"This One I Hate the Most": Batman's Most Hated Villain Appeared in the Nolanverse & DCEU (But You Forgot) (2024)

Of all DC's heroes, Batman has the most disturbing villains, with figures like Joker, Professor Pyg, Mad Hatter and Dollmaker turning the Gotham streets into a terrifying gauntlet. However, Batman's most hated villain is surprisingly one of his least famous - a figure who has appeared in multiple movies, only to be quickly forgotten by fans.

In Kevin Smith and Walt Flanagan's Batman: Cacophony #1, Batman faces off against Victor Zsasz (aka Mister Zsasz). Zsasz is a serial killer who randomly sets his mind on individual victims, only able to stop obsessing over them when he has killed them and added a tally mark scar to his body. In the issue, Zsasz has targeted a family, killing the parents before Batman arrives to stop him. During the fight, Batman reflects, "Of all the lunatics I spend my life putting down. This one I hate the most." Fans may be surprised to learn that Batman hates Zsasz more than figures such as the Joker or Black Mask, but there's a reason this is the case.

Batman Hates Victor Zsasz Over Any Other Villain

Related: Batman Loves 1 Villain As Much as Nightwing, DC Confirms

Zsasz first appeared in 1992's Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1 by Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle, and has been haunting Gotham ever since. The head of a major company, Zsasz spiraled into gambling after his parents' deaths. After a confrontation with the Penguin left him penniless, Zsasz was attacked while attempting to jump from Gotham Bridge. Killing his assailant awakened something monstrous in Zsasz, and he began killing for sport, losing his ability to see others as human. Despite being able to go toe-to-toe with Batman in the comics - both physically and mentally - Zsasz tends to be turned into a side character in movie adaptations, and has appeared in Batman Begins (played by Tim Booth) and Birds of Prey (played by Chris Messina), as well as various animated movies, the Arrowverse (played by Alex Morf) and the Gotham TV series (played by Anthony Carrigan.) However, these depictions vary wildly in terms of Zsasz's personality and appearance, making it easy to miss that the same character is returning again and again.

Victor Zsasz Is Batman's Dark Mirror

While Zsasz might not be an A-list villain, his backstory explains why Batman would hate him so much. In many ways, Zsasz's transformation mirrors Batman's own - born into a life of privilege, only to suffer unbearable despair after losing his parents and embrace a dark new persona. Zsasz closely mirrors Batman's life and yet chose a horrifying path, and one that mocks Bruce Wayne's own experiences - while Bruce wants to prevent his own trauma happening to anyone else, Zsasz is dedicated to recreating it. His choices of victim are also totally random, making him especially difficult for Batman to combat using his detective skills.

Does Batman Really Hate Zsasz More Than Joker?

Despite all this, it may be hard for fans to believe Batman hates Zsasz more than Joker. However, Batman: Cacophony actually answers why, as Joker notes that while children may be caught up in his schemes, he rarely makes a point of targeting them, while Zsasz revels in killing the weak and vulnerable. Batman is also guilty of projecting larger ideas onto Joker, sometimes seeing him as a force of chaos or Gotham's dark side rather than simply one evil or ill man - something other heroes like Duke Thomas' Signal have called him out for in the past.

Seeing himself and his life's work mirrored in Victor Zsasz, Batman has come to hate him the most of all Gotham's monsters. For a man whose life was redefined by the murder of his parents, it's easy to see how Bruce Wayne would find something especially revolting in Mister Zsasz - a man who, through his very existence, seeks to joyfully visit Batman's worst nightmare on Gotham again, and again, and again.