9 Batman Knock-Offs That Utterly Miss The Point Of Batman

Everybody sleep together Batman . After 75 long time of redeem Gotham City , the Caped Crusader has become an original . So it ’s not surprising that every mirthful needs its own version of Bats . And yet , Batman remains unique , and it ’s not so gentle to imitate him . Here are 9 Batman knock - offs that totally lack why Batman works .

1) The Fixer from Frank Miller’s Holy Terror

The superhero protagonist of Frank Miller ’s post-9/11 propaganda comicHoly Terror was in the beginning supposed to be Batman . But DC Comics executives were reportedly quite suspicious of the “ Batman vs Osama ” assumption — and yet , Miller claims that he choose to take the story out of the DC universe , after he realized that the character was going in a dissimilar direction . Nevertheless , the final resolution is clearly an ersatz Batman , complete with a thinly veil Catwoman clone named Natalie Stack , and a Jim Gordon stand - in called Dan Donegal .

Sadly , Miller miss the essence of what makes Batman such a well - loved submarine — his humanity and his sense of justice . The Fixer becomes an impassive , merciless warrior against Islam , and is more akin to a murderous Sin City supporter than most adaptation of the Caped Crusader . Even in Miller ’s own The Dark Knight Returns , Batman explicitly eschews guns and violent death . Twenty year later , the Fixer tortures and kills the great unwashed by the dozen . The Fixer fundamentally contradicts the core of Miller ’s own iconic interpretation of Batman .

2) Night Thrasher (Marvel Comics)

Dwayne Taylor , scion of a wealthy kinfolk , sees his parents murdered and , thoroughly traumatized , decides to wage war against criminals . He trains his mind and body compulsively for age and , assist by his sound defender and his housekeeper , set out to oppose crime . It ’s a intimate story .

However , between the fictitious character ’s gamy - tech skateboard and his unfitness to deduce ( for old age anyway ) that his elderly housekeeper was the one who wipe out his parents , it ’s a minuscule difficult to take this Batman analogue seriously . Nor does it aid that Night Thrasher realizes early on on that he ca n’t hack it alone , so he ends up found the New Warriors — a group of absurdly named teen sidekicks ( Speedball ! Marvel Boy ! ) that he proceeds to wise man . Not exactly the alone wolf master tec that he ’s clearly base on .

3) The Black Fox from Marvel: The Lost Generation

The Fox is actually one Dr. Robert William Paine , another wealthy eccentric who decide to fight crime with only his wit and combat skill . His private hideaway ( “ The Foxhole ” ) is hide on his kin farm , and he often expend a radar - unseeable jet bid “ the Flying Fox . ”

This fibre is Batman , minus the fervency and the intimidation cistron . It ’s a fleck hard to fear a hero who egress from a “ Foxhole ” every night and only desert his day chore as a Chicago law prof ( with capital , agonizing hesitancy ) after a baddie goad him into it . A loath Batman is no Batman at all .

4) Shadowhawk

Shadowhawk is the alter egotism of a lawyer named Paul Johnstone who , in contrast to his crack addict brother Hojo , manages to work his way up to the position of district attorney . Mobsters render to use Hojo as leverage to persuade Paul to fix a case against their compatriots , but Paul decline . So later , the gangster lash out Paul directly and inject him with HIV - infected blood . Enraged by this ontogenesis , Paul get into an exo - cause , including a utility whang loaded with anti - HIV anovulatory drug , and sets out to fight back offence .

Creator Jim Valentino say that his theme was “ to take Batman and strip him down to his core — what spend a penny him ferment , what does n’t . ” Bizarrely , his construct of what constituted Batman ’s core timber led him to settle that Shadowhawk would routinely take pleasure in breaking criminals ’ spinal column . And that ’s without even touching the insanely shade - deaf use of HIV / AIDS in the origin write up .

5) Nighthawk from The Squadron Supreme

The Squadron Supreme was one of Marvel ’s weaker attempt to rip off the Justice League , and Nighthawk was the group ’s resident Batman clone . A brooding rich kid named Kyle Richmond , he ’s haunted by his lady friend ’s death in a drunk driving incident he was involved in . So he endeavor to join the ground forces , only to be reject for having a heart murmur . When Kyle inherit his Padre ’s megacorp , he pop out groom obsessionally to anticipate his heart blemish , while also endeavor to research a therapeutic . The outcome is a serum that enhances his physical ability — but only between dusk and dawn . Originally a supervillain , Kyle switches sides , to become a superhero … but does so without compromising on the pensiveness and aloofness .

This particular attempt at parallel the Batman archetype is hobble by one key difference from the original : the farcical conceitedness of the power - boosting serum that only work at Nox . Batman is the superhero genre ’s main testament to self - improvement , because he ’s a human being who routinely defeats superhuman entities through the use of ingenuity and training . Nighthawk ’s blood serum reads like a chintzy attempt at upping the ante , which backfires and undermines the intact conception . It ’s wholly possible that someone at Marvel newspaper column had the same intellection since Nighthawk — in one timeline — terminate up get himself killed in a melee with his former teammate .

6) Nemesis

Mark Millar summarizes the master self-love of this series as : “ What if Batman was the Joker ? ” The level focuses on a super - villain whose motivations and mental province match those of the Joker , but whose circumstances ( wealth , costume , forcible abilities ) parallel Batman ’s .

Many derivative versions of Batman miss the point of the graphic symbol by having him abandon his case - defining moral code and commit cold-blooded - blooded slaying , mostly to get a ascent out of fans who take the whole ‘ grim and gritty ’ aesthetic a little too earnestly . But Millar takes this disposition to an irrational and gruesome extremum with Nemesis , and then afterward papers over the absurd excess by passing it off as a high concept . When your Batman court start out to fail the original character , simply guess you ’re making a clever point about the slender bloodline between him and his archenemy ! Millar misses another important fact : that the similarities between Batman and the Joker have been explore in legion actual Batman stories , several of which are far more insightful .

7) Bibleman

The star of a Christian straight - to - video recording series , Bibleman is a millionaire named Miles Peterson who , after going through a period of existential angst , embraces his religious feeling and becomes a superhero . He operates out of a BibleCave , defend a Joker / Riddler pastiche called The Fibbler , and work with a Robin stand - in name Cypher .

And Bibleman methodically strip the Batman concept of everything that ’s nerveless about it . Where Bruce Wayne employs reason and science , Bibleman relies on unquestioning faith . Where Batman wears a costume that help him blend into phantasm and restrain his enemies , Bibleman ’s outfit is deliberately garish . Batman ’s enemies are homicidal sociopath but Bibleman want to free the earthly concern of … commit atheist and Jewish people ? ( One of Bibleman ’s chief adversaries is a hook - nosed Jewish stereotype called The Gossip Queen . )

8) Night Man

Another Batman ripoff that ’s shamefaced of undercut the original concept with a pathetic superpower , Night Man is the alter self-importance of saxist Johnny Domino — who learn the power to hear the malefic thoughts of those around him . A later interpretation of the character moves him off from tech - based method , and into the realm of magic .

Superpowers and Batman do n’t go together . If Batman has a defining trait , it ’s his world . In a fictional universe full of god - comparable beings , he remains the secure testament to the potential of the relatively fragile human race . When he gains a superpower , there ’s niggling distinguishing him from the myriad superhumans infesting the pages of funnies one can barely tell asunder . No surprise then that Night Man is an dreadfully boring character . It does n’t help that his unquestionably unimpressive great power is rarely of any use , functioning mainly as a lazy style of having him stumble across Modern antagonists .

9) Inferno from Irredeemable

This one ’s a stretch since it ’s an entirely sane face of Mark Waid ’s opinion about what would encounter if Superman really did contend Batman . The serial accompany an harebrained Superman analogue called the Plutonian , as he play mayhem around the planet and repeatedly scotch the endeavor of comparatively unremarkable superheroes to rein him in . Inferno is an obvious Batman analogue — a affluent man who undergo uttermost training to fight offence , out of a Batcave - ish hideout — who ’s present only to be brutally snuffed out by the Plutonian in short order .

But as any ego - respecting Bat - fan knows , Batman utterly can beat Superman in a fight . There ’s no doubtfulness .