Batwoman is one of the coolest characters to don a costume in Gotham City. In her civilian life, she is the rich socialite Kate Kane who knows all the cool clubs and who gave up her promising career in the military to be true to herself. She then expanded upon her military training to become a superhero.
With her new show on The CW, Kate's popularity is at an all-time high. This is well-deserved, as even Batman is impressed by the foes she's taken down, many of whom are supernatural threats that she managed to defeat despite having no powers of her own. Here are Batwoman's ten deadliest villains, ranked.
10 Her Family
Lots of people have family troubles, but this seems especially true of masked vigilantes. Kate's mother and sister were killed when she was a child- or so she thought. It turns out that her sister somehow managed to escape death and return as the psychopathic villain Alice, a crazed killer with a predilection for poisoning her victims and invoking Luis Carol imagery.
While one villainous family member would be enough, her father- the man who lovingly raised her and trained her to become a superhero- also was later revealed to be leading a murderous black ops group called the Colony. With family like that, Bruce Wayne's loss of parents looks practically idyllic by comparison.
9 Bane
Bane is famous for being the man who broke the Bat, having conquered Gotham and snapped Batman's spine across his knee. He also went head-to-head with Batwoman, who brought him down and then set him loose on Gotham as part of an attempt to defeat Batman (something she was blackmailed into doing).
While her motives for defeating Bane are less than ideal, one cannot help but marvel at this accomplishment. Also, please note that while Bane is probably among Batman's three greatest enemies, he's only the second deadliest villain Batwoman's faced.
8 Religion of Crime
The Religion of Crime is a secretive organization dedicated to the worship of Cain, the first murderer. Given Batwoman's last name is Kane, the cult obsessed over her for quite a while. They also had a number of monsters in their service, like the werewolf Abbott.
This was a group with international influence who literally considered murder to be a sacred act of worship. They were also the first real enemies Batwoman faced when she made her debut in DC's 52 story and have been causing trouble for Kate ever since.
7 Nocturna
This most recent entry is quite controversial. The character Nocturna is a vampire with incredible powers of hypnosis to go with the usual array of vampiric abilities. She is a long-time Batman villain whose first incarnation debuted in the early 80s back in Detective Comics issue 529.
As a vampire, Nocturna is functionally immortal, her eternal life coming from draining the blood of the living. However, in The New 52, she used her powers of hypnosis on Batwoman in a way that seemed to portray the vampire as a very different kind of predator.
6 The DEO
The DEO, or Department of Extranormal Operations, is a secretive government organization tasked with monitoring and controlling people with super powers. They recruited Kate as an agent, then began to bully, extort, and manipulate her to get her to work against other heroes like Wonder Woman and Batman.
Naturally, Kate bucked them. Ultimately, they made her life difficult but the story about the conflict between the DEO and Batwoman never really finished after the writer and artist on the story resigned over creative differences with DC. In other words, she fought the law and nobody won.
5 Clayface
During the DC: Rebirth run on Detective Comics, the villain Clayface worked to find redemption after a life of hurting others. This made for a powerful and tragic story, as ultimately, while Clayface could do good in the present, he could not undo the harm he'd inflicted on others in the past. Eventually, Clayface lost control, once again becoming a monster and endangering all of Gotham- until Batwoman stopped him.
Considering that Clayface is a shapeshifter who can singlehandedly defeat the whole Bat Family in close quarters combat, this is an incredible feat.
4 The Weeping Woman
The Weeping Woman, or La Llorona, is a magical character who exists somewhere between the interstice of tragic character, villain, and folktale. The DC Comics version of this real-life folk tradition abducts and drowns children with watery magic. In this case, the Gotham resident Maria Salvaje was turned into the Weeping Woman by the villainous sorceress Maro Ito.
As a powerful magical force, the Weeping Woman has hydrokinetic abilities that can't be stopped. She can easily drown people and conjure floods on dry land, then vanish without anyone being able to stop her.
3 The Colony
The Colony is a secretive military black ops group who studied Batman's moves and made a specialized training program to replicate his techniques, only employing lethal force. This group is led by Kate's father, Colonel Jacob Kane, who is determined to stop the Bat Family and the League of Shadows by committing an illegal attack against Gotham.
To anyone who ever thought Batman would be an even better hero if he killed, the Colony is the militarized answer to this line of thinking and the results are absolutely terrifying. With drones, guns, and high-tech gear, they use all of Batman's techniques but violate his one rule.
2 Medusa
Medusa is one of the most powerful monsters around. If Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, then her scorn (and the abuse she suffered) have manifested in some hellishly powerful and frightening abilities, only one of which is turning people to stone with a glance.
When Batwoman faced off against Medusa, the mythological monstress was in the middle of a magical ritual to summon Ceto, the Mother of Monsters. Batwoman and Wonder Woman teamed up to defeat the gorgon and her forces in an epic struggle.
1 Killer Croc (as the Hydra)
Compared to the likes of Medusa or the Colony, Killer seems practically harmless. After all, he's basically just a big thug with a skin condition and a tendency to sometimes engage in cannibalism. In fact, if he went ten rounds with Bane, odds are Bane would win all ten of them. But when Croc and Batwoman fought, he was not his usual self, having been magically transformed into the mythical hydra.
Killer Cros became devastatingly lethal as he grew into a towering seven-headed colossus, fighting both Batwoman and Wonder Woman in the same epic clash where Medusa tried to summon Ceto.