The villains have Gotham City all to themselves, with no Batman to pester them! They'll cause chaos, chill out and maybe team up as they enjoy the city, all while getting to know each other better.
A fanfiction based on a discord Role-play group taking place in world of Batman, except without, well Batman. Him and the rest of the Bat Family have mysteriously disappeared, leaving the rogues gallery unrestrained.
While initially they start to get to know each other better, the plot truly kicks off when a drugged Mad Hatter forces thousands of civilians to kill themselves.
The first chapter can be read on AO3
or fanfiction.net. The series page is here on AO3.
Gotham's Finest Villains provides examples of the following tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Black Mask notes that Deathstroke stabbed his son through the heart and forced his daughter to gouge her eye out. Black Mask is this to Annie, since he forces her to train with Deathstroke.
- all lowercase letters: Killer Croc tends to speak like this.
- Alternate Universe Fic: Is one to the The DCU.
- Adaptational Heroism:
- In the mildest sense. Black Mask is still a ruthless sadistic Torture Technician, but claims he's trying to contain crime rather than pursuing power, greed, and fulfilling his sadism.
- Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow is a Nice Guy to his friends who mainly wishes to target bullies, mobsters, cops, and the Gotham Elite.
- Adaptational Villainy: Annie in Batman: The Animated Series was an amnesiac piece of Clayface who was otherwise an innocent young girl. In Chapter 20, she is revealed to be one of Black Mask's enforcers and surrogate daughter.
- Adaptational Sexuality: In the comics, Poison Ivy is usually is portrayed as bisexual and The Vamp. Here she's demisexual, and has very little interest in sex or kissing.
- Bedlam House: Arkham Asylum, as usual.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: In the first chapter Black Mask is in, he skins a cat alive and threatens Catwoman that he'll do it to every cat in Gotham.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: On one hand we have Catwoman and the band of rogues she hangs out with who cause mischief and meyhem for Gotham. On the other hand, there's Black Mask, a ruthless crime lord, who tortures people to death and helps run child sex trafficking rings.
- Broad Strokes: The note on the first chapter claims that this is the case, where several events of the comic happened but it is overall an alternate continuity with differences.
- Cardboard Prison: Black Mask breaks Two-Face and Mad Hatter out of Arkham a few weeks after they are confined there.
- Character Title: Several chapters of the fic are simply titled the name of a character who is prominent in it.
- Dark Is Evil: Black Mask, who wears a black skull mask.
- Dead Person Impersonation: One of Black Mask's followers is disguising herself as Huntress.
- Death by Adaptation: Helena Bertinelli/Huntress is killed by Black Mask sometime before the fic starts.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: In mainstream canon, Stefano Mandragora is killed by Huntress early in her career. Here, he is killed after her death by an impostor.
- Disabled in the Adaptation: Holly Robinson is deaf in this version.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
- Penguin has his adopted son, Martin.
- Black Mask has genuine affection for his surrogate daughter Annie.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Most of the villains are disgusted with Mad Hatter murdering countless civilians.
- Hero Killer: Black Mask has killed both Stephanie Brown/Robin and Helena Bertinelli/Huntress.
- Idiosyncrazy: Most of the Rogues have some kind of fixation. Catwoman is a known exception.
- Mad Hatter: The works of Lewis Caroll, with particular favor to ''Alice in Wonderland
- Two-Face has his coin, duality, and law & order
- The Riddle: Riddles (duh)
- Poison Ivy: Plants
- Scarecrow: Fear
- Black Mask: Masks, whether real or metaphorical
- I Just Want to Have Friends: One of Scarecrow's motivations, as he grew up isolated by his peers.
- Ironic Nursery Tune: Scarecrow sings "Three Blind Mice" while using lab rats in his experiments. Later he chants a variation of "This Little Piggy", while gassing the Gotham City Police Department with fear toxin.
- Jekyll & Hyde: Harvey Dent and Two-Face, as expected. He also has a third personality, "The Judge".
- Never My Fault: Mad Hatter refuses to admit responsibility for forcing thousands to commit suicide, blaming Poison Ivy instead.
- Patchwork Fic: The series takes inspiration from several Batman mediums, most notably Batman: The Animated Series.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: Catwoman routinely murders child sex traffickers. Not many people can blame her.
- Psycho Psychologist:
- The doctors in Arkham who subject Jervis Tetch to his own machines, driving him further insane.
- Jonathan Crane has elements of this, especially with his "Therapy Session" with Riddler, where he has Riddler restrained against his will and sedated.
- Secret-Identity Identity: Black Mask claims Batman's mask is his "true face".
- Secret-Keeper: Even though he is missing, neither Catwoman nor Black Mask revealed Bruce Wayne is Batman to anyone.
- Training from Hell: Deathstroke subjected Annie to being electrocuted, burned, and melted as a part of her training.
- Villain Protagonist: As every role-player plays a villain, regardless of who's perspective the story is in, it's gonna be this.
- Villainous Friendship: Several, including between Mad Hatter and Harvey Dent (although not with Two-Face), Poison Ivy and Catwoman and Harley Quinn, and Catwoman with Riddler and Scarecrow.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Catwoman and Riddler have this dynamic, constantly snarking at each other.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Black Mask believes the only way for crime in Gotham to be reduced is if he's in charge of it.
- Wham Episode: Mad Hatter starts off with Jervis using a broadcasting station to hypnotize potentially thousands of people into killing themselves.
