1. Bruce Wayne
The Darkest Knight. It's Bruce Wayne. Mr. Wayne is a billionaire bachelor who can go out and play at night and get into all kind of scrapes. Surely there are no demons in this ray of sunshine? Wrong. As another invention arising from the poverty and corruption of the 1930s, Batman is in opposition to the white knight that Superman represents. He does not seek public notoriety; he gets enough of that at home. The type of crime he fights is dirty and gang-filled. Completely unintentionally, this 'dark knight' seems to do the jobs the 'white knight' is too superior for. Just a tentative racial question there... Batman is a focus for the darkness of Gotham, the leech to draw the poison, not the shiny, clinical scalpel of the Man of Steel. Gotham, or rather the 'gothic' macabre setting draws on the traditional Victorian fiction and the doppelgangers that established this creed of characterisation. The fact that he is a bat bears an eerie resemblance to Stoker's Dracula a creature very different by day than by night. Counterpoints and split consciousnesses extend to his nemeses such as The Joker and for the purposes of this article, especially Two-Face. His early life begins with the death of his parents. This was later than Superman's trauma but not as graphic as Dexter's. If it were not for his family's money, perhaps Bruce would have sought revenge as a villain; however the stewardship of his butler Albert facilitates a steady upbringing, considering the mental scarring. The obscuring of his identity, aside from the bat costume comes from his extraordinary wealth and lifestyle in the public eye. No one would suspect that kind of man would be the seething, brooding caped-crusader. The off-hand comparison to Don Draper earlier seems ever more plausible. To establish a philanthropist industrialist in the 1930s was possibly an unexpected success. His drive to fight corruption both in and outside of the spandex was probably unrealistic, and therefore appealing. The fact that he fought corruption on the streets in a grittier, more real sense, doubles the symbolism. The Joker is established as a paradox before a word is uttered. An amusing criminal? No, the joke is on us. According to what the author has read, there is no discernibly definitive origin story and therefore he reveals no true identity. He tells tales, most notably in The Dark Knight, he explains how he got his scar, but he is an enigma. A cruel twist is that despite his sadism and sociopathic nature, Batman spurns multiple chances to finish him off. Curiously and conversely, The Joker has done the same for Batman, refusing to kill him. It seems they need each other, an object to chase, a reason to be. Two sides of the same coin it returns us back to the identity of The Joker. If Batman can conceal his identity so extravagantly then he could surely be anyone. Another Stevenson spin-off is unambiguously found in Two-Face. This strange creation was once Harvey Dent, a clean-cut ex-DA, who was to be the sunlight to Batman's shadow. As a victim of an acid attack, his face was left partial disfigured. From then on he would decide to do good or evil on the basis of flipping a coin. This leaves him occupying an odd middle ground on the morality question. His Jekyll and his Hyde are clearly defined and his arbitrary justice is all the more frightening. He is both good AND evil at the same time. No other character holds this position and blows the alter-egos so preciously treasured by others completely out of the water. He does not need 'Hyde'. He is somehow beyond the need. It is the world of Gotham that enhances Batman's intangible and captivating nature. Held up against the other characters in this list he is possibly the most realistic blend. There is no freakish radiation, it is entirely plausible that a endlessly rich person would seek to do good in business and in practice, he is not idealised as he has flaws and issues justifiably arising from a graphic incident in his youth. He has the appeal of Don Draper, with a moderated smattering of Dexter's idealistic sense of vigilante justice. He does good deeds, but is not a saccharine righteous alien who is a symbol of American heroism. He is similar to Parker and Banner, minus the radiation and benefits from a blacker, more dangerous context. Walter White is off the scale, comparisons are a little redundant there...