The Darkest Batman Universe

since the creation of the character of Batman he's gone hand inand with a grounded noar tone that over the years has evolved into a gritty and Grim one except during those years when he was familyfriendly and when he was a dancing hit plenty of Batman iterations have been super dark not out of necessity but mostly for shock value which drives up sales of course the prime example being the Batman who laughs at first he was an interesting concept but now he's every dickhead's idea of Batman's ultimate villain hey dude did you see this new Batman comic what the one where he's evil and he's the Joker God that is shut the [ __ ] up bro so lame also people in this universe should always refer to him by his full name it's the Bat Man Who Laughs this video isn't focusing on that edge Lord however we're going to be taking a look at a different DC Universe that I believe deserves more Buzz around it and it might not even be totally unfamiliar to you guess what folks a new Batman comic shows the cape Crusaders penis for the first time yeah Batman has a dick now DC Comics sorry for showing every on Batman's penis one of the things to prove how mature they are is that they show Batman's P DC Comics have printed a picture of Batman's dick Batman nude full frontal nudity I buy comic books back then and I've never heard had to worry about finding full frontal nudity in my comic remember remember this yeah this universe I've named this universe the Lee bero and sometimes Brian azarello Universe of Batman or the lb as s b a o b for short but it's subject to change as that's a mouthful and a half but for the sake of this video we'll refer to it as the bero verse because he's the one constant in every single one of these books regarding the dark tone this universe is right for exploration for those who love a dark and gritty Batman not like branding people so they get stabbed in prison but more so like Gotham is the shittiest City you've ever seen in your life and there's this crazy guy running around and I beating the [ __ ] out of criminals and you best believe he smells like ass sweating away in that suit because this is real real sort of like it is a Batman story in the normal DC Universe so some things require some suspension of disbelief moreover I believe that the quality of these stories varies a little between pretty good and really good overall so let's continue now you might have some questions about the universe right well I have some answers what books are there well regarding this universe it spans from Batman death blow from 2002 Lex Luther Man of Steel 2005 Joker 2008 Batman noel 2011 Batman damned 2018 and Batman deer detective from 2022 well Eddie is it an official Universe M no but hear me out while this is just a theory I believe that there are multiple main factors that can't be ignored which connects the six books and possibly more oh okay so what are some factors that connects these books um well one is that the creators behind the book Stay relatively the same most importantly the artist and sometimes writer Lee bero the second in charge here is the writer of most of these books as well Brian azzarello a claim Batman writer and he also wrote The Killing Joke animated movie a moment of silence for that rooftop scene reason to is that Lee bur Mayo's Batman has a distinct look to him with his cowl and Batman emblem being connected to his cape in this specific way very shoulder it was my favorite skin to use in Arkham Origins over the course of these books we can see the bat suit stay relatively the same however there are some instances where it looks slightly different with how the cape connects to the cowl but in my opinion the difference is quite small that it could be written off as perhaps an alternate suit or it's just how his suit evolved over time as in some of the books we do see into Batman's closet of bat suits and there are different iterations lastly reason three is that each of these books shares small story elements between them that I think is enough to say that they're connected admittedly this is the weakest link but hey this is just a theory or so I say anyways now that I've introduced you to the idea of the bermo verse let me go through each book with you in the order they came out in then afterwards I'm going to present you with a chronological timeline of the universe which is different from the release order of course so all this madness starts off with Batman death blow I'm going to keep this one short and brief because this is the one that I'm the least interested in and has the least Le amount of ties with the rest of the universe that tie being Lee bromeo as the artist and Brian azarello as the writer and the bat suit looks about the same this book came out in 2002 and what a way to start out the bover verse with a crossover with the Wild Storm character death blow I know nothing about this guy he seems to be a Punisher type I guess I'm not looking into it too much the plot is along the lines of someone is doing an Iron Man 3 in Gotham killing and blowing [ __ ] up so Batman investigates and finds out it's a death blow an assassin or something [Music] and in the end Batman tackles the death blow off a blimp or something the climax doesn't even have him in the cow for it he's using one of his dumbass homeless people disguises which will return in later books Batman doesn't do much detective work in this one so I can't say I enjoyed it much perhaps if I was more familiar with the death blow character I would like it more because honestly it's more a death blow story than a Batman one Alfred also appears in this story which will become increasingly more rare as we go along and before we move on from this book that I probably should have talked more about here's some things that I wanted to mention Batman has bat business cards and I also wanted to do a stupid joke about how Star Wars is connected to Batman because in the deep dark layer of the Batman my my master Wayne they certainly have sex sexy names for themselves and what they do don't they seems a gamoran terrorist cell was operating in Gotham and had been for some time terrorists in my city a gamoran terrorist Jesus Christ admittedly that was a really weak joke but anyways moving on to the next book Lex Luther Man of Steel released in 2005 written by Brian azarello with art by you guested Lee bero this five issue run is in my opinion actually really good told from the point of view of Lex Luther it's a deep dive into his psyche showing how he feels about Superman an alien who has the power to destroy the world if he so chooses to which makes him feel inferior despite being a giga Chad Trad or whatever how is this connected to the bero verse well Superman appears in another story that we have yet to go over and also issue three is all about Lex Luther visiting our main man Bruce Wayne and Gotham we get Alfred again we learned that Lex knows a Batman's secret identity and gives him some Kryptonite to kill Superman I think any anyways the book includes this interesting bit we see Lex think to himself about how he's drawn to Bruce Wayne his Playboy Persona and how it has this animal magnetism to him and he isn't sure if he's jealous of that or if he's drawn to Bruce himself it's interesting to see how he's insecure about himself not only in terms of Superman but even as someone that he might possibly see as an equal actually who would probably think Batman is beneath him but back to the bad story we see Batman sitting on a roof with the same suit from Death Blow and he's just looking at the Kryptonite then out of nowhere Superman blows it out of his hand and flies in they have a short battle if that's what you want to call it but it's mostly Batman just scrambling to get the Kryptonite as Superman flies down to get it Batman takes a couple Falls and we don't see the conclusion later on we see Bruce Bruce up in the cave call up Lex and say that they have a deal cuz they're working together on something regarding raising Humanity to be more on the level of Superman which embodies itself as Lex creates another person named Hope who is like a Superman type that works for him and then he falls in love with it and ends up boning it and then in the end she fights Superman and ends up losing not sure exactly because this video is mostly focused on the Batman aspect of this universe despite us not seeing any more interactions between Batman and Superman in this comic as it's from Lex's POV we can assume that this might be their initial meeting or just a whole fever dream of Lex but I don't think it's a dream as we see Bruce himself bruised up in the end on another note I must mention that this series isn't very important to the overall bero verse as it's Batman Centric but it does take place in it so I wanted to include it before moving on I'd like to praise this book once more with these panels showing Superman looking absolutely Sinister we get to see how Lex sees him and for a moment we can understand his struggle before we snap back to reality and remember that Lex is a [ __ ] and Superman is a Beacon of Hope next book this is where things get real Joker with this book being released in 2008 people might think that this Joker was inspired by Heath Ledger's portrayal in the dark night however when this was being made apparently no photos of Heath Ledger's Joker had been released to the public and bero was apparently worried people would think that he's biting Nolan's flow or perhaps Nolan was biting his flow but apparently it's just parallel thinking to me at least they look exactly the same and even act similarly but what do I know we don't know what goes on behind closed doors though so who knows well anyways back to the book like Lex Luther Man of Steel this book aims to give us a more nuanced look inside the Joker's mind the big difference between these two books however is that the narrator of Joker is actually one of his henchmen instead of himself Johnny Frost throughout the book Johnny works for the Joker and sees his ups and downs giving a new light supposedly to the villain I don't see it that way but let's take a look at the story to understand first so the story starts with Joker being released from Arkham excuse me under what circumstance does this ever happen he doesn't escape he literally is released and walks right at Gotham is wild man so Johnny's here to pick him up they meet and leave they chat and Joker seems to take a notice of Johnny sensing that he's nervous around him and why wouldn't he be Joker's a [ __ ] lunatic Johnny and Joker then go around the city and visit some mob spots letting people know that he's back eventually they go to a gentleman's club in order for Joker to really let everyone know he's back by skinning a man alive while Harley Quinn strips on stage these men took control over Joker's operation while he was put away and now now that he's back he wants everything that's his eventually we learn that Johnny has an ex-wife that he cares about uh Joker does more crimes two face is an opposing crime figure to Joker and Joker does more Joker stuff and there's one moment I'd like to draw attention to Joker pointlessly puts his gun in his mouth and pulls a trigger single player Russian Roulette if you will and Johnny sees and he thinks I don't know what he was thinking or if he even was Joker I was learning wasn't about thinking and I I think this perfectly captures the message that the Joker puts out to the world externally he appears to be an aimless dog just like The Ledger version pure chaos however the things he does are highly calculated and premeditated ordered chaos but to hide this he does these Reckless things just so people don't think of him as the smart individual that he actually is aside from the spontaneous killings he does sometimes the guy is a joke you know he's a clown later on we get another moment that I can't explain Johnny gets a sneak peek into the Joker's room after the crew had a bad day he sees Joker on his knees hugging Harley and weeping are we seeing the real side of him is this an act as well nobody's watching this universe's Harley seems to be pretty straight-faced through the book so far and here is not different she just looks at him and also she looks hot as well I got to say this is up for interpretation I'd like to hear what you think in the comments my opinion is pretty shallow mostly just the idea of Joker trying to live up to the crazy name people associate with him all the time but occasionally he has moments of weakness as a normal person does we just aren't used to seeing it from him since he hides it so well the reason I believe this is because this universe seems to be more grounded and realistic so I just thought of a real way that people feel sad I guess I know that I feel like this from time to time but then again I'm not a mass murderer a psychopathic mass murderer if that eventually in the book Joker does a big kill spree to get back at Twoface and finally it attracts the Batman we don't get a clear glimpse of him but we see the aftermath he leaves behind he does a gimme gimme to Harley and as Joker and Johnny Return To The Hideout they see their goons hanging from meat hooks they're not dead just knocked out like you know what I mean so they set the place on fire and leave Johnny and Joker running into the sunset happily ever after onto the Gotham Brooklyn Bridge until Joker suddenly punches Johnny in the face he pulls out a gun and is about to shoot him before Batman swoops in Joker says how Batman is is a shameful man who wears the tight chiseled armor to be a [ __ ] or something to which Batman says he does it to mock The Joker then bang Johnny shot through the neck by jokim man and he actually dies we then see Batman and Joker have a fight Joker pulls out a knife then we get a far back shot of the bridge as we can see a figure falling off and that's my short summary honestly with this book I I don't really like this story and I would recommend you to read it yourself as your opinion will probably be drastically different than mine the Joker in this is just purely sadistic and missing that goofy side to him that I think a lot of modern iterations of the character is missing he's barely a clown he makes little to no jokes instead having traded in that skill in order to get more murder skills I guess there were two Joker moments in this that really stuck with me and one of them was basically him and Johnny celebrating after a good day and his way of doing that is to break into a random apartment which is home to an old couple Joker then brutally murders them and then they sit around the bodies and they drinking party well I mean try to cuz Johnny is [ __ ] mortified this moment stuck with me because it's just so dark and it made me feel bad the other moment that stuck with me is Joker occasionally in the book you can catch him just looking up at the city and it's because he knows that wherever he is in this city Batman is somewhere out there it's a big city and he can't be everywhere at once but he's there the brutality and darkr tones of this book was the aim I believe with the dirty visuals and overall look of the Joker being scarred but for me it doesn't go down super well being graphic just to be graphic but we need to understand the era in which this came out we were in the Batman movie Renaissance so a majority of people who didn't read Comics thought Batman was just a Noir detective or a neon nightmare or a thriller gold mine for stories but through this book people could see that Batman could be like the hostile or saw and by saw I mean the later sequels that just turned into complete G of the superhero genre going all out just to show how gritty and disgusting Batman could be which could entice movie goers or anyone interested in those movies to pick up a Batman book because hey look Batman can be a dirty and disgusting character too I mean look at all the disgusting [ __ ] his villains do like the Joker the craziest clown you've ever seen lastly I did enjoy the lack of Batman until the end of the story having Joker through the story just looking up at the buildings knowing that bats is out there just like the opening of the Batman when he finally shows up he wrecked shop check this out I think it's interesting the art is incredible as always especially this page showing an explosion it looks so smooth next book Batman noel with respect to Charles Dickens released in 2011 written and drawn by Lee bero This Is A Christmas Carol but with Batman and it's [ __ ] incredible if you haven't heard of this then let me give a quick recap so Batman is Scrooge which is such a great idea because Batman is just an uptight [ __ ] most of the time he's a dick a guy working for Joker he escaped again named Bob is cratchet who is also he's an employee of Wayne Industries so he he does work for for Scrooge and this it's still the same uh he's only working for Joker to make some quick cash so he can spend it on his kid for the holiday but Batman is Scrooge so he's like [ __ ] your kid you did crime you're going to jail and hey we see Alfred in this too Scrooge has a cough through the story cuz he's a sick man he's got pneumonia Alfred says that Batman needs to chill out cuz Bob is just trying to make money to help his kid but Batman is still Scrooge and he says [ __ ] the kid the dad's going to The Slammer Bruce then thinks about his dead Robin who could be dick or Jason but I think it's Jason in this universe it's not said explicitly but the costume is more in the style of dick it's also cool to see a young version of this Batman whose suit looked to me a lot like a modernized version of Adam West suit Robin fills the role of Scrooge's business partner in the story Marley in the original story Marley's ghost shows up to Scrooge and warns him about the three ghosts that are going to visit him that night and says that by the end of the night if he doesn't change he's doomed to the same fate as himself and while in this story The Ghost of Robin doesn't explicitly show up to tell Bruce to change his ways it still has the same effect with Bruce thinking of it himself so Batman then goes to Gordon who gives him a lead Catwoman who just so happens to be on the roof next over so he heads after her she is the Ghost of Christmas Past she leads him on a chase as he reminisces on his past as a crime fighter seeing plenty of his Rogues and we can see that he was visibly happier during this phase of his crime fighting career here he even has a smile on his face while punching the penguin look at this guy he's really happy eventually the chase ends with Batman grabbing onto a gargoyle that breaks leaving him to fall into an alley not just any alley though Crime Alley the place where his parents were shot and killed Batman has a PTSD coughing fit a dark moment but we need to get to the next ghost the Ghost of Christmas present who better than Superman in a slightly different suit than from Lex Luther Man of Steel different belt but whatever it's Superman the same one in my opinion so Superman takes Batman around to see Christmas now first showing him Bob and his kid being happy together on Christmas so Batman continues saying that he's going to throw the dad into prison to decrease the Surplus population you know just like the original story so Superman asks what about the kid Scrooge says that the kid could go work in a sweat shop or something but Batman in the same vein says he's going to scare the kid so badly that he never turns to a life of crime this guy's a [ __ ] lunatic Superman then flies him around more to see more people but Batman keeps being Scrooge and in the end Superman drops him off of the Batmobile as soon as he flies off though the Batmobile explodes how does Superman not hear this uh forget about it the story needs to keep going our ghost of Christmas future is here and it's the Joker he drags Batman to a cemetery and dumps him into a grave where he has a vision of what could be he sees the city turn to [ __ ] of course Gordon going to jail for working with a vigilante Wayne Manor and its insides being sold off and worst of all a sad Alfred after having a long hard think on it Batman says [ __ ] that and decides it's time for Action so he zombies his way out of the ground ready to beat the [ __ ] out of the Joker too bad he's at Bob's house right now and Bob you are my number one guy you're my number one guy this Bob most certainly is not this joker's number one guy cuz Joker hits him with a wrench and is about to kill him in front of his kid but Batman arrives and Saves the Day Joker's hold off to Arin Batman goes home and Bob doesn't go to jail Batman realizes he's being a real Scrooge so he sends a Christmas tree and a job promotion of Bob's apartment we see Gordon leave the office to see his family presumably and lastly we see Bob's kid imitating Batman oh wait that wasn't the last thing because Bob asked him what the moral of the story was and it's over now if you get the chance to read this you must to me it's the quintessential superhero Christmas Story Only beating out Batman Returns by an [Music] [Music] [Applause] inch this is christas and Bruce Wayne why you dressed up like Batman the use of A Christmas Carol is pretty ingenious because Batman is DC's resident Grouch Superman having the glow of the Ghost of Christmas present is also a sweet idea but on the other hand having Catwoman as the Ghost of Christmas passed to me seems a bit off like she's the one to remind him of his extensive history like I thought that maybe Commissioner Gordon would be better he's been there since Batman's first appearance literally he's seen all of his public UPS and and downs and is a friend of his while Catwoman is a villain and an on and off again love interest I do see how Catwoman is more interesting and can lead him on a chase and Gordon is already a presence in the story so like actually scratch that Catwoman Works she's been around since Batman number one and that's pretty old my metric for Batman characters being new as if they debuted before after Harley so Selena's an old hag also I don't know I think that the story could have made a different turn if Robin's ghost actually showed up to Bruce and was like ye art been a bright Miss begot Bruce Forge amends with haste unless thy wish to suffer Fates aligned with thy former sidekick never mind I would be that would be really dumb but back to it this is a great story and pretty isolated in the bero verse we get the first appearance of Robin another Superman visit and my favorite Batman getting proven wrong also on the back cover there's a tombstone that says rip Bob Kane former years till Bill Finger was properly credited next book Batman damned released in 2018 azzarello and bero are back to deliver DC's first ever Black Label book if you don't know what black label is DC created this imprint for more adult oriented stories what passes for adult storytelling well bad language violence drug use and nudity of course and that's right this is the first book and hopefully the only book that has showed us Batman's dick the internet went crazy for like a week which gave the this book a lot of press did that pan out well for sales well according to bleeding cool the book sold out its first printing of 110,000 copies but jimly Chief creative officer of DC at the time refused to do a second printing most likely to change the part where you see his dick any digital copies got updated soon after and that's the image you're seeing now with no outline visible however as many former adult stars will tell you once you Poe something to the Internet it's there forever so you're only a Google search away from seeing Bruce Wayne shaved and circumcised schlong on your screen but enough about bat penis gate is the story any good I think so so let's take a we Gander the book is narrated by one John Constantine or Constantine who talks in spiritual terms as we watch Batman awaken in an ambulance looking pretty damn car fuff he beats up the paramedics and tackles a cop out the back eventually he makes his way into an alley and takes a lay down on some garbage bags which sends him back to him falling off of a bridge not dissimilar to how the end of Joker went which leads me to believe that these are connect Ed the bridges even look similar so you're telling me There's a comic book that starts in the same location another comic book ends made by the same creators about the same characters who have just finished a fight when the older book ended in a fight yeah come on now so Batman falls into the water off the bridge yeah he sees his parents for a bit then reawakens on the trash to one John Constantine who even refers to himself as an unreliable narrator because if he was reliable he would say exactly what the hell is happening you're not out Alfred no sir seems the butler took the night off but don't fret old son yep sadly no Alfred in this book at all next we get a flashback one of many in this run where we see Bruce's memories of his parents more specifically his dad who is always shown with another woman and this flashback isn't any different here he is beside Martha seeming to be smiling and happily talking to a woman absolute deviant Behavior also these flashbacks have another caveat enchant is here and she appears as a child she Whispers to Bruce to keep her as his little secret then we awaken Batman looking completely healed stumbles out to see he's in John's Place and his bedroom walls are filled with Mystic symbols maybe for some reason but it's never disclosed to the reader we see Jon is watching the news Joker Is Dead also dead man is here why wouldn't you like to know Batman not taking the news of his boyfriend's death well then heads off but not before another flashback of young Bruce with his dad and another woman how he doesn't tell his mom is above me so young Bruce in this flashback almost falls off a bridge as well but back to the present Gordon is at the bridge the same Bridge being accosted by a homeless man in a green jacket and shorts Gordon ignores it and leaves only to be spooked by that ghoul again who then runs off with this pose that I think is quite funny as always Batman is watching and swoops down and chases him but he gets away into a sewer tunnel one that eerily looks like the homeless man maybe there's more going on with that guy oh and it says he knows what Batman did cut to Batman back at the Batcave and this is where we get the bat penis panels the bat computer says he's got nothing wrong with his body and Batman goes [ __ ] oh you know this is dark because Batman is swearing he then goes through his wardrobe until one of his suits reaches out for him it's a jump scare that leaves him on the ground but cut to him later in one of his homeless disguises looking for info presuming or he wants to live the life of panhandling who could it be who is performing street magic beside him well it's this world zatana and dead man is back taking over people passing by to talk to Batman and I suspect that since this is Black Label we can see a dead manp possessed woman's cleavage real clear I do like how the people who dead man possesses feel absolutely sick once he exits their body which is a nice touch so Batman asks Z if she's seen that Green Jacket homeless guy and she says guy in green you mean the Joker no but back to Batman sitting in a chair in his manner nude again and we get another enchantress flashback she says she wants his tears so he can be hers or she can be him or something like that you know demon [ __ ] possession or whatever to put it more clearly she wants his tears in exchange she will let him be Fearless uh cut to Batman going out to a church he's greeted by Constantine who's already there in a Pew Batman looks up to see Christ as Joker he's alive yeah Batman has his sight set on tracking down the Joker because he thinks that he's alive but flashback time we see a young Bruce dressed as a Lone Ranger Gunslinger type he's playing in his yard but then his dad and mom walk out of the house arguing and Thomas Gets in his car and drives off distraught Bruce goes back inside the house aims his toy gun at the back of Martha's head and fires she breaks out into tears as does he and she makes him promise to never aim a gun at any anyone ever again a little bit of foreshadowing for you cuz uh I don't know if you know she gets shot to death later here you go again PS ow cut to Batman stalking a club where inside is a rapping version of rran named J blood uh he's rapping or something on stage uh let me hit this Welcome To My Nightmare surrounded dumfounded by the likes of what I hate like the taco Ro you great my reality [ __ ] your Duality Bat Man Behind the Mask mind if I ask who you hiding from what's your black cat B terrifies you so you wear disguise it ain't these guys yeah you hear what I say what this Mission cracked DK after telling him to shut up he asks where's the Joker and immediately we get Batman doing a John Wick impression hard image though I cannot lie so dead man comes in to help and he aims a gun which freaks Batman out so he slaps it out of dead man's hand hands then suddenly bang huge explosion shake the club everyone runs out and Batman sees the city burning and Batman looks to his right and sees enchantress she says she's come to see what he's become and Batman starts crying then she says her secret then disappears again he focuses up and sees the bat signal with a Joker's smile Batman and dead man then see a burning building with people inside so they rush into help but Deadman's body catches on fire and he gets so caught up in the feeling since as a dead guy he doesn't feel anything thing so he just stands there and lets himself burn alive and I think that this is really funny upstairs Batman sees the people who need help it's that Green Jacket homeless guy so Batman starts kicking the [ __ ] out of him which triggers another flashback Martha takes Bruce to meet with a pi who shows her pictures of what's presumably Thomas cheating no enchantress this time though next he awakens to etrian pulling him out of the fire Constantine is there to Heckle the whole process Batman then heads off as we see Joker and some guds on a roof shooting [ __ ] up bat boy arrives and starts tearing them up and then we see the Joker who is actually just Harley in Joker get up they punch up a bit then she injects him in the neck with a paralyzing agent or something unable to move he has to endure Harley sitting on him as she starts to remove her clothes revealing a huge surgical scar what is this I can't say for sure but what do you think eventually Batman overpowers her and starts choking her out as she does her best a as he chokes her out for more panels and you would think is normal we see enchantress reaching out for him from a puddle smash cut the Batman in a coffin Yep this is the next thing that happens he freaks out as anyone would until his coffin is ripped out of the ground by none other than Swamp Thing swampy says that Batman's life is in Jeopardy as quote unquote both sides lay claim Constantine shows up again wearing a 66 style Robin mask spouting the words old chum damn this is kind of cool a bit confusing cuz the robin we saw in Noel didn't wear a mask like this but H best not to think about it too much so Constantine then shows off that he snagged Batman's utility belt from Harley so I guess the answer to how he got here wasn't as mystical as we could have thought Constantine just watched her take Batman and bury him alive and he didn't intervene at all anyways Swamp Thing keeps warning Batman not to trust Constantine cuz apparently he's not a good guy and is only here to amuse himself but Jon says he's the best chance that Batman's got enchantress shows up too and causes a little commotion with a gargoyle Batman then chases her into the swamp and she says how she was his first kiss First Love First Blood and that he will be hers and that she will be his secret again as she shifts to her old lady enchantress look which is a massive downgrade to be honest she disappears again and we get another flashback this time it's Thomas and Martha looking pissy after watching a movie with Bruce what movie Zoro oh so you know what's about to happen so young Bruce then sees a young enchantress and chases after her into an alley where we already know what happens next here you go again but it's so matter of fact in joke we're just like bang the movie's finished or something a pearls ow cut to Constantine taking Batman to a magic show zatana is back Tana Dead Man is dead man back to uh he possesses some guy with a rat on his shoulder and then Z puts him into the rat using a magic spell that's like find a find a more suitable host before they do some magic there's this funny bit where Constantine ask to do some sweet magic and she's like nah I'm scared and Batman then comes in hot like Constantine are you threatening This Woman This Batman has zero chill he's just constant yelling like one dead Robin you become a complete [ __ ] huh anyways so magic goes down and they call in a spirit and it's the spirit of young Bruce Wayne Batman then has his soul or something come out of his body as satanis says to be brave inside the spirit world or whatever we then see Constantine and Batman standing over Batman's dead parents and we also see enchantress holding on to Young Bruce Wayne she says that a deal is been made no tears for no fear so Batman made a deal with her when I don't know if this book is a standalone then it could be presumed that enchantress was always there but since I want to say that this is part of the bero verse then perhaps it happened between the events of the books she corrupted his mind and in a moment of weakness Batman agreed to this deal knowingly or unknowingly entering into a deal with an evil witch an unbreakable deal isn't as unbreakable as you'd think as it's broken by three bullets fire by John into the old witch [ __ ] now with Batman's Spirit freed he heads off to the morg to visit joker as he probably should have done in the beginning but he has a head injury so let's Overlook that Constantine gives him some advice before he goes in he says to be careful with his words because he takes things quite literally who is he well inside is the homeless green man who I can now reveal to you is the Spectre in the story he never takes on the full Spectre look but since this is the darkest DC un ierse this look fits he and Batman exchang words and it goes something like you killed him I know so Batman didn't hold back when fighting the Joker because he got stabbed you know with a knife like at the end of Joker and speaking of it I was looking through some old photos and it looks very uh similar they're the same panels but reversed it doesn't get more obvious than this we can see Johnny's body on the ground but yeah Batman was fatally wounded and Joker wound up hanging off the side of the bridge and in a moment of clear thinking I think he lets Joker fall because if Batman dies and his last Act is saving Joker then he is essentially allowing the Joker to live on and continue killing after he's gone I guess even if Batman dies no other hero will enter Gotham because they're worried Batman's grumpy spirit will show up and tell them to [ __ ] off next time you want to help do me a favor don't oh my God bro the point here is that the Joker is dead and Batman is to blame he did a Batman Begins to the Joker I don't need to save you to kill you head ass [ __ ] huh and now the Spectre says that Batman needs to pay Batman's like dude chill you're being harsh but the green man is like n homie not harsher than you I mean like if we weigh The Joker and Batman's lives against each other one of these people is definitely worth more than the other right one is a mass killer and the other guy who has presumed presumably not killed as many people and sometimes saves innocent people I mean Batman anyways Batman takes a gander at Joker's corpse and then he says that he wishes Joker was still alive what I take as being a passing comment which would have been followed up by the rest of a conversation but the Spectre is an idiot who takes things literally and whooshes Batman off into the corpse freezer smash cut back to the bridge someone is falling Splash out of the water emerging onto the shore is Joker alive and that's the ending of Batman damned this Supernatural mystery to me is great it's not a buy the book Batman story he isn't just following Clues per se but he is presumably in limbo on a roller coaster ride taking him from point A to be until it's time for his judgment in which he [ __ ] it and has condemned Gotham to be stuck with the joker and no Batman so let's talk about this a bit more I found this guy's explanation of the story in this Reddit post and I think he's pretty on the money he notes that the person person who originally fell into the water was Batman as we can see in issue one but in issue three we can clearly see it's the Joker so to me this whole story takes place with Batman in limbo so he's dead waiting for his judgment this post continues on to say what resists terrible 2988 thinks the enchantress's involvement in the story is saying how young Bruce always being around his shitty parents is in an emotionally vulnerable place to which I think is a fair evaluation and this is where the enchanter slips in to make him tearless unafraid and more ruthless in exchange for not being sad he continues to say the reason for this is well he doesn't know and I don't know too but assuming a chantress is all knowing she probably would be attracted to like a really notable figure like Batman I suppose or perhaps Batman is like a paragon of pain the person in the world with the most pain as a lot of the Constantine monologues really focus on the concept of pain stating that it's the one thing that every single person shares back to the Reddit post I think this is a good take though as we see Batman and Noel being quite ruthless but that's if we believe enchantress was really there the whole time if this falls into my universe theory then she's either been there the whole time being the cause of the Wayne's death and we haven't seen her or her invading his mind is a relatively recent event and the whole thing of her controlling child Bruce is just her twisting his memory on the inside as I believe that inside Batman is still that scared child standing over his dead parents in that alley so that's why we see enchantress with a young Bruce that's just who who he is deep down stuck in that trauma he also continues saying how part of Batman's deal with her includes her causing his parents to be killed as well as presumably him dying as well to which the deal depended on but by him not dying the deal wasn't fulfilled I can't come up with anything better than this so I will agree for now the redditor then goes on to say how he thinks JN with the assistance of dead man went into Batman's head to erase the memory of the bridge thus the reason why Constantine is following him around he's taking pleasure in watching Batman try to figure things out that he erased to this I don't agree with completely as we see no hint that dead man had anything to do with the process beforehand while I can agree it is possible I think personally Batman's memory loss is just a symptom of him being dead but just like everything else this is all of her interpretation now let me give my overall analysis after consuming tons of rdit comments and thinking about it myself I think that this story is that a Batman being dead but not knowing or not accepting the fact that he's dead trying to catch his other half The Joker eventually coming to the conclusion or perhaps knowing all along that he is the cause of the Joker's death and is unable to forgive himself which ultimately gets him to bring his Worst Fear To Life enchantress is just another antagonist a physical manifestation of Bruce's fears that is there inside him she's welcomed by himself due to his extremely weakened mental state as this Batman seems to be incredibly hung up on his failures with his most recent one being killing the joker now overall I kind of love this story again to me it's it's a true Batman Horror Story with some justice league dark members who are always a pleasure to see and it is worth a read for any Batman fan the critical reaction of Batman damned is pretty good aside from collected editions who gave this book a 2.2 out of five stars and also I found another Reddit comment that I think sums up the negative fan reaction to the book entirely from user deleted frankly I found it to be dull and devoid of anything to say it reads like a checklist of edgy shock tropes with very little connective tissue the first issue ended with with a crucifixion that amounted to nothing the second issue ended with a scarred Harley Quinn attempting to run Batman it's just Edge for the sake of Edge and it's sad that for all the great titles to have come out of black label the Lion's reputation was tarnished early for this I think that this take on the book while being valid is still ignoring the science azarello sprinkled throughout and without everything spelled out exactly the edgy Black Label bits stick out like a sore thumb with this being the first black label title I guess they needed to go harder lots of sexualized Harley with that weird Scar and also batc despite these I still think the book is an interesting read and subject to more interpretations that are more open and shouldn't just be shut down over the it's just Edge complaint moving on on another page at the end of the book we can see a comment from azzarello who says that from the success of Joker he will Dennis and Mark Doyle two writers from vertical Comics had the idea to expand on the Joker book and from his own words dubs this The Joker verse uh okay Brown ran but I think the bero verse is better but I suppose since azzarello is also very involved that the name is unfair we will give the universe a new name the Beret zurell verse regardless of his attempt to try and create a new universe where characters can be twisted to me it seems most people don't give this universe enough credit and it seems that many people still don't recognize that these books are actually entirely connected and they think that it's only partially or in spirit but I'm here to tell you that it's connected and I lied to you at the start this is official in a way I think as it's only Joker and Batman Dam that are entirely connected and the others are kind of just my own Theory and I will not call it the Joker verse because it's the same Batman from Death Blow Lee made the suit the same it's the same bat so berar verse or whatever I named it yay last book Batman dear detective released in 2022 this is Lee bero showing off all he's got while as an art book we are counting this as an entry because there are pages of cryptic letters throughout that can convey a story of sorts also the order of the images themselves are telling a story as well that we will get into briefly so the story tells us the history of this Batman and we catch a glimpse of Nightwing Batgirl and Huntress along with Robin who is alive in what I think is a perfect modernized version of the classical Robin suit and despite it not being the exact same one that we saw in Noel I think that we can chalk that up to being an alternate suit and this is the one that he died in most images are just cool action shots or Batman brooding uh there's one where he's holding a child which is always cool to see and there's some more images showing off as Rogues in this world including Raz Talia scarecrow penguin Twoface and more I won't be showing them all off as this is an art book so I don't want to give it all away you should pick it up and take a look for yourself we can also see a small story being told through the images a Batman going into Arkham and fighting against a breakout attempt and yeah it's beautiful Lieber Mayo is all hits no misses now the crypting messages in the book took me around 10 minutes to crack and to my understanding they're basically just letters that are taunting Batman and at the end it's signed off as being from crime so the concept of criminal activities personally took the time to write a letter to Batman I put this on the level of seeing Batman's dick as top two weirdest things to happen in this universe and that's pretty much it I wanted to mention this story specifically because it shows us the loss of his Robin and confirms the existence of the bat family to some extent in this universe this is part of the Brian bermes of w verse confirmed yay and finally now I hope you can see how these books sort of connect to one another but to further the point of bit I want to put these into a chronological timeline of the entire books I mean I'm not going to do one of those crazy timelines where you plot down each moment chronologically from inside the books I'm just going to lay out the books as to the main plots and where I think they fall so starting out with Batman death blow we are introduced to this youngish Batman dealing with a mystery as Batman's tend to do it just so happens that this one is a crossover but it doesn't affect the World At Large other than being this universe's first outing following next is Lex Luther Man of Steel where we see Batman's initial meeting with the Man of Steel from Metropolis the story itself is mostly self-contained to Lex's own mental struggles however next is dear detective we can see a more experienced Batman dealing with his his full Rogues Gallery having already been through the ringer with dick who is now Nightwing having met backgirl and Huntress and already having an expired Robin I think going forward the death of Jason has left Batman being a complete shut in loser as it does in so many other universes I think that due to his mental state and his feelings of being a failure that we see in future books it's fair to say that this version of the character might have pushed those who are once close to him away explaining their absence in future books after that I think Noel fits in well we see this absolute drip of aat being a grumpy [ __ ] on Christmas plagued with anger issues that sprung after Robin's death then going to catch Joker and putting him in jail I think this happens right after as it resonates well with seeing Robin's death previously in dear detective obviously Joker Falls in next being released from prison but why the hell did he get released after he killed all those people in the previous stories including Robin I think that he can't be convicted of the murder of Robin because how would the police know Robin is dead not like Batman would let him see a body if he did then his whole thing would be over but what about the Joker's other crimes uh forget him we don't know about any and maybe the laws in Gotham are whack and who's to say that his release was legit maybe he or Harley paid or threatened somebody to sign off on his release all of this is just speculation and the true answer is that it's a comic book and it's best to not think about it lastly is Batman damned this version of Batman being defined by his failures more than every other version of the character ultimately dies while his arch nemesis lives on due to his own actions at this moment I think this is the latest installment of the universe so this is the timeline I hope we get more from Lee and Brian in the future but let's go back to the beginning I touted the berm arell universe as the darkest Batman Universe and going through each story I think it's pretty clear why the grounded tone match with bmo's beautifully dark and dirty art dances together gloriously that I believe gives more Edge to the over-the-top violence The Joker delivers that gives more impact than let's say a multiversal Batman who does some disgusting [ __ ] for shock value like for example Joker skinning that man alive I believe is darker and scarier than let's say joker cutting off his own face and stapling it on as he works to dismantle the entire bat family in this universe he's not some omniscient force that can go against Batman he's genuinely just a crazy mob boss who kills people on a whim more real world which makes him scarier than a larger than life over the toop cartoon of a joker could furthermore Batman's own thoughts of himself failing to be a hero like what other Batman do know whose whole thing is that he believes he is the shittiest person like the levels of self-hatred of this Batman are over the charts more so than any other versions in my own opinion continuing even before a black label was introduced the books in this universe were already doing grounded adult stories with death blow and Joker with the former being a bloody murder mystery with a sprinkling of domestic terrorism and the latter being a deep dive into the psyche of a mass murderer that includes plenty of adult violence that isn't toning it down for all audiences other than Batman the dive into Lex Luther is a comprehensive unneutered look into Lex's mind these tones are not dumb down these stories will leave you depressed other than Noel of course because Christmas stories end pretty decently for the most part these stories come together to form a universe where brutality is a norm and mercy is in short supply limited to those who are lucky enough to get it on specific holidays it doesn't explain everything leaving things for the reader to think about through subtle storytelling as with real life not everything is spelled out for us and not everything makes sense sometimes I wholeheartedly believe that more people need to recognize and talk about this universe the bermes Zell verse or the Joker reverse thank you anyways it's taken a long time to put this together but I'm proud of it I think was it comprehensive enough did I make sense [ __ ] this took a long time to make check out my friend Tyrell multimedia's new video it's an audio drama depicting what if Superman landed on AA the home world of the Green Lanterns instead of Earth I had the pleasure of voice voicing Joell in the second part and it was a blast I hope you take a look and enjoy and if you're still here then thank you for staying throughout this entire thing it really means the world to me eventually I hope my videos become good enough that I can make this my full-time job so thank you again it means more to me than you could ever realize thank you for watching cheers go [ __ ] anybody that's talking down on me want to talk tough on me better try me whole lot of people me count on me it's all on me I [ __ ] lightly I me count me out from the JP [ __ ] need your love and I a here for a good time for a long time I'm just here

Channel: Edward Rigby

Views: 195,225

Keywords: batman, superman, lex luthor, joker, theory, DC comics, DC, spider-man, the batman who laughs, dark batman

Id: CJwhxxL5IHw

Length: 48min 40sec (2920 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 23 2024