Bruce Wayne (Earth -22)

The Batman Who Laughs
Dark Multiverse‎
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Real Name	Bruce Wayne
Main Alias	The Batman Who Laughs
Other Aliases	Batman, The Darkest Knight, Joker
Relatives	Thomas Wayne (father, deceased) Martha Wayne (mother, deceased) Damian Wayne (son, deceased) Dick Grayson (adopted son, deceased) Jason Todd (adopted son, deceased) Tim Drake (adopted son, deceased)
Affiliation	Formerly The Dark Knights, House of Conquest, Justice League, Legion of Doom, Secret Six
Base Of Operations	Castle Bat · formerly Dark Multiverse, Gotham City (Earth -22)
Status
Alignment	Bad
Identity	Secret Identity
Citizenship	American
Marital Status	Single
Occupation	Conqueror, Serial Killer · Former Vigilante, Adventurer
Characteristics
Gender	Male
Height	6' 2"
Weight	210 lbs (95 kg)
Eyes	Red
Hair	Black
Skin	White
Origin
Universe	Earth -22
Creators	Scott Snyder · Greg Capullo
First Appearance	Dark Days: The Casting #1 (September, 2017)
Appearance of Death	Dark Nights: Death Metal #7 (March, 2021)

When I was Bruce Wayne, I thought that with enough preparation, I would always win. But I was wrong. I was trapped in an unwinnable war, refusing to see the obvious answers right in front of me. The answers that are so clear to me now with victory right around the corner. To win, you need to adapt, and to adapt, you need to be able to laugh away all the restraints. Everything holding you back. You see... a Batman who laughs... is a Batman who always wins. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

— The Batman Who Laughs

The Batman Who Laughs was Bruce Wayne from Earth -22 of the Dark Multiverse. He was a lieutenant of Barbatos and the leader of the Dark Knights during the first Dark Multiverse invasion and, later, the infected heroes of the Secret Six. He convinced Perpetua, the original creator of the multiverse, to choose him as her lieutenant over Lex Luthor as his vision was limited by his ego. The Batman Who Laughs continued on with his own plans, eventually acquiring cosmic power and becoming a bigger threat than Perpetua herself.

History

Heroic Origin

The story of the Batman of Earth -22 was not much different from that of any other version of the Caped Crusader. When he was a boy, Bruce Wayne watched his parents get murdered in an alleyway. Vowing vengeance against crime, he trained for years and became the hero Batman, fighting super villains in Gotham City.

Batman took on many sidekicks as a vigilante, including Batgirl, Nightwing, Red Hood and Red Robin, as well as a son he had hired named Damian Wayne.

Bruce was a member of the Justice League. When the Lex Luthor of his world decided to become a hero and tried to convince the League to let him join, Batman was the only one to oppose his acceptance, as he knew Luthor didn't really believe in being a hero but only was interested in himself.

Joker's Attack

Everything went sideways for Batman when the Joker started a killing spree across Gotham City; the clown had discovered that he was dying from the same chemicals that had turned him into what he was and wanted to take everyone with him. He murdered all of Batman's enemies including the Penguin, Catwoman, Killer Croc and the Ventriloquist. The Joker also killed Batman's friend Commissioner Jim Gordon, who accidentally sprung an acid trap in his notebook and melted his face off.

Batman kills the Joker

Batman was later drugged by Joker, temporarily paralyzing his body but not his mind, so he could witness the chaos he caused without being able to do anything about it. The Joker bombed a hospital in front of Bruce and, to make it personal, shot dead the parents of many young children in front of him before proceeding to inject the children with an incurable, irreversible strain of Joker Venom. According to the Joker, he did this in order to create a hybrid of both Batman and the Joker.

Batman eventually regained movement and, so traumatized and angry over what he had witnessed, grabbed the Joker and broke his neck. Unbeknownst to Batman though, the Joker exhaled a toxin contained in his heart, which infected anyone close to him if he died. In this case, it was Batman.

Transformation

Two days after the murder of the Joker, Batman and Superman talked about what had happened. Though he felt no guilt, he affirmed that he was not planning to make killing a regular thing. Superman assured him that the S.T.A.R. Labs branch in Metropolis had agreed to take care of all the kids who had been infected by the Joker Venom. When Superman mentioned how one of the children bit one of the doctors, Batman let out a small laugh which surprised both of them and alarmed Bruce.

Batman kills his allies

A day later, Batgirl, Nightwing, Red Hood and Red Robin were training in the Batcave and talked to Bruce about his worsening condition. Though they all offered to help the Bat however they could, Batman rebutted that he didn't want any help and revealed that the real reason he called them was that he knew they would be the first to notice something was wrong with him and warn the other heroes, something he couldn't allow to happen. And then he surprised them by doing something they were unprepared for: pull out a pair of hidden machine guns and shoot them all dead.

Bruce later convinced his son Damian to join his side and transformed the boy with Joker Venom to be like him. He also retrieved all the Joker-transformed children from the original attack and turned them into his new army of pet Rabid Robins.

A week after the Joker's death, Batman slaughtered the rest of the Justice League by using the stockpile of various villains' weaponry they had built up over the years. He synthesized a strain of Black Kryptonite and used it against Supergirl, driving her insane and forcing her to kill her own family before killing her.

On the Justice League Watchtower, he cornered Superman by releasing a Kryptonite-infused gas into the air and stated that he didn't want to hold back anymore. Bruce then brought Clark's wife Lois and his son Jon before him, and told the Man of Steel to lie to his family that everything would be okay, which Clark refused. Bruce tossed a shard of Black Kryptonite at the Kryptonians and watched as father and son went crazy and ripped Lois apart before they killed each other. As such, Bruce's transformation into "The Batman Who Laughs" was finished.

Ruling Earth -22

The Batman Who Laughs went on to slaughter many of the Immortal Men, before realizing how many of them truly were there in the world.

A world in ruins

The people of Earth -22 fought back against the Bat's terrorism, but Bruce annihilated everything they threw at him until only he and his Robins were all that remained. The last one to face him was his butler Alfred, who almost managed to defeat Bruce by rigging his cave, his vehicles, and all his equipment. However, by convincing Alfred that there was still hope for him, Bruce managed to trap Alfred in a lower level of sub-caves. Bruce kept him a prisoner for a long time, feeding him scraps and whispering to him to drive him insane. Bruce managed to break Alfred to become his loyal servant again.

As his world began to fade from existence, Barbatos arrived and revealed the rest of the Dark Multiverse to him and his plans to go after the true Multiverse as well. Believing him to be the ideal Bat to help him, Barbatos made Bruce the spearhead for his plans to drag all of creation into darkness.

Invading the Multiverse

The Dark Knights arrive on Prime Earth

The Batman Who Laughs went out into the Dark Multiverse to assemble the most twisted versions of Batman out there to aid in conquering the main Multiverse. Traveling to each of the Knights' worlds minutes before they were erased from existence, he appealed to their desire not only to live but to bring their unique brands of truth and justice to worlds beyond their own. Each Batman jumped at the opportunity, and they awaited their moment to travel to Earth 0.

Once the Court of Owls summoned them, his first act was to have his warped Robins slaughter the Court's leaders. He then set the Knights loose upon the hometowns of each member of the Justice League.

The Batman Who Laughs then attacked Cyborg aboard the Justice League Watchtower and explained that they had been called to this universe because of a great ringing and that, despite their nightmarish nature, they were needed to save the world.

Games in Gotham

After taking over the Watchtower, each Dark Knight was given control of a city. The One Who Laughs was assigned to protect Gotham, as it was where Barbatos would fulfill his final plans.

Bruce fought his way through Arkham Asylum, causing a mass breakout, and offered magic playing cards made out of Cosmic Metallurgy to the worst of Batman's enemies, allowing them to manipulate reality the way they saw it. The villains to receive the cards were the Riddler, Poison Ivy, Firefly, Bane, Mister Freeze and Mad Hatter, who were then each given a section of the Gotham to manipulate and rule over to protect the newly formed Challengers Mountain sitting in the middle of the city.

The One Who Laughs was able to see the carnage ensue from his mountain top, viewing each villain's actions with the reality warping powers of his cards. Eventually the Teen Titans, Green Arrow, Nightwing and the Suicide Squad teamed up to form a sort of "Gotham Resistance" to take down Batman's reality-bent villains.

During the conflict, the Batman Who Laughs' son Damian was killed, but Bruce was apathetically unmoved.

Bats Out of Hell

The Batman Who Laughs watched as his Dark Knights tortured the Justice League across the world, but his joy was interrupted by Cyborg, who rescued the League members.

As part of his plot, the Batman Who Laughs revealed that he had captured the Over-Monitor, who, when linked up with the Anti-Monitor's astral brain, would destroy all of reality, both the Dark Multiverse and the Multiverse and leave nothing but darkness. However, his plan was interrupted by the Justice League and their allies from throughout the Multiverse.

Having realized that the Batman Who Laughs could only anticipate every move Bruce Wayne would realistically do, the Batman of this world did something he would otherwise never do - team up with the Joker to save the day. In the final confrontation, Batman escaped his evil counterpart and rescued the Over-Monitor, while the cave they were in collapsed on the Batman Who Laughs and the Joker.

From a combined effort of all the world's heroes, Barbatos was defeated, and the invasion of the Dark Multiverse was stopped while the remaining Dark Knights were either apprehended or killed during their final battles with members of the Justice League.

After Barbatos

The Batman Who Laughs survived the cave collapse and continued his quest for world destruction, allying himself with the House of Conquest against the Council of Immortals. The Batman Who Laughs aided in trying to start a global war, as part of the House of Conquest's motives was that humanity had gotten weak without a devastating longform conflict.

Sometime after this, he went looking for Lex Luthor of Prime Earth, infiltrating LexCorp's Multiverse Research Lab. The Batman Who Laughs allowed himself to be captured by the Legion of Doom so that he could share his multiversial knowledge of the Totality and Perpetua.

The Laughing House

 Main article: The Batman Who Laughs Vol 2

The Batman Who Laughs resurfaced in Gotham and partnered up with another Batman from the Dark Multiverse called the Grim Knight to work on a deadly serum from dead Bruce Waynes of the multiverse to cause maximum chaos. As part of the plan, they began by going after the Joker.

Though they succeeded in invading Arkham Asylum and making it to the Joker's cell, the real Joker had gone to Prime Earth's Batman to seek protection. Though Batman agreed to partner with the Joker again, this was all a trick, and the Joker attempted to kill himself to activate the toxin within his system that had created the Batman Who Laughs in his universe.

The Batman Who Laughs kidnapped Commissioner Gordon and brought him to the hideout that he shared with the Grim Knight. Laughs remarked that he hoped to form a strong partnership with Gordon - in his own twisted way.

Bruce vs. Bruce, a personal showdown

The Batman Who Laughs encountered the real Batman at Blackgate Penitentiary and, though they fought, Laughs, while in disguise, tricked the guards into attacking the heroic Batman and escaped.

Laughs set up a meeting to try to ally himself with the Court of Owls, asking for a small favor, but they refused. They sicced their army of Talons on the evil Batman, but, thinking ahead, Laughs had severed all the undead assassins' arms off ahead of time, leaving the Court defenseless for his counterattack. The Court of Owls tried to flee, but the Batman Who Laughs proceeded to detonate explosives he planted earlier to reshape their labyrinth and make escape much more difficult. Laughs admitted the small favor he wanted was for them all to die.

The Batman Who Laughs met up with the Batman of Prime Earth again, who was almost overtaken by the toxin from the Joker's death. Laughs was excited to have another version of himself, though he saw Prime Batman as the weakest alternative in the multiverse, because he was the least compromising in his values and therefore the least happy. However, Laughs figured he could possibly be the ingredient in his evil Wayne serum he was missing and stuck a syringe in Prime Batman's chest to finish the transformation.

Thanks to the intervention of Alfred and a young Bruce Wayne from another universe, Prime Earth Batman was saved, and the Batman Who Laughs was subdued and beaten within an inch of his life by Batman with his own mother's tombstone. He was then taken and locked inside a dungeon within the Hall of Justice.

Infecting the Secret Six

Laughs and his Secret Six

Before being captured, The Batman Who Laughs came up with a plan to infect the entire world and required the energies of six different heroes to get the process started. Targeting members of the Justice League and their allies, the Batman Who Laughs used special Batarangs coated with the same toxin that the Joker used to initially infect him to infect four heroes to his cause: Shazam, Hawkman, Donna Troy and Blue Beetle.

Laughs gave Jokerized-Shazam a Batarang and instructed him to find and use it on Superman, while the Grim Knight infected the last initiate - Commissioner Gordon.

Jokerized-Superman broke the Batman Who Laughs out of his cell in the Hall of Justice - his plan seemingly working. Superman asked the Bat what his ultimate goal was, which he admitted was destroying all life in the multiverse.

This was all a ruse though, and Superman was only feigning his brainwashing to learn the evil Batman's plan. Having never left his cell due to an illusion cast on him, the Batman Who Laughs was left in the Hall of Justice while the real Batman and Superman tracked down all the heroes he previously infected - who had all teamed up and become the newest Secret Six.

Hell Arisen

While Batman and Superman were busy trying to stop the Secret Six, the Batman Who Laughs escaped his cell under the Hall of Justice. The cosmic threat Perpetua, now working with Lex Luthor, assigned Luthor to recapture the Bat, stating the energies of the Dark Multiverse were a threat to her. Lex succeeded in outmaneuvering the Secret Six but realized that Laughs had infected 666 superheroes while retrieving a sample from Gordon. Luthor was however saved by the real Joker, who advised him to be himself in order to defeat the Batman Who Laughs. Luthor later assembled a team of villains he gifted powers to take on Laughs' infected heroes.

During the fight, Lex Luthor stripped Laughs of his visor, knowing it was the only thing that was keeping him grounded on their Earth, but Laughs tricked Lex in turn with explosives and took back his visor. The nightmare Batman then ordered Supergirl to put fire in the area; mocking Lex due to the weakness to fire of his Human/Martian form and wished that Perpetua was watching as he dies.

The Batman Who Laughs usurps Apex Lex

However, Lex rose up from the ground and declared to him that he should have gone with the kill before stabbing him with a blade that contained the antidote to his dark infection, freeing those infected by the Batman who Laughs. Before the newly freed heroes could do anything Lex then teleports himself alongside Mercy and the subdued Batman Who Laughs back in the Godhead, where Lex showed to Perpetua his victory.

However it was all just a ruse from the Batman Who Laughs; as he rose to his feet he revealed everything he knew about her from Barbatos. He also revealed that that the Justice League were still alive and were sent by the Quintessence in a journey to end her for good if she didn't act quickly. Finally he pointed out that Lex was too egotistical to realize that the supposed future that he saw where all worshipped him might have been fake.

The Batman Who Laughs bowed, saying that she should choose him over Lex to be her second in charge. After depowering an insolent Lex for his arrogance and sending him and Mercy Graves back to Earth-0 the Mother of the Multiverse peers inside The Batman Who Laughs' mind, both laughing for what was to come.

Rise Of The Darkest Knight

After gathering up his forces to fight the Justice League, the Batman Who Laughs fought against the Justice League and was killed by Wonder Woman using a chainsaw built using parts of the Invisible Jet. However, the Batman Who Laughs had a contingency plan in case he was killed; having encountered a Bruce Wayne who had come into contact with the Comedian's Button and built an intrinsic field generator to study it, the Batman Who Laughs decided to use him as part of his plan. He then locked that Bruce in the machine and the resulting accident granted Bruce the power of Doctor Manhattan. After Bruce was able to reconstitute himself, The Batman Who Laughs used an energy knife to quickly lobotomize Bruce before he gained omnipotence. He then stored him away and informed Batmage and the remaining Dark Knights to its location.

The Darkest Knight is Born

Due to The Batman Who Laughs' head and brain surviving intact, the Dark Knights recover the remains and are instructed to transplant his brain into the lobotomized Bruce Wayne. The Batman Who Laughs eventually awakens after a period of time and slowly adjusted to his new body, overhearing Batmansaurus Rex insulting him for not responding to his name; he disintegrated him and quipped there is not a name for one like him. Suddenly, Perpetua telepathically reached out to them and summoned Laughs. Morphing his body into his old form prior to death, he spoke with Perpetua and was warned that the other beings would come after him if they knew what he had done. After the link is severed, The Batman Who Laughs had no further use for the Dark Knights and disintegrated them except for one Robin. Anointing him The Robin King, the Batman Who Laughs enlists him to assist in keeping Diana from renewing the Multiverse while he regains his strength. Finally, he changes his form once more, becoming a thin being of pure darkness and renaming himself The Darkest Knight.

Eventually, The Darkest Knight grows in power and breaks into Valhalla Cemetery to steal energy from Wally West; noticing both him and Barry Allen running, he gleefully begins to chase them both down while taunting them. Even though the Justice League are able to divert the Crisis energy to Barry Allen sitting atop the Mobius Chair, it was tampered to send the energy to the Darkest Knight regardless of the outcome. Proclaiming victory, the Darkest Knight then reveals he has everything needed to remake the Multiverse into his own image: "The Last 52."

The Knight travels to Perpetua and, informing her that it was him all along behind the plot, reveals his intent to kill her. Despite getting cut off from the Crisis Energy and entrapped by Perpetua, the Darkest Knight is able to break free and kill her by sealing her away within fragments of the Source Wall. He then summons a group of his followers including several of the original Dark Knights to kill the alive and undead that were brought to fight him.

As the Darkest Knight revels in his victory, he is confronted by a golden clad version of Wonder Woman. The two fight through time and space, with the Darkest Knight bringing Diana to the beginning of the Universe and the hand of Perpetua. Confronting her with how he can keep the Hands (others of Perpetua's people) from erasing the Universe, he requests that he join her or else the Universe will be wiped from existence. Diana responds by punching him using Perpetua's own hand. She strikes the Darkest Knight several times as they plummet through the future towards the last embers of the Death Sun. The Darkest Knight becomes fearful of Diana's newfound energy and, noticing the arrival of the Hands, pleads with her to join him; screaming in vain, the Darkest Knight is thrown into the Sun and killed once and for all.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

• Nigh-Omnipotence: The Batman Who Laughs acquired the powers of Doctor Manhattan, due to his brain being transplanted into the corpse of a Bruce Wayne who had said powers. This transformed him into a quantum being of nearly unlimited power. After absorbing the energy from every Crisis in history, The Batman Who Laughs became more powerful than ever. His power was such that reality shook in response of his Nigh-Omnipotence, the possibilities of Hypertime to burn out and the last denizens of the Sphere of Gods to shudder at his power.
  • Bio-Fission: The Batman Who Laughs is able to split and replicate himself. He is capable of dividing his quantum consciousness among other separate physical forms resembling his physical appearance.
    • Bio-Fusion: Likewise his Bio-Fission ability, Bruce can bring his sentient copies back into his body without any adverse side effects.
  • Darkness Manipulation The Darkest Knight can fire beams of darkness from his hands powerful enough to harm the Forge of Worlds-empowered Wonder Woman. He can also generate chains from his darkness.
    • Darkness Constructs
  • Dimensional Travel: Bruce can traverse between the various realities in the multiverse as well as reach into these worlds at will.
  • Energy Absorption: Bruce is able to absorb both Crisis Energy and Anti-Crisis Energy, in order to add to his immense power.
  • Energy Projection: After his brain was transplanted into the Final Bruce Wayne's corpse, The Batman Who Laughs became a being made up of a positive cosmic energy known as Anti-Crisis Energy. Bruce radiates this energy from his body, and was capable of projecting it on a massive scale to match Perpetua's energy blasts.
  • Flight: Bruce is not restrained by basic physical laws and can levitate and fly at will.
  • Geokinesis: The Darkest Knight's laugh was described as a terrible sound that shook the entire Earth.
  • Immortality: After his transformation, Bruce never appears to age physically and mentally.
  • Infection: Bruce is also able to infect other energy sources at will. He was able to find cracks in the Speed Force and corrupt it.
  • Interstellar Travel: Bruce is immune to the nature of space and is not inhibited by its lack of gravity. He can travel the reaches of space where no human body could probably be without the aid of technology or protection.
  • Invulnerability: Bruce possesses incredible durability and is practically invulnerable to any physical harm. He has only been shown to be harmed by the likes of Perpetua and Superboy-Prime.
  • Molecular Reconstruction: The Batman Who Laughs was able to restructure and alter his appearance at will. He is not limited to using this reconstruction power only on himself, as he can also take apart most inanimate objects and human beings.
    • Disintegration
    • Regeneration: The Final Bruce Wayne reintegrated his body's molecules after he was disintegrated.
    • Shapeshifting
    • Size Alteration: Bruce can manipulate his physical size at will. There is currently no known limit to how much he can grow. He has shown himself capable of growing from the height of an ordinary man to the size of several planets. Bruce had also displayed the abilities to shrink his Last-52 planets and place them safety within himself and release them later back to their full size.
  • Power Absorption: Bruce was capable of instantly removing the powers of the Titans.
  • Reality Alteration: After being empowered with more Crisis Energy, Bruce gained the power to alter reality on a universal scale. He was able to create his own fifty two universe of madness known as the "Last 52".
  • Resurrection: The Darkest Knight was able to bring his Dark Knights back to life.
  • Summoning: Bruce was able summon an army of zombie Flashes to chase down Barry Allen, Wally West and Jay Garrick.
  • Superhuman Agility: Bruce's agility, balance and bodily coordination are enhanced to superhuman levels. This allows him to easily make sharp turns and leap far distances while moving at superhuman speed.
  • Superhuman Reflexes: Bruce's reflexes are enhanced to levels far beyond that of any normal human, allowing him to react to attacks from Superboy-Prime.
  • Superhuman Speed: Bruce is able to move at immense superhuman speeds. He was fast enough to closely keep up with Barry Allen, Wally West and Jay Garrick, when chasing them down.
  • Superhuman Stamina: Bruce's body can handle the stress of moving at superhuman speeds for extended periods of time without getting tired or weak.
  • Superhuman Strength: Bruce possesses immense levels of superhuman strength. During his battle with Perpetua, he was capable of hurling entire planets at her.
    • Time-Travel: Bruce's strength is to the extent that he was able to shatter time and space through sheer strength. By hitting her hard enough, Bruce able to send Wonder Woman and himself back through time to the dawn of creation.
  • Telekinesis: Bruce is capable of manipulating the movement of objects and people with his mind. He was able to control multiple fragments of the Source Wall to imprison Perpetua.
  • Telepathy: The Darkest Knight was able to restore the Groblin-Robin King back to his normal self, regaining his free will.
• Nigh-Omniscence: Bruce perceives time in a non-linear fashion. This means that he sees the past, present and the future simultaneously. His powers allow him to view everything throughout time as well as the workings of the multiverse. Bruce is also aware of every Batman from the Dark Multiverse, and was able to pull aspects of the most terrifying and vicious of them, including their skills and experiences, and stitch them into his own mind.
  • Cosmic Awareness: Bruce possesses an understanding of the workings of the universe on a cosmic scale. He states he is able to feel the Dark Multiverse as if it were a part of him.
  • Precognition: Due to his ability to see the past, present and future simultaneously, Bruce is able to look into the future of his own timeline, as well as the future of every Batman of the Dark Multiverse.
  • Retrocognition: Due to his ability to see the past, present and future simultaneously, Bruce can look into his past, as well as the past of every Batman of the Dark Multiverse.

Abilities

• Acrobatics
• Driving
• Genius Level Intellect: Bruce had displayed a great deal of cunning, often making his enemies into believing they're winning while having another plan all along. Unlike most mortals in the Omniverse, Bruce was aware of multiple different realities even before acquiring the powers of the Final Bruce Wayne. He was aware of his own Dark Multiverse as well as the opposite Multiverse. He also knew how the Dark Multiverse was formed, as he was told by Barbatos. Finally, he was aware of an ancient and all powerful being known as Perpetua, which few others in existence know of.
  • Escapology: Batman was able to escape from almost any precarious situation. He had proven himself capable enough to escape a magical cell strong enough to keep the incredibly powerful wizard Merlin locked up for a thousand years.
  • Gadgetry
  • Investigation: On his world, Bruce was considered "the world's greatest detective". He was able to deduce the entire plan of Lex Luthor even though he was locked inside a cell with no plausible way of finding out his secrets.
  • Disguise
  • Tactical Analysis: Batman was a master tactician. Using his knowledge of their various weaknesses, Batman was able to systematically eliminate every member of his Justice League. He went up against the people of his world, armies of villains, alien tyrants and the wrath of gods. Still he prevailed as he used his methodical mind to exterminate all those who resisted him.
• Leadership: The One Who Laughs was the leader of the Dark Knights.
• Martial Arts: Bruce had all the same training and skills as the Batman of Earth 0 and has never lost a one on one fight. Laughs was able to take on the Earth 0 Batman and Joker at the same time for a short while.
• Peak Human Condition (Formerly): Prior to his transformation into the Darkest Knight, Bruce's strength, speed, stamina, agility, reflexes and coordination were at peak human perfection.
  • Peak Human Strength
  • Peak Human Durability
  • Peak Human Stamina
  • Peak Human Reflexes
• Temporal Mechanics: Bruce was so familiar with time travel, he stated he could smell chronal energy on people, even prior to gaining his powers as the Darkest Knight.
• Weaponry: Batman was a master in utilizing several types of weaponry.
  • Marksmanship
  • Throwing

Weaknesses

• Mental Disorder: Like the Joker, he suffered from insanity, which eliminates all facets of his personality that made him a good person, leaving only madness and bloodlust while transforming his personality into like that of the Joker. This however has shown little if any effect in being a barrier for his cunning and well-schemed plans.
• Vulnerability to Nth Metal: Denizens of his universe vibrate at a different frequency to Nth Metal, and are particularly badly harmed upon contact with it.
• Visor Tether: Bruce relied on his visor to keep him anchored to the Multiverse. Without it, his connection would be severed and he would cease to exist outside of the Dark Multiverse.
• Power Loss: As all the peoples of the Multiverse act as batteries for the Crisis Energy and its opposite, destabilizing its center, Earth-0 would prevent him to tap anymore power from it, limiting his power.
  

Paraphernalia

Equipment

• Black Kryptonite (Formerly): Bruce possessed a modified strain of Black Kryptonite. This kryptonite forces the affected Kryptonian to kill the people they love most in the world, and then die. He used it to kill the Superman, Supergirl and Superboy of his Earth.
• Dark Metal Cards (Formerly): Bruce possessed a set of cards forged out of Cosmic Metallurgy. Cosmic Metallurgy is a material found in the Dark Multiverse with interesting properties. When in the "light" Multiverse the wielder of a Dark Card can manipulate reality to his or her whim.
• Dark Metal Visor: Using the visor, Laughs could peer through the membrane to the Dark Multiverse and see things which people most feared and desire. The visor made of Dark Metal to filter out the dark energy and the noise in order to focus on what he wanted to see.

Transportation

• Batplane (Formerly): His Batplane consisted of mandible-like wings and according to Batman of Earth 0 was quite fast.
• Justice League Watchtower (Formerly): The modified base of the Justice League of his homeworld, fitted with Dark Metal and turned into a weapon that could infect any world like the Batman Who Laughs it was used upon. It also acted as a portal to the Dark Multiverse.

Weapons

• Batarangs (Formerly): Bruce often used Batarangs against his enemies. Some of them were made of Nth Metal and laced with a toxin similar to the modified strain of Joker Toxin that infected him.
• Modified Joker Venom: Laughs made a modified strain of the Joker Toxin that made him insane. The toxin eliminated all positive aspects of one's personality rather than completely driving them insane, leaving only feelings like rage and resentment.

Notes

• The Batman Who Laughs represented Batman's fear of becoming just as bad as the Joker, how much he is defined by the never-ending war with the Clown Prince of Crime, and his regret that he can't stop the Joker for good without ending his life.
• The Batman Who Laughs is somewhat based on Bat-Joker from Batman #341.
• During the battle in the cave, Laughs' fingers on his left hand were severed by a combination of Joker Acid and Joker's 'Bat Blades'. But it is rumored he regrew them using the chemical component/metal known as Dionesium, famous for also reviving Batman and Joker after their brutal battle about a year before.
• The Batman Who Laughs's personality once existed in two separate bodies: the original's brain inhabiting the body of the final Bruce Wayne as the Darkest Knight and his corpse reanimated by Prime Earth's Batman via Black Lantern Ring.
  

Trivia

• The Batman Who Laughs is referred to as "Laughs" by Devastator in Dark Knights Rising: The Wild Hunt #1.
• The character's name was influenced off of two silent films that inspired Bob Kane and Bill Finger to create both Batman and the Joker: The Bat (1926) and The Man Who Laughs (1928).
• Laughs was revealed to be the victor in the category of "Villain of the Year", which was decided through votes cast by fans.
• The Batman Who Laughs is an alternate skin for Noob Saibot in Mortal Kombat 11 in the Kombat Pack.
  

Recommended Reading

• The Batman Who Laughs #1: This issue details the origin of the Batman Who Laughs, as well as how he joined the Dark Knights.
• Dark Nights: Metal (Volume 1): This storyline details Bruce's first appearance in the "light" Multiverse as well as his time with the Dark Knights. It also displays his first meeting with the Batman of the main DC universe.
• The Batman Who Laughs (Volume 2): The limited series deals with The Batman Who Laugh's attempts to kill Batman.
• Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen (Volume 1): The series that concludes the Year of the Villain event in which Lex Luthor fights against the Batman Who Laughs.
• Dark Nights: Death Metal (Volume 1): The storyline where BwL becomes a god for a brief period.

Related

• 110 Appearances of Bruce Wayne (Earth -22)
• 92 Images featuring Bruce Wayne (Earth -22)
• 24 Quotations by or about Bruce Wayne (Earth -22)
• Character Gallery: Bruce Wayne (Earth -22)

Footnotes

Batman Family member This character is or was an incarnation of or an ally of Batman, and a member of the Batman Family. This template will automatically categorize articles that include it into the "Batman Family members" category.

Justice League member This character has been a member of the Justice League of America, or the Justice League in any of its various incarnations, sworn by a duty to act as guardians of America and the world by using their skills and/or superpowers to protect Earth from the clutches of both interstellar and domestic threats. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Justice League of America members" category.

Legion of Doom member This character is or was a member of the Legion of Doom, a team of supervillains called together for the purpose of conquering the world and defeating the Super Friends, in any of its various incarnations. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Legion of Doom members" category.

Batman Villain(s) This character, team or organization, has been primarily an enemy of the Batman, or the Batman Family as a whole. This template will categorize articles that include it into the category "Batman Villains."

Justice League Villain This character is or was primarily an enemy of the Justice League, in any of its various incarnations. This template will categorize articles that include it into the category "Justice League Villains."

Wonder Woman Villain(s) This character is or was primarily an enemy of Wonder Woman and the Amazons in any of her various incarnations. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Wonder Woman Villains category."