Batman, one of the most well-known characters in the DC Comics universe, has always lived up to his moniker. His retorts, ferocious bouts, and victories have all been repeated and remembered throughout his career. Not only does the character receive respect for his crime-fighting and combat abilities, but also for the moral code he was given. There are various instances in which Batman has demonstrated a high level of physical and mental tolerance.
This one, however, could not. Batman Who Laughs is an Earth minus 22 version of Batman who has finally succumbed to being evil and perverted, and with a mind like that going rogue, the world will soon come to an end. The character was created by Scott Snyder and illustrator Greg Capullo and debuted in “Dark Days: The Casting” before playing a key role in the Dark Nights metal event.
Two silent pictures, “The Bat Whispers” (1930) and “The Man Who Laughs” (1928), impacted the character’s moniker. With that stated, let us get started on today’s film, in which we will look at a nightmare version of Batman known as “The Batman Who Laughs.”
THE BATMAN WHO LAUGHS IS THE BATMAN WHO WINS (ORIGIN)
The Dark Multiverse is a shadow that exists underneath the regular Multiverse, made up of every fear and poor decision that has ever been made or imagined. The worlds of the Dark Multiverse are delicate and continually decaying, condemned to destruction by their own faulty design.
Unlike those of the standard Multiverse, the planets of the Dark Multiverse have their names prefixed by a negative sign, such as Earth -52 vs Earth 0. Each of the inverse worlds we’ve seen shares some thematic similarities with its positive counterpart. The number of worlds in the Dark Multiverse is significantly more than in the standard Multiverse due to its role as the nursery of yet unborn worlds, as evidenced when Barbatos decided to show Batman the “galaxies” of worlds created from his anxieties.
Other heroes have also had an influence on the Dark Multiverse, with distorted versions of heroes like The Flash, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman planning to attack the Multiverse, even though Batman’s concerns might have spawned them.
One of the key enemies in the DC Comics world is The Batman Who Laughs, an evil version of Bruce Wayne. He is a subsidiary antagonist in Dark Nights: Metal, one of the two major villains in Dark Nights: Death Metal, the title main antagonist in The Batman Who Laughs seven-issue miniseries, and one of the two main antagonists in the Year of the Villain arc. He comes from the Dark Multiverse and is a “Jokerized” version of Batman.
He was the Dark Knights’ team captain, and their mission was to assist their lord Barbatos in plunging the whole Multiverse into chaos and darkness. As a result of their actions, the Justice League has declared war on them. The Batman Who Laughs may be traced back to another Earth when he killed his own Joker. After transferring his brain into an alternative Bruce Wayne known as Batmanhattan and inheriting the abilities of Doctor Manhattan, he transforms into The Darkest Knight, a figure of pure evil with omnipotent power.
The narrative of Earth -22’s Batman was quite similar to that of any other incarnation of the Caped Crusader. Bruce Wayne witnessed his parents being killed in an alleyway when he was a child. He trained for years and became the hero we all know as Batman, fighting powerful villains in Gotham City, vowing retribution against crime. As a vigilante, Batman took up a slew of sidekicks, including Batgirl, Nightwing, Red Hood, Red Robin, and his own son, Damian Wayne. The Justice League included Bruce as a member.
When his world’s Lex Luthor chose to become a hero and sought to persuade the League to let him join, Batman was the only one who objected, knowing that Luthor didn’t believe in being a hero and was just interested in himself. The Joker embarked on a murdering spree across Gotham City, killing the Penguin, Catwoman, Killer Croc, and the Ventriloquist. The Joker claims he did this in order to create a combination of Batman and the Joker.
Joker poisoned Batman, momentarily paralyzing his body but not his mind, allowing him to see the havoc he created without being able to intervene. The Joker, unbeknownst to Batman, expelled a poison from his heart, which infected anybody close to him if he died. In front of Bruce, the Joker destroyed a hospital and, to make it personal, murdered the parents of several small children before injecting them with an incurable, irreversible strain of Joker Venom.
Two days after the Joker’s assassination, Batman and Superman discussed what had transpired. Despite his lack of guilt, he stated that he had no intention of making murder a habit. Soon he could feel his transformation owing to the Joker toxin. He finally gave up on it and lost his mind, completely losing all his sense of morality. He finally became ‘The Batman Who Laughs’
The Batman Who Laughs has his origin well explored in “Dark Nights: The Batman Who Laughs,” which was a part of the Dark Nights: Metal event. Written by James Tynion IV, the plot opens with The Batman Who Laughs sitting at one end of a table and threatening someone who hasn’t been revealed yet. He brings out superhero cards and, finally, a card containing the Joker, referencing which he says it is the card that can change the entire course of events in the next moment.
The story shifts to a flashback on Earth negative 22, Gotham, many years ago. In this reality, Joker has killed several rogues of Gotham and captured Batman, injecting a drug that paralyzed him physically. He says that everyone has a breaking point, and he is waiting to find out about Batman.
Batman is tied and made to watch Joker kill an overwhelming number of kids’ parents. He kills the first set of parents and infects the daughter with a particular strain of the Joker toxin, after which the girl’s face transforms into a creepy smiling one similar to the Joker himself. He continues doing that till Batman loses it and, with all his strength and willpower, finally manages to free himself.
Bruce grabs Joker by the neck so hard that he dies, releasing the Joker toxin he inhales. Two days later, Batman and Superman stand over the group of kids infected by Joker’s toxin, and Batman reveals that Joker was dying because of the toxin and he knew it for which he went this far, attempting to make one final blow. The infected kids have no hope of becoming normal again. Superman tells Batman that he needs to administer the patient himself as one of the kids tried to bite the psychologist’s neck during her treatment.
On hearing this, Batman chuckled and quickly apologized to Superman. Three days later, when the Bat-family tries to enter the Bat-Cave, they are attacked by powerful machines which they assume Bruce had set to test their skills with a higher level of difficulty. After the triumph over them, Batman tells them the truth. He explains how the Joker’s toxin is altering his mind and this process is irreversible.
Nightwing tries to convince him that they will fix it but it’s too late. Batman knew that they would first notice any change in him and then they would make ways to stop him which he cannot let happen. Saying this he turns around with two guns and shoots every member of the Bat-family without any remorse. This reveals Batman’s transformation to his dockerized version has now started taking control of him. A week later, at the Watchtower, Batman had killed all members of the Justice League except Superman, who still manages to stand with bleeding eyes.
Batman then brings Lois and Clark’s son Jonathan and throws a modified strand of Black Kryptonite at Superman, after which they both go mad and kill each other and Lois. Bruce laughs his heart out to this, inferring that his transformation into the Batman Who Laughs is now complete. The scene shifts to the present where the man he was talking to was covered in bandages and smeared with blood. Batman Who Laughs becomes unstoppable with the death of every possible entity who could be a threat.
He along with his Jokerized Robins destroyed everything he could before Barbatos showed him the bigger picture and explained the reality of the Dark Multiverse. The Batman Who Laughs is aware of the Earth where the original Batman lives and gets an idea of the bigger picture. He later organized and led a team of all the different, twisted, and evil versions of Batman from the Dark Multiverse to engage chaos in the realms above the Dark Multiverse.
This version of Batman was revealed to be the winner in the category of “Villain of the Year” which was decided through fan voting and it is also an alternate skin for Noob Saibot in Mortal Kombat 11
WHAT MAKES THE BATMAN WHO LAUGHS NIGHTMARISH
The Batman Who Laughs inherited Doctor Manhattan’s abilities after his brain was placed into the body of a Bruce Wayne who had them. He was converted into a quantum entity with practically limitless power as a result of this. The Batman Who Laughs becomes more powerful than ever after absorbing the energy of every historical Crisis. His Nigh-Omnipotence caused reality to tremble, the possibilities of Hypertime to burn out, and the last residents of the Sphere of Gods to fear his strength.
The Batman Who Laughs can divide and clone himself. He can split his quantum awareness into several physical forms that resemble his physical appearance. Bruce can pull his sentient clones back into his body in the same way he can with his Bio-Fission talent. The Darkest Knight can shoot black beams from his hands that are powerful enough to damage Wonder Woman, who is fueled by the Forge of Worlds. His darkness may also be used to create chains. This version of Bruce can travel across the Multiverse’s numerous realities as well as reach into them at will.
Bruce has the ability to absorb both Crisis and Anti-Crisis Energy in order to boost his already enormous power. When his brain was implanted into the Final Bruce Wayne’s corpse, the Batman Who Laughs became a creature composed of positive cosmic energy known as Anti-Crisis Energy. He can project this energy on a vast scale to equal Perpetua’s energy blasts, as he radiates it from his body.
Bruce isn’t bound by physical rules and can levitate and fly whenever he wants. The laugh of the Darkest Knight was said to be a horrible sound that rocked the entire world. Bruce does not appear to age physically or cognitively after his metamorphosis. Bruce may also infect other sources of energy at will. He was able to detect and corrupt gaps in the Speed Force.
Bruce is unaffected by the vacuum of space and is unaffected by the absence of gravity. He has the ability to go to places in space where no human body would be able to go without the help of technology or protection. Bruce has extraordinary stamina and is virtually indestructible to physical injury. Perpetua and Superboy-Prime are the only ones who have been seen to damage him. The Batman Who Laughs had complete control over his structure and look. He can pull apart most inanimate items and humans, therefore he isn’t confined to employing this rebuilding talent on himself.
In the Last Word after being disintegrated, Bruce Wayne reintegrated his body’s molecules. Bruce has the ability to change his physical size at will. He has no known limit to how much he can grow right now. He’s demonstrated that he can expand from the size of a little child to the size of numerous planets. Bruce had also demonstrated the ability to reduce his Last-52 worlds and store them safely within himself, only to resize them later.
Bruce was capable of erasing the Titans’ abilities in a moment. Bruce obtained the ability to change the reality on a multiversal scale after receiving additional Crisis Energy. He was able to establish the “Last 52,” a collection of fifty-two other worlds. The Darkest Knight was able to resurrect his Dark Knights. To track down Barry Allen, Wally West, and Jay Garrick, Bruce was able to raise an army of undead Flashes. His agility, balance, and coordination are all superhuman. This enables him to pivot sharply and leap long distances while traveling at superhuman speed.
Bruce’s reflexes have been boosted far beyond a regular human’s, allowing him to react to Superboy strikes. Prime’s Bruce can move at incredible inhuman speeds. When pursuing down Barry Allen, Wally West, and Jay Garrick, he was quick enough to keep up with them. Bruce’s physique can withstand the strain of moving at superhuman speeds for long periods of time without tiring or weakening. He was capable of tossing whole planets at Perpetua throughout their combat. Bruce’s strength had become so great that he could bend time and space with his willpower alone.
He was able to transport Wonder Woman and himself back to the beginning of time by punching her hard enough. To confine Perpetua, he was able to manipulate numerous portions of the Source Wall. The Groblin-Robin King was able to be restored to his normal self, recovering his free will, thanks to the Darkest Knight. Bruce has a non-linear perception of time. This implies he can see the past, present, and future all at once.
His abilities allow him to see everything in time as well as the Multiverse’s workings. Bruce is also aware of every Batman from the Dark Multiverse and has been able to incorporate parts of the most terrible and cruel of them into his own psyche, including their talents and experiences. Bruce is well-versed in the workings of the cosmos on a cosmic scale. He claims he can sense the Dark Multiverse as if it were an extension of himself.
The Batman Who Laughs can see into the future of his own timeline and the future of every Batman in the Dark Multiverse, thanks to his capacity to view the past, present, and future all at once. He can see into his own history and the pasts of every Batman in the Dark Multiverse, thanks to his capacity to view the past, present, and future all at once.
Bruce had shown a tremendous degree of deception, leading his opponents to believe they were winning while he had a different plan in mind. Even before gaining the powers of the Final Bruce Wayne, Bruce was aware of several universes, unlike other mortals in the Omniverse. He was aware of both his own Dark Multiverse and the other Multiverse. He also knew how the Dark Multiverse came to be, according to Barbatos’ explanation.
Finally, he became aware of Perpetua, an ancient and all-powerful creature that few people are aware of. Bruce possesses the same training and abilities as Earth 0’s Batman and has never lost one-on-one combat. For a brief moment, Laughs was able to take on both the Earth 0 Batman and the Joker at the same time.
Conclusion
The Batman Who Laughs symbolized Batman’s dread of becoming as evil as the Joker, how much he is defined by his never-ending battle with the Clown Prince of Crime, and his remorse that he can’t destroy the Joker for good without killing himself.
The personality of the Batman Who Laughs resided in two bodies: the original’s brain occupying the body of the Darkest Knight’s last Bruce Wayne, and his corpse reanimated by Prime Earth’s Batman via Black Lantern Ring. And with that, this video winds down. I hope you appreciated our articles and learned a great deal about “The Batman who Laughs”.