10 Best Batman Analogues

It's a question that has been asked a million times before, "what would happen if Batman was a villain?". To date, no one has answered it better than Matt Wagner, the artist behind the Grendel comic and, in particular, the Hunter Rose character.

A gifted young man named Eric has his world altered by the tragic death of a loved one. Walking away from everything he knew, Eric creates a new life with two guises.

So far, so familiar. However, that is where the similarities end. Eric would become Hunter Rose by day, a renowned novelist and socialite, and by night he would take on the mantle of Grendel, an assassin and crime boss.

A Native American werewolf called Argent, who works with the police to see good come from his curse, hunts Hunter Rose.

Although this version of Grendel would only last for a single story arc, the Grendel guise would live on. Each new character to take up the mantle had their own motivations and alignments, but almost all of them are born from bloodshed.

Grendel would even cross over with Batman on several occasions.