The Batman Family has some of DC’s greatest fighters, and these ten are the best of its best.
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Batman is one of the world’s greatest hand to hand fighters, being able to go up against any number of lesser opponents, and there’s not a single fighter alive who can take Batman lightly. Similarly, the extended Batman Family is host to some of the other greatest fighters in the DC Universe. Every single member of the family is one of the greatest combatants of all time, but at the end of the day, there can only be one who stands at the top as the greatest one of them all. The Bat Family is massive, so instead of going over everyone, let’s break down who the top ten best fighters in the Batman Family are, and who is the best one there is.
10) Stephanie Brown
Coming in last on our list is Stephanie Brown, better known as Spoiler or Batgirl. Stephanie is far from a bad fighter, but she just lacks some of the training and feats that the others on this list have demonstrated. She was self-trained for a lot of her initial career as a vigilante, but after proving herself was taken under the wings of the elites like Tim Drake, Barbara Gordon, and Cassandra Cain. She improved leaps and bounds over the years, but still, her style is far more wild and trickery based than most of the other combatants here, and as good as she is it’s hard to imagine Stephanie beating anyone else on this list in a fair fight. Even being number ten here is a major accomplishment.
9) Barbara Gordon
It hurts me to put Barbara so low. Barbara is one of the smartest people in the DC Universe, and easily the best when it comes to computers. She’s an impressive tactician and able to go toe to toe with the best of the best, but often she isn’t winning through out-skilling her opponent, but outwitting them. Barbara is more than capable of giving anyone else on this list a run for their money, but only if she is able to rely on her tech and use of her environment. She doesn’t fight as well as some others, but she fights much smarter, using openings that nobody else would see to get the upper hand in the least expected ways possible.
Azrael
Jean-Paul Valley has been prepared since before his birth to be the Order of Saint Dumas’s perfect weapon. His DNA was spliced with various animals, granting him physical capabilities beyond that of a normal human, and the psychological programming he underwent makes him into a veritable killing machine. He is skilled enough to have once taken over the role of Batman, even going on to beat Bane after the original Dark Knight was broken by him. Of course, at that time Bruce had been awake and fighting criminals for three straight days, so he wasn’t exactly at his best. Still, Azrael is an incredible fighter, and has more than proven himself as standing next to all the others on this list with his skills.
7) Batwoman
Kate Kane is Batman’s cousin on his mother’s side, and more than lives up to her family’s reputation. She once was nothing more than a rich socialite with no direction in life, but after fighting off a mugger and meeting Batman, she realized she had a calling in life. She dedicated herself to training herself to peak conditioning, her own traveling across the world mimicking Bruce’s earlier one. On top of that, she also brings military training to the table, as she was once a soldier, and her militaristic tactics continue to influence her style of fighting and planning. She’s definitely a dangerous opponent, and one you do not want to be on the wrong side of.
6) Tim Drake
The third Robin and perhaps the one who best fit the role, Tim is easily one of DC’s best detectives. He’s known as the smart one, but that is not to say that his skills as a fighter are any less impressive than his compatriots. At this point, the line differentiating between places gets very, very close, because Tim brings a lot to the table. He is the greatest bo staff user in the entirety of the DC Universe, his proficiency with the weapon letting him stand against much more skilled opponents like Lady Shiva and Ra’s al Ghul. His analytical mind makes him especially dangerous at planning how to best take advantage of his situation, but the others on this list just eke out a bit more than him in their fights.
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5) Red Hood
Jason Tood is definitely the most aggressive fighter on this list, and the one most willing to use lethal force if he deems it necessary. Not only was he trained by Batman, but after his revival Ra’s al Ghul’s League of Assassins also taught him everything that they know in the arts of murder. Jason fights like a man possessed, always charging ahead like a battering ram to deliver as much pain to his enemies as possible. He’s darn near ruthless in his endeavors, and has shown time and again that he can go toe to toe with the best there is. He fights Batman more than anyone else on this list, and sometimes it seems more than his villains, and although he never wins those fights, he always gives a good showing. His skills with the sword are especially notable, and he’s probably a better swordsman than he is a marksman, and he’s a darn good marksman.
4) Damian Wayne
Damian has been trained since birth to one day become the deadliest man on the face of the planet. Not only is he the biological son of both Batman and Talia al Ghul, but he was a test tube baby who was modified to be genetically perfect. For the first part of his life, Damian was trained by Ra’s and his mother’s League of Assassins, and by the time he could run he knew over a dozen ways to kill a man. After being taken in by his father, Damian’s skills only exponentially shot up. Batman finished and perfected Damian’s training, turning him from an above average assassin to one of the greatest fighters on the planet without even being lethal. In the past, he was routinely beaten by his older brothers due to his young age, but as he’s gotten older, Damian has not only grown into the skill he always possessed, but shown that he will one day surpass almost everyone in the Bat Family. He once participated in the Lazarus Tournament, which was a competition between some of the world’s greatest fighters and took second place, only losing to Connor Hawke. Losing to him is far from a stain on your record, and Damian’s continued showing of skill proves that he is already darn near the top of the best fighters. Once he’s actually fully grown and comes into his own? He’ll be nearly unstoppable.
3) Nightwing
The original Robin, the de facto heir to the Batman legacy, Dick Grayson is everything Batman is and then some. He’s one of the DC Universe’s best acrobats, and his fighting style combines all of this raw talent and skill with blows that send any opponent reeling. He fights almost like he’s flying, a flurry of movement that transforms every fight he’s in into a performance. Honestly, the distinction between his skills and Batman’s are very, very small, and it can be argued that Nightwing has surpassed him on several fronts. Nightwing has beaten Ra’s al Ghul in a sword fight. He easily outpaced Azrael when the man went on his deranged Batman-crusade. He is the one everyone turns to as the person in charge of everything when Batman is out of the picture, and that’s because everyone puts their faith into him and his abilities.
2) Batman
What do I even need to say about Batman’s skills? Bruce Wayne spent a decade traveling the world, mastering every martial art he could uncover and pushing them to the ultimate peak. He’s taken arts that are meant to slaughter and altered them to not only be non-lethal, but just as effective as someone trying to kill. Bruce has trained under the best and deadliest, from Lady Shiva to Wildcat, and easily stands as one the top ten greatest hand to hand fighters in the entire universe. He’s beaten opponents a hundred times stronger than him with nothing more than his skills and will, and no matter how many punches he takes he will always stand back up. Batman has beaten everyone else on this list a dozen times over, and will probably continue to do so, but I know I don’t need to convince you that this man is one of the greatest there will ever be.
1) Cassandra Cain
The only person in the Batman Family that can definitively be said to be a better fighter than Batman, Cassandra isn’t just the best in the family, she’s probably the best ever. The daughter of Lady Shiva and David Cain, Cass was raised from birth to be the greatest fighter the world has ever seen. Other people on this list have been products of the same reasoning, but none can hold a candle to Cass. David Cain never spoke to Cass as she grew up, only communicating through body language and combat, to the point that the language centers of her brain learned to interpret movement as language. To her, the tiniest movement of someone’s body is a declaration of intent, and because of this she can read someone’s intent to attack before they even throw a punch. Fighting isn’t something Cass does, it’s who she is. Combat is dancing to her, an expression of who she is and her way to express how she feels. Fighting is quite literally her first language, and nobody is anywhere near as fluent as she is. Cassandra Cain is the best fighter there is, and that’s all there is to it.
So there we have the ten best fighters in the Batman Family. Multiple places on this list are very close, and I couldn’t blame anyone if they wanted to switch up a few placements. What do you think? Do you agree with this list, or do you think it should be moved around to include other members of the family? Let us know in the comments below!
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