Jean-Paul Valley

Jean-Paul Valley Jr. was a college student who discovered he was secretly the latest in a long line of genetically engineered assassins created by the clandestine Order of St. Dumas, conditioned from birth to become their holy warrior, Azrael.

Few characters arrived with as much immediate weight as Jean-Paul Valley, who burst onto the DC scene in 1992's Batman: Sword of Azrael #1 — a key issue brought to life by the legendary Denny O'Neil and a then-rising Joe Quesada. Born in the Copper/Modern Age, he's a figure whose story has clearly resonated across more than three decades of continuous publication, racking up 138 catalog appearances and three collector-significant key issues along the way. His world is populated by the heaviest hitters in Gotham — Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, Tim Drake, and Robin among them — and his adventures play out across the pages of Detective Comics, Batman, and his own Azrael series. For readers who love morally complex, enduring figures at the darker edge of the DC Universe, Jean-Paul Valley is absolutely worth your time.