Comic books, for a medium that develops its own gods, feature a lot of real-world mythical figures on their pages. Thor loves to come down to Earth every now and again for a happy bender and a few fights, as we all know. Despite being an Amazonian goddess, Diana of Themiscyra has been attempting to integrate herself into human civilization for decades.
Bruce Wayne, on the other hand, seems unconcerned about all this god nonsense. To be fair to Batman, he believes in only one person: himself, and his explanations for that belief have been quite realistic. The Dark Knight’s whole “contingency system” and moral crusade originates from the fact that he lacks god-like powers, and those who use them against innocent people are heathens who must be dealt with nonetheless.
Not because he does not want to murder, but because he always wants to believe in the good in people. And he is not anyone’s deity, thus he has no right to cast final judgment on their lives. He is a man who follows a set of rules to keep him in control. But what if he misplaces the codes?
What if Bruce Wayne was given godlike power and decided he preferred it to the planet he pledged to save? By studying the Dark Knights: The Animated Series, this video will address those questions and more. Batman: The Merciless is a metal tie-in one-shot, and you might want to bring a blanket for this one.
Welcome to a Multiverse made out of your worst nightmares: The Dark Multiverse explained
No matter how high or low you stand in the grand scheme of things, there is one thing that you share with every other human being on this planet; and that is the concept of fear. It doesn’t matter how rich you are, or how physically tough your exterior is, deep inside, there’s something all of us fear. It might be something as insignificant as a fear of lasers to something more philosophically pressing, like the very premise of death.
And even though we don’t consciously think about them, these fears dominate our subconscious minds and become the foundation for nightmares. Because of all his flawed analyses of female and male sexuality, Sigmund Freud was right about one thing; you can tell a lot about a man from his dreams. The unconscious mind might not be making you think things that are strictly “real”, but they exist and form the basis for a lot of our actions & thinking processes.
But what if we were to tell you there’s more to it than mere lucidity and mental imagery? What if we told you that all your fears, all your nightmares, aren’t just in your head; they exist as a completely separate reality unto themselves? Because that’s exactly what the Dark Multiverse is; a realm entirely composed of sentient life’s most negative thoughts. When Perpetua created the Multiverse, she made 2 that mirrored each other in almost every aspect: The Positive Matter Universe, overseen by The Monitor/Mar Novu, & the Anti-Matter Universe overseen by The Anti-Monitor/Mobius.
But there has always existed a third realm, just underneath them, which happens to be the cradle of the creation itself. The Dark Multiverse is where the World Forger labored at his Forge, creating entire planets out of the hopes & fears of the denizens of the Positive Matter Universe. But after his death at the hands of Barbatos, there was no one left to watch over the Forge, which meant no new worlds would ascend; and that the ones that cropped up now, would descend into anarchy & destruction inevitably.
And believe it or not, the chief perpetrator of this seismic boom in the creation of a “corrupt planet” is none other than Batman himself. Bruce Wayne’s paranoid nature has led to entire galaxies being formed inside the Dark Multiverse. Chief amongst “heresies” is the fear of what he would become if he started killing, and his regret that he can’t end his crusade since his villains keep coming back.
Though Prime Earth Bruce Wayne is able to keep his head aloft through the worst of times with his unbreakable will, this isn’t the case on Earth –ve 12. In this world, Bruce Wayne lost what he loved most, and it drove him to commit such heinous acts of violence that we’re not even sure if he’s a human being anymore.
War, Death & Love: The Life of Bruce Wayne from Earth –ve 12
Despite writers clearly establishing a character’s current and potential love interests, comic book fans always tend to “ship” couples that really aren’t meant to be together. One such coupling is code-named WonderBat, and you’ll get no extra points for guessing who it’s about. Yes, in the minds of many comic book readers, Wonder Woman and Batman are natural partners; even more so than Catwoman & The Dark Knight. This is an idea that Zack Snyder played within his Justice League movies, but on Earth –ve 12, it became reality.
Normally, Bruce & Diana have a relationship that is mostly based on placating the former’s cynicism. They’ve tried “dating” a couple of times, but it never works out, and they’ve always remained trusted teammates since they became a part of the Justice League. But on this planet in the Dark Multiverse, they finally committed themselves to each other; and it came at the cost of millions of lives. See, in this reality, Diana’s multi-generational war with Ares finally spills over into the world of man.
The God of War unleashes a savage assault on the planet’s mortal population, killing thousands of humans & metahumans without a hint of mercy. When Bruce Wayne had witnessed his parents’ death in Crime Alley at the age of 8, he vowed to himself that he would be a warrior of justice and will show mercy, unlike his enemies. And for 2 years, he did just that. Rallying the people of Earth-ve 12 around his mythic emblem, Batman fought at the frontlines of the war that Ares had started, and he stuck to his principles.
He and Wonder Woman were the chief leaders of this resistance, given the fact that most of their comrades had fallen or were missing in action. Bruce & Diana had always had a warm relationship; Diana found Wayne a sultry enigma and the Dark Knight was grateful for the humanizing effect the Amazonian princess had on her. But during this war, the emotions they held at bay for each other came spilling out in a torrent of passion, and they became lovers.
For 2 years they fought together, side by side, taking on the forces of the mad God of War who had been driven crazier by the new helm he had fashioned for himself. And when they finally knocked the helmet off of Ares’ head, the Dynamic Couple took a moment to celebrate what they had accomplished. That’s when Ares struck a mortal blow to the back of the Amazon’s head, rendering her fatally unconscious.
Bruce Wayne’s emotional damn was already being held together by duct tape and sheer willpower. Falling in love with Diana was the best thing that had happened to him since his parents died; now even that had been taken from him. In his rage, he picked up the God of War’s helmet, intending to use its unfathomable power to dole out merciful justice and exact revenge on his lover’s killer. Instead, he wound to find out just how foolish he had been his entire life.
The Fall of the Gods & the Rise of the Merciless
As Bruce Wayne cradled Diana’s limp body, Ares mocked him when he said that he would make God pay for his crimes. Those were the last words that the Son of Zeus would ever utter on Earth –ve 12. Maddened by grief, Wayne donned the War God’s helm, and he had a premonition; he realized that his entire life, he’d had things backward. His codes didn’t make him stronger, or better than his enemies.
They didn’t make him the pure symbol of justice he thought he was. They only served to taint him; as half-measures that ensured his justice would never be permanent in its effectiveness. After donning the Helm of Ares, Bruce Wayne realized that the life he had created for himself was built upon a house of lies that he had created with his own hand. There was no good or evil, no binary axis around which the moralities of man revolved.
There was only the war of survival; everlasting, all-consuming, and relentless, like the wildfire that the Alchemist’s Guild of King’s Landing synthesizes. After spilling his predecessor’s blood upon the land he once considered to be as sacred as Olympus itself, Batman was imbued with all of Ares’ powers & titles; and he ascended to the throne of the New God of War. Though he didn’t spend much time languishing in his cushiony chair because, as he’d realized, his war was endless; and this time, his targets were clear. He began with his rogues’ gallery, swiftly taking out earthly scum like The Penguin, Riddler, and Joker before moving on to more cosmic threats.
Before long, he forgot the distinction between friend & enemy and unleashed his wrath on the same people he once shared a life with. And by the time he ascended his true throne atop a mound of the deceased bodies of all the gods in existence, the fabled God Killer dripping ichor gripped in his mighty hands, his world had already started fading. Batman rooted out his opposition without mercy, and that is something that Barbatos quite liked.
So he sent his lieutenant, The Batman Who Laughs, to recruit this Earth –ve 12 version of himself to his force of Dark Knights. War was life for this Bruce Wayne, and now that his war in the darkness had come to a conclusion, another awaited him on the brighter side. Clad in his terrifying armor fashioned after Ares’ visage and emblazoned with his former lover’s crest, Bruce Wayne of Earth –ve 12 attacked Prime Earth as The Merciless; the cold, brutal personification of War in the DC Multiverse.
Brutality, Blood & Betrayal: The Merciless Arrives on Prime Earth
At the top-secret US Armed Forces facility in Langley, Virginia, General Samuel Lane gathers every department conceivable & available to counter the invasion of the Dark Knights. With the League out of commission, it’s up to the D.E.O, S.H.A.D.E & Task Force X to save the day. But as usual, the heads of each department have a different idea as to how they should approach the situation; and to make matters worse, Amanda Waller’s Suicide Squad had gone dark since entering Gotham City.
Samuel Lane reveals that the US Armed Forces had prepared a “solution” for a moment just like this; a super-charged nuclear cocktail of a missile that was code-named Valhalla. Lane proposed what every hot-headed military general would do in a situation like this, which was dropping that mega-nuke in the middle of Gotham to “contain the situation”. But before the assembled departments could conclude their uncivil discussion, the Merciless arrived at the facility.
In war, taking out the brains of the operation is a fundamental strategy; without a responsive command center, no platoon could hope for victory, let alone survival. Being the literal God of War, The Merciless recognizes this fact and quickly gets to work on detaching the US Armed Forces’ brain from its proverbial body. Despite Steve Trevor’s ardent opposition, Lane commands a couple of black ops operatives to drop Valhalla on their location, arguing that the deaths of a few million would serve to protect the billions of lives that were at stake.
But as he’d find out to his horror, none of what he thought would come to pass, came to pass. Instead, The Merciless simply absorbed the energy being irradiated by the blast, and converted it into cosmic energy that he then used to bind his enemies to his will; because killing them wouldn’t be nearly as satisfying as having them watch him destroy their world.
As he revels in his latest godly accomplishment, Bruce reminisces about his beloved Diana by carving out their likeness on a stone; before chillingly recalling her death. Turns out, Ares’ blow didn’t kill Wonder Woman, it merely incapacitated her. When she came around, she was horrified upon discovering just what Bruce had done; and how. Diana tried to argue with him, and make him take the helm off by listening to reason.
When that didn’t work, she tried to take it off herself; but that is what would prove to be truly fatal for her. For you see, drunk off the power of the helmet of the fallen God of War, Bruce started to believe his lover was trying to steal his power from him; and so he killed her in cold blood, revealing that in the end, his fall from grace was his own doing. And has he prepared to choke the life out of Steve Trevor with his peers bowing down in reverence to him, The Merciless declares that soon, this world, too, shall become like his.
What Makes The Merciless So Damn Powerful & Deadly?
Bruce Wayne is, beyond the shadow of a doubt, one of the best martial artists on Earth and is in the conversation for the best fighter in the universe. That already makes him more deadly than a Colombian death squad, but things kick into overdrive in the Dark Multiverse; and on Earth –ve 12, even more so. Before taking ownership of the Helm of Ares, Bruce was arguably the deadliest person on planet Earth; after putting it on, he became THE most deadly being in the entire universe.
You see, Ares had fashioned that helmet to specifically increase his powers by a hundred-fold, and he was the God of War as it is. So if it gave him a power boost strong enough to dominate the forces of humanity, which include Superman & Wonder Woman, you can guess just how lethal it would have been in Bruce Wayne’s hands. And that isn’t the end of his god-like rise to despondency. By killing Ares, Bruce abdicates his position as Earth –12’s God of War and gains all the powers and abilities that are associated with it.
He starts wearing a Batman-inspired version of the original DC Ares armor and emblazes a Wonder Woman crest on it as a twisted homage to the lover he murdered. He can summon pretty much any weapon that the Gods of Olympus had at their disposal, including the fabled sword God Killer, created by Hephaestus for the sole purpose of snuffing out the existence of immortals.
And because he is effectively the personification of War itself, Bruce inspires rage, bloodlust, and a fervent sense of religiosity in any person who stands near him, forcing them to worship his godly might. He has most of the standard “superhero abilities”, of course; he tanks a juiced-up nuke like it’s made out of thin air, for crying out loud. Wherever he treads, magma erupts from the core of the Earth to dress his footsteps, and he can even peer into the hearts of men and figure out their deepest desires, manipulating them to his own ends. What makes him such a dangerous opponent is just ceaseless lust for conflict, and the lengths he’s prepared to go to in order to satiate it.
After slaughtering all the citizens of Themiscyra is a 3-day-long massacre, The Merciless made sure that his former lover’s people would find no peace even in death. In Greek mythology, dead souls are bound to pay the ferryman Charon a Golden Drachma for safe passage across the River Styx, so they may be judged and assigned to their respective fates. Bruce desecrates this sacred right by hoodwinking the Amazonians and binding their restless spirits to a gigantic Golden Drachma.
Whenever he’d ring it, the dead souls of Diana’s sisterhood would be forced to surface on the “real world” and do his bidding in a grotesque display of power. Moreover, his 100x power-boosting Helm also makes him crazy with a capital Y. I mean he killed his own partner because he thought she was trying to steal his powers, and then moped about it by making rock paintings and nearly strangling her old flame to death. Unstable is a rather kind distinction to bestow upon him, we think. Put together all the pieces of information we’ve just given you, and the picture you get is one that will render you hopeless and catatonic, and that’s exactly why he’s low-key the most powerful Dark Knight on Barbatos’ team.
Why The Merciless deserves more recognition
See, after watching Robert Pattinson absolutely slum it up in 2022’s The Batman, you might find it hard to believe us when we say Batman’s most-redeeming quality is the fact that he is merciful, but allow us to explain. Bruce Wayne has spent decades honing his skill as an investigator, an intimidator, and a fighter not because he thinks our current systems of law enforcement are “too merciful”; but because he wants them to become that way.
Even though he spends most of his waking time roughing up goons in dark alleyways or chasing down international terrorists, at the end of the day, Batman believes that even the most heinous of criminals deserve a modicum of mercy. Nowhere is this clearer than in the 51st issue of John Ostrander’s run with The Spectre. In this issue, The Joker tricks the Spirit of Vengeance and takes his powers to come up with newer, better ways of toying with good ol’ Batsy.
The embodiment of God’s Wrath is ready to eradicate Joker from existence on the spot, but Batman argues that he isn’t doing this intentionally; he’s just sincerely and utterly insane. Bruce showed mercy to the man who killed his former protégé, paralyzed his best friend’s daughter, and made his life a living hell for decades all in the name of their shared “joke”. But when you take that mercy out of the equation, something way more heartless emerges; and that is what The Merciless embodies.
He is a representation of Bruce Wayne untethered; a Bruce Wayne without morality or inhibitions. A Bruce Wayne who doesn’t work to prevent war, but who actively instigates & craves it. Bruce’s mercy is perhaps the greatest check-and-balance mechanic in comic book history; because without it, he ends up killing entire planets in service of nothing more than his own thirst for blood. The Merciless is the most appropriately titled character out of all the Dark Knights, and the one we’re least likely to ever want to meet in person. That alone makes him worth your recognition.