DC is home to some of the most moral and hopeful heroes in all of comics. Especially between the Trinity of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, the characters’ strong moral principles have served as an example of truth and justice for many years. However, several DC storylines have also explored variations on these heroes, sometimes showing what they’d be like without such a strong moral compass.
The results are, as one can imagine, truly frightening in some scenarios. Thankfully, the main versions of these characters have yet to fall so far, but that doesn’t mean these timelines aren’t fun to explore. Looking at some of the more brutal timelines out there, here is our list of the 10 deadliest alternate Justice League timelines.
10 Kingdom Come
Though the storyline ends on a much more positive note than it began, the Kingdom Come universe is still one of the deadliest alternate timelines featuring the Justice League. In offering a whole new take on justice in the modern era, Superman is called out of retirement in order to bring things back to a more traditional idea of good vs evil.
However, just because Superman has a different outlook, doesn’t mean the rest of the world responds accordingly. As tensions continue to build, the story culminates into a massive loss of life by the end, easily making it one of the deadliest alternate universes DC has offered. With things looking up at the end though, Kingdom Come also isn’t the bleakest timeline in comparison.
9 Titans Tomorrow
For those unfamiliar, the “Titans Tomorrow” storyline is a possible future for the main DC universe that sees the Teen Titans ascend to the role of their respective mentors. This means that sidekicks like Robin, Superboy, Wonder Girl and Impulse graduated to Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Flash. Unfortunately, the events that put the young heroes in those positions also had very dark repercussions.
Though the Teen Titans are often far brighter than the Justice League, the elder version of the team proved to be far more brutal than the League has ever been. Recently, as part of the Detective Comics Rebirth storyline, it seems as though this future grows more and more unlikely by the day, which is definitely good considering some of the actions of the Justice League
8 Earth 3
In one of the darkest alternate Earths that DC has introduced, good and evil are complete pposites. Because of this, things like greed and power always triumph over selflessness and will. Likewise, the Justice League’s reflection is incredibly dark as well.
Known as the Crime Syndicate, this version of the League actively set out to accomplish all the evil they could. On several occasions, though, they come into conflict with the main Justice League, only to lose in the end. Though the world of Earth 3 isn’t explored terribly often, readers know enough to realize just how frightening it truly is.
7 Batman Who Laughs
The Batman Who Laughs is one of DC's newest and biggest villains yet. After being introduced in the pages of Dark Nights: Metal, The Batman Who Laughs has continued to wreak havoc for DC heroes since. The concept of the character is simple, as after the Joker’s death, Bruce Wayne was exposed to a new type of Joker Venom.
However, without a cure, Bruce Wayne became the perfect fusion of both Batman and Joker. After killing every member of the Bat-family, Bruce then sets his sights on the rest of the world. Once again, readers only got a quick glimpse into the villain’s world. Unfortunately, what little is known about it is some of the darkest and deadliest activities imaginable.
6 Rock of Ages
JLA: Rock of Ages explores what the DC universe would look like if Darkseid obtained the anti-life equation and won. As one can probably imagine, that world does not look very pleasant. Even the Justice League wasn’t able to stop this event from happening, leading to all sorts of time travel twists and turns in order to solve the problem.
Thankfully, things came together in the end and the League was able to prevent this timeline from ever happening. However, without the Justice League, this is easily one of the deadliest DC timelines ever, despite the lack of actual death within the pages themselves.
5 Flashpoint
In an effort to stop his mother’s murder, Barry Allen created the Flashpoint timeline, a significantly darker reflection of the main DC universe. With Thomas Wayne as Batman, no Superman, and Themyscira on the verge of war with Atlantis, it is understandable that there would be a lot of death in this timeline.
In fact, by the end of the series, several major characters are dead. Likewise, in the expanded universe of the Flashpoint timeline, even more characters are revealed to be dead. Thankfully, Barry managed to fix things before it was too late, but that wasn't enough to erase the Flashpoint timeline. Because of that, the DC universe is still dealing with the events of Flashpoint, even to this day.
4 Justice Lords
What makes the Justice Lords deadlier than other timelines mentioned is the fact that the Justice League itself managed to completely rid their world of crime. While an absence of crime would be a positive for most, it is alluded that this version of the Justice League went to very extreme measures in order to accomplish such a feat.
Furthermore, it is very frightening to think of the Justice League in this manner, as they could easily accomplish the same act if the compromised their morals. Though the Justice Lords are never seen doing anything too evil, it is understood that their methods have led to all sorts of very dark consequences for their world.
3 Future’s End
While the Future’s End storyline wasn’t the best story ever, it still featured one of the deadliest timelines of the DC universe. Set in the future where Terry McGinnis is now Batman, an artificial intelligence system known as Brother Eye has managed to take down the Justice League and take over the world. In a final effort to save the future, Terry travels back in time to stop Bruce Wayne and Mr. Terrific from ever creating the machine.
While it sounds very similar to the plot of The Terminator (1984), the series ended up running far longer than it needed to. Regardless, the fact that artificial intelligence had completely destroyed most of the future still says a lot about how deadly this timeline is.
2 Knightmare
In yet another example of what happens to the world when Darkseid wins, it appears as though very little is left of the planet in the Knightmare sequence from the 2016 film, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Though only a small portion of the earth is shown in the film, it seems as though Darkseid left very little of the planet behind.
Likewise, with an evil Superman and parademons constantly killing any source of hope, it is safe to say that this is one of the deadliest timelines yet to be imagined. Furthermore, considering how this timeline isn’t pulled from a specific comic story, the Knightmare timeline becomes all the more frightening.
1 Injustice
No timeline has arguably featured more DC character deaths than the Injustice timeline. After joker takes virtually everything from Superman, the Man of Steel finally cracks and kills the clown Prince of Crime. From there, heroes continue to devolve into their worst selves, with a fair split maintaining their moral codes and principles.
In both the comics and the video games though, some incredibly dark deaths have occurred or are referenced. Likewise, seeing some of them happen is incredibly devastating. With the sheer amount of death that is actually seen between both mediums, it is easy to see why the Injustice timeline is arguably the deadliest.