10 DC Alternate Universes You Won’t Believe Exist
3. The One Where Batman Loses It - Tales From The Dark Multiverse: Batman Knightfall
Given both the popularity and the quality of Knightfall, many fans were apprehensive at the idea of a universe in which the story was reimagined.
But the Dark Multiverse proves itself well and truly up for the task, helped in no small part by the fact that it revolves around a fascinating alternate timeline, wherein Azrael stabs Batman after Bane breaks his spine, before trapping him in a genuine phobia-inspiring robot life support machine.
Azrael visits this grotesque Twilight Zone scenario once a year, which leaves Bruce a whole lot of time to stew over how mad he is about the whole scenario that's been built for him. After thirty years of this treatment - and after being rescued by Shiva and her son, and given a new body - Batman is understandably still a little peeved at his captor, and so murders him viciously, and then turns on literally everyone, having been broken by his traumatic experiences.
It's about as dark as Batman stories come, but it's also magnificent to see unfold - especially while you're safe in the knowledge that this awful ordeal hasn't happened to our own Bruce Wayne.