Five Gotham Heroes Who Will Never Respect Batman

I’ve spent the last few months of 2026 wandering Gotham’s rain-slicked alleys, and I’ve learned one uncomfortable truth: Batman is not the only story in this city. Bruce Wayne’s Dark Knight is still the undisputed king of Gotham in my mind, a vigilante who holds a chaotic metropolis together through sheer will, fear, and an absurd amount of prep time. Over the years, Bruce has recruited a Bat-Family, an army of heroes, and enough allies to make the Justice League look like a small book club. But not every crime-fighter in the dark metropolis wants to salute his cape. Some want nothing to do with him. Here are five Gotham heroes who do not respect Batman, and who never will.

I used to think the Bat-Family image was the whole picture. Then I started listening to the city itself. In 2026, Gotham still argues about whether Batman is a protector, a tyrant, or a mascot for the status quo. The five names below range from a literal demon who would rather eat him to classic heroes who think he goes too far. They are not villains, not exactly. They are Gotham heroes with grudges, philosophies, and scars that Batman cannot heal.

😈 Etrigan the Demon

Etrigan is a literal demon from Hell, bound to the human host Jason Blood by Merlin. He does not really respect any human, but making his home in Gotham has led to him clashing with Batman more often than any other hero. I watched Etrigan mock Batman for trying to embody darkness and dread that, in the demon’s opinion, only demons truly understand. Etrigan is anarchic, happy to use fire and claw to slay supernatural rivals, while Jason Blood tries to wield him for good as a mystic investigator. What fascinates me is that Etrigan has expressed affection for Batman, but more in the sense of finding him amusing than as an ally. Batman, being Batman, has failsafes ready should he ever need to bring Etrigan down. That is not respect. That is a standoff with rhyming.

🎯 Hitman

Tommy Monaghan is a mob assassin bitten by an alien parasite. That bite gave him mild telepathy and X-ray vision, and he used those powers to market himself as Gotham’s premier hitman. I know how that sounds. Hitman tends to take down only the deserving, but Batman could never stomach a killer operating freely in his city. The entire Hitman franchise is built on the belief that superheroes are inherently silly, a sincere belief of writer Garth Ennis. In that world, Superman can be genuinely kind and Green Lantern can be relatably in over his head. Batman, however, is depicted as a bad-tempered bully getting his kicks in a leather costume. Batman and Hitman faced off several times, and Monaghan mocked and escaped the Dark Knight at every opportunity. That is not fear. That is comedy with a body count.

🎭 Mother Panic

Mother Panic is a vigilante hunting down the perpetrators of her abusive childhood. Her dislike of Batman is complex, beyond the fact that he sometimes gets in her way. First and foremost, his claim that Gotham is his means very little to a Gotham native who was born, destroyed, and born again in the city. She does not follow Batman’s orders, and she bitterly disdains that he would ever expect her to. Some of her anger seems to come from the fact that Batman never uncovered her treatment at the abusive boarding school Gather House. If Gotham’s hero could not be there when she needed him, why should she listen to him now? I felt that question in my bones. It is not just rebellion. It is grief.

⚖️ Anarky

Anarky is a misguided but heroic vigilante, and he is one of the few people who believes Batman does not go far enough. Lonnie sees the Dark Knight as an enforcer of the status quo. He believes Gotham’s citizens need to rise up in solidarity and take the city back from its corrupt leaders. While Anarky is fully aware of how capable Batman is, he thinks Bruce Wayne is wasting his time as a vigilante. He accuses the Caped Crusader of fighting to control rather than uplift the populace. The two have reluctantly worked together in emergencies, but Anarky always returns to the idea that Batman is simply fighting the wrong people in the wrong way. In 2026, with Gotham’s politics as rotten as ever, that critique hits harder than a Batarang.

💚 Alan Scott’s Green Lantern

The original Green Lantern and his magic ring protected Gotham a generation before the Dark Knight came along. Alan Scott was not thrilled when he first met his successor. Scott is all about illuminating the darkness and spreading hope, while Batman is a creature of the night. At this point in comic history, Green Lantern has known Batman long enough to know he is effective, but he has never been able to fully make peace with his methods. Alan’s caution regarding Batman is part of a larger grudge between pretty much every Green Lantern and Batman. Green Lanterns are chosen by their ability to resist fear, and Batman defines himself by weaponizing it. While there are valid disagreements between the Lanterns and Batman, they are fundamentally opposed on how to make the world a better place, and they have never truly been able to overcome that difference.

So those are the five Gotham heroes who will never respect Batman, whether because of his methods or due to major personal disagreements. As a player, I still love the Bat-Family, the Batmobile, and the myth of the World’s Greatest Detective. But I also love that Gotham is big enough to contain demons, hitmen, abused survivors, anarchists, and old-school Lanterns who look at the Bat and say, no thanks. In 2026, that tension is what keeps Gotham alive. It is not a city that bows to one man. It is a city that argues with him.