The Batman Family is one of the largest and most storied superhero families in existence. Although he has a reputation for being a loner, Batman has actually almost always had partners, going all the way back to Robin’s introduction less than a year after his own. Since then, the Bat-Family has grown to gigantic proportions. The exact number of members is actually debatable. Conservative estimates place membership at around twelve, but broader estimates can include upwards of thirty plus characters. Needless to say, there are a lot of Bat-Family members, but the one thing that is consistent for all of them is that they could be major threats to the world.
So today, we’re going to be looking at every Bat-Family member and ranking them by how dangerous they could be if they decided to go evil. Now, there are a lot of cavetas here. First, again, exact membership in the Bat-Family is hard to pin down, so we’ll only be including members who have routinely worked with the Family, and not those whose status is unclear, or former members. So we won’t be seeing Bat-Fam classics like Harold Allnut or Orpheus, as well as new characters who don’t work with the rest of the Family, like Jace Fox Batman. With that in mind, I went with a middle-of-the-road approach with twenty entries.
As a final note, this isn’t a ranking of who the best fighter is, but who the most dangerous person is based on how much damage they could do if they went evil. This is taking multitudes of factors into account. Everything from fighting skills, tactical intelligence, resources, equipment, and more is considered for this list. So, without further ado, let’s dive into ranking the Bat-Family members by their threat level.
20) Ace and the Bat-Pets
Ace the Bat-Hound is definitely a member of the Bat-Family. Heck, he was one of the stars of the original Batman Family comic book and is more often than not included in Bat-Family-related pictures. Of course, if we include Ace, then it’s only right that we include every pet, from Jerry to Bat-Cow. For the sake of simplicity, I grouped them all in this single place because, as much as I love the Bat-Pets, at the end of the day, they are still animals. They’re extremely well-trained animals, and in Goliath’s case, a behemoth that can fight with plenty of villains, but animals nonetheless. So they earn their spot, but they take last place.
19) Jim Gordon
Although Jim doesn’t know or refuses to learn the Bat-Family’s secret identities, there’s no denying that he’s one of the most influential teammates they have. He is their liaison to the world of law and is potentially the only cop that Gotham City respects. Jim is a good man who has proven time and again that he can hold his own in a fight and is a fantastic shot. He may not be the World’s Greatest Detective, but he is no slouch in that department, either. Jim is by no means someone you want on your bad side, but he is still a mostly normal man when compared to the other members of this list.
18) Alfred Pennyworth
Alfred may be dead, but there’s no denying that he was the backbone of the family. Even ignoring his spectacular cooking skills and expert medical knowledge, Alfred once served as a soldier in the British army. In fact, he was recruited to the elite and top-secret Nemesis Program, which operated under MI-5. He was trained to be what was effectively a super-soldier version of Batman, and even though he’s long since retired from the service, he kept his expert marksmanship and fighting skills. He may not be a vigilante, but Alfred has shown he’s more than capable of throwing hands with bad guys when he needs to.
17) Bluebird
Harper Row is a semi-retired member of the Bat-Family, currently focusing on going to college, but she’s shown that she’s willing to throw on the costume and fight alongside the Family when the situation calls for it. While Harper might not be as skilled a fighter as some of the other members, she’s still very good at it, and her true strength lies in her inventions. She’s a downright genius engineer. Harper has built everything from electric stun guns that can take out crowds to tinkering on Batman’s various vehicles. She’s smart enough to work mysteries alongside Tim Drake, who is contentiously the best detective in the Family. Harper is the best engineer around, but it takes more than that to be a major threat in DC.
16) Huntress
Huntress is a strange entry on this list because she doesn’t have any outstanding skills compared to the other entrants. She’s an excellent fighter and detective and is never going to stop until she achieves her goal, but her only unique skill is her mastery of the crossbow. I’m certainly not trying to downplay any of Huntress’s achievements or skills, but in comparison to everyone else on this list, there’s almost nothing she can offer that everyone else can’t. In some cases, everyone else brings what she brings to the table and better.
15) Azrael
Jean-Paul Valley is a very dangerous man indeed. He was conditioned since birth to be the ultimate assassin for the Order of St. Dumas, and that imbued him with incredible fighting skills and a drive to complete his mission no matter the cost. Additionally, his genetics were spliced with those of several animals, granting him strength above the average person. Jean-Paul once served as the replacement Dark Knight and tore through Gotham with bloody, violent justice. He is a definite threat, but he has one glaring weakness.
Due to his conditioning, Jean-Paul suffers from severe mental instability. The same program that gave him strength left him unstable to the point of always being on the edge of a mental breakdown. It’s been repeatedly shown that enough pressure will cause him to crack. The best example is when Bruce retook the Batman mantle. Not by fighting, but by convincing Jean-Paul that Bruce was meant to be Batman, which sapped his will to fight.
14) Harley Quinn
While Harley has been doing her best to be everything from an anti-hero to a full-blown hero, we have plenty of examples of how dangerous she could be as a villain from her time as the Joker’s lackey. She was always a threat, especially because she was given an immunity to poisons and enhanced physical abilities by Poison Ivy way back during her comic debut in the middle of “No Man’s Land.” Harley is no slouch in a fight, but her real strengths are her insane acrobatic skills and tricksy nature, making it all but impossible to predict what she’s going to do. That can be a downside, given that sometimes she doesn’t know either.
However, the thing that makes Harley really dangerous is actually her connection to Poison Ivy. Ivy has repeatedly proven that she’s one of Batman’s strongest rogues and that she’s willing to stand by Harley through thick and thin. The only person alive with more control over the Green is Swamp Thing, as Ivy can control plants to do her bidding to terrifying levels. She once took over the entire world with her plants and pheromones, but as always, Ivy has been stopped by everyone else on this list, so she only buys Harley so much grace.
13) Catwoman
Selina might be a criminal far more often than not, but she’s far from a common crook, and has been a key member of the Bat-Family since at least “Hush.” Like everyone else on this list, Catwoman sports some top-tier fighting skills, but her real strengths shine in her stealth and thievery skills. Catwoman wouldn’t be a problem for anybody else on this list through fighting them, but by stealing something incredibly important, powerful, or both. Selina is potentially the best thief in DC, and given how deeply connected she is to the Bat-Family, criminal underworld, and Batman’s fantastic villains, she has more than enough information to know where to find and take world-ending artifacts and devices.
12) Signal
Duke Thomas is one of the newest core members of the Bat-Family and the first to have superpowers. Even before Duke became a vigilante, he established that he had a genius-level intellect when trying to solve the Riddler’s riddles in “Zero Year.” Duke even figured out Batman’s identity on his own. He later became a leader of the We Are Robin movement and impressed the Bat-Family so much that he was recruited. After a year of intense training with Batman, Duke also developed his powers of photokinesis, which let him create and manipulate light.
Signal’s powers allow him to do everything from becoming invisible to X-Ray vision, which only grew stronger after he developed control over shadows. Duke’s power over light and shadows, alongside his natural potential, makes him a definite threat you need to take seriously. However, he still lacks a lot of the experience the others have, so as of now, he rests around the middle of the list.
11) Batwing
Luke Fox is a little bit of an everything man. He’s the son of longtime Batman ally Lucius Fox and inherited his dad’s business acumen and intelligence. Luke is a master martial artist who specializes in boxing, and is an engineer at least on the same level, if not better than, Harper Row. His crowning achievement is his Batwing armor. The Iron Man-like suit gives him low-level super strength, flight, forcefield generation, and is equipped with more weapons than the average army regiment.
Batman recognized Duke’s skills, and when the first Batwing retired, he recruited Luke to be his replacement as Batman Incorporated as the Batman of Africa, saying that Luke was his first choice. Nowadays, he focuses more on his business than superheroing, but he still makes time to step in when needed, and his abilities alongside his Batman Beyond-like suit make him one of the last people in Gotham you want to be on the bad side of.
10) Stephanie Brown
Originally known as Spoiler, Stephanie currently operates as one of the Batgirls and has definitely made a name for herself. She’s trained with the best of them, from Batman to Cassandra Cain, and has definitely become an incredible fighter. She is also one of the best people at solving riddles around, something she picked up from wanting to bring down her supervillain dad, Cluemaster. Stephanie’s greatest strength, however, is that everyone seems to underestimate her.
Maybe it’s because she had to fight for every inch she’s been given in the Bat-Family, or maybe it’s because her dad is a C-list villain, but nobody seems to take Steph as seriously as the rest of the Family. Steph knows that, but instead of being insecure about it, she’s more than happy to use that to her advantage. She’s always looking for ways to get an edge over the people she fights, and is willing to fight dirty and take advantage of everything she can. How can we forget that the first time she fought Tim Drake, she whacked him with a brick when he hesitated? Steph is scrappy and resourceful above all else.
9) Ghost-Maker
Ghost-Maker is a new addition to the Bat-Family, and he’s a very hard person to place. He actually traveled the world and received the same training that Bruce did in his younger years. The two were friends and rivals, sometimes competing, sometimes working together to learn everything they could. Ghost-Maker has all the same skills as Batman, although the Dark Knight seems to be just a tad better at everything, given that Bruce hasn’t lost a fight against Ghost-Maker since they were twenty.
What really makes Ghost-Maker dangerous is that he is a literal psychopath. He’s unable to feel any empathy or fear, and is driven by a hedonistic desire to pursue crimefighting as the ultimate art. After completing his training, Ghost-Maker traveled the world and established himself as every criminal’s boogeyman, taking out worldwide players and gangsters that the authorities refused to touch. He’s literally a slightly less effective, but uncaring version of Batman, and that is something that should terrify everybody.
8) Batwoman
Kate Kane is Batman’s cousin, and although her life followed a different path, she eventually fully committed to the superhero lifestyle. After attending West Point and receiving military training there, she traveled the world in a manner similar to Batman, though condensed to three years. Kate is an excellent fighter and marksman, and on top of the usual skills that Bat-Family members possess, she has a military mind with a perspective that is almost impossible to shake. As the heir to the Kane fortune, she has resources similar to Bruce’s own and has created her own advanced weapons arsenal to fight crime.
7) Red Hood
Jason Todd was the second Robin, and after his resurrection, he became a threat like nobody else. As Robin, he received the best training possible from Batman and demonstrated that he was a natural, if not aggressive, fighter. Given how regularly he uses guns, Jason is the best marksman of the Family, and has also shown that he’s one of the best around when it comes to swordfighting. Alongside his normal Batman training, Jason also received additional pointers from the League of Assassins after they revived him.
Red Hood showed everyone exactly how dangerous he was in “Under the Red Hood,” where he took over the Gotham underworld in a matter of weeks. He had the entire city under his thumb, and he has become a major crime lord more than once. Still, Jason’s stints as a villain and anti-hero proved that while he can bring the hurt to practically anyone, he can still be beaten in terms of fighting skill and planning by the other Family members above him on the list. Jason is a serious threat, but not the biggest one around.
6) Tim Drake
Tim is the third Robin, and probably the best one at being Robin. Every Robin has their niche, and Tim’s is being the best detective and the smartest one. He’s been shown to notice clues and track down leads that do not even occur to other members of the Family, and everyone from Batman to Ra’s al Ghul has said that Tim will one day surpass Bruce, if he hasn’t already. His fighting skills are comparable to the rest of the Bat-Family’s best, but Tim stands out as the best bo-staff user of the lot. Still, the most dangerous part about Tim is his intellect.
While others are clearly better at fighting, Tim more than makes up for his shortcomings with plans upon plans. He’s one of the best tacticians around and has repeatedly shown that he’s able to think twelve steps ahead, especially when he knows he’s outmatched. He once defeated Lady Shiva by sending poisoned chocolates to her hotel room before she even got there, as an example. Tim’s contingencies could far surpass Bruce’s. If he let himself go down that dark path. In nearly every future where he takes up the cowl, Tim becomes an unstoppable ruler with an iron fist.
5) Damian Wayne
As the fifth Robin, Damian has been prepared since before his birth to be the greatest warrior. He’s the son of Batman and Talia al Ghul, and was genetically modified to ensure he would be in beyond exceptional health. He was trained to kill by the League of Assassins since before he could walk, and his tutelage was completed under his father. Damian has an unstoppable drive to be the best, which matches his deadly personality. Beyond his training and heritage, one thing that makes Damian exceptionally dangerous is his status as heir to his grandfather’s League. At any point, Damian could claim that right and have an army of the world’s best assassins at his disposal.
The biggest thing holding Damian back as of right now is his age. He’s the youngest member of the Bat-Family, so while he’s already exceptional and has grown a lot, he still has a lot to learn before he can reach his full potential. He’s already one of the deadliest people in the world, but if he wants to top this list, he would need something just a bit more to tip him over that edge.
4) Cassandra Cain
Cass is the second Batgirl, and easily the greatest fighter in the Bat-Family. She’s possibly the greatest fighter in the entire world, with her only competition being Black Canary, Bronze Tiger, and Richard Dragon. Cass was trained since birth by David Cain to be the perfect assassin. Instead of words, Cass was taught to read body language like speech, giving her unparalleled insight into her opponent’s moves before they even make them. Nobody understands fighting or has greater insight into what people are really thinking than her.
While Cass is most dangerous on a personal level, what makes her a massive threat compared to the rest of the Family is her mother. Should Cass ever go off the deep end, it’s no surprise that Lady Shiva would be right beside her. Either one of them can take on entire armies of the world’s elite fighters on their own, but together they would be all but unstoppable except for people with some serious powers. Still, Cass is just edged out of the top three because our remaining entrants offer damage on a much wider scale.
3) Barbara Gordon
Barbara Gordon was the first Batgirl, and while she’s definitely more than a capable fighter, what really makes Babs so dangerous is her intelligence. The Bat-Family is filled with some of the world’s smartest people, but none of them can hold a candle to Babs in terms of raw intellect and computer knowledge. She is a master of technology like nobody else. During her first time as Oracle, Babs became the central hub of information for nearly the entire heroic side of the DC Universe. She connected everyone because there was no information she couldn’t find, no computer she couldn’t hack, and no secret she couldn’t uncover.
Imagine if Barbara chose to use those unbelievable skills for evil. She could shut down entire infrastructures and cause havoc in the streets. Practically everything is connected to technology nowadays, and that means Barbara Gordon always has the opportunity to influence it in some capacity. Barbara could cause unimaginable chaos, and she wouldn’t even have to leave her house.
2) Batman
I don’t need to convince you that Batman is a threat. He’s the Dark Knight, the Caped Crusader, the hero who pulled Gotham City out of complete hopelessness and started it on the path to something better. He’s trained under the greatest masters of nearly every field and has become a master of them all in his own right. His fighting skills, intelligence, resources, and raw ingenuity are unparalleled, because while others can match or surpass him in most of what he does, there’s almost nobody who is as skilled in as many things as Batman is.
As if that wasn’t enough, Bruce is also extremely paranoid and keeps detailed plans on how to take down the world’s greatest heroes. Those are meant to non-lethally disable, but as the Batman Who Laughs and Ra’s al Ghul showed us, they can easily be adjusted to kill their target. Batman once made Brother Eye, an artificial intelligence that could monitor the entire world’s metahuman population at once. He’s made armor that lets him go up against beings as powerful as Darkseid and the entire Justice League at once. Batman is one of the most dangerous people of all time, but he’s still not our number one pick.
1) Nightwing
Dick Grayson is everything that Batman is, plus some more. He took to being Robing with an ease like nobody else, being called a natural at the lifestyle. He has all of Batman’s fighting abilities and mastered skills, with some additions made solely by him. He’s the most acrobatic member of the Family, having been a world-renowned acrobat before he was twelve. He’s been trained by the best, and trained some of the other best, and has firmly cemented himself as one of the most trustworthy people in all of DC. Everybody knows they can rely on Batman, but they implicitly believe in Nightwing. That belief is what makes him so deadly.
Not only is Nightwing equally as skilled as Batman, but he also has access to his own resources after Alfred left him over a billion dollars, and he is as trusted as Superman by the hero community. Some heroes work with and trust Batman, yet keep him at arm’s length because of personal feelings, but nobody distrusts Nightwing without an extreme personal reason. If he were to turn, he could crumble the entire hero community from the inside out without anyone ever suspecting him. Heck, that’s literally the plot of DC Versus Vampires. Nightwing is the most dangerous person around, period.
So there we have the Bat-Family, ranked by how dangerous they could be, if they so chose. The Bat-Family is huge and is bound to expand more in the future, so we can definitely expect this list to evolve as time goes on. Do you agree with our list, or think a different member of the Family deserves the title of biggest threat?
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