Shiva

Lady Shiva is widely regarded as the world's deadliest martial artist in the DC Universe — a supremely skilled hand-to-hand combatant who operates in the shadows of Gotham's underworld, serving variously as assassin, teacher, and unpredictable wild card to Batman and his allies.

Few characters in the DC Universe carry themselves with the quiet, dangerous authority that Shiva does — debuting in Robin #3 in 1991, courtesy of Chuck Dixon and Tom Lyle, she arrived in the Copper Age and never stopped commanding attention. Over more than three decades she has haunted the pages of Batgirl, Detective Comics, and Birds of Prey, sharing some of the most charged encounters in the Batman corner of the DC universe alongside figures like Cassandra Cain, Bruce Wayne, and Batman himself. That kind of company — and that kind of staying power, stretching all the way to 2026 — tells you everything about how deeply she's embedded in DC's mythology. If you haven't followed her trail through these titles yet, consider this your invitation.