to manipulate time like The Flash, my friend. We also need to discuss Eobard Thawne’s special relationship with this energy since he has the ability to manipulate time like The Flash. We all know that Thawne is essentially Barry Allen’s Eminem’s Stan.
He is a scientist, professor, or museum curator from the year 25th, depending on your continuity, who is such a huge fan of the Flash that he actively intends to kill him and succeed him.
Thawne subsequently evolved into the Reverse-Flash, the Scarlet Speedster’s most recognisable adversary, who tormented his hero by going back in time and basically messing with his entire life. So it stands to reason that Batman, just like he does for the Justice League of America as a whole, has a backup plan for him.
What if, instead of being a subject, Doomsday was one of his contingencies? What if he ends up being their last vestige of genuine hope in a world where he was once the prophet of the Armageddon?
And what if that optimism, in a deranged effort to save itself, ends up destroying the planet as well? In this video, we will explore the beginnings of The Devastator, one of the Dark Multiverse’s most bizarre interpretations of Batman. We will provide all those answers and more.
The Shadow of Creation: Welcome to the Dark Multiverse
What created the Multiverse? Was it the big bang that Earth’s scientists keep referring to? Was it the Hand of God that was witnessed by Krona at the beginning of time? Or was it something else? Something entirely different? Something so inherently unstable that the word “dark” is in its denomination? When the cosmic perpetuity aptly called Perpetua created DC’s Multiverse, she divided it in 3 aspects.
The first 2 were rather openly depicted for decades in DC comics; the Positive Matter Universe & the Anti-Matter Universe have been the sites of some of the greatest Crises events in the company’s history. But there exists a third realm: a realm of pure chaos & creation, of despair & ecstasy, of promise & purging. This realm is called the Dark Multiverse; and it is where the cradle of creation resides. Unlike the Positive & Anti-Matter Universes, the Dark Multiverse is fluid in its composition, being made out of the very essence of sentient life itself.
It is here that the World Forger labours at his Forge, creating stable worlds out of the hopes & fears of the Multiverse and helping them “ascend”. Any worlds that came out “impure” were devoured by the cosmic dragon known as Barbatos. For eons, this model of creation & destruction kept the cosmic scales perfectly balanced; and then one fateful day, it didn’t. Barbatos turned on his master and slew him, upsetting the grand order of creation and unleashing a torrent of darkness on the conscience of creation itself.
Without Alpeus, there was no one who could regulate the energies of the Dark Multiverse well enough to keep “rotten worlds” from sustaining themselves beyond their intended existence. And in these shadows, the worst nightmares of the worlds above were given shape, form & worst of all, purpose.
For the worlds that now rose up in the cradle of creation were tainted, fashioned from the fears and paranoia of sentient life; and by that metric, Bruce Wayne is responsible for creating whole galaxies in the Dark Multiverse. And on one such world, he ends up having to face off against his best friend, confidant, and his personal saviour from despair; Superman.
The Reign of Tyranny: On Earth –ve 1, Kal-El goes rogue
On Earth One, Kal-El died at the hands of Doomsday and came back to life a conflicted man. He used to think he was the symbol of hope for all mankind. He used to think he could inspire love & kindness in all peoples. And then he died at the hands of an abomination created on his own world. When Superman is resurrected, he initially forgets who he is and goes on a rampage against the League itself.
Its only when Lois Lane interjects and reminds Clark of his humanity that he reclaims his mantle as the Man of Steel and takes to the skies to protect Earth again, flashing his S symbol like the beacon of hope he was. On Earth One, Clark Kent retained all the facets that made him human. But on Earth –ve 1, things went in the direction of Zack Snyder’s Knightmare scenario; only this time, it wasn’t Batman who let Lois Lane die.
Superman did the deed himself. You see, at some point after being resurrected after fighting Doomsday, Clark Kent- the kind, loving human being- started giving way to Kal-El; and the mighty alien “god” had had enough of mankind’s pettiness. He goes on a merciless tirade against everything that he deems “evil” on planet Earth. At first, his brutality is restricted to criminals and supervillains.
But when he starts targeting civilians, the Justice League can’t ignore his actions anymore, and he seals his own villainous fate by killing the one person he used to claim he “couldn’t live without”- Lois Lane. Batman used to think that Superman represented the “best of us”, but after seeing what he did to the woman he loved just to prove his own superiority; he lost all delusions of hope.
Bruce Wayne armed himself with advanced battle armour and a Kryptonite-tipped spear to confront the man he used to call his friend; but unlike Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, he doesn’t have much luck standing up to him. The Son of Krypton toys with Bruce, chastising him and mocking the League for ever thinking that Batman could beat him. Kal-El personally killed them for that slight.
Now, as he stalks the man he used to call his closest friend, he asks him one final question: Does Bruce realise just how weak he is in comparison to him? A battered & bloody Batman lets go of the broken spear and barks at Kal-El that he’s always known. He then presses a button and informs the Kryptonian that this would be the last time he ever hurt him.
Last Resort: Doomsday – Batman becomes The Devastator
In the 2015 New 52 storyline Superman: Doomed, Kal-El’s Bane escapes the Phantom Zone but comes out a little…different. Doomsday’s evolutionary nature caused him to mutate after his last defeat, and he now had a virulent virus raging throughout his body. Exposure to the virus is the ultimate way of defeating Superman. Why? Because anyone who comes in contact with it, is transformed into Doomsday.
Kal-El manages to stop his mortal enemy’s rampage through Earth, but is forced to inhale the virus-laden fumes being expunged by his corpse; thereby turning him into his worst enemy. On Earth –ve 1, Bruce Wayne manages to replicate this virus after his universe’s Doomsday is defeated. Bruce believed that Doomsday’s unstoppable strength, coupled with his highly-organized mind, would be the ultimate deterrent for the Man of Steel should he ever go rogue. Turns out, he was right.
After pressing that button, Batman is injected with his personal strain of the Doomsday virus which transforms him into the only known entity to have ever killed Superman. As it spreads through him, it hardens both body & heart, giving Bruce the strength & resolve he needed to finally kill the tyrannical alien that was once his closest confidant. He barks at Clark after beating him senseless, taunting him about his own weakness.
But after plunging his bony extrusions through Superman’s heart, all Bruce Wayne felt was hollow nothingness; and rage. Burning, searing, corrupting rage at his inability to stop Kal-El’s rampage sooner. He could’ve stopped him sooner. He could’ve used the virus on himself way before everyone else had died. Or better yet; he could’ve shared it with the entire population of Earth to turn them all into Doomsdays.
No one would have to be afraid of the Kryptonian then. As he was ruminating on this loss and the progressive debilitation that the virus was inflicting upon his conscience, his world began crumbling around him. That’s when the Batman Who Laughs arrives and tells him of another world; one where people still think that Superman is a symbol of hope; one where they don’t know the monster hidden within his heart; one where they don’t have the means to fight back if he does turn on them once again. The Batman Who Laughs points Bruce Wayne from Earth –ve 1 in the direction of Prime Earth; and he joins Barbatos’ Dark Knights, re-christening himself as The Devastator.
Prime Earth’s Final Reckoning: The Devastator Strikes
After Prime Earth Batman’s “Mantling” is completed, the Dark Knights attack the various home towns of the Justice League in a ruthless coordinated assault. Coast City, Amnesty Bay, Central City, Star City have all been attacked and a gigantic, malevolent mountain has appeared in the heart of Gotham City. Metropolis is in disarray as well, as no one is able to make any sense out of the events that are unfolding. But Lois Lane is the best journalist in the city, and she’s committed to keeping the people update with the truth.
She’s arguing with a junior at Daily Planet when she’s visited by Bruce Wayne. Lois has been trying to keep herself together by distracting herself with work, but the truth is she can’t stop worrying about Clark. So she asks his best friend where he is, and whether he’s okay or not.
Bruce takes her hand and starts to tell her he isn’t okay, and it looks like he might tell her the truth of the situation, but it turns out to be worse than anything we could’ve imagined; because the very next moment, Bruce calls Clark the problem and it is revealed that this isn’t Prime Earth Batman; it’s the Devastator in disguise, who infects Lois Lane with the Doomsday Virus, thereby condemning Metropolis to a horrifying fate. The other members of the Superman Family try to put up a fight, but they’re no match for him; they end up getting infected as well.
And by the time Lois makes it back to her son Jonathon and locks him in a safety bunker, she begins to turn into that hideous primordial creature herself. The Devastator then attacks the Fortress of Solitude and lays waste to whoever remains to guard the place; including Green Lantern & The Flash. He steals the Multiversal Tuning Fork that had been kept secured in the Fortress since the Infinite Crisis, and flies it to Challenger Mountain in Gotham City; where he starts tuning it up.
As the comic comes to an end, we see Bruce Wayne from Earth –ve 1 launch into a hate-filled tirade against Kal-El, telling him he hoped that he could feel all the chaos that was happening in his world from his prison in the Dark Multiverse. The last panel of Batman: The Devastator shows the Multiversal Tuning Fork, overflowing with malevolent energy; and Superman tied up next to corpses serving as its cosmic battery.
What Makes Devastator A Deadly Weapon?
Anyone who can punch Lobo into the Sun is the definition of a deadly weapon. The original Doomsday was a violent creature who epitomized the concept of an unstoppable force; but he wasn’t exactly…smart. Doomsday had to “die” in order to adapt to his enemy’s strengths, and his mind was rather uni-directional, being focused on hate & destruction. Bruce Wayne, on the contrast, has a highly organized mind that has earned him the distinction of being the World’s Greatest Detective.
He has trained himself to peak physical conditioning, capable of fighting for periods of time that would kill a normal human being out of sheer exhaustion. He’s one of the smartest (and deadliest) individuals in the cosmos, despite being a mortal. So when you put them together, you get pretty much the worst nightmare of all sentient life: a Bruce Wayne juiced up with Doomsday’s powers.
As The Devastator, Bruce has access to all of Doomsday’s physical traits: superhuman strength, stamina, speed, and a sharp, bony physiology that makes him incredibly durable to hits. It also doubles as a good offensive tool, and Devastator can even use it as a Summoning, conjuring entire fields of protruding bone like he’s Kimimaro from Naruto. Where he differs is in his fatality, and make no mistake; The Devastator is a million times more deadly than good ol’ Doomsday.
With Bruce Wayne’s intellect, he’s able to adapt to his enemy’s strengths on the spot; as demonstrated by the Kryptonite mist he used to cripple his Earth’s Kal-El. His virus is far more virulent and takes hold much quicker. And as if that wasn’t enough, this infected behemoth can fly as fast as the Man of Steel himself.
Put all of this together, and you have possibly the most lethal, sentient biological weapon to ever exist in the history of DC Comics; and have we mentioned that he can easily conceal his “true form”? The Devastator might be more brutish than the other Dark Knights, and his sanity might be crumbling under the effects of the virus, but that just serves to amplify his lethal force and makes him that much more dangerous. He’s the perfect tool for conquest, and subjugation; and Barbatos recruited him for those very reasons.
Why The Devastator deserves more recognition
The Devastator holds a special place in our hearts, solely because he’s a call back to the original DC Multiverse. But that isn’t the only reason he’s worth you attention. This Doomsday-infected version of Batman embodies the yin-yang relationship the Dark Knight shares with the Man of Steel. Bruce Wayne considers Clark Kent to be his best friend and his closest confidant. He thinks of him as a symbol of hope, and as the best of them all.
He has been willing to sacrifice himself on many an occasion for Superman’s sake; but he can never shake off those two fated words: What If? What if it was all an act? What if he snaps one day and realises the life of virtue isn’t for him? What if Superman becomes the tyrant Lex Luthor has always made him out to be? That’s why he has contingency plans for Kal-El; and Devastator basically represents the worst case scenario.
There were a lot of ways in which Batman could’ve stopped Superman; heck, even Zack Snyder came up with a clever way to put the 2 on an even peg with the Kryptonite smoke bomb. Injecting himself with the Doomsday Virus is a sign; a sign that Bruce Wayne has given up on playing nice, and is now playing to win. And given the havoc he’s able to wreak within a single one-shot tie-in issue, we can safely say that The Devastator deserves way more recognition; as the spine-chilling freak of nature & nurture that he truly is.