The Various Avatars Of Batman You Should Know About Before Heading to Comic Con!

1. Thomas Wayne Batman

In Flashpoint, Bruce Wayne died in the incident that killed his parents, and his father and mother became the Batman and the Joker respectively. This Batman is wary, tired, but brutal and ruthless on his war on crime. His brand of justice is much more extreme than Bruce's, and he packs a much darker tone than our own Caped Crusader.

2. Dark Claw

In 1996, DC and Marvel collaborated for an amalgamation. This gave birth to the Amalgam Comics, a series where characters from both universes were fused to create new characters. Thus, came Dark Claw- a fusion of Batman and Wolverine. Logan Wayne sees his parents killed by a mugger and moves to Canada to live with his uncle. After a failed Weapon X Project, he becomes Dark Claw, a vigilante with an adamantium skull and retractable claws with an intensive detective prowess.

3. Superman Batman

In Superman: Speeding Bullets, Kal-El’s pod doesn’t land in Smallville but crashes into Gotham City instead and is found by Thomas and Martha Wayne, who raise the boy as their son. As they always do, the Waynes are murdered in front of the boy’s eyes when he’s ten. This time, however, little Bruce responds by incinerating their killer with his heat vision. So begins his career as a vengeful vigilante with the powers of a god, fighting his disfigured nemesis Lex Luthor AKA the Joker.

4. Green Lantern Batman

In Batman: In Darkest Knight, Abin Sur doesn’t choose Hal Jordan but gives Bruce Wayne his power ring instead. At first, Wayne – taking up the identity Bat-Lantern – does a lot of good with his powers (for instance, arresting the Red Hood and stopping his transformation into the Joker). However, when he foils Sinestro’s plan, the Yellow Lantern runs amok in a bid to get revenge on the hero, killing Alfred and Jim Gordon. The act causes the Guardians of the Universe to request that Wayne give up his powers, but he refuses and goes rogue.

5. Owlman

Hailing from Earth-3, Owlman is Batman’s evil counterpart and part of the Crime Syndicate – the Justice League’s evil doppelgangers in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths. Owlman is really Thomas Wayne Jr., the older brother of Bruce. In this reality, the Waynes (including young Bruce) were killed by a policeman when Thomas refused to come in for questioning. Thomas went on to be raised by criminal Joe Chill (the usual killer of the Waynes) and grew up to become a pretty bad dude, possessing a drug-enhanced intellect.