If the conclusion to Alan Moore and Dave Bolland's The Killing Joke is to be believed, every person alive is one bad day away from slipping into crazed villainy. What happens if this standard is applied to DC's heroes? Furthermore, which of these potential fallen heroes makes for the most successful villain? DC's heroes are more akin to gods than people, in the case of some characters like Wonder Woman, they're literal gods. The potential for damage when what is essentially a pantheon turning to villainhood is staggering.
For example, John Stewart possesses a Green Lantern ring as well as the precision of a Marine Corps sniper and an expert knowledge of architecture. The premise of the most disciplined member of the Justice League flying around and knocking down skyscrapers with his knowledge of their structural weaknesses and an endless gauntlet of hardlight weaponry is terrifying. On a slightly less lethal level in fashion with The Rogues, a villainous Barry Allen or any of the DCU's other speedsters would become a one person Oceans 11, robbing banks and other institutions blind in a matter of seconds. The fact that speedsters also have the ability to think at lighting paced speed is an oftentimes overlooked part of their powerset that would put a villainous version of the Flash a few thousand steps ahead of his pursuers both physically and mentally.
The Flashpoint storyline does a fantastic job painting a picture of what a villainous Wonder Woman would look like. If Diana of Themyscira is stripped of her idealism and heart, what is left is a warrior in the truest sense of the word. The bloodthirsty conqueror from Flashpoint would be a force to be reckoned with if she turned on the mainstream DCU. As for Diana's spangly counterpart in DC's Trinity, there has been no shortage of evil versions of Superman across various mediums. From the authoritarian warlord that is the Injustice Superman to the petty and childish sadism of Homelander from The Boys, villainous Superman is a concept that has been heavily explored to mixed results. While it turns out that just about every hero in the DCU would make a good villain, the one who would make the best villain isn't a god, metahuman, alien, or space cop. In fact, the powerless Bruce Wayne would make the best villain of them all.
Batman is an obsessive master-strategist who isn't afraid to fight dirty with brutal efficiency. He's also earned the moniker of Worlds Greatest Detective. Like Superman, there are no shortage of villainous versions of Batman, one of them is currently on the verge of remaking the entire Multiverse. He's a man who made contingency plans for every member of the Justice League that almost killed them all, and even fought a Jokerized version of the group. He's a man who shot Darkseid at point blank range and tanked a hit from an Omega Beam. But all of his prep time and ridiculous feats are not the reason that Batman is best suited to villainy. The Batman part doesn't factor in at all, as his greatest and arguably most underused ability is his wealth.
With his fortune, Bruce Wayne could rule the world, and he could do it out in the open within the confines of the law. Provided he stopped spending his money on Batmobiles, he could slowly purchase every politician and media outlet on the globe and there would be nothing illegal about it, barring a little bit of bribery. He wouldn't need any reality warping space gems or ungodly math equations to take over the world when he could throw an army of lawyers at any court that would see him harm. A villainous Bruce Wayne would represent a problem that couldn't be dealt with through punching. Of all of DC's heroes, he would make the most challenging villain. If it works for Lex Luthor, surely it would work for Bruce Wayne.
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