Summary
DC Comics has managed to turn the tide of the superhero genre on several occasions. When the light-hearted comics of the Silver Age began to fade in popularity, they began turning to darker characters, changing the nature of their superheroes and the worlds they inhabited to stay relevant.
Over the past few decades, a more realistic in-between where some heroes remain fairly gritty has been the new norm for what is popular, but some characters are defined by their lack of care for the wider picture, believing that life is truly meaningless, and their actions have no consequences, the essence of nihilism.
8Batman
There have been many versions of Batman over the years in DC Comics. Usually, Bruce Wayne as a character is intent on continuing to fight for the greater good, but older versions of the character have often appeared as grizzled veterans who don’t even know why they keep fighting.
Batman,being idealistic and not killing, starts more to believe that there are no rewards for his actions and that his entire life is pain, but he cannot escape it or bear to give up what he is doing. This is something that doesn’t define every version of the character, but usually, Batman is quite a brooding, lost soul who has conditions possibly even darker than nihilism.
7Mister Terrific
The Michael Holt version of the Mister Terrific superhero is a fascinating character. He initially had such a drive for perfection and excellence that he shut out everybody and everything, something he tried to change in the wake of his wife’s death, when he decided to become a hero and help people instead.
While this noble goal has led to him saving many people, usually working on just helping one individual at a time, Mister Terrific still shuts himself off from those around him, often remaining aloof, driving himself to help more and more people but in a nihilistic fashion, still believing that the problems of the world are unsolvable and life is meaningless in itself. Even better, this character is getting an earlyintroduction to the DCU inSuperman: Legacy.
6Spectre
Jim Corrigan, in addition to other versions of the Spectre, has been forgotten more in modern times at DC Comics. But this character is as old as Batman and Superman, having debuted in 1940. He is usually described as more of a cosmic entity whose goals align with those of superheroes, but he is fairly unstable if left to himself.
The Spectre has huge power and is described as God’s Wrath by some. He is one of the darkest anti-heroes in DC Comics, almost devoid of the concepts of good and evil, instead having his own goals and stopping at nothing to achieve them, sometimes for better or worse. This is exactly the type of behavior that a nihilistic super-powered person would be expected to have.
5Red Hood
There are a lot of characters in the Batman mythos who lose something of their humanity over time, Jason Todd being a prime example. After being brought back from the dead using a Lazarus Pit, Jason took on a darker vigilante persona and stood against some of the morals and ideas that Batman had instilled in him.
While Red Hood is a much more anti-heroic character, he still believes in justice. But he also matches his former mentor in his brooding style, is willing to commit more brutal acts, and often seems to be nearly sociopathic in the lack of emotion he shows regarding his actions,even in theTitansTV show.
4Harley Quinn
A character who has evolved a long way from merely being Joker’s sidekick and girlfriend, Harley Quinn in more recent depictions in DC Comics has followed the suit of Kaley Cuoco’s animated version in theHarley Quinnshow and theDCEU performances of Margot Robbieto become a fascinating anti-hero.
Harley doesn’t take part in superhero actions, sometimes she appears as more of a vigilante, but generally, she is just trying to live her life in the crazy world of DC Comics, looking out for herself in a self-centered, nihilistic manner, as she clearly took cues from the Joker’s intense views on life.
3Lobo
Another character who treads the border between hero and villain like a pro, Lobo has been described in the past as the closest that DC Comics has come to creating Deadpool. He has generally antagonized many heroes, especially Superman and the Green Lantern Corps, but also works alongside them when they align with his goals.
An intergalactic bounty hunter, Lobo cares only for money and his own goals, never taking an interest in any sort of greater good unless the side fighting for it happens to have the most money as well. Lobo is a true “works only for himself” type of character, and this has helped make him highly successful at what he does, being so unique in style for DC Comics, and he couldhave been teased already for the DCU.
2Owlman
It makes sense that a character who is a dark counterpart of Batman would delve further into the nihilistic tendencies of that character and his world. Owlman is a member of the Crime Syndicate of Earth-2, or Earth-3 in another version, who represents evil versions of Justice League members but hasn’t beenseen much outside of DC Comics so far.
Owlman is Thomas Wayne Jr, the older brother of Bruce, but in his world, Bruce died as a child and helped push Thomas into his villainous career. The brains behind the Crime Syndicate, Owlman has his own goals and seems to care little for the consequences of his actions, being as broody as Bruce Wayne in many ways but without the sense of justice and what is right.
1The Joker
By far the most nihilistic character in DC Comics, the Joker is often called a psychopath or lunatic, but in fact, seems to understand exactly what he is doing. He merely has no care for doing anything good because he believes life is completely pointless or “a joke” as he often calls it. There are truly fewcharacters as twisted as the Joker.
The Joker is one of the most memorable characters in the history of DC Comics, and the reason for that is his terrifyingly unpredictable nature. There is often no goal to the Joker’s actions. He seeks frequently to drive Batman mad or over the edge, simply to prove that his morality is meaningless and the chaos that the Joker believes in is the true way to live.
