Because Libertarian Doesn't Sound as Good

 

The first Batman villain based on a philosophy, Anarky was created in 1989 by Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle. Grant created the character around the ideas of anti-statism and populism, but eventually his philosophy turns more toward rationalism, atheism, and free market capitalism. 

Lonnie Machem is a child prodigy, based on Chopper from Judge Dredd, V from V for Vendetta, and Spy vs Spy. Heavily influenced by radical philosophies, he calls himself Anarky and begins a violent vigilante campaign against the "corrupt system" in Gotham. Naturally, Batman stops him, and realizes Anarky is only 12 years old. 

The character could be interesting, he appears to be built as an anti-hero from the start. Grant had admitted he created the character hoping he'd become the next Robin. That obviously did not happen, and instead, he becomes symbolic of misguided leftist terrorism, much like Poison Ivy. 

There have been several attempts to make this character stick. He had his primary story arc in 1989, and then a self titled miniseries in the 90s that led to his own title, but that was short lived. Recently he has been reimagined as a child prodigy with freakish intelligence. As stated above, his personal philosophy evolves from antifa-like liberalism, to libertarian self reliance. 

For a time, he even becomes the character MoneySpider, a comatose Anarky somehow fuses his mind with the internet. Sounds dumb? I think so too. MoneySpider was a shortlived idea. 

For the most part, though, this character draws parallels to other DC characters like Oliver Queen, and Jason Todd. And so... like Catwoman, and Poison Ivy, and Lady Shiva, Anarky has become, on purpose, a sympathetic anti-hero, or, as Eric Holmes states, an Anti-villain. He has appeared in the Arkham video games, and the cartoon Beware the Batman, and in the tv show Arrow.