It's no secret that the dark knight has one of the greatest rogues galleries in all of comics. Few heroes can match the quantity of iconic and high-quality villains that Bruce Wayne faces on a daily basis. However, many of the caped crusaders' adversaries have yet to make the jump to the silver screen and may be unknown to many of those who are only familiar with Batman through his appearances in film.
While characters like the Joker and Two-Face are iconic, there are countless other villains who've been relegated to the comics. So, with no further deliberation, here are 10 underrated Batman villains who've never appeared on film.
10 Killer Moth
Many of Batman's most effective antagonists take the form of some kind of twisted parallel to the character of Bruce Wayne himself. While often treated as kind of a joke character who dons a ridiculous costume, Drury Walker, Killer Moth is one of the dark knight's rogues that comes the closest to being Wayne's reflection. Equipped with a utility belt and gadgets not unlike those used by Bruce Wayne, Killer Moth sets encourages criminals to use a "Moth-Signal" to summon his aid in a similar fashion to Batman's Bat-Signal.
If this incarnation of the character doesn't do it for you, in the past, he'd sold his soul in order to become a moth-like monster with moth based powers and abilities.
9 Kite Man
While Kite Man has long been seen as a joke by comic writers and readers alike, current Batman writer Tom King has recently added an additional layer of depth to the character by making him viewed as a joke by those who inhabit the DC universe. Unlike characters like the Joker who forcibly inflict comedy onto those around them, in Kite Man's new backstory, an air of tragedy is brought to the character, allowing him to serve as both a source of comedy and sorrow.
8 Calendar Man
As a hero with no powers, Batman storylines have the ability to be grounded in more realism than many other heroes. With such realism comes chillingly real villains such as Calendar Man.
Originally conceived as a campy calendar-themed crook, he was later reimagined as a serial killer with an obsession for committing crimes on various holidays. While the character had long been treated as a joke, his depictions in the Arkham video game series and in The Long Halloween give him more in common with Hannibal Lector than with traditional super-villains.
7 Prometheus
Similarly to Killer Moth, Prometheus serves as a villainous parallel to Bruce Wayne. However, while Killer Moth is often portrayed as a more comedic character who is lower on the criminal totem pole, Prometheus is depicted as a legitimate threat to the dark knight.
Seeing his parents killed at the hands of a police officer while at a young age, Prometheus declared war on the law. Just as Bruce Wayne dedicated much of his life to learning skills that would help him in his war on crime, Prometheus spent much of his life becoming a master killer, and mastering all that would help him become the perfect force against law enforcement.
6 Professor Pyg
Batman is a character whose storylines often possess a darker tone than his contemporary heroes. As one would expect, his villains follow this trend as well, often having a darker, more defined edge than the antagonists to many other heroes.
This couldn't be truer when discussing Professor Pyg. An obsessive criminal whose bread and butter are bodily mutilation and lobotomies, Pyg seeks assimilation and uniformity, trying to destroy the identities of others in an attempt to make people "perfect."
5 Maxie Zeus
It has long been stated that superhero stories have become the mythology of the modern era. The deluded villain, Maxie Zeus takes this statement to a much more literal level.
A former historian, following the loss of his wife, Zeus started to suffer from delusions that he was the human reincarnation of the god, Zeus. Equipped with a surprisingly genius intellect, Zeus leads a group of fanatical followers who have more in common with cultists than run of the mill mobsters.
4 Hush
As a childhood friend of Bruce Wayne, Thomas Eliot a.k.a. Hush, is able to bring a level of intimacy and personal closeness to his confrontations with the dark knight, unlike any other villain.
A former surgeon turned serial killer, Hush is capable of performing surgeries on himself in order to cover his trails when committing murders. Unlike most other rogues in Batman's rogues gallery, Hush not only detests Batman, but he resents Bruce Wayne himself.
3 Man-Bat
Remember how we've mentioned that many of Batman's foes come in the form of contorted reflections of the caped crusader? Doctor Kirk Langstrom takes this more literally than any other villain. A well-intentioned scientist with deteriorating hearing, Langstrom splices his DNA with that of bats.
Unfortunately for Langstrom, this experiment had unintended results, shaping the scientist into the vicious Man-Bat. Sharing similarities to characters like Doctor Jekyll and the Wolfman, Man-Bat brings a classic horror flavor into the Batman franchise.
2 Clayface
Due to the nature of Bruce Wayne as a hero with no powers, many of his adversaries tend to be powerless as well, presenting a mental battle of wits rather than a physical battle of strength.
However, Clayface is a villain who presents a battle on both fronts. Due to an accident, actor Basil Karlo became Clayface, a monstrous and amorphous being with the ability to shapeshift into anyone or anything. Between this ability and Karlo's acting ability, Clayface is an opponent with seemingly limitless means of potentially besting the bat.
1 Mister Bloom
As one would expect from a character referred to as "the Dark Knight," the concept of darkness is one that is intrinsically tied to Batman. So, it only makes sense to put the character up against the opposite of darkness: Light. Enter Mister Bloom.
With the ability to bestow powers onto any other human being at the cost of shortening the individual's life, Mister Bloom is capable of letting crime blossom and grow like a weed from the lowest recesses of Gotham.