7 Villains Batman Has NEVER Defeated

Not even the ever-prepared World's Greatest Detective could topple these rogues.

batman fight
DC Comics

One of the great unspoken rules of comics is that Batman can pretty much beat any villain who exists within the DC Universe.

He may not have any superpowers to speak of, but Bruce Wayne has taken down a who's who of rogues over the decades. Whether it's otherworldly, all-powerful forces, crime bosses, street gangs, or deranged lunatics with a penchant for chaos, the Caped Crusader usually emerges as the victor in any such fight.

Batman is famous for always being prepared for any possible situation, and it's this level of forward-thinking that has so often served the Dark Knight well when stepping into battle. Throw in a genius IQ and an array of various gadgets, and you can see why you'd always back the Bat when it came to the crunch.

That said, Batman hasn't always emerged victorious from his scuffles. And while the World's Greatest Detective largely wins the proverbial war even if he loses the initial battle, there are a select few villains who Bruce has never gotten one over on yet.

With that in mind, then, here are seven villains who Batman has NEVER truly defeated.

7. Lady Shiva

batman fight
DC Comics

Even by Batman's own admission, Lady Shiva is the best hand-to-hand fighter in the realm of the DC Universe.

The Caped Crusader may be at the very peak of human conditioning in terms of body and mind, and he may have trained under the tutelage of some of the best martial artists on the planet, not to mention have a genius-level IQ to help him out, yet even he bows down to the clinical, badass nature of Lady Shiva.

Whenever Batman and Shiva have faced off, neither have particularly got the upper hand. That said, there's so often a sense that Lady Shiva is holding back whenever she comes up against the Dark Knight - with both fighters knowing who would really win should they properly engage in a fight to the death.

There's no shame whatsoever in being bested by Lady Shiva. Many a hero and villain haven been left lifeless at the feet of Shiva, and Batman is just one in a long, long list of people who are unable to get one up on this supervillain-turned-occasional antihero.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.