It seems the Bat is coming back. First, an announcement for a Batman and Superman movie, then a new Batman Arkham video game in the making, and now a TV series about the young Bruce Wayne and the origins of several famed villains titled Gotham. In anticipation of the Caped Crusader making his way back into popular media, I present the top five best villains of the Batman storyline.
Number 5: Mr. Freeze
Victor Fries is one of the few villains that has an emotional motivation for his actions. After his wife, Nora, became terminally ill, Fries froze her in a cryogenic chamber to slow down the effects of the disease and thus buy him more time to cure his beloved. During this time, he began to rob banks to keep funding for his research. At this point, he was stopped by Batman. For this, he blames the Bat for his struggle.
Number 4: Deadshot
Floyd Lawton is an expert marksman who never misses. He first arrived in Gotham with the intention to replace the Batman in his crime-fighting business, but was thwarted by the Dark Knight when he and Robin tampered with the sights of Lawton’s twin revolvers. Thus, after breaking out of prison, Lawton adapted to using his signature silenced wrist-mounted guns, and installed a tamper-proof laser sight by his eye. From then on, he joined a covert military unit called the Suicide Squad, a group of assassins who carry out impossible missions for the good of society. Hoping to die in a spectacular fashion, Deadshot awaits the opportunity to set his sights on the Bat.
Number 3: Bane
Bane was a South American prison convict serving time for the crimes of his dead father. Now, he is known as “The Man Who Broke the Bat”, after he broke Bruce Wayne’s spine. Eventually, he was a part of a military medical experiment, and gained superhuman strength through a drug called Venom. What many films featuring Bane (namely Batman and Robin and The Dark Knight Rises) fail to touch upon is that Bane is not only a gorilla-like character in terms of strength, but is also very smart. He passed the time in prison by reading smuggled books and with meditation. Perhaps one film will eventually make Bane as intelligent and huge as he was initially created to be.
Number 2: Deathstroke
Slade Wilson has been in the killing business since he was 16, when he faked his age to join the Army. His superiors were impressed with his fighting ability, and thus entered Wilson into an experimental program to create a super soldier. The result of said experiment allowed Slade to use 90% of his brain at any one time (a normal human can only use 10%), along with possessing superhuman strength, agility, and regeneration. Being the best at what he does, he has his eye on one impossible job: killing the Bat.
Number 1: The Joker
Though his origins are unclear even to the clown himself, Joker has been around since Batman issue 1. He never intends to kill the Bat, (in fact he believes they were made for each other) but to instead break his spirit and perhaps become as insane as the Joker. Performing every crime possible from theft to arson to mass murdering, this laughing man has the esteemed position of being Batman’s archenemy. One of his more heinous crimes include killing the second Robin with a crowbar in the comic “A Death in the Family”.
From “A Death in the Family”:
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