The Arkham Knight , Rocksteady’s newly-revealed Batman Arkham verse nemesis, is specifically designed to be a complete counterpoint to Batman himself. He is far from the first, though, as the Dark Knight’s history is littered with anti-Batmen.

Below are 10 Batman villains that were designed to be the entire package: brains and brawn, but without those pesky principles.

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Owlman (Earth-3)

First Appearance: 1964

Owlman is one of the first attempts to make a dark reflection of Batman, and as a product of the 1960s he’s very much steeped in some goofy trends of the time. He exists as Batman in the alternate universe of Earth-3, where most everything is directly opposed to the normal continuity. He had latent superpowers, unlike Batman who is marked by ingenuity that compensates for his lack of powers. He is a natural genius like Batman, but used training to become a master criminal. Rather than join the Justice League, he helped found the mirror-image Crime Syndicate of America.

In his reality, Luthor was the hero, but the Crime Syndicate members were dealt with in time when their universe crossed path with Earth-1—the normal continuity—and faced off against the Justice League. But perhaps because “Owlman” is such a natural name for an anti-Batman, he has been rebooted through several incarnations, most recently in 2011.

Wrath

First Appearance: 1984

Wrath is the prototypical modern anti-Batman. Rather than a dastardly arch-criminal living in an alternate universe, he’s very much steeped in circumstances similar to Bruce Wayne’s own life, but took a wildly different path. This is a pattern repeated through many of these character types, and Wrath serves as the blueprint. Rather than wealthy philanthropists, his parents were common crooks. Instead of being gunned down by a down-on-his-luck mugger, they were killed by a young and inexperienced police officer, Jim Gordon. Wrath grew up similarly disenfranchised by the justice system—but rather than see it as incapable of meeting the city’s needs, he resented the peace-keepers themselves. He set about targeting police officers, including Gordon. At one point, he even began training his own version of Robin, who became the second Wrath in a later story.

Deathstroke / Slade

First Appearance: 1991

Unlike many of Batman’s equals, Deathstroke's history isn’t fashioned after a dark reflection of Bruce Wayne’s. Instead, Slade was a remarkably gifted soldier in the Vietnam war, who agreed to undergo experimental treatments to resist expected truth serums. By a freak accident, it enhanced his strength, agility, and brainpower to near superhuman levels, putting him on-par with Batman’s gifted nature. He’s become an assassin who more frequently torments Nightwing, a former Robin, than Batman himself. Though he is a villain, he has a strict code of honor and tends to view Batman as more of a rival than an enemy.

Azrael / Jean-Paul Valley

First Introduced: 1991

Jean-Paul Valley helped lay the groundwork for the infamous Knightfall plot. Valley was to be next in line in a secret order of assassins, but rejected his destiny in favor of learning from Batman. When Bane fractured Wayne’s spine, paralyzing him, Valley was tapped to take the mantle. He even built a new high-tech (and extremely ‘90s-fashioned) Batsuit. But he could only fight the assassin conditioning for so long, and grew more violent and merciless as time went on. After allowing the deaths of both a criminal and a set of hostages, he was confronted by Tim Drake, the then-current Robin. The ensuing fight nearly resulted in Drake’s death, and Valley became increasingly isolated as a crime-fighter. Wayne, seeing how Valley’s brutal methods were destroying the legacy of Batman, trained hard to recuperate from his injuries and took the title back. Valley took the name Azrael again, and has since made occasional cameo appearances in various Batman family books.

Bane

First Introduced: 1993

Despite his monstrous physique and film depiction as a musclebound brute, Bane is one of the few ongoing villains who matches Batman’s cunning strategic mind. It’s an old cliche in comic circles to say that Batman can win any battle if he has enough time to plan, but Bane is the one villain who successfully “broke the Bat” thanks to careful foresight. In Knightfall, he set loose the inmates of Arkham Asylum to overwhelm his foe over the course of months, knowing a direct assault would be foolish. Once the villains were rounded up, Wayne was already exhausted and ready to retire, but Bane had determined his secret identity and sat in wait for him at Wayne Manor. He subsequently broke Batman’s spine, setting off the events above with Jean-Paul Valley. He’s a match for Batman in strength and smarts, making him one of the more deadly foes—though he has occasionally served as an anti-hero as well.

Phantasm / Andrea Beaumont

First Introduced: 1993

Phantasm is one of version of the Batman nemesis so similar that she was actually mistaken for Batman himself. Though relegated to a single appearance in the film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Andrea Beaumont played a critical role in the development of both Batman and Bruce Wayne in the animated universe. She served as the one romantic interest who got away, a woman who made Bruce happy enough to almost abandon his dream of fighting crime before it began. When she suddenly disappeared, he took up the mantle as Batman. She reappeared in Gotham years later, not-coincidentally at the same time the anti-hero Phantasm began killing mobsters.

The Phantasm’s physical similarities to Batman, and a bag of tricks similar to the fear-based illusions Batman is known for, forced police to look at Batman as a suspect in the murders. In the course of his investigation, Wayne learned that Phantasm was Beaumont herself, whose father had been killed by gangs. Like Batman, she bided her time and trained for the ability to dispense justice, but Wayne begged her to give up her lethal ways. In a last act, she disappeared with the Joker—who as a small-time mobster had personally carried out her father’s hit—and Bruce was left to assume they’d both been killed. She later left a keepsake confirming she was still alive. Joker’s continued appearances in Batman: The Animated Series also let us know that she did not kill him, so perhaps Batman’s words got through to her.

Prometheus

First Appearance: 1998

While the first Prometheus was a somewhat minor villain for the Teen Titans, the second iteration was almost exactly like Wrath. His parents were wanted criminals shot down by police officers, and he developed a pathological need to kill authority figures. He sharpened his skills with years of training and a special suit that augmented his abilities. He was portrayed as a more ambitious villain and a larger threat than Wrath, because his sights were set on bigger targets than Batman himself. Instead, he went after the Justice League, and later joined Lex Luthor’s Injustice Gang. He was ultimately brought down by Batman. Even then he was deemed too dangerous for a standard prison, so with the help of fellow Justice League member Martian Manhunter, Batman trapped him in his own mind and left him at Blackgate Prison.

Batzarro

First Appearance: 2002

Too strange to be a villain, Batzarro has served mostly as a thorn in Batman’s side and some light comic relief. He is, however, Batman’s most direct doppelganger, a twisted version of Batman similar to Bizarro’s inverted Superman. He’s muscular like Batman, but everything else is a mirror reflection. He’s loud and abrasive, wears his signature utility belt upside-down, and proudly considers himself “The World’s Worst Detective.” He’s even seemingly attempted to help Batman at times.

Red Hood / Jason Todd

First Appearance: 2005

Though Jason Todd has a long history in Batman comics as the second Robin, his new role as an anti-hero twist on Batman is a relatively recent development. Following Jason Todd’s death at the hands of Joker in the “A Death in the Family” story in 1988, he was resurrected years later as an adult. He waged a war on organized crime, but resorted to much more violent methods and often got his hands dirty by asserting control over the crime world himself. He then took the mantle of the Red Hood, a known crime boss, and redesigned the costume to appear more heroic. His goal was to strike at the heart of Batman himself by making the Dark Knight obsolete with his more brutal (and his mind, more effective) methods. He has become an anti-hero and currently leads his own book, Red Hood and the Outlaws. He remains resentful of Batman for letting him die, thinking of Batman as too soft on crime. The two can occasionally be civil in mixed company—as was the case when Joker threatened the lives of all of Batman’s proteges in the recent “Death of the Family” arc.

Owlman / Thomas Wayne Jr. / Lincoln March (New 52)

First Introduced: 2011

Owlman brings Batman’s gallery of equals full circle, as the more modern incarnation is the most recent iteration of a Batman nemesis. The Owlman in the New 52 continuity is not a literal dark, alternate-universe version of Bruce Wayne. Instead, he’s a character of his own who exists within continuity, and who may or may not be Wayne’s own brother. A character named Lincoln March forged a friendship with Wayne, but was apparently killed in an attack from the shadowy Gotham assassin cabal, the Court of Owls. After being sent on a wild goose chase to hunt down Talons—specially trained agents of the Court—Wayne realized his error in judgment and went to March’s childhood orphanage to find him still alive. March claimed to be Thomas Wayne Jr., the sickly brother who was hidden away from the prosperous Wayne family. March took a specialized formula that allowed regenerative capabilities for Court of Owls assassins, and he donned a special Talon suit to briefly appear as a version of Owlman. Batman was victorious over his supposed brother, who escaped, but he was left with a sense of unease. March could have been telling the truth of his parentage, but only if Thomas and Martha Wayne had themselves lied to young Bruce.

Steve Watts is a freelance writer who always wanted to be Batman for a living, but writing about him will do. You can read more of his keen insights by following him on Twitter and IGN