What are Batman's best hand to hand combat and martial arts based fights vs top ranked martial arts masters and assassins? Feats that showcase his best battles against human level martial arts masters and how good he is in martial arts melee combat.
A young Bruce Wayne just before he became Batman fights a young Morgan Duncard (before he became the mercenary known as Nobody who's the son of the legendary manhunter/mercernary Henri Duncard who Bruce also trained under) for 15 minutes straight and beats him in melee combat. (Batman & Robin v2 #5)
As Bruce Wayne he defeats E.D. Caldwell aka The Wrath (Batman's evil counterpart) in a traditional martial arts sparring contest (Detective Comics v2 #23)
Battles the last and best of the seven master martial artists that Shiva sent after him and is able to skillfully break free from a hold he's put in by the strong master ninja, gets the better of him, and finish him with the deadly Leopard Blow attack modified to knock the ninja out instead of killing him, fooling Shiva in the process (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #62 and Robin v2 #8)
Defeats Dan Kingdom a former Green Beret and martial arts expert who's mastered the deadly Leopard Paw Knuckle technique thats blocked and countered by Batman in this battle (Detective Comics #443)
Batman faces the leader of an elite commando unit charged with taking Gotham vigilantes out. Said leader is good, described by Bats as an "expert in hand to hand combat that hits like a truck", but the Dark Knight still ends up manhandling him (Batman: Outlaws #3)
Vs Priest - Legends of the Dark Knight #136
A young mercenary with impressive martial arts skills that almost rivaled the young Dark Knight's own skills. Priest was an undefeated fighter obsessed with finding worthy opponents to test his skill
Round 1
Defeats Priest after an impressive hand to hand battle
Round 2
Defeats Priest again despite being ambushed
Defeats Freeway a highly skilled martial artist trained by the legendary ninja master Asano Nitobe. According to Suicide King, he is known around the world as one of the best with only a handful of people being as skilled as him (Batman Family #8)
Batman #469:
- King Snake has his own research done on Batman based off the fighting reputation he's built up plus what's known about him before deciding to challenge him to a fight to the death
- Batman easily humiliates King Snake (the father of Bane) a blind martial artist known as being one of the best in the world despite being ambushed
Defeats Dragon (a mystical martial artist nearly equal to Batman in skill who had the same teacher) on a mental existance plane where they engage in combat once their eyes lock on an astral projection battleground. As a result, Dragon realizing he can't win decides to kill himself. The one person observing the entire fight believed that Batman made Dragon kill himself by simply looking at him unaware of the mental/astral fight that truly took place (Legends of the Dark Knight #53)
Vs Master Haim (Legends of the Dark Knight #129-131):
A very dangerous martial arts master who's skill seem to equal Batman's own and also has a great mastery & knowledge of many lethal nerve strike techniques.
Master Haim showing off his skills as he catches Sag's arrow who's an archer on par with Green Arrow then brings him to his knees with a nerve grip
Easily kills two masters who were considered among the greatest martial artists in the world with his death strike
Takes down Oliver Queen (Green Arrow) with a single finger nerve touch to the chest
Fights evenly with a young Batman in hand to hand combat as neither are shown getting the upperhand on one another until Haim manages to hit Batman with his Hungry Cobra death strike technique. However to his surprise, Bruce is one of the 7 people in the world who know how to defend against it (very likely use it as well) leaving him open to attack thus being defeated.
Vs David Cain
One of the world's greatest assassins, one of the best martial artists in the world, well known former member of the League of Assassins, former trainer of Bruce Wayne, and father of Cassandra Cain who trained her to become one of the most lethal and top ranked fighters in the world.
- A profile on David Cain that describes his lethal combat style (see yellow box at the bottom) mentioning that he's not only a master of every combat style but also on the same level as Batman, Batgirl (Cass Cain), Lady Shiva, and Richard Dragon (No Man's Land Secret Files & Origins)
- One of the world's greatest martial artists; knows every move of every fighting style on the planet; highly skilled with every kind of firearm (DC Comics Encyclopedia vol 2)
- Defeats David Cain in hand to hand combat (Batman #605)
Vs Tsunetomo (Detective Comics Annual #3)
Round 1
Former martial arts sensei of Bruce Wayne who's a master swordsman and master assassin well known as being one of the best in the world. In this fight he deduces Batman is Bruce Wayne by the martial arts techniques he uses and severely wounds Batman forcing him to retreat
Round 2
Defeats Tsunetomo in an impressive martial arts battle
Vs Ra's Al Ghul aka The Demon's Head
A master swordsman (sometimes referred to as the world's best swordsman) and master level martial artist who has centuries of honed combat experience and has proven to be near equal to Batman who he's fought numerous times with most of their battles ending in stalemates. He is also a former mentor to Bruce Wayne having trained him in swordsmanship and martial arts just before he became Batman. To give you an idea of how good Ra's Al Ghul is he has defeated: Bane, Deathstroke, and even Wonder Woman in sword battles
Decisively defeats Ra's Al Ghul in a sword fight and even impales him (Batman #616)
Using just his hand to hand skills and no gadgets, Batman soundly beats Ra's in combat, despite Ra's Al Ghul deciding to resort to using his sword mid-fight (Detective Comics #840)
Bests Ra's Al Ghul in melee combat despite The Demon's Head using dual katana blades in the beginning of their battle (Batman & Ra's Al Ghul #32)
Detective Comics #485:
Vs Bronze Tiger - One of the world's greatest martial artist and even trained Richard Dragon who's known as the best. In this issue he manages to defeat Batman in their first encounter and is known as one of the few people in the world who could match Batman in a hand to hand fight
- Just to give you an idea of how good Bronze Tiger is even the The Sensei who is a much better and more experienced martial artist then both Batman and Bronze Tiger refers to Tiger as the best martial artist he's seen at that point
- Stalemates Bronze Tiger in their rematch until he's taken down by a tranquilizer dart by outside interference
Vs Lady Shiva - One of the few people in the world who has proven to be a match for Batman in hand to hand combat even Bronze Tiger once referred to her as being unbeatable
- Is a master of all known combat styles in the world even some forgotten ones and is obsessed with being the greatest and most lethal fighter in the world being known as the best by many (DC Encyclopedia v2 2008)
- Battles Lady Shiva to a stalemate in a hand to hand contest and is amazed that they're both evenly matched in skill. At the time, Bruce was unaware of how good she was and underestimated her at first. However, due to minor interference from Robin (Jason Todd) the stalemate is ended giving Batman the opening to take her down (Batman #427)
- Easily defeats a possibly mind controlled Lady Shiva in a hand to hand contest (who's skills are very much intact as shown in the battle) seemingly answering his own question who's the better fighter between the two of them at the time, despite also being surprise-attacked plus having just fought Solomon Grundy without having time to recover (Superman Batman #3)
Fights the legendary martial arts master Richard Dragon who's known as the best in the world even by Lady Shiva roughly to a draw (Brave and the Bold #132)
Despite being ambushed and inexperienced in anti-gravity martial arts, he battles Karate Kid (Post-Crisis) to a inconclusive stalemate by impressively adapting fast to Karate Kid's style of fighting. This fight took place before his battle with the Pre-Crisis Karate Kid from another future (fight below) (Brave and the Bold #5)
Fairs relatively well against an amnesiac Val Armor (aka Karate Kid, the greatest martial artist in 31st Century's DCU, here believing himself to be Trident) who's skills are still intact before Black Lightning takes Val out by surprise to end the battle. We also find out Superman ranks Batman as a class 12 fighter while Val is at 15, Black Lightning's comment aside (Countdown #50 pictures are: second, third, fourth and the last one and Justice League Of America v2 #8 pictures are the rest)
Gives a massive beat down to Vigilante using just his skill despite Vigilante using a gun, gas, and grenades against him which have no effect on him (Gotham Underground #8)
Despite being ambushed, he still dominates Batwoman (his cousin Kate Kane) easily in hand to hand combat while holding back (having knocked her down hard multiple times with 1 blow each time with Kate even mentioning that she almost blacked out) leaving Batwoman with no choice but to resort to using gadgets/weaponry and treachery (sneaky combat tactics) in an attempt to take him down (Batwoman #24 & Batwoman Annual #1)
In a steel cage blinded with masks over their faces, he battles his former boxing mentor Wildcat (the best boxer in the DCU) and quickly deduces that he's fighting Wildcat judging by the unique fighting moves Wildcat/Ted Grant uses then holds back. Once he realizes Wildcat won't listen to reason he puts Wildcat down with a punch knocking some sense into him plus breaks off his mask (Batman/Wildcat #3)
Takes down Wildcat with a headbutt despite being ambushed (JLA/JSA: Virtue and Vice)
Defeats Bane in hand to hand combat (Detective Comics #701)
Defeats Azrael (Batman: Gotham Knights #5)
Showcasing his skill in vast martial arts styles, he battles his evil counterpart aka The Wrath (student of the original Wrath) to a stalemate but has a slight upper hand. To his credit, Batman does acknowledge The Wrath as being better then his mentor before The Wrath manages to narrowly get away (Batman Confidential #14)
Battles Owlman (evil version of himself from an alternate universe) to a stalemate (Superman Batman Annual #1)
Despite being younger and still a rookie Dark Knight at the time he proves to be evenly matched with the original Earth 2 Batman who's an older and more experienced version of himself from an alternate reality/earth. Both display unique martial arts skill and knowledge against one another that no one else besides them should know about (Batman Superman #2)
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