DC’s New Fan

Batman undoubtedly has the greatest rogues’ gallery in comic book history. Many of the Dark Knight’s enemies have defined what it means to be a supervillain thanks to their colorful costumes, memorable yet deranged personalities, deadly gadgets, and elaborate schemes. Villains like the Joker, Catwoman, Penguin, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, Bane, and countless more have become some of the most iconic and terrifying villains in DC Comics. Of course, Batman’s villain catalog is always growing, with new additions like Hush and the Court of Owls becoming immediate fan favorites. Now, one of these fans has created a brand-new villain who debuted in Detective Comics #1113, and he’s the perfect addition to Gotham’s criminal underworld.

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Earlier this year, DC Comics partnered with LEGO Batman to launch the “Building Bad” sweepstakes. The sweepstakes let fans collaborate with DC Comics to create a new Batman villain. The winner would have their villain concept debut in Detective Comics #1113, appear in Batman #14, and make a DLC cameo in the LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight video game. The winner of this contest was Sharif Robbins-Brinson and his character, Rhetoric, will undoubtedly stand as one of Batman’s greatest villains in recent years.

Batman Faces a New Rhetoric

Rhetoric made his big debut in a bonus story in Detective Comics #1113, and from the get-go it’s clear his novelty goes far beyond being a fan-made character. Instead of being just another costumed criminal who wants to get rich, famous, or kill tons of people for fun, Rhetoric’s mission strikes directly at the heart of Batman’s crusade and the underlying issues that have made Gotham such a hellhole full of crime and corruption.

Rhetoric was once just a regular thug for the Penguin who unlocked his latent telekinetic metahuman ability either from Batman striking him in the head or excessive and torturous electric shock therapy he received in Arkham. Motivated to bring down the corrupt system and Caped Crusader who enforce a status quo where criminals are thrown into cycles of crime and imprisonment, this former thug decided that a new Rhetoric is in order. Dressed in a costume made from Arkham and Blackgate inmate and guard uniforms, and wielding handcuffs, chains, and a Waynetech security staff gun, Rhetoric’s entire design is a statement on the corruption and cruelty that festers at the heart of Gotham’s legal system.

Rhetoric’s crusade isn’t only against Batman’s crimefighting mission, but also against Bruce Wayne’s rehabilitation campaign. Rhetoric broke into and destroyed all the files related to his past in several Wayne Foundation Charities. The fact that Rhetoric had been through all of Wayne’s outreach and prison rehab programs and mental halfway house projects paints a disturbing picture that even Bruce’s attempts to use his wealth to create structures to help former criminals aren’t working. Batman sees Rhetoric’s attacks as a direct insult to his efforts to clean up Gotham’s corruption and end the cycle of abuse against criminals. While Rhetoric and Batman are technically fighting against the same thing, corruption and the cyclical nature of crime and imprisonment, both believe that the other is the problem.

Rhetoric is the Perfect Anti-Batman

What makes Rhetoric such a fascinating villain is that he isn’t just another selfish crook. He believes he’s making Gotham a better place for its downtrodden. This masked villain believes the lies Batman, Bruce Wayne, and Gotham have continuously spouted are nothing but empty promises, and that a new rhetoric is needed to ensure that no one else suffers the same fate has he did at the hands of both the Dark Knight and Arkham. With this mission statement in mind, Rhetoric is the anti-Batman whom readers have been waiting for years to see in action.

DC Comics is no stranger to villains meant to act as dark reflections of the Caped Crusader in design, backstory, and motivation. Unfortunately, most of these anti-Batmen fall flat. Owlman and the Batman Who Laughs are simply evil alternate versions of Batman who possess extremely nihilistic philosophies on existence in general. Villains like Prometheus, Killer Moth, and Wrath all target Batman and other law enforcement organizations in the name of fighting for criminals. However, their motivations and methods never go deeper than vengeance or a bizarre sense of creating equilibrium between good and evil. DC never had a truly compelling and morally nuanced concept of a Batman archetype who was pro-criminal until Rhetoric showed up.

Instead of attacking superheroes and law enforcement for petty or nonsensical reasons, Rhetoric is a villain who recognizes the corrupt cycle made by U.S. legal and correctional systems. This corrupt system focuses on targeting impoverished communities and people who are forced into lives of crime because of various systemic issues. Like Rhetoric, once these people are arrested, they’re branded for life. They must continuously return to criminal lives to survive, only to be arrested again in a never-ending cycle that lines the pockets of those in power. Rhetoric has the potential to be a long-lasting villain who can tackle serious issues regarding systemic oppression and violence enforced by legal systems onto impoverished and minority groups. Rhetoric fights for those broken by the corruption that he believes Batman to enforce.

Rhetoric personifies the growing critique that Batman’s crimefighting crusade does nothing but protect a corrupt system that enforces a perpetual cycle of crime and incarceration against Gotham’s most vulnerable. His conflicting philosophy on how best to tackle crime makes him the best anti-Batman DC has ever created. Rhetoric could even push Batman to question his mission and whether his charity work as Bruce Wayne is effective against such a system. Rhetoric is a morally gray character whose nature as an anti-Batman fighting for Gotham’s abused criminals gives him a lot of narrative potential for future stories, and we can’t wait to see more of him.

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