DC may have introduced superheroes to the world, and at the same time, hid behind the curtain of morality and ethics. Truth be told, the cult of DC always consisted of firebrand kill dog superheroes. If Batman is DC's poster boy for non-violence, make no mistake, the most brutal and violent superheroes come from DC too. Like for example Spawn, who never shies away from going for the kill. Or for that matter, Spectre: God's vengeance on Earth.
DC is riddled with examples of new generation superheroes with a devil-may-care attitude and a penchant for killing. Each of these superheroes have caused blood baths in the motives of seeking vengeance over family members or otherwise. Here are the topmost barbaric DC superheroes.
10 MAGOG
The superhero is the epitome of violent DC heroes. The fact that DC hasn't shied away from embracing Magog's penchant for violence, makes him scarier. The generation of Superheros such as Magog is in direct conflict with the generation of Superheros who rested their cases on morality and humanity. In short, Magog stands for the modern-styled hero, who arrived in the latter half of the twentieth century.
Having made his first appearance on Earth #22, Magog himself says that he was brought to the world because he would kill over the man who wouldn't. Magog has done was Batman couldn't, in that he has under suspicious circumstances killed his antithesis, The Joker.
9 JASON TODD
An oldie, albeit an admirer of violence, DC especially had fans call-in and vote whether Jason Todd would stay or not. Jason Todd is the second and most violent of all the Robins. If we take a larger sample size, Jason Todd is the most violent superhero in the Bat-family. The way he confronted Two-Face, his father's murderer is an exhilarating a chilling memory etched in fans' hearts.
Todd would have been a likable character today, since introducing the theme of superhero-sponsored-violence didn't fly with the fans back in the day. Hence the call-in vote for Jason's death.
Side Note: Todd was back in DC years later as Red Hood, to the courtesy of Judd Winick.
8 SPECTRE
Marc Spectre is the manifestation of God's vengeance on Earth. If you are amongst the evil and the wicked, Spectre is the merciless Superhero who will take care of you. Again a controversial superhero, Spectre is defamed for ruthless violence in his do-over. Technically you could say Spectre is living-dead, as his spirit rebonded to his body after he was murdered by gangsters.
Spectre's lust for violence came in handy during the Crisis on Infinite Earths comic, where he aided his allies in defeating the Anti-monitor. Spectre knows there is no place for Justice in this world, so he wears a green cloak and makes one.
7 LOBO
There's brutal and there's insanely brutal. Lobo belongs to the second kind. The superhero has bloodied every single deity to get back his life, quite literally. After he was killed once, Lobo ended up in hell.
Not only did he kill everyone in hell, he got kicked out of it. After he got rebooted to Heaven, Lobo murdered every single deity for his reincarnation. As a result, Lobo got himself kicked out of Heaven and was barred from Hell as well. Once a while, after Lobo's body gives in, he travels as an aimless ghost to cause chaos. That's his way of taking a break.
6 THE COMEDIAN
Writer Alan Moore single-handedly destroyed the notion of heroes when he wrote The Comedian. The (anti) hero comes from the comic book series Watchmen, and is the only violent Watchman in the league. To say that the Comedian is violent is a petty understatement, as he shot a Vietnamese woman in the face. It gets worse; said woman was carrying his baby and she was shot because she scratched him in the face.
The Comedian, like Magog, represents the modern generation of superheroes who are versatile with violence. Born as Edward Blake, he was infamously kicked out of the Minutemen after he assaulted Sally Jupiter who rejected his advances. From Minutemen (that presided Watchmen) to Watchmen, Eddie's motivation for fighting alongside heroes is violence.
5 AZRAEL
Temporarily, Azrael filled in for Batman after the latter's' back was broken by Bane. Created in 1992 in Batman: Sword of Azrael by Denny O'Neil and Joe Quesada, he was brought into Bat-family by the Caped Crusader. Azrael couldn't hold it together during the period of his training and flipped to the other side.
You'd be silly to think Azrael would honor Batman's costume. He goes a little overboard and creates a dressy little Batsuit out of it, with claws and blades. Probably one of Batman's biggest failures, his understudy brought a bad name to the Bat-family. But despite all this, he died in peace and earned his redemption in the last time he fought alongside Batman.
4 MIDNIGHTER
Synonymous with a little bit of the old ultra-violence, the Midnighter is a good representation of the Millennial generation's violent guy. Written in the late '90s, Midnighter's origin largely remains a mystery to him and others. He shares the same story as that of Deadpool; that being he was engineered in captivity and became violent when let out.
Midnighter possesses superhuman speed and predictability. His only flaw is that he doesn't know how justice should be delivered. The means aren't so much important to him as long as he's serving the ends. His redeeming quality is that he knows he's violent. He believes his violence serves the greater good.
3 DAMIAN WAYNE
Raised by ninja assassins of the League of Assasins, Damian Wayne knew violence before he knew his three Rs. Damian Wayne, son of Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul was raised with a sole purpose, to destroy Batman.
Let's cut him some slack; Damian jointly shares Ra's Al Ghul and Batman's DNA. So it is only natural, that he would swing to the other side easily. Once Damian leaves the League of Assasins to follow his father for good, he has a hard time cranking down the notch. From killing Nightwing to losing his life-fighting Heretic, Damian Wayne's idealism is confusing.
2 BLACK ADAM
Written by Otto Binder and C.C Beck, Black Adam is the arch-nemesis of Shazam, the ruler of Kahndaq in the Middle East. Know the term, clamp 'em with an iron fist? Fits him well.
With a no-nonsense attitude and hatred for crimes, Black Adam has killed pretty much everyone from Pharaoh's of Egypt to slave masters. He spends a considerable part of his rule trying to quench the slave shippers and masters. Having been sold as a mare in slave markets, Black Adam crushes the slave masters without any mercy. No less than the Khaleesi of DC.
1 ROY HARPER
From the Arrowverse, Roy Harper wasn't always violent... that was until he was injected with Mirakuru. For those unfamiliar, it's the super-strength serum that Japan developed during World War II and it changed Roy for the worse.
Super-strength, durability, accelerated healing factor aside, Mirakuru played with Roy's senses. It got so bad that eventually, Roy bombed his job with Team Arrow. Now known as Arsenal, Roy masqueraded as the Arrow at one point and even faked his death.