It is a well agreed upon notion that nobody in the world can get on a person's nerves quite like their family. We never bicker with anyone in our lives as much as our own families, even if we're not binded and related by blood. Just look at the Bat-Family, for example. Okay, maybe using a fictional family to talk about real life families is a bad example, but the idea remains the same. For as long as Batman has had sidekicks, Batgirl, Robin(s), Nightwing, Batwoman, etc., Batman has always brought people into his world with open arms, molded them into heroes, and accepted them wholeheartedly as if they were blood relatives.
However, blood related or not, the Bat-Family still look at each other as and treat each other as if they were a real family. Meaning that there have been more than just a few times where they butted heads with each other. Often, they butt heads in a way that makes us feel as if they may have gone too far. Whether it be against each other or side by side, each member of the Bat-Family has a handful of moments in their life where they went a little too far in the thick of battle.
15 ALFRED RECREATES THE NIGHT BRUCE LOST HIS PARENTS
One little known fact about Alfred Pennywise is that he was once a trained actor and as a result, has a flair for the dramatic. His love for everything theatrical is taken a step too far in Legends of the Dark Knight Vol. 1. Early into his midnight job as Batman, Bruce Wayne is overly cocky and confident to the point that he bets Alfred a dollar that he's invincible. Alfred takes this wager as a challenge and decides to stage a scenario similar to the events that led to the death of Batman's parents.
When Batman stumbles upon an alleyway where a child and his parents are held at gunpoint, he quickly discovers the child is a dwarf and proceeds to get beat down with a bat. After the beating, Alfred helps Batman to his feet, and pulls a dollar from his utility belt.
14 NIGHTWING KICKS JASON TODD OFF OF A MOVING TRAIN
In the wake of Batman's death, the events of the "Battle for the Cowl" were set in motion. Heroes, foes, and full blown villains were fighting for the chance to become the new Batman. Jason Todd dons a cowl of his own and appears as a machine gun toting Dark Knight. This set the stage for one final battle between Jason Todd and Dick Grayson. They decide to take their last fight to the top of a moving subway train.
In the heat of the moment, Nightwing could not help himself but kick Jason Todd off.
Since they will always be Bat-brothers in the Bat-Family no matter what, Nightwing was sympathetic enough to offer to help Jason back up to his feet. In defiance, Jason dropped to his death. Spending little time to grieve, Nightwing became the new Batman.
13 DAMIAN WAYNE "CREATES" THE TEEN TITANS
Damian Wayne may very well be the most unorthodox Robin to date. He's never been the type to have a rationale conversation with. He's always been about the action, and there is no better example of his impulsive behavior than his introduction to Teen Titans Rebirth. The storyline sees Robin in a pickle of sorts with his grandfather, Ra's Al Ghul. Instead of assembling a few of his fellow teenage superheroes by calling them, leaving a voicemail, a text, a cry for help, etc., he decided to kidnap them.
Yes, he hunted them down one by one, kidnapped them, chained them to a wall, and only then did he ask for their help. Surprisingly enough, they actually did comply and somehow, the team learned how to work together as a unit.
12 DICK GETS WITH BARBARA, THEN INVITES HER TO HIS WEDDING
The second issue of Nightwing Annual focuses on moments in the relationship between Nightwing and Batgirl and how that friendly comradery that they shared with each other as sidekicks to Batman evolved into them being lovers. In the story at the center of this issue, it focuses on the aftermath of The Killing Joke, where Barbara Gordon was shot and crippled by The Joker.
Dick went to visit her in the hospital, and the two wound up spending the night together.
The next morning, Dick hands Barbara a letter. What Barbara initially mistook for a "Dear Babs letter" turned out to be an invitation to Dick Grayson's upcoming wedding to Starfire. Barbara did not even know that Dick was engaged. A true Dick Gryason move.
11 BATMAN & ROBIN KEEP THEIR IDENTITIES FROM BATGIRL
Family is never quite family unless everybody in the family trusts each other, and it took a long road before anyone in the Bat-Family accepted each other with open arms as a family. During the first Detective Comics issues that feature Batgirl's initial introduction to the world of the Batman, neither Batman nor Robin trusted Batgirl when she was new to their world, especially since they did not know their identity.
As a result, they refused to allow her to know their identity and in one issue specifically, they messed with Batgirl into thinking that Bruce Wayne could not possibly be Batman. Funnily enough, we find out later on in Batman Family #3 that Batgirl and Robin knew each other's identities all along without the other realizing it.
10 BATWOMAN TURNS ON THE BAT-FAMILY
In more recent issues of Detective Comics, Kate Kane has stopped being in the good graces of the Bat-Family in light of her actions as Batwoman. The last straw for the Bat-Family came when she defied a direct order from Batman and killed Clayface against his wishes. In the comic book's latest issue, #975, Batman called on a special meeting with his closest allies within the Gotham Knights to figure out what they should do about Batwoman and if her killing could be justified.
Little do they know is that Batwoman may be prepping to turn on Bat-Family before they even think to kick her out.
At the end of the issue, she meets with Colonel Jacob Kane and accepts his offer to become the leader of The Colony, a rival of the Gotham Knights.
9 ALFRED TAKES DOWN SUPERMAN
Not many people in the DC Universe can lay claim to beating Batman in a fight and, oddly enough, one of the few people who have is Batman's butler, Alfred. In the Injustice: Gods Among Us comic book, Alfred watches on in horror as Superman brutally beats Batman for arguing against his recent tyrannical actions. After watching Superman break and cripple Batman's back, Alfred has seen enough.
Out of anger, Alfred grabs a nanotech pill, which can give whoever absorbs it temporary, but overwhelming superhuman strength and invulnerability. Defending Batman less as a butler and more so as a father figure, Alfred beats Superman to a bloody pulp, leaving the Man of Steel to stew in his own heap before picking up Batman and walking away.
8 BATMAN ATTACKS THE RIDDLER
In "The War of Jokes and Riddles", Batman proposes to Catwoman and before she answers, he wants to tell her the story showcasing the darkest moment of his life so that she knows what she's getting herself into; the moment he believes he failed as Batman. In this story, Batman tells of a turf war between The Riddler and The Joker over who gets to kill Batman.
In their battle, they leave a sea of dead bodies across Gotham just to get to Batman.
Eventually, the three get into an intense three-way fight with each other. So intense, in fact, that Batman felt compelled in the heat of the moment to pick up a bloody knife and lunge at Riddler. The knife is stopped by The Joker's hand. While Catwoman brushes the story off, Batman believes he went too far, and almost broke his no-kill rule.
7 JASON TODD TAKES OUT A HENCHMAN
Jason Todd -- even during his earliest days as Robin -- has always had a personality that leaned more on the side of borderline psychotic. When Frank Miller provided his interpretation of the character for Last Crusade, he made Jason a full blown psychopath. Jason goes on such a wild, deranged bender that he nearly gets Batman killed when he steps in the line of Jason's fire at one point.
One of his more uncomfortable moments in the comic came when Jason confronted one of Joker's henchmen after their truck crashed sideways, and made sure to slam the truck door on the guy's face, crushing his head to pieces. Batman was horrified. He watched Jason turn his head, thinking his sidekick was disgusted himself. Actually, Jason tried to hide a sadistic smile.
6 DAMIAN WAYNE ENDS NIGHTWING
It is always hard to see family members fight, and it never gets any easier when members of the Bat-Family battle somewhat regularly. Batman's biological son, Damian Wayne, and his adopted prodigal son, Nightwing, continued this tradition in Injustice. When Nightwing confronted the latest Robin on his recent homicidal tendencies, the started bickering over their differences of opinion.
That bickering quickly turned into a full blown fight.
Things turned nasty when Robin struck Nightwing with an unsuspecting kai stick. Nightwing was caught off guard to the point that he tripped backwards and fell headfirst on top of a jagged rock, killing him instantly. Not the more glamorous end for the "Bird Who Flew the Coop", but death has never been glamorous in the Bat-Family. Only gruesome.
5 TIM DRAKE TAKES DOWN THE JOKER AFTER BECOMING A JOKER CLONE
The Joker has a history with being cruel to Batman's sidekicks, especially to his Robins. After all, The Joker did brutally beat Jason Todd to death. Believe it or not, Jason got off easy compared to what The Joker put Tim Drake through in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. A flashback scene reveals that The Joker kidnapped Tim Drake, tortured him, and as a result of fracturing the young Robin's brain, turned him into a little mini-Joker.
The Joker wanted Tim to kill his own mentor, Batman, but the plan backfired when Tim turned his gun on The Joker and shot the Clown Prince dead. Years later, the after effects of The Joker's brainwashing lived on as Tim Drake once again became The Joker, battling the new Batman: Terry McGinnis.
4 NIGHTWING SENDS HIS ENEMIES A MESSAGE
When it came time to reboot the DC Universe for The New 52 era, DC Comics decided to give Nightwing a new costume, red instead of blue, and a new attitude to boot. To emphasize this change in character for the first issue of Dick Grayson Vol. 1, Nightwing first appeared in the panels in surprising fashion.
Not only did he chase down and apprehend a basic criminal, he beat the guy down to a pulp and drew his Nightwing logo on the guy's chest using the criminal's own blood.
We get that Nightwing felt that he needed to send this message to other criminals in Gotham City to let them all know of his return, but jeez. Talk about overkill. Guess we can chalk this up to Dick really portraying his namesake once again.
3 BATMAN TAKES A CRIMINAL FOR A RIDE
The Batman who appeared during the Golden Age of comic books was just a little bit more extreme than the one we have today. Batman always has been and probably always will be a brutal character, but the version that we see nowadays pales in comparison to the brutality we saw from him back in 1940's Batman #1.
In his first solo comic, Batman tries to thwart an evil plan by a scientist who uses a serum to turn mental patients into monsters. Not only does Batman use a machine gun to shoot the driver of a van carrying the monsters, causing the van to crash, one of the mental patients who escapes the van receives a much dire fate. Batman uses his Batjet to drop a noose onto the guy's neck, then dangles him above the sky until he dies.
2 BATMAN HAS A LAUGH WITH JOKER
In what is arguably the most controversial Batman comic book to date, The Joker forces the Caped Crusader to meet his breaking point after crippling his sidekick, Barbara Gordon in a violent home invasion, aa well as kidnapping Jim Gordon in hopes of making the Commissioner go insane. The shocking ending comes when The Joker tells a joke to Batman while the two stand outside in the rain and, for some reason, the Dark Knight could not help himself but share a laugh with his lifelong nemesis.
The laugh was so intense that Batman found himself shaking The Joker uncontrollably.
Or, maybe, he did a little more than shake him up. It's been hotly debated whether or not the two were just laughing, or if Batman actually choked The Joker to death.
1 NIGHTWING BEATS THE JOKER
"Joker: Last Laugh" was a storyline where The Joker discovered that he was dying from a tumor in his brain, or so he thought. So, The Joker being The Joker, decides that if he is going out, he is gonna go out in a blaze of glory. He used a poisonous venom to turn the citizens and criminals of Gotham into Jokerized versions of himself, similar to the storyline of the Arkham Knight video game.
In the midst of the chaos, Tim Drake finds himself in a violent confrontation with Killer Croc that sees his Robin suit torn to shreds. When Nightwing found the suit, he immediately expected the worse. Blaming The Joker for Robin's apparent death, Nightwing beats Joker to a pulp. Robin returns and tries to intervene, but it's too late. The Joker is dead. That is until Batman has The Joker resuscitated.