10 Comic Book Heroes Who Were Secretly Replaced

In the early nineties, Bruce Wayne suffered a pesky back injury when Bane snapped the Caped Crusader in two over his knee. Bruce found himself paralyzed and knew he would be out of the crime-fighting game for what? Six months?

This is Batman we're talking about.

Bruce needed a fill-in to keep all of Gotham's maniac rogues in check during his absence. Now the obvious choice would've been Dick Grayson, the man who Bruce had trained and raised since he was a boy, instilling, in Dick, Bruce's rigid code of honor and justice.

Stupidly, Bruce decided to go with a brainwashed assassin named Jean-Paul Valley instead. Valley had been groomed from birth by a group called the Order of Saint Dumas to become their righteous soldier Azrael. This caused Valley's personality to conflict a bit with the stress of donning the cape and cowl.

The most significant split between Bruce and Valley came when the latter threw the villain, Abattoir, to his death, allowing Abattoir's captured and innocent victims to die as a result.

After that, Valley refused to give up the Batman persona to a now recovered Bruce. Wayne had to battle and ultimately defeat Vally to take back the Batman identity.

Next time, Bruce, just hand the pointy ears over to Robin.