- 3 minutes ago
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Hey everyone, it's PermaEggJules here, and we are delighted to say that today's video
00:04is brought to you in partnership with Manscaped, but you know what, we're going to have more
00:08about that later in the video.
00:10So, if it looks like a superhero, acts like a superhero, and is resistant to death as
00:14a superhero, it's probably a superhero, and you don't get much more super than when
00:19it comes to Batman, because seriously, this guy has seen it all, and done it all, and
00:23then beaten it all into the ground, and then said, I don't kill anyone, dude, or some
00:28such other gritty line.
00:29But here's the thing, as much as Batman has his code about not killing criminals, he
00:33himself hasn't received the same blessing, and has actually died in comics quite a fair
00:38few times, although maybe died should have quotation marks around it, because remember,
00:41this is comics, and no one stays dead forever.
00:44So let's take a look at them, as I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com, and these are 10 times
00:47that Batman has, air quotes, died.
00:5010.
00:50Bleeding Out in a Cave with the Joker
00:52Now, one of the more recent examples of the demise of the Dark Knight came in the pages
00:56of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's Endgame.
00:59The storyline in this Batman title saw the hero facing off against his arch-nemesis for
01:03what seemed like the final time.
01:05Riffing on their brutal confrontation in Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, which turned
01:09fatal for one of them, the climax of Endgame saw the Clown Prince of Crime and the Caped
01:13Crusader fighting in a series of underground caves, which housed a hidden pool of life elixir
01:17gubbins that previously brought the Joker back to life.
01:20Not particularly wanting the most dangerous man in Gotham to be essentially immortal,
01:24Batman pulled out all the stops to first cease a city-wide dosing of Joker venom, and then
01:29to off the bad guy himself once and for all.
01:32There was eye-gouging, backstabbing, and finally the two of them collapsed in a heap of limbs
01:36and blood, with the area then caving in on them both.
01:39Woof.
01:409.
01:40He Exploded in a Helicopter Crash
01:42Sir Grant Morrison had some grand ideas when he took over writing the main Batman title.
01:47Now, the Scottish writer is adept in folding in his own interests in occult mysticism, weird
01:51sex stuff, and the grand history of superhero comics into his work, and managed to do all
01:56of that in the Batman R.I.P. storyline, which sought to square the varied history of The
02:00Dark Knight into one concise character.
02:03That meant returning to concepts and characters that had been long since forgotten by multiple
02:07DC Universal reboots, with a Batwoman that hadn't appeared since the 50s and other
02:11themes that hadn't been touched upon by Batman writers in decades.
02:14Of course, he also had to go one step further and kill the caped crusader off whilst revitalizing
02:19him.
02:19The R.I.P. storyline came to an end with a criminal organization called the Black Glove
02:23gaining access to the Batcave, incapacitating all of the Bat family, and smearing the Wayne
02:28family name.
02:29The fact that the group were apparently led by Bruce's long-dead father Thomas didn't
02:32help matters, but their final move was to have Batman die in a helicopter crash.
02:36Or so it seemed.
02:388.
02:39Shocked by the Electrocutioner
02:41Go ahead, try and guess what the Electrocutioner's power set involves.
02:44Go on, I dare you guess.
02:46And no, it's not the power to be knocked out in one punch in the Batman games.
02:49For a supervillain so lacking in subtlety or invention, the title of the Electrocutioner
02:53has somehow been passed down to three separate people.
02:56But it was the second, the brother of the original, that came the closest to besting his
03:00rival.
03:00Lester Buchinski was introduced by Chuck Dixon in Detective Comics number 644, which kicked
03:06off the Electric City arc where he adopted the guise of the Electrocutioner and headed out
03:10on Batman's trail, blasting electricity from his gloves and able to draw power from other
03:14energy sources that he happened upon along the way.
03:17Eventually, he did manage to catch up with the Dark Knight, and, well, there's only so
03:20much electricity that a man can actually take.
03:22Even when that man has got a lot of special training and wears a funky rodent suit, Batman's
03:26heart actually stopped, and he was only saved by Robin resuscitating him before refusing
03:31his sidekick's pleas that he rest and heal with the all-time classic line,
03:34I was technically dead, not clinically.
03:37Oh, Batman, you absolute joke, are you?
03:397. He stopped his heart on purpose
03:41If the likes of Endgame and Batman R.I.P. seemed a little out there to modern tastes,
03:46the early days were surely beyond the pale.
03:48The Golden Age and Silver Age adventures of Batman were so utterly bonkers that it made
03:52the Adam West TV show look like the gritty Christian Bale films by comparison, with the
03:57Caped Crusader fighting enemies like gorillas with bombs on them.
04:00Yes, that actually happened.
04:01Still, they found moments of grim fatalism in places, like the story where Robin kept dying
04:06in rather hilarious ways, kind of like Kenny from South Park. All the time that Batman finally
04:10met his maker, but it all turned out to be an elaborate ploy so that he could go undercover
04:14in an exclusive criminal organization. What is going on here?
04:18Yet, in The Death Cheaters of Gotham City, he had his heart artificially stopped and was
04:23technically dead for several minutes, before Robin then had to revive him. Nothing like faking
04:27your own death to freak out your already orphaned surrogate son, eh? The whole thing was a ruse so that he could join the Death Cheaters Club,
04:33with having been dead for a bit being the main entry criteria.
04:36Yes, it's actually just much funnier if you do it in a shirt and a funny voice.
04:39Oh wait, it's on, it's on.
04:40Hello! Oh, hello. Spokesperson for Scrotal Satisfaction, Josh Brown here, and if there's
04:46one thing we know at WhatCulture.com, it's balls.
04:49Ooh.
04:52And that's why we have, once again, partnered with Manscaped.com to bring you their incredible
04:56performance package 4.0 bundle. I mean, look at it. Packaging and production design almost
05:01as sleek and as smooth as the downstairs regions of my colleagues. Almost.
05:06First, say hello to my little friend here, the Lawn Mower 4.0. Its replaceable ceramic blades
05:12with SkinSafe technology and an LED light help you trim with confidence and see everything
05:17with perfect clarity. Too much clarity, some would say, but not me.
05:21It's also good for bead maintenance if you give it a clean, and it comes with a wireless
05:25charging dock and a triple lock feature for when you're on the move. Three clicks and then
05:29you're good to go. Put simply, there'll be no more funny looks in the baggage claim when
05:33your bag is, quote unquote, acting weird.
05:37Out of the shower, the Crop Preserver Bald Eodorant has you covered for clear drying moisturising
05:41that'll keep it downstairs fresh all day. And on the other ball, the Crop Reviver Bald Toner
05:47Spray with cooling aloe vera is there for your midday refresh.
05:50Smells like balls.
05:55For a limited time as well, you can get two free gifts with your order, the Shed Travel
05:59Bag and these Manscaped anti-chafing boxer shorts which just completely changed my life.
06:05Finally, sign up to the Peak Hygiene Plant to get replenishments of your favourite products
06:09delivered straight to your door, no fuss.
06:12So, what are you waiting for? Go to manscaped.com right now to get 20% off and free international
06:17shipping when you use our code WOT20 at the checkout. That's the code WOT20 when you check
06:22out, but for now, back to that video.
06:25Number 6. He was killed three times in Countdown Arena
06:28Countdown was one of the lesser crossover events that DC has published in their history,
06:33supposedly building up, or is that down, to an even bigger event called Final Crisis. It was also
06:38supposed to function as a sequel to the incredibly successful and really damn good Series 52,
06:43a weekly book that preceded it and explored stories with a lot of B-list characters, and it was a lot
06:47of fun. Not only was Countdown a semi-lead-in to Final Crisis, but it got its own spin-offs as well,
06:52and one of which was the very odd Countdown Arena, wherein the supervillain monarch orchestrates a
06:57Roman-style gladiatorial battle between heroes from loads of different universes, in order to build
07:02an army that will fight the multiverse-destroying monitors. It was a goofy concept from the start,
07:07and it ended up being as needlessly bloodthirsty, vicious, and inhumane as the gladiatorial arenas
07:12that inspired it. But we're all here to focus on Batman, and there was a single issue that killed
07:16off multiple versions of him, with the Gotham by Gaslight Batman being knocked out, and the
07:20World War II hero the Bat being killed by a vampire Batman, the latter of whom is summarily obliterated.
07:26Number 5. Being zapped with a time bullet by Darkseid
07:29Final Crisis is even more difficult to describe than the Grant Morrison epic that led into it,
07:35the aforementioned Batman R.I.P. When that title turned out to be something of a misnomer,
07:39the Scottish writer nevertheless orchestrated a demise for the Dark Knight. It was so hard to
07:43describe because whilst the former series involved the Bat family, Final Crisis starred the entire
07:48DC universe. That's not an exaggeration either, this was a crossover event that literally involved
07:53the whole universe, as cosmic villain Darkseid unleashed his anti-life equation, which tipped the
07:58scale so evil would finally win in a comic book where good was always supposed to triumph. It was pretty
08:03meta, as was the death that Batman faced right at the end. Having broken his one rule and smuggled
08:08a gun into Darkseid's lair, Batman gets the drop on the big bad and shoots him with a cosmic bullet
08:13that travels through time. It does the deed, but the phenomenally powerful Darkseid makes sure that
08:17it bounces back and removes the Dark Knight from the equation. Well, actually, it just sent him back
08:22to the Stone Age, but still, it's as good as dead.
08:24Number 4. He Blew Himself Up Before Communist Superman Got To Him
08:28Red Sun is a weird story. Part of DC's Elseworlds line of alternate reality storylines that don't
08:34have any bearing on the mainstream continuity, writer Mark Miller took that as a carte blanche
08:38excuse to come up with the most high-concept alternate history he could, namely one where
08:42Cal-El landed in the USSR and was raised as a well-mannered communist superhero. Instead of
08:47becoming the defender of truth, justice, and the American way, he's the champion of the common
08:51worker who fights a never-ending battle for Stalin, socialism, and the international expansion of
08:56the Warsaw Pact. A weapon for the communist state, the United States are eager to topple
09:01their enemy's secret weapon. And here, the Cold War goes a little differently, with Batman
09:05being a kid whose dissident parents were shot by a member of the KGB who then dedicates his
09:09life to stopping Superman with the help of Lex Luthor. He's just like regular Batman, only
09:14now he wears a furry hat. Oh, and also he doesn't stand a chance against Superman, so he blows
09:18himself up before the Man of Steel can actually get to him.
09:20Number 3. He Was Stabbed In The Chest With A Shovel
09:23Exploring the origins of the immortal, quite literally and figuratively, Batman villain
09:27Ra's al Ghul, the Birth of the Demon flits back and forth between a modern-day duel between
09:32the bad guy and the Dark Knight and the early days of the man who would turn out to be Ra's.
09:36Turns out that a man who has been alive for 600 years has some pretty good stories to tell,
09:40go figure. Birth of the Demon mainly exists to show the differences and similarities between
09:44Batman and Ra's. Both are equally driven, blessed with divine purpose, but Ra's doesn't
09:48have the whole moral crusade thing that the Caped Crusader does, he's just kind of a bit
09:51of a madman, but one who's really committed to killing absolutely everyone. In pursuit
09:56of that goal, he goes toe-to-toe with Batman, who has bested him a few times prior to this
10:00battle. Unwilling to accept another defeat, he gets especially brutal and once he has
10:05the upper hand on his opponent, grabs a shovel and stabs it right into Batman's chest. Yeah,
10:09actually stabs him with it. Now, Bruce technically dies here, using his last bit of strength to
10:14drag him and Ra's into the Lazarus Pit.
10:16Number 2. He Was Electrocuted And Then Used As A Puppet By The Atom
10:20The Corpse That Wouldn't Die is straight up one of the strangest stories ever told in comic book
10:25history. Not just Batman comics or superhero comics, but all comics ever published. After all,
10:30what other story have you read, in any medium come to think of it, that involves somebody dying only
10:35to be brought back to life by a tiny person jumping around inside their brain? Now, a little backstory,
10:39not that it'll make it sound any more sane, Brave and the Bold No. 115 opens with Batman being
10:44shocked as he enters an electrified window, the voltage being enough to stop his heart. And this time
10:49around, there's no Robin around to resuscitate him. Instead, the Atom, who can shrink himself
10:52down to minuscule sizes, is on hand to watch Batman's demise. And instead of getting a doctor
10:57or something like that, Ray Palmer instead makes himself small enough so that he can enter the
11:01Dark Knight's cerebral cortex and control him like a puppet, in order to track down the killer.
11:06And somehow, Batman's organs just start working again at the end. Yay!
11:09And number 1. He Was Tortured For Eternity By The Joker
11:12So Emperor Joker is the first time the clown prince of crime has ever really gotten one up on his
11:17arch-enemy. The mostly forgotten crossover event saw the Joker steal a reality-altering
11:21powers from Superman villain Mr. Mixelplick, which allows him to literally change the world
11:25as he sees fit. Which, it turns out, mainly involves him just basically torturing everyone.
11:30Technically a Superman crossover event rather than a Batman one, Emperor Joker saw the bad
11:34guy rewriting reality so that the Man of Steel was in Arkham Asylum for killing Lex Luthor,
11:38the Justice League was led by his evil doppelganger Bizarro, and Huntress, Nightwing,
11:42and Robin are dead. Oh, and Aquaman has an actual fish head. And the Joker's sense of
11:47humor really comes to a head in the fate that he commits Batman 2, where he tortures him to death
11:52day in, day out, before resurrecting him the next morning and starting it all over again.
11:56In fact, that's the way this story would have ended were it not for the Joker himself realizing
12:00the error of his ways, as despite all of his attempts, Superman doesn't save the day.
12:04It was the Emperor Joker realizing his sense of self was so tied up with Batman that if the Dark Knight
12:08were to die for good, he wouldn't have a reason to live either. So it kind of makes sense how
12:12Endgame ended as well. Full circle.
12:14And there we go, my friends. Those were 10 times that Batman has air quotes died. I hope that you
12:18enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought about it down in the comments section
12:21below. As always, I've been Jules. You can go follow me over on Twitter at RetroJ with a zero,
12:25or you can swing by Live and Let's Dice, where I do all of my streaming outside of work,
12:29and it'd be great to see you over there, my friends. But before I go, I just want to say one thing.
12:32Hope you're treating yourself well with love and respect, my friend, like the superhero I know you
12:36are, because you deserve love, happiness, and respect. We all do as human beings,
12:41and I want you to go out there and absolutely smash your life goals today. I believe in your
12:44massive ledge. As always, I've been Jules. You have been awesome. Never forget that,
12:48and I'll speak to you soon. Bye.
13:06Bye.
13:36Bye.
14:06Bye.
14:07Bye.
14:08Bye.
14:09Bye.
Be the first to comment