8 Nobodies Who Got The Better Of Batman
2. The Mutant Leader
In Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, readers were given something truly iconic in the pantheon of Batman tales.
Set in the future, we get a broken down Bruce Wayne who's spent a decade or so retired from being Batman. But when a new gang begin to cause chaos in Gotham City, retirement takes a backseat as this older Bruce finds himself suiting up once more to take down this mutant gang.
While the best parts of The Dark Knight Returns largely centre on the dynamic between Batman and Superman, the Mutant Leader also gets to shine as he delivers an absolutely brutal beating to the Dark Knight. In fact, it's only thanks to the presence of Robin-in-waiting Carrie Kelley that Batman escapes this battle with his life.
Few people have delivered the sort of physical pain to Bruce as the Mutant Leader, yet that rogue is essentially a juiced-up, hulking nobody when it comes down to it. Relying on brute force and intimidation, so much of the Mutant Leader's characteristics are the same as any other generic street thug in Gotham City - it's just he squares off with a Batman who is old, broken down, and fragile at this point in time.
Despite not being at the peak of his powers, though, Batman would win the rematch against the Mutant Leader later in Miller's 1986 tale - which hammers home how he was just a beefed-up nobody.