| “ | It's like a wise man once said. 'Battle not with monsters, lest you become a monster' I've lost track of how many people I've killed. | „ |
| ~ Bruce Wayne to Earth-1's Kate Kane. |
| “ | You start with a code. You hang onto it with every self-righteous breath. But then you take one life. Then another, then another, then another. | „ |
| ~ Bruce Wayne's delusional philosophy. |
Bruce Wayne, also known as Batman, is a minor antagonist of the 2019 Arrowverse five-parter crossover "Crisis on Infinite Earths", specifically serving as the secondary antagonist of its second part, and a posthumous antagonist in Season 1 of Batwoman.
He is a Bruce Wayne/Batman doppelgänger who resides on Earth-99, one of the several Earths within the vast Multiverse. However, unlike his Earth-1 counterpart, this Bruce Wayne progressively turned into an extremistic and nihilistic vigilante who murdered his adversaries and even his allies if he deemed them threats to the world until he gave up under the belief that all life is meaningless.
He was portrayed by the late Kevin Conroy.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
- While he initially started as an heroic vigilante from Gotham City who had a moral code, Bruce Wayne eventually shredded whatever noble qualities he had the moment he decided to break his code after claiming the life of one of his enemies. Though this could count as offscreen villainy, it isn't, as we do see evidence of many of Bruce's victims.
- He killed several other criminals to the point he lost track of how much people he had killed, keeping some of their belongings as personal trophies like a Joker card, a riddle cane or a snow globe. Among those he killed were his archenemy the Joker, the Riddler, Poison Ivy, Two-Face and Mr. Freeze. Even if they may have deserved it for being villains, it doesn't justify Bruce killing them.
- He also casually mentions, upon meeting Kate, that she can't be Clayface disguised or Jane Doe because the former is now a puddle of "mud" and the latter was locked up for good in Arkham Asylum. For the former's case, being left in mud may be a methapore of Bruce having killed him or actually transforming him into mud, which could even be considered a fate worse than death.
- While one can argue that Bruce may have been well-intentioned because all he ever wanted was to protect the world, these arguments become moot when one sees how Gotham's newspapers spoke about "his reign of terror", proving that no Gothamites approved his brutal methods but he didn't care.
- His actions indirectly inspired his cousin Kate Kane to don his cape and cowl and become Batwoman so she could succeed in stopping criminals without killing them, which ended up getting Kate killed.
- Killed Superman, to whom he was close, simply because he was a powerful alien with god-like powers and decided that he couldn't trust him if the Man of Steel was willing to cooperate with anyone with a "badge" or "flag", keeping his blood-stained glasses as a trophy. Such action costed Bruce most of his movability, forcing him to retire and use an exoskeleton to keep moving, but he absolutely deserved it and this wasn't played for sympathy.
- Refuses to accompany the Earth-1's Kate Kane and Earth-38's Kara Danvers, when they visit his world to inform him that he can be the Paragon of Courage they need to recruit to stop the Anti-Monitor and the Crisis of 2019, as he believes that no world is worth saving and nihilistically accepts to let the Anti-Monitor destroy everything with his antimatter waves out of spite.
- Attempts to kill Kara, when she reveals to Kate that he killed Superman, by attacking her with his exoskeleton, as he keeps Kryptonite within the harness.
- Resolves to kill Kate when she defends Kara upon realizing that she is just a doppelgänger of his late cousin who isn't like him, leading to his well-deserved death when Kate knocks him against an electric remote.
- While his actions lead Kate to realize that she was the Paragon of Courage all the time and not him, Bruce never intended to do that: in his own words, he was gonna do nothing and let everything die.
- His death and legacy left Kate traumatized for a while, as she feared to become like him time after the Crisis when she accidentally killed August Cartwright, with his extremism against aliens also leading her to have a piece of Kryptonite just in case Supergirl or Superman ever turned evil.
- Despite the Arrowverse counting with high Heinous Standards, Bruce Wayne easily stands out for murdering all his rogues gallery, Superman and possibly other heroes he deemed threats on Earth-99, aside that we know very little about Earth-99.
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
- No matter how beyond saving he was by the time of the Crisis of 2019, Bruce Wayne loved his cousin Kate Kane and was deeply saddened when she died, as she died trying to right his wrongs by being a vigilante with morals. Upon meeting Kate's Earth-1 doppelgänger, Bruce stopped Luke from killing her and Kara, was cordial with her during most of her visit and while he does try to kill her later on when she protects Kara, he did so because he realized she wasn't exactly his cousin and even as he died, he told her in a sad tone that he is right like if he was trying to make her understand that he wanted the best for her and everyone.
Trivia[]
- Initial concept art for "Crisis on Infinite Earths" indicate that Earth-99's Bruce Wayne was originally meant to be the Bruce Wayne from the 1989 Batman film and its sequel Batman Returns, but was scrapped for unknown reasons, possibly due to Michael Keaton's forthcoming return in the upcoming The Flash film set in the DC Extended Universe. If Keaton's Batman had been used, it would have made his bloodthirsty Batman version even worse.
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 Near Pure Evils
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