10 Comic Book Villains Who Killed Their Greatest Rival

While there have been many stories where Joker has been under the impression he's killed Batman, these stories almost always involve the Dark Knight turning out to have survived. This type of twist is actually so consistent that there have only been two 'proper' cases of the Joker killing his eternal rival; the end of the frankly bizarre Emperor Joker comic, and Batman: Endgame.

Both contain suitably tragic deaths for Gotham's protector - with Emperor Joker having Batman killed every day for the clown's amusement, and Endgame featuring Batman and the Joker dying side by side after one of their bloodiest fights yet.

Hilariously, even these two deaths don't last - they're just the two that buck the trend of Batman having faked his death, by instead having him die and be brought back to life.

This makes perfect sense in Emperor Joker, where the whole thing is so surreal that a reincarnation is arguably the least weird part of the whole thing. For Endgame, however, many fans were frustrated when it was revealed that Bruce had been brought back from the dead by Dionesium, and was very much alive - with only his memories of being Batman having passed away.