5 Superheroes Who Destroyed Batman In A Fight

Farcical as it might seem sometimes, on a team composed of a super-powered Kryptonian, a warrior princess, and a space cop that uses a special lantern as the energy source for the universe's most powerful weapon, somehow it's the guy dressed like a bat who's just as, if not more intimidating than all of them. And why not? After all, in addition to taking down bad guys stronger than him, Batman has also defeated plenty of his fellow superheroes over the years.

Trained by the League of Shadows and a master of targeting his foes' weaknesses, Gotham's top vigilante has shown time and again that he can hold his own against any godlike threat that comes knocking. That being said, there have been times where the Caped Crusader has gone up against his teammates or other DC Comics superheroes when the fight has absolutely not gone his way. No genius bit of prep time or carefully utilized bat-shaped gadget won the day; instead, Batman was handed his bat-lunch, making it an early night for the Dark Knight.

Such is the danger of a superhero with no superpowers being hit with a fantastical dose of reality. But just how bad have the Bat beatings been during his time as one of DC's premiere heroes? Who among DC's company of crime fighters didn't see eye-to-eye with Bruce Wayne's alter-ego and have to knock him on his butt, and what were the repercussions of these altercations? Well, here are a select few occasions when that happened, and that iconic cowl was just barely enough to hide Bruce Wayne's embarrassment at being absolutely schooled.

During his lifetime of striking from the dark, Batman has had the occasional run-in with an age-old order of peacekeepers that use light as their weapon of choice. There was one time in particular when the Dark Knight got put in his place by the greatest Green Lantern of them all while all the rest of the Justice League and some legendary corpsmen were there to see it happen.

It was in Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver's "Green Lantern: Rebirth" where the Justice League teammates came to blows when Bruce expressed his concern and doubt over Hal Jordan's return from the grave. Given that the last time Hal was alive, he'd been consumed by the evil entity Parallax and tried to destroy all of reality, the Dark Knight was suspicious of history repeating itself.

Within minutes of being reunited with his body and his ring, Batman accused Hal "Highball" Jordan of still being a danger while the world was in peril. Jordan quickly squashed the situation by throwing Bats a fresh one. This was proof enough that Hal returned as his old self, putting his former allies at ease — and giving Bruce a right cross for having doubted him.

We'll be honest, here — the line is a little blurred on whether Jason Todd had hero status during his return to Gotham City in "Batman: Under the Hood." The brutalized former Boy Wonder put Bats through the wringer on a quest for revenge after being killed in 1988's "A Death in the Family" and then returning from the grave and jumping back into action nearly two decades after his death in Judd Winick and Doug Mahnke's 2006 storyline. During his intense vendetta against his former teacher, Jason and Batman repeatedly came to blows. The one-time student even put the Dark Knight on his back foot in the story's final chapter when he gave Bruce the choice of whether or not to kill the Joker in one hellish showdown.

While Batman ultimately walked away mostly unscathed, there's no doubt that the journey getting there impacted our hero on a psychological level throughout the whole ordeal, forcing the Caped Crusader to face his guilt head-on after it literally came back from the dead. The resurrection saw Jason apply colder, more clear-cut crimefighting methods that went against everything he'd been taught by Batman, which was another loss the hero suffered.

In the fight for Jason's soul, Batman unquestionably walked away the loser. His defeat resulted in the rise of a new "hero," one who will always hit harder and nastier than the other members of the Bat Family, even if he was eventually welcomed back to the fold in the years that followed.

He's one of the most powerful beings in the DC Universe and yet, somehow, Batman still thinks he has it in him to hold his own against the Last Son of Krypton. Over the years, Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne have come to blows on a number of occasions, most notably in Frank Miller and Klaus Janson's "The Dark Knight Returns," which was a major point of reference for "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" (a movie that resulted in some lasting consequences in Hollywood). But even with all the gadgets in the world and his contingency plans having contingency plans, ultimately he's still no match for an alien from another world that gets his powers from our sun even on the cloudiest of days — and there's plenty of borderline-embarrassing proof to back this up.

Sure, fans often recall the time when Miller showed Bruce as the man who had his hand at Clark's throat, but he still took a beating from the Man of Steel then and at other points in DCU history. In alternate worlds like the one in Mark Millar and Dave Johnson's "Superman: Red Son," a villainous Batman unsuccessfully sacrificed himself in order to bring Russia's most powerful weapon down. In DC's primary continuity, Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee's beloved "Hush" storyline showed readers a Kal-El who had Bruce on the ropes thanks to the infectious efforts of Poison Ivy. It was only thanks to the assistance of Catwoman and use of Lois Lane as bait to snap Supes out of the green lady's control that he was able to defeat (read: lessen the absolute whupping he was getting) his crime-fighting friend.

More often than not, it's arrogance and ignorance that prove to be Batman's toughest enemies. In the case of "Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia," that foe manifested itself by way of Princess Diana boot all up in Batman's face — literally. Another conflict worth filing under, "Are you sure, Bruce? Like, really?" Bats finds himself going up against his longtime ally after the Amazonian makes a pledge to protect a woman named Danielle Wellys, who has committed murder in an act of vengeance. Of course, one fella who knows all about being just that and still rein it in is Batman, who seeks to bring the woman in for justice, regardless of the finer details or Diana's objections.

In Greg Rucka and J.G. Jones' epic story, the Dark Knight is given a proper and brutal beatdown by the warrior princess, who is determined to stand by the woman she's sworn to protect. Unfortunately, while Wonder Woman has Batman restrained, the conflict proves to be too much for Danielle to bear, and she relieves Diana of her duties by jumping from a bridge to her death. To make things even more tragic, it's a loss that could have been avoided had the narrow mind between pointy ears simply heard out his longtime friend. Sometimes the Caped Crusader's blind allegiance to justice isn't always right.

Sign up to be one half of DC's Dynamic Duo, and conflicts in the workplace are going to be highly likely. Almost every youngster that has become a crimefighter under the Dark Knight's watch has developed some tension with their mentor, and that includes the OG Boy Wonder, Dick Grayson, aka Nightwing. But despite their disagreements, it was only in the later years after he had already gone solo when he had a brawl with Batman — and actually came out on top.

In 2014's "Nightwing" #30, Bruce and Dick threw down in a bare-knuckle battle, with the former testing his old partner's limits for a mission he already knew Dick was capable of. It led to an intense and ultra-violent confrontation with Dick knocking seven bat bells out of the Caped Crusader, but it was only when Batman applied the pressure and called Dick "boy" that tipped Nightwing over the edge and allowed him to land the winning punch.

Assuring Bruce, "I'm not your boy," Dick downed the Dark Knight after a grueling fight, inadvertently proving himself to be more than capable to take the leap and reach the levels his mentor and surrogate father demanded of him. It also stands as one of the worst things Nightwing has ever done, but since it only happened because Bruce pushed him, fans easily forgave him. Honestly, wouldn't a simple "please" have been equally sufficient?