Batman villains (comics)

This page is a compilation of super-villains and adversaries appearing in various Batman comic books, related titles, crossovers, specials and mini-series.

Bane

"I could kill you... but death would only end your agony -- and silence your shame. (lifts Batman over his head) Instead, I will simply... (snaps Batman's spine on his knee) ...BREAK YOU! ~ Batman: Knightfall

• "Once again, my place here is threatened. Someone reaches across the world to take what is mine Gotham is a prize coveted by many. I can never rest. Always there is someone seeking to take what is Bane's. As in prison so it is outside. All I own is challenged. A challenge that must be met with overwhelming force. You understand, mi hermano. You have been with me always. You know what I must do." - Bane: Conquest Vol 1, #1

• "I could kill you... but death would only end your agony -- and silence your shame. (lifts Batman over his head) Instead, I will simply... (snaps Batman's spine on his knee) ...BREAK YOU! (dumps Batman's broken body on the ground) Broken...and done." -Batman: Knightfall

• “I’d kill for anything. I’d kill to silence a grating voice, to darken the light in the eyes that dared look at me.” -Batman: Knightfall

• "I have only one rule when dealing with the enemy. Give them nothing. Not solace, not mercy, not kindness, not torment, not provisions, and - most assuredly - not satisfaction." - Secret Six #05

• "You break him by breaking everyone he loves and stacking them, defiled and ruined, in his grand foyer." - Secret Six #35

Black Mask

• "I'm listening, and when I say I'm listening, I'm also thinking about killing you."

• [When asked by Li if Red Hood is crazy for selling back their kryptonite for $50,000,000] "No. The crazy ones would make a suit out of the rock and march into Metropolis and play 'king of the mountain'. This one knows what he's doing."

• "I'm not pleased, you know. Not pleased at all. And despite appearances, this isn't a damned smile on my face."

• "I swear, it's like trying to run a crime organization with my mother."

• "And I'll just wait here... because I'm known for my patience."

Harley Quinn

I found the Joker's psyche disturbing, his dementia alarming, and his charm irresistible! ~ Batman: Harley Quinn

• "Aw, c'mon, Puddin' -- don'tcha wanna rev up ya Harley? Vroom! Vroom!" - Batman: Mad Love

• "Face it, Harl. This stinks -- yer a certified nutso wanted in twelve states -- and hopelessly in love with a psychopathic clown. Hey, when did my life go Loony Tunes!?" - Batman: Mad Love

• [to Batman] "I've never seen ya' laugh before... I don't think I like it. Cut it out! You're givin' me the creeps." - Batman: Mad Love

• "I found the Joker's psyche disturbing, his dementia alarming, and his charm irresistible!" - Batman: Harley Quinn

• "My love for my Joker was stronger than their madhouse walls." - Batman: Harley Quinn

• "Face it, Harley-- you and your Puddin' are kaput! You're playin' solitaire now-- not hearts!" - Harley Quinn #2

• [After being instructed by a SWAT team to "Get on her knees"] "Maybe when we get to know each other better." - "Harley Quinn #28

• (about Bruce Wayne ) "Brucie's got a lot more on the ball than you'd think. He's got a presence. He hides it under that society suave, but there's a real intensity. Only others I ever met like that were Mistah J... and Batman!" - Harley Quinn #6

• "Get up, you deadbeat! That was the only place in town with a scintillatin' selection of polyester fashion! Where you think I'm gonna shop now? - Harley Quinn #9

• "There's no such thing as safe sex with some alien races. Think acid-for-blood. Think mate-then-kill." - Harley Quinn #15

• "Well, what d'ya know -- looks like we ran outta friends... for a while, at least. And me the social type! Or is that sociopathic?" - Harley Quinn #18

• "If you think Arkham's scary as a doctor, you should try it as a patient." - Detective Comics #831

• "I'm crazy about... Well hey, I'm just crazy." - Gotham Girls

• (about Arkham) What a dump. - Gotham Girls

• (To Catwoman about Poison Ivy) "I understand. Yet, as a psychiatrist I feel that Ivy having social interaction with the regular world can only benefit... Ooh, cute puppy!" - Gotham City Sirens #11

Hush

• "What is a friend? A single soul residing in two bodies." - Batman: Hush

• "All men by nature seek knowledge." - Batman: Hush

Lady Shiva

You are trying to understand madness with logic. This is not unlike searching for darkness with a torch. ~ Detective Comics Vol 1 #787

* "Of course, I know about bad luck... that's one of the lessons that this city teaches us all, eventually." ~ Gotham Central #1

• "I believe in letting people do as they wish, as do I myself. Sometimes, of course, what I wish to do is kill them and they do not wish to die. This gives life interest." - The Question #29

• "Murder by disease. No art in it. No soul. Such a decadent way to kill." - Robin (limited series) #2

• "I cannot destroy you unless you permit me to." - The Question #36

• "I'm a warrior, not a murderer." - Batgirl #8

• "Karma. That I understand." - Batgirl #25

• "I am not allowing you to pass out. I want your men to see you beg. Then you will apologize with a pain you will remember always." - Birds of Prey #62

• "I answer this with blood and pain and cold, damp graves for my enemies." - Birds of Prey #62

• "That's the problem with the amateurs -- the histrionics. No sense of grace at all." - Birds of Prey #63

• "Perhaps death is just a little bit afraid of me." - Birds of Prey #63

• "All this ceremony, and the truth is: the body decays, the spirit is lost. It means nothing. Ashes or earth, I hardly see the significance of where they lay your corpse." - Birds of Prey #68

• "A baby? Certainly. I've had dozens of babies!! [Laughing] I've dropped litters in every corner of the globe!!" - Batman: A Death in the Family

• I care nothing for what happens or how I am remembered after death. To prove myself the best in life...that is my passion." - Batman #509

Mad Hatter

• You are trying to understand madness with logic. This is not unlike searching for darkness with a torch.
  • Brian K. Vaughan, Detective Comics Vol 1 #787

Mr. Freeze

• "Of course, I know about bad luck... that's one of the lessons that this city teaches us all, eventually." - Gotham Central #1

• "Time for you is now frozen. Your world will remain at absolute zero. No pain. No sensation. No regrets. God, how I envy you." - Robin Vol 4, #69

• "Yes. Hell. As described by Dante, with its multiple rings. Each one is guarded by a devil. And at the bottom of the universe...is a lake of ice. I am Freeze. I was chosen to guard this realm. All that enters here turns cold, becomes brittle... and breaks." - Nightwing Vol 4, #29

The Penguin

A perfect crime is a work of art, a thing of beauty, and a joy forever, to paraphrase The Bard! ~ Detective Comics #611

• "The Penguin flies ever alone!" - Detective Comics #611

• "A perfect crime is a work of art, a thing of beauty, and a joy forever, to paraphrase the Bard!" - Detective Comics #611

• "Where's the thrill in committing the perfect crime if nobody knows it was you?" - Detective Comics #611

• "Despite the monetary wherewithal to indulge one's palate, your epicurean tastes run to the mundane. While I, on the other hand, intend to fill my gullet — until I have feted my ravenous appetite!" - Batman: Haunted Knight

• "Ahh... the Batman. While I have an affection for most flying creatures... the winged rat is not among them." - Batman: Haunted Knight

• (to Batman and Robin) "Why can't you two get a day job?" - Batman #572

• "Fortunately the Penguin is a wise old bird — never one to put all his eggs into one basket." - Detective Comics #824

• (To Black Canary) "Look at me. No woman in the world ever gets drunk enough, and believe me, I've tried." - Birds of Prey Secret Files & Origins

Poison Ivy

I hate this city. Nothing grows here. ~ Batman: Poison Ivy

The only thing that thrives outside these walls are the six billion shortsighted parasites who continue to ravage our planet’s natural resources. On its own, humanity is a destructive force. It needs a master. - JLA: Tower of Babel

• "I hate this city. Nothing grows here." - Batman: Poison Ivy

• "Some things are worth dying for, Batman." - Detective Comics #752

• "I don't do that, Harley. I don't save people. I'm poison, remember?" - Harley Quinn #13

• "I have no interest in your deals. No interest in you, in any of you, on the outside. This park, this is Gotham now... its future. Reclaimed by nature, pure without mankind's assaults. It is a sanctuary now, and I am guardian. I will not let it be defiled. Not by anyone. Certainly not by you. Leave." - Shadow of the Bat #88

• "Suicidal men adore me." - Batman & Poison Ivy: Cast Shadows

• "I hate men. Because of what they do. They clip. They prune. They make us remake ourselves into what they want. A Madonna. A whore. A partner. A foe. And we do it. Because we need." - Solo #6

• (Batman about Poison Ivy) "There's a no man's land between love and hate. Between passion and obsession -- where it's easy to lose all sense of reality -- and in doing so, lose yourself. Somewhere in that emotional minefield... Pamela Isley wanders." - Legends of the Dark Knight #43

• "You're always responsible for the things you create." - Batman: Poison Ivy

• "Hello, lover. Long time, so see." - Batman: Haunted Knight

• "May your hell be a green one!" - Batman: Shadow of the Bat #56

• "Thoughtless. Worthless. Stupid. Man." - Batman: Hush

• "I'm an eco-terrorist of global importance. I make a contribution." - Gotham Girls

• (To Harley) "If I hear one more word out of you, just one, I swear I'll cram fast growing cactus seeds UP YOUR TUCHUS!" - Gotham Girls

• (To Harley) "Did you order explosives online again?" - Gotham Girls

• (To Harley) "Will 'sorry' bring back my beloved barrel cactus?" - Gotham City Sirens #5

• (To Harley) "Now if I could have a second of what I laughably refer to as your attention..." Harley and Ivy #3

Ra's al Ghul

• "Detective, as you know, I am cursed with a love for emptiness... desolation. It is a beauty to which my soul responds... as pure, as untainted as the deserts of my birth. I deem it my mission to purify this planet, to restore it to its former beauty... a mission I will brook no interference in." - Batman: Son of the Demon

• "I have knowledge which is alien to you, for I have tasted food fresh from dark fertile soil, and I have filled my lungs with untainted air, and I have quenched my thirst with water clear as the first day of creation, and you have not -- because you can not. Those things do not exist on this world any longer. They have been destroyed by man's lust for dominance -- a lust I know well, for at times it all but consumes me. All is corrupt, all is sick, all is dying. As am I. As are you." - Batman: Birth of the Demon

• "In the new world, all peoples will be united, every race, every faith, every creed will find common purpose... our world is not for everyone. Only those who prove their worth will enter it. The rest will be purged... and if nine hundred and ninety-nine must perish for every one who lives... so be it!" - Azrael Vol 2, #18.

• "Do you think this matters? You are but seconds in my life! Only I know humanity for what it truly is! Only I can see the grand movements of generations! Only I, undying, can live within this world and protect it from itself!" - The Shadow/Batman Vol 1 #6

• "This is a set-back, not a defeat. The advantage is mine. I have eternity... and Batman must win every single time... while I need win but once." - Batman Vol 1, #709

• "The League of Assassins is my legacy. It seems only fair that I have everyone that Bruce Wayne ever loved, everything he ever built, destroyed. The Batman will have no legacy". - Red Robin: Collision

• "We all have our addictions, Detective. Whisper's is me. In turn, mine is the Lazarus Pit. My daughter's is you. And yours is your holy quest. - Detective Comics Vol 1, #750

• "The only thing that thrives outside these walls are the six billion shortsighted parasites who continue to ravage our planet’s natural resources. On its own, humanity is a destructive force. It needs a master." - JLA: Tower of Babel

• "Whoever said a picture was worth a thousand words... is about to see just how badly he miscounted." - JLA: Tower of Babel

• "Everything I have done, I do for the greater good." - Batman: Death and the Maidens

Riddler

Life's full of questions, isn't it, Batman? Though, naturally, I prefer to think of them as riddles. ~ Batman: Dark Knight, Dark City, part 1

• "Life's full of questions, isn't it, Batman? Though, naturally, I prefer to think of them as riddles." - Batman: Dark Knight, Dark City, part 1

• "Riddle me this, What's black and blue and bleeds profusely?" - Gotham City Sirens

• "I used to be a somebody in this town. Now everybody has a gimmick. I was going to show them all. And I did." - Batman: Hush

• "The Lazarus Pit gives you a unique kind of... clarity. Riddle me this: Who is that under Batman's mask? And now, the world is my oyster. Right, Bruce?" - Batman: Hush

• "Question: How many times have you beaten me? Answers: Five. Ten. A hundred! But... question: What is Batman's greatest defeat? Answer: The death of Robin. Didn't like having your nose rubbed in it, did you?" - Batman: Hush

• "That is a riddle, isn't it?" - Batman: Hush

• "The mastermind always wants more. It's criminal nature." - Detective Comics #828

• "It's a mystery. Broken into a jigsaw puzzle. Wrapped in a conundrum. Hidden in a Chinese box. A riddle." - Batman: The Long Halloween

• "When does a killer... not kill?"- Batman: The Long Halloween

• "You don't understand... I really didn't want to leave you any clues. I really planned never to go back to Arkham Asylum. But I left you a clue anyway. So I... I have to go back there. Because I might need help. I... I might actually be crazy." - Batman: Gotham Adventures

• "I'm the goddamn Riddler! I'm not crazy!" - Batman #686

• (On being called a poor-man's Joker by Harley) "I am nothing like the Joker! Why does everybody keep saying that?! That clown is only interested in mirth, mayhem and murder! I, on the other hand, live for mental challenges! Games of wit! The chance to outsmart worthy opponents!" - Harley Quinn #6: "Who Wants to Rob a Millionaire?"

• "What's happened to us? The Joker's killing people, for Christ's sake!" - "Harley Quinn #6: "Who Wants to Rob a Millionaire?"

• (inside a museum that Batman has broken into trying to beat Riddler to a prized artifact. Riddler wasn't there though, but now he is) "Strapped to a bomb, leashed to a pesky reporter, battered, bruised, outnumbered, outsmarted, and personally granting your greatest enemy access to the very thing you were attempting to keep him from. I'm hazarding a guess here, but... not exactly the way you'd imagined this turning out, is it, sweetheart?" - Legends of the Dark Knight: "Riddle Me That"

• "The future is a riddle only time can solve." - Joker's Asylum II #1: "The House The Cards Built"

The Scarecrow

Scream. Scream. Or I will make you scream. ~ Batman #630

• "I know an old woman who lived in a shoe. She had so many children, she didn't know what to do. She gave them some broth but gave them no bread. And she beat them and whipped them and put them to bed." - Batman: Haunted Knight

• "Professor Crane isn't here right now. But, if you'd like an appointment?" - Batman: Haunted Knight (also said in Batman Begins)

• "Oh yes, Heaven, father. From where no amount of praying ever draws Him out. 'God in Heaven!' 'God in Heaven!' 'Thank God in Heaven I don't look like that!' - Batman/Scarecrow: Year One

• "I once knew a man whose dog told him to cut his entire family into pieces. Bark. Bark. Bark. BARK!" - Batman: Haunted Knight

• "Knick Knack, Paddy Whack, Give a dog a bone!"- Batman: Haunted Knight

• "Hush, little baby, don't say a word..."- Batman: Hush - volume 2

• "Scream. Scream. Or I will make you scream." - Batman #630

Talia al Ghul

• (to Batman) "Beloved, you give too much thought to what is real and what is not, to what is true and what is false. I realize that is your way, but just this once, accept things as they are. Forego your control, your discipline. Just once, let yourself go... and take me with you." - Batman: Son of the Demon

• (to Batman) "What's wrong with you, Dark Knight? Why is facing psychopathic super-villians so much easier than facing your own emotions?" - Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul #1

Two-Face

The moon is so beautiful. It's a big silver dollar, flipped by God. And it landed scarred side up, see? So He made the world. ~ Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth

• (after killing Carmine Falcone) "Two shots to the head. If you ask me, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy." - Batman: The Long Halloween

• "I did what needs to be done." - Batman: The Long Halloween

• "How much longer did you think I would let the Falcone family tear Gotham in half? Splitting this city between good and evil. My city." -Batman: The Long Halloween

• "Can a man live two lives?" - Batman: The Long Halloween

• "The moon is so beautiful. It's a big silver dollar, flipped by God." (Starts to cry.) "And it landed scarred side up, see? So He made the world." - Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth

• "I am a lawyer. Yes. We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice. Insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure of the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. God bless America." - Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth

• "I am a liar. No. We the acid scarred victims of history of evil and hypocrisy exalt criminals to office. Vietnam, El Salvador, Chile with lovely missiles, roaring bombs of the rich and the white and the pious and burn children and torture women. Forever and ever, amen. God bless America." - Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth

• (After coming into Vernon's office) "You believe in the justice system, don't you, Vernon? You didn't spend all those years in Law School for nothing, right? Then you know, justice has two sides. Innocent or guilty. Like this coin. One side clean. The other side scarred." -- Batman: The Long Halloween

• "You see, Harvey Dent was one of the good guys. Being good in this town means you need guts. You gotta' be tough. You gotta' do things that aren't in the lawbooks. The bat didn't have the stomach for it. He punked out on Harvey. The great outlaw protector of Gotham hid behind Lady Justice's skirts. But she's blind for a reason, brat. 'Cause she doesn't see what needs to be done in her name. I wanted you to understand that. Before it's all over, I wanted you to know. It wasn't me that killed you. It was the bat." - Robin - Year One

See also

• The Joker
• Selina Kyle
• Anarky
• Jason Todd