Source: comicsalliance.com

2. Killer Moth

Killer Moth started out as yet another anti-Batman. There were a lot of those, it seems. Moth, an unnamed goon whose name would be retconned to be Drury Walker, got himself a Mothcave, a Mothmobile, and started hiring himself out to help criminals escape Batman. He gave them all Moth-signals, which is a pretty good PR move.

He then set up a fake identity as Cameron van Cleer, which… wow. I have a friend who uses “Richard Ingognitus” as his go to fake name and even THAT is more convincing than “Cameron van Cleer”.

So Cameron somehow worked his way into high social circles and became buddies with Bruce Wayne. Eventually he and Batman came to blows, climaxing when he beat up Batman and learned his secret identity. Moth was then shot, which somehow gave him amnesia.

I…I don’t know.

Killer Moth screwed around for a while before selling his soul to the devil and turning into a moth monster. Then he died.

Honestly, most of my love for Killer Moth comes from A: His costume, which is amazing; B: His appearance in the excellent Batgirl: Year One; and C: His repeated – and fantastic – attempts to touch a lamp in the first Lego Batman game, and that’s fantastic.

1. Zeiss

Since I have already written about all of these underrated Batman villains, how about revealing who is my most favorite less-known (if I may say so) one?

It cannot be said that the Batman rogue gallery lacks villains having an obsession with the Dark Knight. After all, the Joker seems to be all about that. Zeiss is just like that. However, Zeiss is nowhere near that kind of perfection – as a matter of fact, the character constantly improves himself in order to take down Gotham’s vigilante.

And this is always interesting to me – what can I do in order to achieve my goal? Because, you know, my secret goal is to defeat the Batman…

Even if he appeared just in 36 issues since 2000, the year when he made his debut, Zeiss is the kind of villain that has the potential to defeat his opponent. And his obsession is the one that can help him – even if it is also the one that prevents him from doing that. This list would be incomplete without such a flawed villain, who always seeks to better himself.

He is so keen to taking down the Batman in hand to hand combat that he has learned all the moves the hero can make. Only with PIS (or, as some might say, because Batman is such a great strategist) he is defeated. For example, Zeiss fought the Dark Knight to a standstill, until Batgirl arrived to the rescue.

Zeiss possesses superhuman abilities, after undergoing a surgical procedure that accelerated his reflexes. For him, Batman actually moves in slow-motion – case in point, the pic above. How cool can that be, making a super-trained ninja look like an old man?

And there we go: a top of the most underrated Batman villains. I could probably do five more of these lists, just on amazing Batman villains that don’t get the respect they are due. Clock King, anyone? Zebra-Man? Condiment Ki—hang on, I’m gonna go write that list now.