6 The Joker
Batman has long been considered the most emo of all DC heroes, so it is unsurprising that the antithesis to his heroic endeavors has had his own share of personality changes. Jared Leto aside, the Joker has had many versions throughout DC Comics and some of them are even darker and more terrifying than readers would expect.
One of the most terrifying versions of the Joker is in the relatively recent story “Death of the Family” where Joker returns, murders many police officers, and terrorizes the Bat Family. This was also the story where Joker recovers his face and staples it back on, giving him the most horrifying look he ever managed in his long history.
5 Lex Luthor
It is unsurprising that Lex Luthor, the main nemesis of Superman, would have changed a great deal over the course of over 80 years in print. While there are many changeful moments from Lex, when he started he was a criminal scientist instead of the infamous businessman, the most revealing and dark is Lex Luthor: The Unauthorized Biography.
This one-shot DC comic had a reporter attempting to reignite his career by writing about Lex, and was truly chilling for a comic. It included an interview with Luthor where he stated that he hated Superman because there wasn’t room for two Gods on Earth, and he saw himself to be one.
4 Darkseid
Of course, a character that commonly goes after something called the “anti-life equation” and is designed like Darkseid has his dark moments. But Darkseid was once a much less serious and devastating villain, it was the Rock of Ages storyline that began to change his appearance once and for all.
3 Ra’s Al Ghul
Of all the many Batman villains in his huge rogue gallery, Ra’s Al Ghul is one of the most interesting and unique. His army of assassins and pit of regeneration was a blatant way to have him continue coming back to trouble the caped crusader many times over. Never was he more terrifying and troubling though than JLA: Tower of Babel.
In this story, Ra’s takes down every member of the Justice League after discovering each of their weaknesses. The story was a dark one, Ra’s managed to take them down via information Batman had gathered on the members of the League and is subsequently kicked out. But that involuntary assist didn’t stop this being a quintessential Ra’s story and the most emo of his attempts on the lives of various DC heroes.
2 Reverse Flash
The darkness of this character, hating the Flash eternally and killing several of his loved ones along the way at various points, cannot be understated. Not only did Eobard Thawne murder Barry’s mother, prompting The Flash to begin the Flashpoint saga that led to the restructuring of the entire DC Universe. But he also once killed Iris West, Barry Allen’s wife, in his continuing attempts to tear apart his life.
The emo aspect of this character reached a peak in “The Death of Professor Zoom” when Thawne returned to torment Barry and ended up forcing the scarlet speedster to kill him to stop his rampage. This story and plan led to Barry Allen becoming a fugitive and murderer, tearing his life apart and becoming corrupted in the way that Reverse Flash always wanted him. Truly, the subject is darker than almost any other DC story, and the rivalry between these two have always been one of the darkest stories due to Thawne’s relentless hatred and murderous nature.
1 Harley Quinn
Where The Joker goes, Harley Quinn follows. Or so it went until more recently when Harley began to strike out on her own much more. The modern public perception of Harley Quinn is as a cheeky anti-hero who did most of her evil acts under the Joker’s influence. This isn’t true, and even more recently there have been vile acts performed by this character which are darker and more emo than Margot Robbie’s sanitized character could imagine.
In the New 52 Suicide Squad series, Harley lapses into her Harleen persona and gives a number of children video games with explosives hidden inside. She later detonates these, killing all the children. Most of her truly disgusting acts and violence can be linked to the Joker, but this persona and this act were completely devoid of relation to her former lover.
More:Best Female DC Villains Ever
