Once October hits everyone's minds start to turn to spooky things. Comics are no different. To celebrate the Halloween season, it's time to dig into our collections and find the stories that can give us a few chills and thrills. No other superhero can bring those better than Batman.
His rogue gallery seems to lend itself to telling dark stories that can entertain us but also chill us to the bone– whether it's a clown that cuts his face off only to then staple it back onto his head, a dark twisted version of Batman that enjoys suffering, or a serial killer hunting his own family there is something for all of us.
10 Long Halloween
This story is more of a great noir story but the Halloween elements make it onto the list. The story spans an entire year as Batman tracks a killer named Holiday. The killer murders someone on every holiday. The great thing about this story is that it includes all of Batman's greatest enemies.
We also get the origin of Two-Face during this year as well. His transformation from earnest district attorney to a ruthless gangster set against the search for Holiday gives us a great glimpse into Harvey Dent's psyche. It's a fun story with great villains and a compelling mystery.
9 Death Of The Family
The Joker has long been one of Batman's deadliest enemies but never has he been scarier than during Scott Snyder's Death Of The Family. During the New 52 reboot, we saw The Joker in Arkham Asylum had removed his face and then promptly escaped. After a year's absence, Joker makes his return in a big way.
He returns with his old face stapled to his head and begins to target members of the Bat-Family. After capturing Alfred, Nightwing, Robin, Red Robin, Red Hood, and Batgirl, he sets up a dinner in the system of caves under Wayne Manor. He makes them all believe he has removed all their faces and soaks them all in gasoline, threatening to set them on fire. Batman eventually puts an end to all this but seeing Joker as unstable as ever is terrifying.
8 Haunted Knight
Haunted Knight collects three stories from Legends Of The Dark Knight of Batman facing some of his best-known enemies. First up, Batman faces off against Scarecrow who poisons him with his fear toxin. Batman ends up trapped in a poisonous thorn maze where he almost dies of fear.
Next, Batman takes on the Mad Hatter who captures Barbara Gordon and makes her participate in a twisted Alice In Wonderland-themed tea party. Finally, in the last story, we get a creepy Christmas Carol type with Batman confronting his past, present, and future. All wonderfully done by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale who also brought us The Long Halloween.
7 Black Mirror
Before he took over as the writer on the Batman series, Scott Snyder had a run on Detective Comics which saw Dick Grayson as Batman tracking a demented serial killer. James Gordon Jr. has returned and his family is in danger. Although he claims to be rehabilitated, it's found that he is still actively torturing and killing people.
He finally kidnaps Barbara Gordon with the intent to kill her but is foiled by Batman and Commissioner Gordon. Perhaps his biggest plan is to infect an infant nutritional supply company which would turn children all over Gotham into murdering psychopaths.
6 Dark Knight, Dark City
The Riddler finds out that Gotham was actually built on top of a temple that was to be used to summon the Bat Demon Barbatos. Occultists had actually trapped the demon in a temple under the city where it has waited for hundreds of years. He decides Batman should be the latest sacrifice and sets in motion a plan to get Barbatos' power for himself.
This story sees a darker version of the Riddler who is willing to do anything to get Batman as his sacrificial lamb. Gotham itself is also explored as the city is possibly being affected by Barbados. The evil of the demon has seeped into everything in Gotham since its creation.
5 Red Rain
If vampires are your thing, this story is perfect. Batman faces off against Dracula himself. After investigating a series of murders, he determines they have been caused by Dracula and his family of vampires. With the help of an escaped member of his twisted family, Batman turns himself into a vampire to combat the Prince Of Darkness.
A great vampire tale that was just the beginning of a trilogy of stories dealing with the vampire Batman and his adventures in Gotham facing off against other monsters. This tale is one of the best-remembered Elseworlds stories that left readers asking for more.
4 Mask
One of the biggest and scariest fights Batman has always had is with himself. In Mask, Batman wakes up to find he is in the psychiatric ward of the Gotham Hospital. He begins to question his whole reality. Is he really Batman or has that all been a psychotic vision in his head? Throughout this story, Bruce keeps having visions of his deadliest enemies along with the downfall of Gotham without a Batman.
Mask is a great psychological look inside the mind of Bruce Wayne and how he separates Batman from the rest of his personality. He continually questions his own identity and even tries jumping out of a window in a homemade Batsuit. Not a good idea.
3 Cult
Batman is captured by homeless people who have been brainwashed by the sinister Deacon Blackfire who is intent on destroying Gotham for its corruption and lawlessness. While captured, Batman is brainwashed into becoming a member of Blackfire's cult. Even after escaping, he has to deal with the ramifications of being brainwashed and can't even trust himself.
Seeing Batman without his number one weapon (his mind) makes this a terrifying chapter in the Batman mythos. Not being able to trust himself or anyone around him leaves Batman in a vulnerable spot as he tries to stop Blackfire's cult and save Gotham.
2 Arkham Asylum
Grant Morrison is no stranger to the darker and more sinister side of the Batman catalog. In Arkham Asylum, our hero enters the hospital after it's been taken over by the inmates. He enters into a twisted and horrific scene where Two-Face has had his infamous coin replaced with a set of tarot cards which makes his decision making impossible. The Joker makes Batman enter into a game of Hide and Seek during which Scarecrow, Killer Croc, and Clayface among others hunt the Caped Crusader down.
As he descends further and further into the asylum, everything seems to get more insane. The tensions rise until we finally find the true culprit of this whole thing. The art of Dave McKean helps add to the insanity of the story. The pictures become more skewed and nightmarish the further into Arkham we get. A read to give you nightmares for nights to come.
1 Dark Nights: Metal
Batman discovers a dark universe that is connected to the main DC Universe that we are used to. After investigating, he ends up releasing seven evil versions of himself led by the dark god Barbatos. They plan on releasing darkness on any worlds they can. Together the Justice League has to find a way to contain the evil that escaped into their world.
This introduces us to something akin to DC's version of Hellraiser. The evil incarnations that escape are very cenobite like and the dark world they come from is a terrifying hellscape. This story brings some great dark imagery from artist Greg Capullo. Writer Scott Snyder is able to converge all the Batman storylines he had worked on during his time on Batman to give us the ultimate story of terror for the modern Batman.