Top 10 Most Violent DC Superheroes

Samurai swords are pretty scary at the best of times, with a ridiculously keen edge and enough weight to chop off limbs if used correctly. But a magic samurai sword that can cut through anything and steals the souls of its victims? Now that’s terrifying. The wielder of this blade is one of the more deadly heroes in the DC Universe, a skilled swordswoman who most notably served as a member of the Outsiders. Despite carrying a sword full of trapped souls on her hip, something that definitely says ‘villain’ to us, she’s been a staunch warrior for good and a frequent ally of Batman and other heroes.

Boxing glove arrows aside, a bow and arrow is an extremely difficult weapon to use if you’re trying to keep your hands clean. But this emerald-clad hero is nothing if not dedicated. A respected crimefighter who’s served on almost every super-team at DC, the Emerald Archer puts his bow to good use, dishing out justice to street crime and sticking up for the little guy. Though he usually puts up a jovial front, especially in the comics, he’s been pushed to the breaking point more than most heroes, and usually responds by putting the more lethal kind of arrows in his quiver to good use.

If we were raised by a secret group of ninja assassins, we’d have trouble keeping things non-violent too. The son of Bruce Wayne and Talia Al Ghul is one of many young characters to have taken up the mantle of Robin. He is, however, the only Robin to be the grandson of one of Batman’s greatest enemies. Given his background, it’s not surprising that Batman had his hands full keeping his new sidekick from giving in to his assassin training when fighting crime. As dangerous as he is to criminals, he can be just as daunting for his fellow crime fighters, who have often butted heads with the brash young warrior.

While not the most well-known crime-fighting duo on the block, the team of Hawk and Dove are practically DC mainstays. While there have been a few different iterations, the basic premise remains the same: the pacifistic and level headed Dove seeks to fight crime with minimal violence, while their more hot-tempered and warlike counterpart practically revels in it. It’s your basic odd couple situation, but with a superhero angle. Especially when his peaceful protege isn’t around to reign him in, Hawk is a violent and brutal crimefighter who frequently leaves his foes in traction, or worse.

A hard-drinking, hard fighting, trash-talking space biker, this fan-favorite anti-hero doesn’t mess around. The character was actually created as a parody, intended to lampoon gritty and ultra-tough characters like Marvel’s Wolverine, but became popular enough to stick around despite being intended as a joke. In addition to incredible levels of strength and endurance, he can also regenerate his entire body in seconds, making him functionally immortal. We really only need to bring up one example of his violent tendencies, and that’s the fact that the Main Man is the last survivor of his race…..because he killed every other member of his species. Are we sure he qualifies as a hero?

The former sidekick of Green Arrow has had a pretty rough life. After the Teen Titans disbanded, the former Speedy struggled with drug addiction, a battle that has come to define his life as a superhero. Since kicking his addiction, he’s gone by both Arsenal and Red Arrow and continues to use a bow and arrow as his primary weapon. Like his former mentor, his skill at archery is almost peerless, and his variety of trick arrows makes him a powerful opponent for any supervillain. His dark past continues to haunt him, though, making him a potentially more dangerous opponent than many of his superheroic peers.

Few heroes embody the image of the violent, no-holds-barred superhero better than this one. In the “Kingdom Come” Elseworlds story, the familiar heroes of the DC Universe have been replaced by a new and more violent generation of crime fighters. Chief among them is this horned hero, who murdered the Joker after the Clown Prince of Crime killed many of the Daily Planet staff, including Lois Lane. He later appeared in the mainline DC universe, the chosen champion of a demi-god with sinister motives. Armed with superhuman strength and endurance as well as a staff able to manipulate energy, his no-nonsense attitude and military training make him an extremely dangerous hero.

When Batman was left paralyzed after a brutal encounter with the supervillain Bane, the Dark Knight left this hero as his replacement. Raised by a religious order called The Order of Saint Dumas, the angelically named hero was trained as a deadly agent of divine justice. Bruce’s choice in replacement turned out to be a mistake, as his understudy grew increasingly violent and merciless. He even overhauled Batman’s costume, adding a variety of blades, claws and projectile weapons similar to the equipment he used in his previous identity. Things reached a breaking point when he allowed the serial killer Abattoir to die, prompting Bruce to return to take back the cowl.

And speaking of overly violent Bat-allies, this former Robin stepped into the role of Boy Wonder after Dick Grayson struck out on his own. But unlike his good-natured predecessor, the second Robin proved more reckless and violent. But before Batman could curb these tendencies, his second sidekick was killed by the Joker. After returning from the dead years later, he donned the identity of The Red Hood, a violent vigilante dedicated to dispatching the villains that Batman refused to kill.

Alan Moore's seminal “Watchmen” violently reinvented the superhero for the modern era, stripping away the glamor and myth-making of most superhero comics in favor of cold, hard reality. Perhaps the poster child for this ethos, this unhinged crime fighter comes across more like a serial killer than a hero, a cold and calculating bogeyman literally stained with the blood of his foes. His skill for inflicting creative violence has left numerous criminals and would-be supervillains dead or injured, and his violent war on crime even continued when he was arrested and incarcerated. He’s so scary that he even gives pause to the likes of The Comedian, a similar violent hero from the “Watchmen” universe.