10 Darkest Endings In The DC Animated Universe

[Music] when it exploded onto the scene in 1992 audiences knew that Batman the Animated Series was going to be different the series combined a mishmash of different visuals and literary inspirations to create the most definitive versions of The Dark Knight ever seen and that more often than not meant it had to get dark like really really dark but where is Batman the Animated Series or be TAS because that's a mouthful fame commitment to scaring the pants of its viewers sort of goes without saying these days it's worth pointing out that it wasn't the early DC cartoon to venture into darker territory following be TAS the minds behind Warner Brothers animation Bruce Timm Alan Burnett Paul Dini Andrea Romano and countless others set about creating a new DC Comics continuity eventually dubbed the DC Animated universe shows based on Superman and Justice League eventually followed while an equally successful Batman spin-off called Batman Beyond also released shortly after BTS concluded all of these cartoons were smart stylish and equally ambitious but they also had another thing in common they could drop some absolutely spine-chilling endings on occasion and sometimes completely out of the blue it's a part of what makes them so special of course but they're enough to give even the most seasoned the viewers pause for thoughts and with those chills in mind my name is ori from what culture comics and these are the 10 darkest endings in the DC Animated universe number 10 Mockridge is breakdown Batman the Animated Series a favorite episode of many named if you're so smart why aren't you rich is the 40th episode of Batman the Animated Series and Mark the show's debut for the king of puzzles himself the Riddler here Edward nygma is reimagined as a disgruntled software designer who received no royalties for creating the hit riddle of the minotaur video game he's fired by the head of the company that's taken advantage of him Daniel Mockridge and returns two years later as the Riddler determined to get his revenge the episode itself features loads of brilliant set pieces with Riddler kidnapping Mockridge and forcing Batman and Robin to navigate a real-life Minotaur labyrinth to save him but it also packs a genuinely unsettling conclusion in one of the rare instances of a villain evading justice in the series the episode ends with Riddler getting away we later learn that Mockridge sells his company and pockets are called 10 million but he's still clearly petrified at the thought of Ridley returning to finish the job as Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson reflect on the affair we're left with a chilling glimpse into how the ex CEO is coping he's seen anxiously bunkering down into his bed with a shotgun as Bruce arcs one final riddle how much is a good night's sleep worth now that's pretty dark for a cartoon number 9 Mordred gets his wish Justice League Unlimited Justice League Unlimited or jlu was perhaps the most ambitious of all the DCAU shows it was bold introspective and adopted a see realized approach to storytelling like its forebears though it was also no stranger to delving into some tremendously dark themes or to leaving viewers on a disturbing note case in point kid stuff an episode which sees Morgana face son Mordred cast a spell that banishes all adults to an alternate dimension including all of the Justice League lafha as one of the billions of banished adults decides to join forces with the league to stop her child and so cast a spell that turns them all into children now it's actually really cute and fun to see the league trying to defeat Mordred as children the episode even includes a wonderful cameo from baby Etrigan but it isn't all laughs and giggles by the time things come to an end after the child leaguers tricked Mordred into transforming himself into an adult thus banishing him to the same realm as all the other adults LeFay remarks that the spell that gave her child eternal youth has been broken all he has now is eternal life cue another scene of lafay tending to her now elderly and feeble son who has aged past the point of all recognition number 8 Dan terpenes death Superman the animated series as things stand Superman the animated series definitely seems like the most underrated of the DCAU shows yeah there's the obscure zetas project to consider but given how long it went on for and how much it accomplished stas definitely deserves more credit than it seemingly gets especially as far as its fourth-world elements are concerned although primarily inspired by the John Byrne Superman run of the 1980s Stas also took a great deal of inspiration from Jack Kirby's fourth world saga Kirby had passed away in 1994 about two years before the premiere of Stas and the show's creators endeavor to find a way of paying tribute to the riots our artists in the series they did this in two ways mainly first by making Darkseid a principal antagonist and by incorporating the conflict between New Genesis and apocalypse into the series and second by modeling the character of Dan Turpin on Kirby's personality and features during Apocalypse Now where Superman's fourth world arc really comes to a head Turpin leads the fight against Darkseid New Genesis comes to the earth a to scare the Lord of apocalypse off but instead of leaving politely the tyrant turns around and blows Turpin to smithereens with his Omega beams killing him there and then the ensuing funeral serves as a great tribute to Kirby but the factor pians death happens so abruptly makes it one of the most shocking moments in the DCAU number 7 the earth mover Batman Beyond of all the shows in the DCAU Batman Beyond might just be the scariest yes we know be TAS may have had Clayface scarecrow and that weird bleeding gun thing but that doesn't mean beyond didn't double down when it came to horror seriously this show loved body horror it lived for it villains get turned into half animal hybrids biological warfare is a real threat and while radiation or toxic waste might give you powers in the Marvel Universe in Batman Beyond it was liable to turn you into Cronenberg and monster thing no episode arguably typifies that train of thought better than the earth mover which was one of the first episodes in beyond second season the episode opens with one of Terry and Danis friends Jackie confessing that they feel as though they're being watched Terry spots a figure in the distance and pursues only to discover it's actually an earth monster before losing the trail entirely it's eventually revealed that Jackie's father isn't actually her father at all and that he's really an ambitious businessman who left her real father to die when a quick trip to illegally dispose of some toxic waste went horribly wrong the presumed deceased as it turns out was genetically bonded to the earth and has been using these mud monsters in a bid to exact some kind of revenge the show doesn't bother sparing any details either showing the eponymous earth mover as a glowing corpse with a demonic voice living beneath the surface I don't know why my voice followed suit but it just sounded right earth mover is a brilliant episode and while it does conclude on a relatively positive note when Batman Jackie and her adoptive father are all locked underground with the titular things are literally the exact opposite of shui number six clayface's escape Batman the Animated Series one of the best arcs in B TAS feet of clay saw the introduction of none other than the creepy shapeshifter Clayface and wasted no time at all in placing body horror front and center there's that awful bit where Matt Hagen gets the chemical mixture forcibly poured down his throat and then of course the climax where the actor turn Clayface ends up reliving all of his most famous roles in one fluid transformation it's a spectacular feat of animation but it isn't the final note the episode ends on No the five minds behind B TAS had one last horrifying surprise in store after they'd finished luring everyone into a full sets of security of course at the end of the episode after Batman's defeated Clayface and it seems as though he's dead we discover that Hagen has survived as electricity actually has no adverse effect on his new form immediately after Batman runs his tests on the sample we see Clayface his friend Teddy mourning his death while the woman watches in the background the woman then begins to laugh uncontrollably as the pitch descends to a horrifying cackle and her eyes turn Clayface yellow now that's the stuff of nightmares number 5 mr. Freeze's sacrifice Batman Beyond of all of Batman's villains mr. freeze is certainly the most tragic beat EAS reinvented the character perfectly turning him from a Silver Age goof into a man hardened by others cruelty and one determined to save his wife from an incurable disease it looked as though freeze had managed to find a happy ending by the conclusion of Batman and mr. freeze sub-zero but that proved to be short-lived when the new Batman adventures picked up Victor's story it revealed that the accident that had confined him to cold temperatures was actually destroying his body reducing him to a head with robotic spider legs a presumed death and forty years later and it was revealed that Victor freezes head was being kept on ice at a weighing power storage facility it's really rough especially for a character that was already robbed of his happy ending once before but there appears to be a light at the end of the tunnel with Derek powers financing an operation for Victor's consciousness to be transferred into a new body powers has his own motives of course as he's always trying to escape his own destructive body but still a wins a win for Victor and he seizes the opportunity with both hands do you see what I did there the procedure isn't successful Victor's condition deteriorates and powers tries to have him kill you once again assumes his mantle was freeze all the while Bruce Wayne and the new Batman Terry McGinnis tried to save him it wasn't to be though in his final confrontation with powers now blight freeze brings down the Wayne powers facility and prevents Batman from coming to his aid adding that the Dark Knight was the only one that cared for him before getting crushed to death as the building collapses poor Victor number four Brainiac reveals his master plan Justice League Unlimited Jael use Cadmus arc is one of the all-time great superhero stories I don't just mean that in terms of animation either the entire thing rivals some of the best Justice League stories ever told building upon previous episodes and themes from Superman the animated series and Justice League the art delve deep into the ethical questions surrounding the relationship between superheroes everyday people and the government and injected a healthy dose of moral ambiguity and political tension into the series it also happens to feature one of the most horrifying images ever conceived in DC's history so it has that going for it too Dwayne McDuffie made sure the arc had it all and so revealed in its penultimate episode that Lex Luthor had really been a vessel for Brainiac the entire time making a huge throwback to season 2 of Superman by revealing the Kryptonian AI installed a version of itself in Luthor's DNA in their last encounter said reveal comes as Brainiac rips loofahs flesh apart to unveil a metallic face hidden in his stomach that's like a cross between Krang and shredder from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles only ten times darker number three Clayface murders a part of himself the new Batman adventures feet of clay tends to be the go-to oh my god BTS was really dark wasn't it episode 4 most fans but you know what's worse growing pains the episode came about during a new Batman adventures and basically tells a story wherein Robin Tim Drake tries to rescue a young girl who's on the run from someone she's clearly terrified and the Boy Wonder does his best to look after her even going so far as to give her a name Annie all the while realizing that he's developing a huge crush during this time he and Batman tried to fight Annie's pursuer supposedly her father but they lose them both Robin persists with the search while Batman studies some samples discovering that the man in question is none other than Clayface this is where things get really disturbing you see Annie isn't actually Annie but a part of Clayface created after he encountered some chemicals in the sewer she went missing and he's been trying to reabsorb her this entire time which is obviously something Robin isn't too pleased with Q&E hurling herself into Clayface to save Robin when she gets reabsorbed and essentially dies I can't begin to imagine how Robin could reconcile that in his mind number two ink transforms Aaron Batman Beyond moving from one instance of body horror from the show that kick-started the DCAU to one from the series that replaced it and boy it is a weird one as I said before Batman Beyond had literally no chill when it came to tackling darker themes and it had a particular penchant for depicting body horror apart from the aforementioned earthmover episode though there are two other disgustingly dark fates that stick out to me Caviar's overdose at the end of splices and Aaron's transformation in disappearing ink the former example sees a geneticist who specializes in blending human and animal DNA trying to assassinate the District Attorney Terry taking advantage of this gives him all the animal genes he can handle turning him into one of those awful looking hedgehog cakes we've all come to favor on social media see for yourself disgusting if anyone brings a cake like that to my house for my birthday expect it to be thrown in your face anyway Caviar's tooth grin is nothing compared to what happens to poor Aaron Herbst who's assigned to the facility where a frozen ink is held captive Aaron's our lowly fella and creepily takes advantage of ink while she's on ice eventually freeing her when he's fired for kissing her through the ice blip once out ink promises to give Aaron her powers if he helps her repair her DNA however ink intentionally delivers only half the treatment to his bloodstream turning Aaron into a half-human blob thing and ruining the prospect of him ever eating solid food again the episode ends with him being held captive and forced to listen to a new employee prattle on about their day-to-day mirroring the ordeal he put ink through at the beginning of the episode it's justice bar is dark and number one Superman sends someone to the gas chamber Superman the animated series before I reel this off can you look at this still taken from this episode and tell me these eyes don't give you the heebie-jeebies you know what beats pots tend to to them all the terrifying transformations heartbreaking deaths and animus endings a little old episode from Superman the animated series called the late mr. Kent the episode written by DC au veterans Stan Berkowitz is a homage to film noir and opens on the funeral of one Clark Kent hence the title Superman reveals how he as Kent was investigating a potential miscarriage of justice for a convict on death row and was close to discovering the truth when he's taken out by a car book rather than emerge from the waters unscathed thus giving away his Jew identity Supes decides his alter-ego Kent should take the big sleep while he investigates his Superman only resurfacing as Clark when the sole witness to his death reveals his eyesight is terrible in the meantime Superman and Lois Lane discovered that the convict is innocent and that the real culprit detective Bowman had framed him Supes apprehends Bowman who goes on trial and is found guilty the episode then ends with him in the gas chamber where he realizes in his dying moments that Clark Kent and Superman are one and the same can even writes the story about his execution Superman sent someone to the gas chamber and the only reason his identity safe is because he's dead that is some stone-cold Shh

Channel: WhatCulture Comics

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Rating: 4.8740644 out of 5

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Id: sSvcSlomqqE

Length: 14min 54sec (894 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 26 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/dropout32]

Well, this is a blast from my childhood I never knew I remembered.

Might have to watch Batman Beyond again now

[u/gimmea_jumpbutton]

Batman Beyond might be the live action movie that saves DC. After they change up the entire writing & production staff. And getting a director that knows what he/she is doing.