10 Worst Things That Ever Happened To Batman

6. Getting Murdered (Sort Of) By Darkseid - Final Crisis

Grant Morrison's Batman is kind of the best, whether he's busy fighting his way back to sanity in Batman R.I.P., or living on as a legacy embodied by Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne in Batman Reborn. There's also Final Crisis, an epic 2008 event where Morrison pitted the universe's heroes against a newly reborn Darkseid (now in possession of the coveted Anti-Life Equation), and some gnarly cosmic vampires who used to be a part of the Monitors.

It's big, barmy and suitably epic, and it also happens to feature Batman's most badass moment, both on and off the page.

Final Crisis starts off with the murder of a New God, specifically Orion. This is a big deal as New Gods aren't ones to typically die; they're near enough immortal. So, it's down to Batman as the World's Greatest Detective to crack the case, with the Green Lanterns also heavily involved in the investigation. Together, they discover that Orion was murdered by a radion bullet, which is an important detail, as it's the only mortal weapon the League could use to defeat Darkseid.

And so, after being captured by Darkseid and resisting days of torture, Batman procures the firearm that killed Orion, loads it with another bullet made of radion, and points it at Darkseid. There, the Dark Knight explains cooly and with full acceptance of what will follow why he's breaking his one rule, leading to Darkseid threatening that Bats will be too slow to pull the trigger before he's killed by his omega beams.

Batman responds with two words: "Try me."

Bats pulls the trigger and mortally wounds Darkseid, but he's blasted to smithereens just like the Lord of Apokolips promised. This later turned out to be a big excursion to the past for Bruce, which led to him fighting his way through time back to the present. Still, while being stuck in the past isn't as bad as death, you'd struggle to find as grave an inconvenience.