Batman Characters Who Almost Got Ruined

Image Credit: JD Hancock (https://www.flickr.com/photos/jdhancock/3899496218)

Sometimes comic book writers and editors make mistakes.

Sometimes these mistakes involve killing off or humiliating a well-loved character.

Fortunately, the writers and editors are often good at rebounding and saving that character.

Here’s a look at four Batman characters that almost got ruined.

1 - Barbara Gordon

In Alan Moore’s graphic novel “The Killing Joke,” Barbara Gordon (aka Batgirl) is visiting her father, Commissioner Gordon.

The doorbell rings.

When Barbara opens it, she sees the Joker. He shoots her in the waist, immobilizing her. Then he takes some lewd pictures of her as his henchmen carry Commissioner Gordon away.

This was a shocking scene, made more shocking because Barbara Gordon stayed crippled in DC Comics stories for some time.

She retired as Batgirl and became Oracle, a wheelchair-bound technician who helps other superheroes.

This story continues to be controversial, with people who’ve objected to Barbara getting crippled and others supporting it.

One the one hand, Alan Moore has stated he regrets writing the crippling scene, and that the editor in charge of “The Killing Joke” was very cavalier about it (http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/herocomplex/la-et-hc-killing-joke-comics-20160728-snap-story.html).

Many people have argued the scene went too far.

On the other hand, many people see Oracle as a great character who realistically portrays the anguish that disabilities cause and how to overcome them. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Gordon#Commentary_in_favor_of_Oracle)

2 - Alfred

During the 1950’s, psychiatrist Fredric Wertham wrote a book titled “Seduction of the Innocent” that spearheaded comic book censorship.

Among other things, the book claimed that Batman and Robin were a gay couple.

Various things happened as a response. Congress held a hearing about weather comics were damaging America’s youth and the comic book industry to create a strict censorship board, the Comics Code Authority of America (https://www.theodysseyonline.com/comic-books-teaches-about-censorship).

Various horror comics completely went out of business.

Meanwhile, DC Comics apparently decided they needed to remove anything that suggested Batman and Robin were gay, by adding a female character to their home.

So, DC Comics ran a story where Alfred, the loyal butler, sacrifices himself to save Batman in a battle with some gangsters.

As Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson grieve their loss, Dick’s aunt arrives to take care of them.

Fans apparently weren’t too pleased with this decision.

Sometime later, Batman and Robin start hearing about a mastermind called the Outsider. This villain, whose face they don't see for a long time, seems to know more about them than anyone else.

After trying to find out about their foe for some time, Batman and Robin finally come face to face with the Outsider.

It turns out to be Alfred.

The story of how he survived his death and funeral (and how odd science experiments turned him into a villain) isn’t very clear.

However, this story did create an interesting villain and brought Alfred back to the storyline, where he continued to help Batman and Robin.

3 - Jason Todd

By the 1980’s the original Robin character had not only grown up and attended college, he had become a standalone hero called Nightwing.

DC Comics decided to bring in a new Robin and created Jason Todd, a street kid that Bruce Wayne adopts and trains.

Unfortunately, somewhere along the lines, Jason become irritating.

DC Comics editor Denny O’Neill commented in a 2005 documentary that “you hear about characters taking on a life of their own, [and] Jason was the best example of that I’ve ever personally encountered. Nobody set out to make him an obnoxious little snot, but he kind of was that.”

So, DC Comics made a controversial move.

In the storyline “A Death in the Family,” Jason track down his birth mother, a nurse working in Ethiopia with connections to the Joker.

The Joker shows up as Robin is reuniting with his mother, and beats him up with a crowbar.

Just before Batman can enter the warehouse where Jason is lying half-dead, a bomb goes off.

The last panel showed two phone numbers that readers could call, one to vote that Robin lived and the other to vote that he died.

The votes came in, Jason died.

A number of people weren’t happy.

Later though, Jason returned.

In a story titled “Under the Red Hood,” (expanded in “Red Hood: The Lost Days’”) Jason is found wandering through Gotham in his funeral clothes.

One of Batman’s old foes, Ra's al Ghul, finds Jason and his daughter helps Jason recover.

Through a long and complicated journey, Jason becomes an elite assassin and returns to Gotham as the Red Hood.

His mission: get the best revenge possible by crossing lines that Batman will never cross and showing him he’s weak.

As humiliating as Jason Todd’s death was, the resulting story arc gave Batman a new threat, something highly personal.

4 - The Joker

Not many Batman fans know that the Joker was killed off in his second appearance.

Almost.

In Batman #1 (not the first Batman story but the first story in the standalone Batman comic), the Joker escapes prison and goes on a murder spree.

The story ends in a climactic fight where the Joker accidentally stabs himself and laughs maniacally as he collapses to
the ground.

Then, in a last panel added just before publication, a medic discovers that the Joker’s heart is still beating.

This last-minute change not only showed that people could already tell the Joker was an unusually great villain. It also made him a more distinct character.

Other Batman villains at that time tended to show up once and then disappear.

The Joker became the villain who always came back.

The writers even made this into a motif, with many stories over the next few years where the Joker would fight Batman and then disappear in a seemingly fatal accident.