10 Worst Things That Ever Happened To Batman

8. Seeing His Sons Die... TWICE - Death In The Family/Batman Inc.

Batman Damian Wayne death
DC Comics

If losing your parents to gun violence was bad enough, then imagine losing two of your young sons at the hands of some of your worst enemies.

Jason Todd and Damian Wayne may have each mounted miraculous comebacks from the dead, but there's no denying how each demise took a toll on Batman.

With Jason, Bruce had been trying his best to steer Todd away from his more violent tendencies. In the run up to A Death in the Family, DC had left the door open as to whether or not Todd had murdered a villain in cold blood. Around this time, it was also decided that readers would get the chance to vote on whether or not Jason would be killed by the Joker. Although narrow, the vote to kill Todd won out in the end - despite claims that one particularly enthusiastic reader may have cheated the system by using an auto-dialer.

Damian, on the other hand, may have had one of the best arcs in Batman history. The biological son of Batman raised by Talia al Ghul, Damian was originally designed by writer Grant Morrison to be a brattish child who'd grate on the reader. Eventually, through the loss of Bruce, Damian would learn the true value of Batman and Robin's legacy, becoming a valued addition to the group.

And then Morrison had him killed by his evil genetic clone in Batman Incorporated. Oh, and he was also ten, so that's an awful thing to happen.

Bruce refuses to accept Damian's passing however, and travels all the way to Apokolips to bring him back. Batman and Robin will never die.

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.