‘Dark Nights: The Batman Who Laughs’: The most horrifying Batman comic ever?

The Batman Who Laughs is no laughing matter. Photo: DC Comics

Dark Nights: The Batman Who Laughs #1

Writer: James T Tynion IV

Artist: Riley Rossmo

Publisher: DC Comics

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IN the new Justice League movie, Ben Affleck’s Batman actually does something the more recent movie Batmen hardly ever did: he cracks jokes, and actually laughs at one point. Sure, they’re mostly droll one-liners, but still, a Batman who laughs? What’s the world coming to?

Well, the lead character of this Dark Nights one shot tie-in is also a Batman Who Laughs, even though his origin story remains grim and nothing to laugh about.

Over the past month, we’ve seen the origin stories of Barbatos’ legion of Nightmare Batmen, which include The Red Death (Flash/Batman), The Devastator (a Doomsday version of Superman/Batman), The Dawnbreaker (Batman/Green Lantern), The Murder Machine (Cyborg/Batman), The Drowned (Aquaman/Batman), and The Merciless (Wonder Woman/Batman).

However, while the others are all Batman-fied versions of the Justice League, their leader is actually a Joker-ised version of Batman himself, complete with maniacal smile, a costume with hellish spikes, and four rabid Robins on a leash.

When we first found out about the Batman Who Laughs, we thought he might be the scariest version of Batman ever. Turns out, he is scarier, and much, much worse than we imagined him to be.

Released last Wednesday (Nov 15), this origin story by James T. Tynion IV doesn’t just tell us how Bruce Wayne became this Batman/Joker hybrid (and how he got his four pet Robins) – it also presents the theory, in the most chilling, depraved way, that Batman and Joker are such complete opposites that they are actually two halves of one perfect killing machine.

From the actual Joker killing an entire city just to drive Batman over his “no killing” threshold, to Bruce taking out the entire Justice League AND their families in the cruellest ways possible, The Batman Who Laughs is arguably one of the most horrifying Batman comics ever produced.

By the time it’s over, you genuinely feel a sense of fear for the heroes who are fighting the Nightmare Batmen in the ongoing Dark Nights: Metal event, because based on his origin story, it is going to be nigh impossible to stop the Batman Who Laughs from getting the last laugh.

The origin of The Batman Who Laughs is more chilling considering what he does to his own Bat-family. Photo: DC Comics