The Unhinged Batman Scene That Will Probably Never Make It Into James Gunn's DCU

With "All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder," writer Frank Miller and artists Jim Lee and Scott Williams told an alternate origin story for Dick Grayson that was, well, twisted. Really, Miller's entire "All Star" series has become infamous for being one of the most bizarre comic book runs of all time. If you're yet to read it and are interested as to why it's viewed in this way, just consider the example of "All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder" #4, in which the Dark Knight locks his young protégé in the Batcave and forces him to hunt and kill his own food.

With the newly-established DC Universe, James Gunn could finally take Batman where no filmmaker has taken him before. Will he? That remains to be seen. Thus far, Gunn has delivered a slate of films and series that are all characteristically silly and heartfelt. But with the R-rated, Mike Flanagan-penned body horror movie "Clayface" arriving in 2026, the DCU might soon start to look a lot more varied in terms of tone.

That sets the stage perfectly for a dark, horror-tinged take on Batman, which, contrary to what you might have heard about going "light" with the DCU's Caped Crusader, would be a truly refreshing way to present the character. For now, Batman is set to make his DCU debut in the long-awaited "Brave and the Bold" film, which will give us a proper cinematic Dark Knight/Boy Wonder team-up but has yet to receive an official release date. Sadly, the likelihood that the man who gave us the "Guardians of the Galaxy" trilogy will truly go dark with Batman remains unlikely. Still, that may spare us from having to witness one of the weirdest aspects of DC's comics being adapted for the big screen.

There have been plenty of disturbing moments in Batman comic book history. "Batman: Dark Knight, Dark City," went dark with a wild horror twist, for instance, while some of the best DC Black Label comics have given us truly grim visions of Gotham. But there was something particularly nasty about the way in which Batman was depicted in "All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder" #4 — to the extent it all got a bit silly.

"All Star Batman and Robin" was a series published between 2005 and 2008, running for 10 issues before it was put on hiatus. It saw Frank Miller reinterpret Dick Grayson's origin story in a self-contained timeline that became infamous for featuring a sadistic version of Batman who enjoyed his violent ways a little too much. Unlike the Dark Knight most fans know, this version of the character killed indiscriminately and was also abusive towards Grayson.

After taking in a bereaved Dick, Batman immediately takes offense to the youngster asking "Who the hell are you, anyway?" He berates his young charge and proclaims himself to be "the goddamn Batman" — a phrase he uses throughout the rest of the run and which became emblematic of the series' excess. But yelling at a boy who's just lost his parents was nothing compared to what Batman did next.

After bringing Dick to the Batcave, Batman leaves him to fend for himself in the cold catacombs below Wayne Manor. "Food will present itself," says the Dark Knight as he leaves Dick amid the bats and rats, who hiss at the terrified youngster. Imagine that in a movie from the man who gave us the charming crowd-pleaser that was 2025's "Superman."

Often, the best Batman comics are the darkest, which is unsurprising given how the character is inseparable from darkness itself. The Batman story "Night Cries," for example, tapped into real-world horrors and remains a criminally overlooked entry in the Dark Knight oeuvre. But "All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder" was so ridiculously over-the-top it went past dark and looped back around to silly.

The Batman of this series was a petty, overly-sensitive psychopath, which made reading the issues simultaneously a lot of fun and just sort of sad. Leaving Robin in the Batcave to fend for himself was actually the least of it, and when you consider that Frank Miller claimed the "All-Star" comics belonged to the same timeline as his seminal classics "Batman: Year One" and "The Dark Knight Returns," this odd little run actually manages to make better stories look worse.

As such, it's a good thing we'll probably never see Dick being abused by this version of Batman on the big screen. If this Batcave scene ever does get translated to the DCU, it would likely be via a nightmare sequence, which might be a cool way to acknowledge this bizarre chapter in Batman history. Either that, or we could see some other characters playing out this same scenario. Otherwise, this is one of those times it's actually sort of reassuring that James Gunn is a zany guy who almost certainly wants a more light-hearted Batman.