DC Cosmology

Alright Sup Forums, we're having one of these threads. Mostly because there is sure to be a bunch of people here who are confused over the absolutely glorious insanity that is the DC Multiverse, especially with the new additions courtesy of Metal. So, to start things off; Barbatos. What is he, where did he come from, and what's his fucking problem?

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>Barbatos. What is he, where did he come from, and what's his fucking problem?

I would think he's a creation of pic related to drag the Bat brand down further with overexposure.

We might find out in the Wild Hunt since Morrison is co writing it.

If I'm remembering correctly, it was stated that Barbatos had "help from something empty" in order for him to breach the positive Multiverse. It could have been our dear old Empty Hand and co who aided him.

>Barbatos. What is he, where did he come from, and what's his fucking problem?

Which version?

Milligan's conception was that he was just a random demon. He wasn't even a Bat to begin with but just used one as a vessel to talk through as it happened to be there.

Morrison conception is that of a myth about Batman. A native American folk lore passed down and later corrupted by Puritans.

Snyder's conception is some weird hybrid of the Hyper-Adaptor and some random bat themed big bad.

Dream's explanation also helps to clear things up a bit.

I'd like to see the page where that line is, user-chan

I'm still of the opinion this entire event is blowback from Final Crisis and the Return of Bruce Wayne. The hyper adapter eventually evolved into Barbatos.

It's not. Superman recreated the multiverse at the end of Final Crisis and removed Darkseid's taint from it. Nor does Multiversity explain a Dark Multiverse. Alternative and or "Evil" variations of DC universes are already present within it's conception and both Good and Evil are present on the same plane. There's no duality each is apart of the grander design. Mutliversity does establish that there isn't just one single multiverse but the idea of a "Dark" form of what we have is just nonsense.

The hyper adaptor didn't evolve either. Savage in Return of Bruce Wayne killed it. It's skin was used by Bruce to make himself look like a Bat inspiring the Barbatos myth based not on any demon, forth-world entity, but entirely on the concept of Batman.

Morrison's recreation of the multiverse was a closed story. Snyder's conception is his own version of it with completely new properties and rules.

Considering the nature of New Gods weapons as "Living Sotries", it would make a great deal of sense. It would also help tie into the whole story of the "Forger" and "Dragon" that Daniel told Supes and Burce about.

The concept behind the dark multiverse is simple: In the same way that most of our universe is made of dark matter that we can't perceive, the dark multiverse is a sort of ocean in which the normal multiverse exists. And the worlds that grow there aren't necesarily "evil" universes, but from possible worlds born from the dreams and nightmares of the inhabitants of the positive universe, and they rise and disolve but that doesn't change the fact that there's a massive dark matter ocean surrounding the multiverse. I think that fits in the cosmology.

And this is already accounted for in just Morrison's formation. Both Heaven and Hell are on the same plane on the original map. New Genesis and Apok situated on opposite sides but inhabiting the same space.

Further made redundant by the reveal in Multiversity that there is not just a single multiverse. Morrison subtly shifted DC's 52 conception into Marvel Infinite concept. There are infinite variations already established then that don't require a "Dark" conceptualization or some "upside down" variation of themselves. Those ideas, be they dreams or nightmares can already exists in some manner just within the parameters set up by Morrison.

If what Snyder was doing was just dreams and nightmares this wouldn't be an issue. It would make this problem an invasion from the 5th dimension rather than the 3rd. But Snyder hasn't done that and spent, I believe, the second issue setting down that his inverted Batmen are all real entities that had their own worlds and actually existed within his new conception of the multiverse.

tl;dr Morrison's rules and Snyder's dont mix. Morrison's rules make Snyder's idea redundant. Some weird worlds within worlds thing that just further complicates the matter.

But there was a Barbatos who predated batman. The giant bat who Vandal Savage kills. Then Bruce steals its skin and uses it as a cowl, becoming the first iteration of batman. What Snyder is doing, even if his incarnation of Barbatos is different to the hyper adapter, is in line with the idea that the bat was a symbol of cosmic evil that Bruce appropiated for good.

>But there was a Barbatos who predated batman.

No there was a Hyper-Adaptor. They are not the same thing. Barbatos was a named created by the Deer-People who renamed themselves the Bat-People after Bruce saved their ancestors from Savage. The Bat from its beginning as a symbol originated with Bruce and was always a symbol of
"Good". This was corrupted though. Puritans who were hearing stories of a dragon in the forest and witches mischaracterized Barbatos as this dragon. But in Issue 3 of Return of Bruce Wayne we are shown that while Western-Civilization has demonized the Barbatos myth, it's creators remember its real meaning and all bow to Bruce as he enters the cave where he stored his belt and a box for Dr. Hurt.

Hurt is the one who conflates the two, but his understanding is wrong. He's been unknowingly praying to Bruce his entire demonic carrier which Batman and Robin #16 literally bashes his face in with. His meeting with the Hyper-Adaptor is was by chance, a last ditch effort by a dying creature to get a win in, but it ultimately fails and is similarly murdered by Savage who had no idea what the creature was and just wanted to kill it to make a trophy with.

Here's Morrison's most clear statement on who Barbatos is. Here is Hurt praying for a sign with the same artwork shown prior with Hurt's meeting starting to appear in the mirror

Followed immediately with this. Bruce bashing his face into the mirror. The bat that was materializing behind Hurt revealed to actually be Bruce. And the whole demonic schtick nothing but fiction.

The bat from the beginning was an apokoliptan monster who belonged to darkseid. It was even implied that the bat that crashed through Bruce's window was the Hyper adapter (In metal then it is revealed it was barbatos, basically exchanging one cosmic monster with another). And through history, batman makes that symbol his own, until it culminates with him summoning the "all over" for evil that metron was talking about. Dr Hurt was a servant and weapon of darkseid, but the demonic symbol of the bat is eventually assumed by Bruce. The addition of an actual barbatos that predates darkseid and the adapter might be different, but thematically it's similar enough.

Honestly you can just pass of the dark multiverse as the product of a deranged dragon god that’s purposely filled with shitty unstable stories so he can build an army

Fuck Synder's concept. Fuck metal and the Dark multiverse bullshit in general, it's absolute hack shit.

> The bat from the beginning was an apokoliptan monster who belonged to darkseid.

And was not unleashed into the world until Batman shot Darkseid. Either way you cut it Batman predates both Barbatos and the HA. This is the main point of Return of Bruce Wayne.

> It was even implied that the bat that crashed through Bruce's window was the Hyper adapter

This doesn't fit for numerous reasons. First Batman: The Return shows us exactly what this Bat was. We have several pages just following this Bat and it crashing into Wayne manor. No where is it implied in anything Morrison wrote that this Bat was the HA. In fact Morrison's work details out why it wasn't.

Further Snyder's own work doesn't sync with this idea. Zero year again shows the scene in detail and no where is there any sort of cosmic force even hinted at being behind Batman's origin story.

I'm sorry but you're just wrong. What Snyder's doing in Metal is completely new and of his own creating. It's not a part of some grander story in fact it contradicts several that came before it.

Honestly I can just see it as the dragon steeling the whole barbatos thing and assuming it’s title because it’s already there why not use it to get to bruce

Which is probably all it is. I'm not sure why people don't realized Snyder's use of Multiversity is just continuity wank and not anything meaningful. it's clear Snyder doesn't have the same ideas in mind as Morrison and using his own. You can remove every appearance of the Multiversity map from Metal but keep all the dialogue and you'd never know they were supposed to be linked at all.

Because it raises the question of why is Bruce this important.

Calm your autism, friend. Even if his stuff is "hack shit" it's still fun to speculate about and see how it goes. Besides, it's not like it isn't a part of the overall 'canon' now, given that the next big Event is going to take place following whatever happens at the end of Dark Knights Metal.

Barbatos saw Bruce falling throughout uncountable timelines, and realized that he would make the oerfect gate to allow it to tread within the positive Multiverse once more. That's basically it.

Books of magic vertigo cosmology

You’re thinking of it all wrong. The normal plane of multiverses is full of stable universes. The Dark Multiverse is full of universes with a limited time span—universes meant to be destroyed and die. Its a never ending creation > destruction cycle, where as the normal multiverses arent meant to die.

I think people are really overhyping this "cameo", most likely be an offhand allusion

>Even if his stuff is "hack shit" it's still fun to speculate about and see how it goes.
I highly disagree.

not when you factor in the lantern war being cannon as well as dakseid war and coie, so there's essentially 2 anti monitors at least

You're not thinking it through. There are infinite multiverses. There is no need to purge anything as any possible variation of a universe is present in Morrison's conception.

And who is Barbatos again?

Wrong user hurt is just an autistic member of the Wayne family who worships barbatos

wish barbatos used this form more

Nah, you don't quite have it down, the evil history of a bat demon Barbaratos was real, but it was just the hyperadapter chasing Bruce, not a malevolent spirit that interacts with people and makes deals.

No it wasn't.

Reread RoBW #2 again. Puritans corrupted Indian folk lore with their own christian demonology and misinterpreted the Bat-People's Barbatos as an actual demon.

They do this because of tales of some dragon being seen in the woods and a woman claiming to be a witch who they burned.

I think we are agreeing, I am an ESL speaker so maybe I didn't say it correctly. I'm saying there is an entity that was a monstrous bat throughout history, but it was not a demon like Hurt was saying.

It's fairly straightforward. Morrison established there are infinite multiverses and Snyder made a story about another multiverse. Really the only new cosmology in Metal is the cosmology of how the other multiverse is arranged.

How i understood the dark multiverse was something like this:

The DC cosmology at his current iteration is Morrisonian in the sense that every Earth has a narrative origin. They are stories. If i remember well, Earth-14 is a "gateway" universe, one that allows other universes to enter the Orrery of Worlds. That implies that universes must come from a source. Maybe from THE source, the white paper that allows infinite potential.

However...what if a story doesn't survive being put on paper because is stupid or horrible by design? For example Sup Forums created the "Gordon wants that Batman rapes the Joker after the later licked his ass". Funny concept, but it comes from a "tainted source". The "sexually disturbed Gordon" Universe wasn't created to develop a story , but to make a joke, to be discarded. So, it is crumbled and thrown into the trash bin along every other bad fanfic or fanart to rot and never being part of the canon.

So, yes, Barbatos is an overrated janitor that quit.

I get this. My problem is the idea of a janitor at all doesn't work. Because the Multiverse isn't just one single thing. There are not just 52 Earths or just one map. There are infinite Earths, infinite maps, with infinite stories.

Gordon rapes the Joker may no fit within out cluster, but that doesn't mean it's just a joke. There being Infinite multiverses means there is already an Earth where that idea is real, a part of its own cluster.

I get that Snyder's Dark Multiverse are ideas gone bad. But that's exactly why it doesn't work with Multiversity and would fit better as a 5th dimension invasion story over what we have now.

>There being Infinite multiverses means there is already an Earth where that idea is real, a part of its own cluster.
And why can't that multiverse cluster be the dark multiverse?

Technically, Barbatos *IS* a demon, even in it's Hyperadapter form. Do remember that "Demons" in DC cone in two classifications: 'Normal' demons, as in the deal-making, somewhat reasonable, albeit still horrendously evil entities (things like the First Fallen and such), and the 'Cosmic' Demons, entities that hail from Beyond the natural Multiverse with the express purpose of unmasking everything or making reality mimick their own twisted existences, No deal making or soul contracts involved. Just straight-up reality distortion and unmaking. These are things like the Empty Hand and it's Gentry, Orqwith, the Decreator, Mandrakk, and others. Even the dark gods of Apokolips would technically fit this classification of "Demon". So yeah, DC runs fast and loose with it's demons and doesn't just slot them into one grouping.

>There are not just 52 Earths or just one map. There are infinite Earths, infinite maps, with infinite stories.

Yeah but those infinite multiverses aren't just from DC, they are the entirety of fiction. Marvel, archie, every fictional multiverse to ever exist. And as far as we know, only the DC multiverse has a "dark multiverse" where ideas grow from dark matter. The addition of the dark multiverse makes sense if you get used to the notion of infinities within infinities.

Dark Multiverse is an analogy of the creative process behind making a story. Some ideas are scrapped/destroyed, some are refined and eventually float upwards and join the rest of the multiverse.

That's a fine thematic reading but fundamentally the Dark multiverse is separate and unconnected to the 52. It's why Metal is a cosmic invasion story not a cosmic civil war or revolution.

>I get that Snyder's Dark Multiverse are ideas gone bad. But that's exactly why it doesn't work with Multiversity

In the current form of the story, i agree. I tried to make sense of Metal, but it doesn't play nice with former concepts.

However, we still don't have Wild Hunt and we know that Morrison and the Gentry are somehow involved. There's a link between Dream's library of bad stories, Gentry's putrid ideas and the abuse of the imagination (aka the 5th dimension) in a meta way that hasn't been elaborated.

What i can propose is this: Just like Kendra showed, there isn't just 1 Source of stories, but 2: The Source and the Dark Multiverse. Good and Bad ideas.
Bad ideas eventually creep into creators imaginations. Some remain trapped as ideas on Dream's library, others materialize into internet forums. And the Gentry tries to monetize them and make them canon.

What about the literal creature that Bruce fought in the woods during the pilgrim times?

>What Snyder's doing in Metal is completely new and of his own creating. It's not a part of some grander story in fact it contradicts several that came before it
That's the most annoying thing about Hypercrisis lately.

It doesn't get more blatant than Darkseid saying "There you are" while looking at Bruce through the bat. The bat that was killed by Vandal Savage, the bat that appeared to Hurt and the founding fathers, the one that attacked Dick when he was investigating the manor and the one that crashed through the Window are all the same being, a symbol repeating itself through time through time.

>And was not unleashed into the world until Batman shot Darkseid

Which he only could do after finding the bullet that darkseid fired as all time became one.

>Zero year again shows the scene in detail and no where is there any sort of cosmic force even hinted at being behind Batman's origin story.

This is no longer new 52 continuity. Read batman: Lost.

Forgot pics

This is why I want a unified multiverse history, combining COIE, Final Crisis, Multiversity, and Metal.

>Final Crisis, Multiversity, and Metal.
These didn't retcon or change the multiverse. Final Crisis is the heroes pushing back Darkseid's conquest. Multiversity is them avoiding being pruned by Empty Hand. Metal is the heroes being invaded by another multiverse.

The multiverse was a single universe until a scientist observed the beginning of time causing it to spread into infinite universes. Later Anti Monitor pruned it to a single universe again and some heroes went to a pocket dimension. The heroes then return as villains and create 52 exact duplicates of the universe. Then Mr Mind ran amok through them eating parts until they all became different. Then whatever Flashpoint is happened TBA.

I think I've found the problem with this seemingly contradictory iterations of the multiverse: We're looking at it from different perspectives. From the morrisonian, monitor outside perspective, beyond the orrery, all canon and non canon stories exist as a unity. 52 universes and infinite universes are just stages on the life of a living organism. Hypertime contains infinite possible timelines.

From the inside there's currently only 52 universes in the main dc universe (Not counting the ones located outside the orrery or within hypertime). Then it is possible that there is a dark multiverse composed of nightmares that cannot exist in the main multiverse.

Also, I think another factor that is being ignored is that the dark multiverse isn't just "bad possible universes". The conventional multiverse has many of those (Earth X, earth 17, etc), many born out of what if scenarios. The worlds of the dark multiverse are "wrong" at their core, which means they cannot exist without destroying themselves. It's pretty clear an analogy to scrapped ideas as some user pointed out.

No, I don't mean the stories. I want every element each story has told about the Multiverse's history to be unified into one narrative.
>Nothing, And Then!
>The Flaw
>The Monitor Mind
>Dax Novu
>Stories
>Monitor and Anti-Monitor
>The Forger and the Dragon
>Dax Novu's gift (The Thought Robot)
>COIE
>Zero Hour
>Infinite Crisis
>The Final Crisis
>Flashpoint
>The Empty Hand
>Convergence
>Rebirth
>Barbatos
>Doomsday Clock

I want it ALL as a summarized narrative ala Final Crisis/Multiversity.

Oh I forgot about Mr Mind.

Flashpoint affected Earth-0, aka, the cornerstone of the DCU. Every parallel Earth was affected and in Multiversity you see their current form

I haven't been keeping up with metal. I know there are one offs for each evil bat, where does it go after that? Picks up in some justice leauge thing?

The one thing that annoys me with Metal is the Casting and the Call are going to be collected in a "BEFORE METAL" HC. So it's gonna be The Call, The Metal, an issue of Nightwing and an issue of Batman or something. Shit is fucked.

>the absolutely glorious insanity that is the DC Multiverse
That's not how you spell "clusterfuck."

>>This is no longer new 52 continuity. Read batman: Lost.
Why would this no longer be DC Continuity?

>Picks up in some justice leauge thing?
There are several spin-off titles following the initial Dark Knight one-offs that expand on events following various League members and others as the Dark Multiverse steadily encroaches upon them, as they all desperately search for the Nth Metal needed to stop the invasion. The latest (and last before the finale) tie-in is called "Wild Hunt", and it's mainly going to show the assault of the Dark Multiverse and Barbatos' Knights across the entire multiverse.

>The Source and the Dark Multiverse. Good and Bad ideas.
I don't quite like the idea, too much "black and white".

Then again, it's very DC. I wonder what would Mr. A think?

We might need to wait for further Stories to glue everything together.

For example, we still need more stories to examine correctly the new Marvel Multiverse, how it works and how it is tied with time-travel, after it has been rebuilt in a completely different mechanic by Franklin Richards

The source has no halves. It is an absolute, as Morrison stated in Final Crisis: Secret files. the dark multiverse exists within the source

I didn't meant good and bad from a moral standpoint but from ideas that have future.

This user gets my point

so, the Dark Multiverse is Where Ideas Go To Die?

I think the problem is that the Dark multiverse is just shit.

Lets see if it can be done:

>In the beginning the was nothing... And Then!
A flaw, the Bleed(Ink), manifests in the Overvoid(Paper). Nothingness names itself the Monitor Mind.

>Dax Novu
Monitor Mind sends Dax Novu to study the Flaw and contains it(The Orrery).

>Split
Dax Novu looks too deep and it blinded by a LIGHTNING dazzle.
Krona looks into the past and the Universe splits into Earth One and Earth Two. Barry Allen comes into existence(Marking the beginning of the Silver Age). The Speed Force is created.

>Monitor, Anti-Monitor, The Forger.
Dax Novu catalogs each variation of the theme in each new Earth appearing in the Multiverse, rising from the World Forge. Failed worlds are devoured by the Dragon.
At this time, Mobius the Anti-Monitor begins his destruction of the Multiverse.
Dax Novu creates a machine of divine metals(The Thought Robot) to protect the Multiverse, but is killed/corrupted, becoming Mandrak.

>Crisis on Infinite Earths
The Multiverse collapses, with 5 surviving Earth forming one New Earth.

>Zero Hour
Hal Jordan rewrites time under the influence of Parrallax.

>Infinite Crisis
The survivors of the original Multiverse create a new Multiverse of 52 Earths.

>52
Mr Mind devours reality, altering the forms of the fragile Multiverse.

>Final Crisis
Darksied attacks the Multiverse. Superman defeats Mandrak.
Nix Uoton is left as the last Monitor.

>Flashpoint
Barry Allen breaks time. During his attempt to fix it, Pandora intervenes fusing three realities, while yet another force tandemly steals 10 years from history,and splits Superman in two, creating the New 52. The Multiverse and Hypertime are restructured by Earth 0's alteration.

At some point after this, the Forger is killed by the Dragon.

>Multiversity
With the absence of the Monitors, The Gentry lead by the Empty Hand labor to build the Oblivion Machine to end the Narrative of the Multiverse. They are opposed by Nix Uoton and the Justice League Incarnate.

>Convergence
Brainiac is revealed to have salvaged Earth remnants from each reality rewrite, confirming their canon.

>Rebirth
Pre-Flashpoint Superman returns to Earth 0, eventually becoming whole again(Superman Reborn). Wally West returns.

>Metal
The Dragon Barbatos attacks the Multiverse.

>Doomsday Clock
The repercussions of Flashpoint are coming to a head with events unfolding in the DC universe as two ideals collide.(Can the heroes of DC stop what happened on the Watchmen's Earth from happening on theirs?)

I started feeling incoherent writing all this(this a lot of bullshit to recall), so input would be nice.

Feel free to add more if you can. I know I'm missing a lot.

In regards to Flashpoint and Doomsday Clock, do keep in mind that it's stated that the reason by Manhattan's dramatic up-swing in power and seemingly radical change in views is that he's being puppeteer by *Something* from outside the Multiverse itself, so it might be important to factor in whatever point Manhattan was seemingly driven by it to actively play a part in the deconstruction of all existence.

More like the place were ideas that are dead on arrival are born (remember, the Dark Knights are edgy on purpose)....and then they die and are recycled

DC already has The Great Evil Beast as The Source/Presence opposite.

But is there one dark multiverse per multiverse, or the dark multiverse is a single one for all multiverses?

>Feel free to add more if you can. I know I'm missing a lot.
I mean if you REALLY want to add everything and get convoluted there is Sandman resets reality to kill a star that was destroying reality and also Sandman resets reality because humans got tired of the cats bullshit.
Also Convergence has some time travel end that makes a branching off split to another multiverse where the Antimonitor is stopped before destruction of infinite universes.

It is just the one. It is its own entity not bound to other multiverses for existence.

>A puppet that can see the strings
This goes back to the idea of the Bleed, the Overvoid, and the Forge.

The *Something* is US, the readers and creators that make the Multiverse real via drawing and writing, the same forces that Dr. Manhattan himself is subject to.

He may see the strings, but he has no choice but to comply.

The conflicts of the stories witnessed by him, Dax Novu, and the Montor Mind are the conflict of our own clashing ideas and values.

>branching off split to another multiverse where the Antimonitor is stopped before destruction of infinite universes.
Multiverse-2?!

Ouch. My brain.

I don't really see anything that would imply they are the same. Especially since Multiverse 2 was destroyed before Convergence.

>Also Convergence has some time travel end that makes a branching off split to another multiverse where the Antimonitor is stopped before destruction of infinite universes.
Doesn't that exist in the Hypertime?

Maybe it split off into hypertime instead of splitting off to another multiverse. I am not sure. But hypertime works.

It's bounded to DC, just think of it as where every bad future story goes to rot and decay. It breaks apart the notion that the heroes always win in the end, because for every time they triumph there's a thousand other worlds where they fell into darkness

Speaking of multiversity shenanigans, I want something addressed in Doomsday Clock.
Manhattan affected the post flashpoint nu52, resulting on it being grimmer and superman being superbro.
Readers didn't like it, so rebirth happened and we got supes back to how he was, before manhattan's influence, for the most part.
So, we, the readers of our earth, pushed back manhattan's plans and protected/helped supes.
It literally happened.

>It literally happened.
Hypercrisis is real, and this war is being fought me very possible side. This was just one middling battle within the greater conglict.

Bah. *Every, Conflict*

Because I autistically hate Snyder

you forgot *by
I suspect you didn't mean to write me every possible side

>you forgot *by
Thank you. Also;

>I suspect you didn't mean to write me every possible side
You'd be correct good sir.

...

Is there a reading list anywhere of the things I need to know to catch up on all the latest big happenings?

I like to think of it like this. Think of the universe as a stick. Now then you can take a bunch of sticks and bundle them together in a faggot. And there are faggots everywhere with various faggots all over the place. And the faggots aren't all the same. Some faggots are bigger faggots than others. There may be a faggot with 52 sticks or a faggot that isn't much of a faggot and just has one stick or even an infinite faggot with infinite sticks. And there are different kinds of faggots too like a faggot on fire, we'll call it a flaming faggot where the sticks are constantly in a state of being destroyed. Metal is like if an infinite flaming faggot went after a nice sturdy 52 faggot and tried to engulf it out of faggot jealousy.

Stale pasta is stale. Try harder, Autismorino.

Faggot

To try to make a unified history of the multiverse you need to understand it as an emergent structure. Every story ever is part of the mega continuity of hypertime, and it grows with every new story that is written.

"Hypertime Allowed every comic story you ever read to be part of larger-scale mega-continuity, which also include other comic book ‘universes’ as well as the ‘real world’ we live in and dimension beyond our own…it was also about how the world of fiction relates literally and geometrically to the world of ‘reality’…We all live in Hypertime-in our 3-Dimensional level of hypertime, which can be seen as CUBE TIME in relation to the DCU’s LINE TIME, we can pick up comics and leaf through them, flipping in any direction-‘time travelling’ back and forward through the ‘continuity’ like some new Doctor Who! (read the interview here)"

Basically the multiverse began with an ink dot (possibility) in the infinite void, then every element of continuity was retroactively added every time the story grew with new issues, including Krona, the antimatter universe, the dark multiverse, the vertigo creator gods, the endless, and all the origin stories and elements that we know

I'm going to use this thread to post an article I found on some Wold Newton pages with one of the oldest fan theories attempting to explain what was up with Barbatos in the Bat-mythos.
Ignore the rest of it and focus on the parts with Barbatos and see if it matches up with what was revealed so far (and remember, this is from before Dark Nights and Grant Morrison's run were a thing).

pjfarmer.com/chronicles/gotham.htm

>Dark City, Dark Knights: A History of Gotham City's First Family

>Even before the founding of Gotham City, the site upon which it would later stand was a significant one. After his participation in the final assault upon Camelot, the demon Barbathos was exiled from Britain by his mistress, Morgan le Fay. Taking wing on the giant bat that was his mount, and bearing with him the Stone of Aelk Hound, Barbathos first landed on America's shores at the very site upon which Wayne Manor would later stand. Here, he quarreled with the giant bat which had served as his mount, and left it imprisoned in the caves beneath the bluff upon which they had fought
>The Stone of Aelk Hound was lost to Barbathos, and remained tied upon a rope around the bat's neck, in the cave that he now did not dare enter. Barbathos was quickly hunted down and returned to Hell by the shamans of nearby Indian tribes, and the matter was presumed to rest there. Even so, some did not forget. Another demon, Merlin's half-brother Etrigan, had fought on the side of Camelot. Thanks to Merlin's magics, he shared the form of a man named Jason Blood. Ageless and immortal, Blood spent centuries tracking down Barbathos and the stolen Stone of Aelk Hound. [Swamp Thing #87]

>Hundreds of years later, Europeans settled the Eastern coast of North America, founding Gotham Towne in the early decades of the 18th century. Gotham remained a sleepy town for the most part, although all that would change. In the year 1765, a circle of mystics composed of Thomas Jefferson, Jacob Stockman, Thomas Wayne, Crosby Jacob Manfurd, Henry Queen and Bartly Langstrom invoked Barbathos, after spending six months preparing a sacrifice for him. Although the giant bat was unable to intervene and prevent the ritual's commencement, it sent one of its progeny, a bat smaller than itself but still larger than normal bats. Terrified by the beast, Stockman and his group left the ceremony incomplete. Barbathos, half summoned but incapable of taking physical form, seeped into the wood and mortar of Gotham City. The sacrifice, a young girl named Dominique, was abandoned to die. Stockman and his compatriots fared little better - one took his own life, and another was slain at Saratoga during the American Revolution - or so many believed. Stockman himself was overcome with remorse, and eventually left the city for good in 1793, leaving behind his diaries of the events. [Detective Comics #452-454]

>In truth, four of the six were contacted by Ludwig Prinn, a misshapen dwarf who was a worshipper of the Elder Things, and the author of De Vermis Mysteriis.[The Shambler from the Stars]
>Sensing their greed, Prinn convinced Manfurd, Wayne, Queen and Langstrom to join him in a conjuration from the stolen Testament of Ghul. The four were convinced, and willingly sold their souls for immortality and power. They each had children, faked their own deaths, and assumed other identities. Wayne had a son named Darius, who was the heir of his name and properties, but in the decades that followed, he fathered many more children under different names, many of which would also be influential in Gotham's history, notably Dent and Cobblepot.
>Still seeking the Stone, Jason Blood returned to Gotham in 1799, and on New Year's Eve his agent Stoker succeeded in finding the Stone, although completely by accident. Due to the intervention of the Swamp Thing, Stoker and his nemesis, the hero known as Tomahawk, crashed into the caves below the newly built mansion of Darius Wayne, where they encountered the giant bat. Grasping the Stone of Aelk Hound, Stoker found his hand became fused to it. Henceforth, it would be known as the Claw of Aelk Hound. It passes from this account now, being more relevant to the story of the Swamp Thing. [Swamp Thing #86]

>Darius Wayne was ultimately ruined in business after the escape of the giant bat. Whether this was due to the vindictiveness of Barbathos or simply the result of bad luck is unclear. The Waynes left Gotham, and the mansion fell into ruin, remaining unoccupied for decades - local legend stated that it was haunted. In 1858 it was purchased by Darius' grandsons, Solomon and Joshua, who planned to use the caves beneath the mansion as part of the underground railroad that helped escaped slaves find freedom in Canada. [Shadow of the Bat #45]

This part here is far later in the text and is basically the idea that the role of Batman kept being passed down in the family line to try and explain the sliding timeline (the WNU does this kind of reaching all the time), but there is a part here that returns to Barbatos
>(Thomas Wayne Jr, son of the 1939 Batman) found and properly buried the remains of Joshua Wayne [Shadow of the Bat #45], the original Batman, and most importantly, he set free the demon Barbathos, whose captivity had slowly transformed it into a more benign presence. Indeed, referring to itself as Gotham, the demon elected to remain present as a spirit of the city, but was no longer an integral part of it. [Detective Comics #452-454] The various criminal roles that continued to crop up - particularly the first rank of Gotham's criminals, such as the Penguins, Jokers, Two-faces, Catwomans and the like, would no longer be compelled by the various curses laid on the city, although the conditions would remain ripe for anyone who sought to travel the same paths. At the same time, Gotham had lost the living spirit that had protected it from so much over the years. Perhaps this explains the rapid reversal of Gotham's fortunes in the months that followed.

Any thoughts on it all?

Certainly interesting, and the idea that this version of Barbatos being trapped within the city that would become Gotham slowly turned it into a more 'benevolent' force over time is pretty neat. And in some areas, it does fit in with what we know of current Barbatos (specifically that it once used to wander Earth unchecked prior to being banished into the Dark). Good find, friend.

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