“No Evil Shall elude My Sight on the Brightest Day or the Darkest Night.” Beware my power…Green Lantern’s Light!” warns anyone who worships evil’s might. Every time we hear it, we get chills. For our money, the Green Lantern Corps is the finest peacekeeping force in comic book history. Only those with immense determination and the capacity to conquer fear are considered worthy of becoming a Green Lantern. If they achieve those two requirements, they are given the Power Ring and inducted into the Corps as one of roughly 8,000 cosmic defenders whose mission is to keep evil at bay in their Space Sectors. What happens, though, if the Power Ring makes the wrong decision?
What happens if, rather than spreading light, it blankets the entire area in darkness? What happens if the Universe’s Most Powerful Weapon slips into the wrong hands? To most of you, Bruce Wayne appears to be the ideal candidate for the Lantern Corps; nevertheless, this is not the case on Earth -32. One of the most iconic gangs of supervillains was formed in Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s DC-shaking Metal event, and oddly, it is made up solely of evil Batmen from the Dark Multiverse. However, none of them are as terrible as The Dawnbreaker.
The Dawnbreaker is an evil Green Lantern Batman who wields the most terrifying version of a Power Ring in DC history. His objective is to extinguish all light in the Multiverse. But how did Bruce Wayne become such a nasty supervillain in the first place? Or was he always this way, and we just did not realize it? As we examine the Metal tie-in one-shot Batman: The Dawnbreaker, written by Sam Humphries and illustrated by Ethan Van Sciver, we will get answers to all of these questions and more. Dawnbreaker’s roots are examined in this article.
Genesis: The Pain of Loss and the Endless Void
If we had to pinpoint one moment that changed everything in Bruce Wayne’s life, it’d have to be that fateful night in Crime Alley. After catching his favorite film The Legend of Zorro with his parents Thomas & Martha Wayne, young Bruce would learn the pain of loss and the injustices of the world. Joe Chill was nobody; a common street thug who was desperate enough to gun down the 2 biggest names in Gotham City just for some money. In most of his origin stories, this moment is the genesis of the Caped Crusader we know as Batman.
The loss of his beloved parents broke Bruce, and he vowed that he would cleanse Gotham City of its corruption if it took his own life, but never at the cost of another. The one thing that defines Batman is his unwillingness to cross the line and become the enemy; he will not kill, because he knows the pain of loss and is a thorough man of the law. Well, aside from his vigilantism. Batman wages his endless crusade against Gotham’s criminals in the hope that society itself will one day change.
In many ways, we can say that the pain of loss is what created Batman and the awareness of that fact has guided his moral code. But what happens when you take that away and replace it with nothingness? On Earth -32, Bruce Wayne’s parents faced the same fate they do in most other universes; but something downright horrifying happens to Bruce himself. Instead of feeling sudden bouts of anxiety, the shock of loss, and lifelong emotional pain, Bruce felt…nothing. It was as if there was a void inside him where all his emotions had been sucked into and replaced with something terrible.
Instead of questioning the loss of his parents on a deeper, more philosophical level and creating an ideology around it, all he felt was a pit of despair swallowing him whole; and the burning rage that comes with helplessness. He couldn’t bring them back. He knew that. And that fact killed any semblance of humanity in him. In his black rage, Bruce Wayne killed any ounce of fear in his being. All he had was the conviction to “do the right thing”.
It would become the greatest misjudgment of willpower in Green Lantern Corps history. When Abin Sur crash-landed on Earth -32, his Power Ring chose Bruce Wayne as his replacement in a bout of desperation. The Power Ring sought Bruce out and told him he’d been chosen. It must’ve assumed that the teenager it was talking to communing with would have a sense of right and wrong. Either that or this was a really, really faulty power ring. Bruce had no idea where it came from, or what it was, but he knew what to do with it.
He accepted his invitation into the Green Lantern Corps, thus becoming a Green Lantern himself. And then he proceeded to break the one rule that no Green Lantern is allowed to break; he tried to kill Joe Chill with his newfound power. As you’d expect, the ring tried to stop him from doing this. But what you wouldn’t have guessed is what happened next. Across all his various incarnations, Bruce Wayne is always portrayed as having an iron-clad will.
He will not deter from doing what’s needed to be done, no matter how far he has to go in order to do it. And when it mingled with his malevolent soul, it ended up infecting the Power Ring with the helpless void that Bruce carried within him. After being exposed to 181% force of willpower, it gave up and bowed down to its master, allowing him to kill the man who took everything from him. This is how Bruce Wayne of Earth -32 christened his role of being Space Sector 2814’s Green Lantern.
With Great Power Comes Genocide: Green Lantern’s Massacres
After unleashing a hideous construct-based creature on Joe Chill which effectively vaporized him, Bruce goes back to his parents’ bodies and tries to bring them back to life. He thought that having the Greatest Weapon in the Universe on his Finger could help him fill that void with what he needed. To his horror, it reanimated them as zombie-like corpses: incoherent, knocked loopily, and downright inhuman. They told him they loved him, but he knew that was just his loneliness talking. So Bruce Wayne turned his attention to crime.
As Green Lantern, he became Gotham City’s Defender and was heralded as a beacon of change at first. People called him a hero, a flaming sword that was cleansing Gotham City of its corruption. They should’ve known better. It was true that Green Lantern was focusing his energies on the criminals of Gotham City, but he was no better than them. Bruce ruthlessly killed off a colorful lunatic who populates Batman’s iconic rogues’ gallery with a simple yet dreadful piece of logic; if his parents didn’t get to live, why do they?
Even the cops figured that Green Lantern’s crusade against crime wasn’t about saving Gotham; it was about satisfying his bloodlust, and he would have his due no matter who stood in his way as Detective Bullock found out to his grave misfortune. By the time James Gordon figured out where all the criminals from Gotham City had gone off to, it was too late. The last one to die was The Penguin, who was subjected to what is probably the most gruesome murder Bruce Wayne has committed to this point.
See, after his darkness-infected will overrode the Power Ring, it cracked open its core and replaced it with the void inside Bruce’s sole. And in that void, he made some friends: grotesque, eldritch constructs of his own creation who would come for their prey whenever Bruce’s ring initiated a Blackout. That’s how he took care of Penguin’s men; Oswald Cobblepot himself died after being obliterated by an asteroid field, taking with him the last of Gotham’s troubles. Gordon confronted Green Lantern about his actions, but he should’ve heeded the warning Bruce gave him.
Lantern’s Power Ring obliterated Gordon on the spot and fashioned a new Lantern Battery out of the helplessness that Bruce Wayne felt through every fiber of his being. That is where the Guardians of the Universe found him and attempted to bring him back with them, but they underestimated Bruce’s despair and fell victim to his dark appetites. With no one left to oppose him, a victorious Bruce Wayne lamented the fact that even after committing genocide against Gotham’s criminals and the Guardians of the Universe, all he felt was empty helplessness. And so he decided; it was time for a change.
Bruce Wayne Dies: The Dawnbreaker Ascends
The bats were circling Bruce and he heard them, felt them, had their visages burned into his flesh and memory. Ever since he found that Ring, Bruce Wayne had sought purpose and companionship, but he realized he’d had it all along. He didn’t want to be Green Lantern. He didn’t want to be Bruce Wayne. Here at the sight of a cosmic massacre, he’d finally found who he was and took the first step towards embracing his destiny.
With one last thought of his parents running through his mind, he stepped into the Power Battery his dark soul had created. Bruce Wayne died that day. What emerged was something so evil, it defied comprehension, and its oath of service went a little something like this; “With darkness black, I choke the light! No brightest day escapes my sight! I turn the dawn into midnight! Beware my power… Dawnbreaker’s Might!”. Batman The Dawnbreaker emerged from the Power Battery to a world crumbling into nothingness.
The greatest moment of his life was greeted by the end of his reality. But as his world crumbled into the same void that filled his heart & soul, he was given purpose by The One Who Laughs. Dawnbreaker learned that there was a world filled with light, waiting, begging to be snuffed out for good. And being an agent of darkness himself, it wasn’t an offer he could resist. He joined Barbatos’ Dark Knights and unleashed his void upon the citizens of Coast City when he reached Prime Earth. Hal Jordan tried to stop him, but to his bafflement, his Power Ring couldn’t touch Dawnbreaker’s constructs.
Keep in mind that Hal Jordan is the Most-Powerful Green Lantern in history and his Power Ring is a cut above the rest; it told Hal that stopping Dawnbreaker’s Blackout Initiative was “impossible”. If it wasn’t for Dr. Fate, Hal would’ve met the same fate as his counterparts from Earth -32; and the citizens of Prime Earth Coast City, who weren’t as fortunate as him and fell victim to Dawnbreaker’s Darkness.
Why Dawnbreaker is The Most Dangerous Version of Green Lantern
If you know anything about the Dark Multiverse, then you know that its very essence is the nightmares and fears of the denizens of the Positive Multiverse. Barbatos once told Bruce Wayne that there are entire galaxies that exist in his realm thanks to Batman’s unnaturally paranoid nature, and it looks like Earth -32 was basically Bruce’s worst fears given form. Throughout his crime-fighting career, Batman has had to rely on the fact that he is a human being at the end of the day whenever he formulates a strategy.
His humanity, in fact, can be called a balancing factor in his actions; because even Bruce Wayne is afraid of what he will be capable of doing if he ever had superpowers and lacked the wisdom to wield them. In his adult life, Batman has had to deal with all kinds of adversaries, from street thugs to New Gods. His experiences have allowed him to stay in touch with his humanity. Dawnbreaker is a literal manifestation of Bruce’s fear of power getting to his head and corrupting his mission.
He also represents his inability to get over his parents’ deaths, and the fact that had he not taught himself how to cope with it, he might have become something worse than a monster. Something like the Dawnbreaker. Bruce Wayne from Earth -32 is not the man who has traveled the Earth for decades honing his craft. He is a teenager with so much grief, that he managed to subdue The Most Powerful Weapon in the Universe to his will; and then corrupt it.
Dawnbreaker wields all the powers of a Green Lantern Corps member; energy projection, flight, ability to survive inhospitable conditions, you know, the standard stuff. Where he breaks away from them is the fact that his Power Ring is energized by Pure Darkness. Dawnbreaker’s corrupted will cannot be touched by the constructs of a regular Power Ring because they aren’t composed of light in the first place.
Moreover, his Ring is so powerful that it can disintegrate mortals on spot the, nullify other Lantern rings’ powers, and even corrupt them if their wielders’ wills aren’t strong enough. The most dangerous tool in his arsenal is the Blackout. Upon his command, Dawnbreaker released several demonic constructs made out of the emotional void that he has tamed to his whims.
These creatures are powerful enough to decapitate the Guardians of the Universe; beings who are supposed to be at the top of the cosmic food chain. There’s nothing that can stop Dawnbreaker once he decides to snuff out the lights; so calling him dangerous doesn’t even begin to cover him. He is evil personified.
Why Dawnbreaker deserves more recognition
Okay, fine, we admit that Dawnbreaker is just a darker version of Bat-Lantern from Earth 32; but to be completely honest with you, Dawnbreaker is a much more fleshed-out character than his Silver Age counterpart. And also far more interesting, we’re sad to say. The idea of Bruce Wayne being pushed to his extreme and choosing darkness over light is something that has always been toyed with; but never has it been implemented in such a grim manner. And make no mistake, Batman: The Dawnbreaker is a grim read.
It’s a bleak lens into one of the most-disturbed psyches in comic book history, and that’s just the first page of the comic. With every passing panel, you come to realize that the man you’re reading about is a Bruce Wayne you would never want to meet. At no point does Dawnbreaker attempt to separate his life as a hero-and then as a villain- from his “real” identity. At least Batman has to moonlight as Bruce Wayne to get into places he can’t and even manages to enjoy the billionaire playboy’s lifestyle at times. Dawnbreaker isn’t Batman.
He isn’t Green Lantern. He isn’t even Bruce Wayne. He’s a twisted monster who only finds comfort in death and darkness; something that could’ve easily been Batman’s own legacy, had he not regulated himself at the right time. Dawnbreaker is a reflection of Bruce Wayne completely unburdened by morality or constraints, and we honestly get why Batman hates superpowers now. Because he knows what he’d do if he had them, and the answer isn’t half as humane as following in Superman’s footsteps.