History Fridge / Batman

* The Red Robin suit Jason Todd and [[ComicBook/RobinSeries Tim Drake]] wear really just seems to come out of nowhere as a ShoutOut to ''ComicBook/KingdomCome''. However, Jason found it on Earth-51, where Batman killed every supervillain in response to Jason's death. The Batman of this earth also states that he intended to give it to his Jason when he became older. Assuming that before ''A Death In The Family'' these two earths were identical, this means the Batman of New-Earth developed the same suit for Jason with the same intended purpose. This probably means that Batman predicted that Jason would eventually want to strike out on his own, just as Dick had, and created a suit just for this purpose.

** He absolutely despises his nemesis, but [[FoeYay many people have pointed out that he could be interpreted as being in love with him]].

!!Examples from Batman in Comics
[[AC:FridgeHorror]]

!! General
!!!FridgeBrilliance

[[AC:The Killing Joke]]

** From which, quite beautifully, Batman promptly escapes.

* Batman's CrazyPrepared nature has become a RunningGag amongst the fandom. But considering just how utterly ''bonkers'' the world of Creator/DCComics is (superpowers, resurrection, aliens, time travel, the occasional {{Continuity Reboot}}s, etc, etc), being CrazyPrepared actually does make a lot of sense!

!!!FridgeLogic
* The [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] and [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] versions didn't have this problem, people had shorter lifespans back then, but the thought that Bruce was all alone with no family after his parents' murder is strange in modern times.
** [[MadDoctor Given the social services]] most likely to be [[CrapsackWorld available in Gotham]], this could actually have been for the best.
** I had always assumed that they had named Alfred as his legal guardian in the event that they died. His grandparents on both sides could have already passed and it's entirely possibly for Thomas and Martha to have both been only children. And if there were some slightly distant members of the Wayne family, here's always the possibility that they may have looked at the Wayne fortune and well... [[Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents it brings to mind the plot of a certain book series]]. Of course this is partially WMG, but still possible.
*** It has been stated in canon several times that Alfred was named as Bruce's legal guardian, though whether it is still canon is another question.
*** I assume they left Alfred as Bruce's legal guardian in their will to prevent all sorts of relatives and people from trying to get control of Bruce to get control of the Wayne fortune. Otherwise anyone who was Bruce's legal guardian in case of their deaths could just kill them, take custody of Bruce and use him to get to the money. By leaving Bruce to Alfred whom they trusted they circumvented Bruce being used this way and protected themselves from foul play.
*** Martha Wayne (nee Kane) ''did'' have siblings. However, one of them (Philip) chose Edward Nigma to help him run Wayne Enterprises and joined the Red Hood gang, another (Jacob) was very busy with the military, another (Nathan) died, and another (Bette's father) has yet to even be named, so she probably looked ahead and figured that Alfred would be a better guardian.

!! Examples from Batman the Series (1960s)

!!!FridgeLogic

* In "The Thirteenth Hat" the Commissioner reported that there had been "Three more hats stolen right out from under our noses...not to mention their owners." How exactly did he know the hats had been stolen? We saw the kidnappings and the people were alone at the time. Did the Commissioner just notice that there were no hats left behind after the kidnapping and assume they'd been stolen rather than just left on the kidnap victims' heads?
* The episode "Joker's Provokers" features probably the only in-universe example of this: the episode revolves around Joker's magic box, which is somehow able to [[ItRunsOnNonsensoleum speed up, reverse and stop time via hypnotism and]] [[WaterSourceTampering some special pills he plans to dissolve into Gotham's water supply]]. After the threat is over, Robin asks Batman how being hypnotized can allow someone to affect your passage of time (ie. not just their perception of it, as the effect is shown to be affecting even inanimate objects and gravity somehow), to which [[LampshadeHanging his only answer is to absentmindedly wax philosophical about how little they know about the nature of time]].

!!!FridgeHorror
* In "''The Joker Goes to School/He Meets His Match, The Grisly Ghoul''" Joker hooks up the Dynamic Duo to a pair of Electric Chairs, and if not for a handy power failure, we would've seen them fried.
** By the same token, ''a lot'' of the villains' death traps, though whimsical and silly in concept, would have left a pretty horrific mess of our heroes' corpses if they had actually been successful.

* Fridge/BatmanReturns

!! Examples from Batman the movie
[[AC:FridgeBrilliance]]
* When Joker says Grissom has a great singing voice, he isn't being nutty, he's being metaphorical. It's a figurative way to call someone a rat, because they "sang" to the police to betray you.
* Jack Nicholson's Joker actually isn't insane. He was ''always'' a clinical sociopath. The only thing that changed with his change to the Joker was that he became TheUnfettered due to the realization his boss was never going to let him inherit control of Gotham City. Really, all of the clown stuff was just window dressing to the fact he (ironically) looked like a clown.
** Which is why he acts so sane in private... having conversations with corpses.
* One essay noted: "Early in Batman, before he becomes the Joker, Nicholson's Jack Napier preens in front of a mirror. ''You look fine,'' says a glamorous woman admiringly, as she places a hand on his shoulder. ''I didn't ask,'' snarls Napier, shrugging off her hand. A man so vain would be completely undone by losing his looks. He would feel as if he'd died, which the Joker does indeed."
* Although fans were initially dismayed by the idea of Creator/MichaelKeaton being cast as Batman, it actually makes a lot of sense. After all, if you didn't think a man like Keaton could be Batman, then isn't that precisely the kind of reaction Bruce Wayne would be attempting to invoke about himself to preserve his secret identity?
** This was, in fact, Keaton's reasoning. He said in an interview that the actor doesn't have to play Batman as much as he has to play Bruce Wayne, or something similar.
* I always wondered why Alfred would slip up and tell Vicki that he and Bruce are going to be there for a while. Alfred is always very quick to catch on to what Master Bruce is doing and would surely have known what day it was...until I realized he did it on purpose! He obviously thought Vicki was good for Bruce and did his best throughout the film to make sure they stayed together, including letting her in the Bat Cave.
* Why did Vicki have almost no reaction to the revelation that Bruce Wayne is Batman upon entering the Batcave (as noted by Ebert and other critics)? Because she already figured it out before hand when she saw the newspaper clipping.
** Also, when she was riding with Batman, she noticed the look on his face, which was the same look she saw Bruce made after visiting the spot where his parents died, and on the newspaper clipping as a kid. Also, she tells Alfred she knows, which is why Alfred let her in the Batcave.
* The news bulletin ''after'' the one where the newscaster dies shows both presenters scruffy, puffy and laden with zits because people can't trust their cosmetics not to be laced with Smilex.
* As noted on the main page, the Joker's getting rid of Vicki's high heels initially just seems to be because they are slowing her (and consequently, his escape) down. However, combined with his later removal of her coat and the fact that the items are left for Batman to find as he ascends the tower after them, it seems Joker was in fact baiting Batman by making him think Vicki was being subjected to a ShamefulStrip.
* When Eckhart mutters, "Where have you been spending ''your'' nights?", it becomes obvious who ratted out Napier's affair with Alicia to Grissom.
* A lot of people wonder how Batman managed to miss the Joker several times with the weaponry on the Batwing. Unlike [[Franchise/StarWars Luke Skywalker]], Batman is no Jedi. Anyone trying to fire at a six foot target in a plane with anti-vehicle guns, especially when he was flying straight at the Joker, is pretty much just hoping for a stray bullet to get blown at its target. Sure the Joker would have to have been nuts to just stand there, but not hitting the Joker was just about as likely as actually hitting him. The Joker, [[ImprobableAimingSkills on the other hand]]... I've got nothing.
* Bruce pulled a BatmanGambit in Vicki's apartment. The tray he used as a bulletproof vest was positioned over his chest, where Napier had aimed when he shot Eckhardt and Batman at the chemical plant. (Batman held his arm over his chest to deflect the bullet that came his way.) The only way Bruce could've survived was if the Joker aimed where he did at the chemical plant.
* Joker at one point describes Batman as a "flying mouse". The German word for Bat is "fledermaus" which may translate as "flying mouse".
* When Vicki Vale pretends to show affection for the Joker by kissing his shirt in order to distract him from Batman, for a moment she sinks lower and goes offscreen, and from Joker's dazed, incredulous expression it looks like she's almost ready to give the Joker a blowjob just before Batman shows up.
* A small one regarding the film's writing, but interesting nonetheless: by the end of the movie, Batman and the Joker have met at least once in all variations of their identities. Jack Napier met Bruce Wayne when he killed his parents; Batman met Jack Napier when he dropped him in the chemicals, creating the Joker; Joker met Bruce Wayne at Vicki Vale's apartment; and finally, Batman met Joker in the finale at the church. Two characters, two identities each, yet they managed to meet each other at least once in each variation of identities. Not only did they create each other, they also looked each other in the face several times without ever realising who they really were.
** I take mild issue with that very last point, "never realising who they were". At least at Viki's apartment; Bruce outright tells Joker "I know who you are" (i.e. Jack Napier), and had known for several scenes by this point. From the point of view of knowing that Jack is the one who killed Bruce's parents, though, the original logic does stand, as Bruce didn't deduce this until that particular scene.
* Metajoke: probably Jack Nicholson's most famous protagonist role was a sane criminal pretending to be insane in ''Film/OneFlewOverTheCuckoosNest''. So it's fitting that his most famous antagonistic role would be an insane criminal who never pretends to be sane.
* In a way, the Joker is to blame for Vicki and Bruce becoming a thing.
** Early in the film, just as the Joker has been created, Bruce and Vicki have a date together, only for Bruce to tell Vicki the next morning that he has to go out of town. We learn soon enough that he's lying to her, but think it through. This could've been a XanatosGambit. If Vicki believed him and Alfred said nothing, then Bruce could simply have stopped calling her and vanished forever from her life. Alternatively, if she did ask Alfred and realise he was lying to her, she'd be so disgusted ''she'' would cut ''him'' out from ''her'' life, meaning that no matter what happened, Vicki would steer clear of Bruce Wayne
** The thing that causes them to get together is the Joker's mutual interest in Vicki after seeing photographs of her following Bruce Wayne around. He has no idea who she is, or that she's interested in Bruce (until he comes to her apartment), but he wants her for himself. By trying to force himself on her, Joker rather obviously incurs the wrath of Batman, making him intervene and save Vicki, thus inadvertently pushing Batman (or rather, BRUCE WAYNE) closer towards Vicki
** So much so that he even tries to tell her that he's Batman, in the aforementioned apartment scene, where he struggles to even say a single word to her about what's really happening. Even then, the Joker turns up and sees that he has competition, while Bruce's only thought is making himself the target to keep Vicki safe
** So, by the end of the movie, Vicki has fallen for Bruce Wayne, and vice versa. And it only happened, really, because of the Joker.
* Some commentators have noted that Batman's "aligning" himself with Commissioner Gordon (as much as he does, anyway) seems unmotivated, as Batman is at this point still a vigilante and wanted by the police. The story originally raised a point during the flashback to the Wayne murders (or possibly contained in the newspaper clipping about same) that showed Gordon, then a beat cop, was one of the first officers on the scene, and is the guy whom little Bruce is shown clinging to. (Other adaptations also tend to give the two a semi-filial relationship.)

* We see what kind of weird shit the Joker did to his first girlfriend. Just imagine what he would have done to Vicki had he been able to get away.
** ''Oh, you're beautiful! In an old fashioned kind of way. [[BodyHorror But I'm sure we can make you more.. "today."]]''
** The Joker does remark, "Beautiful... in an ''old-fashioned'' way." So, yeah, he was getting ready to give her a little makeover.
** He did more than threaten; he sprayed acid from his flower at her face. Vicki barely dodged being cooked by it.
* Meta Example: Jack Nicholson played the Devil in Film/TheWitchesOfEastwick. We see him dancing with Vicki Vale ''"in the pale moonlight"''. Might be seen as confirmation that he does indeed plan to kill Vicki.
* When Grissom tells Pre-Joker Jack, he's his [[TheDragon number one guy,]] he ends up trying to have him killed. Joker later says the same thing to Bob, implying he may have planned on killing Bob long before Batman stole his Balloons.
* Joker's [[DoNotAdjustYourSet televised]] BrandX stunt had an entire major city too terrified to clean their bodies, or their clothes, or the ''buildings''... An entire city yanked back to TheDungAges. Fleas, ticks, lice... Eventually people would start dying of things besides the poison, which would have led to total panic. One good riot under those conditions would kill everyone in the city as Joker contaminated ''damn near everything needed to treat wounds on that scale''. After a few days without maintenance, restoring water and power would be a multi-million dollar effort. A ''[[NuclearOption nuclear weapon]]'' would do less damage, as at least that would be ''sterile'' - a few weeks after a mass organic die-off like that, all the bodies will have been devoured by vermin, resulting in a population explosion that would sweep the Eastern Seaboard, potentially completely depopulating the political, industrial and commercial heart of the country. Look up John Birmingham's ''Without Warning'' for an examination of the global effects of America effectively vanishing from the world scene. Batman broke the Joker's "poison code" just in time to prevent millions (perhaps even ''hundreds'' of millions or even '''billions''') of deaths - a [[ApocalypseHow/{{Class0}} Class-0 Apocalypse]]. The original script was more clear about this, but [[ExecutiveMeddling the execs nixed a montage of filthy people fleeing Gotham.]]

!!Examples from Batman in Comics
[[AC:FridgeHorror]]

[[AC:FridgeLogic]]
* Why didn't Batman just kick Jack's gun off the ledge after disarming him?
** He didn't really have much of a chance; with Bob holding Gordon at gunpoint, Batman may have thought that any move toward the gun (and, by implication, toward Napier) would cause Bob to panic and shoot Gordon.

* A small one regarding the film's writing, but interesting nonetheless: by the end of the movie, Batman and the Joker have met at least once in all variations of their identities. Jack Napier met Bruce Wayne when he killed his parents; Batman met Jack Napier when he dropped him in the chemicals, creating the Joker; Joker met Bruce Wayne at Vicki Vale's apartment; and finally, Batman met Joker in the finale at the church. Two characters, two identities each, yet they managed to meet each other at least once in each variation of identities. Not only did they create each other, they also looked each other in the face several times without ever realising who they really were

** So, by the end of the movie, Vicki has fallen for Bruce Wayne, and vice versa. And it only happened, really, because of the Joker

* Meta Example: Jack Nicholson played the Devil in Franchise/TheWitchesOfEastwick. We see him dancing with Vicki Vale ''"in the pale moonlight"''. Might be seen as confirmation that he does indeed plan to kill Vicki.

** Early in the film, just as the Joker has been created, Bruce and Vicki have a date together, only for Bruce to tell Vicki the next morning that he has to go out of town. We learn soon enough that he's lying to her, but think it through. This could've been a Xanatos Gambit. If Vicki believed him and Alfred said nothing, then Bruce could simply have stopped calling her and vanished forever from her life. Alternatively, if she did ask Alfred and realise he was lying to her, she'd be so disgusted ""she"" would cut ""him"" out from ""her"" life, meaning that no matter what happened, Vicki would steer clear of Bruce Wayne

* The episode "Joker's Provokers" features probably the only in-universe example of this: the episode revolves around Joker's magic box, which is somehow able to [[ItRunsOnNonsensoleum speed up, reverse and stop time via hypnotism and]] [[WaterSourceTampering some special pills he plans to dissolve into Gotham's water supply]]. After the threat is over, Robin asks Batman how being hypnotized can allow someone to affect your passage of time (ie. not just their perception of it, as the effect is shown to be affecting even inanimate objects and gravity somehow), to which his only answer is to absentmindedly wax philosophical about how little they know about the nature of time.

* There's one moment in ''ComicBook/BatmanNoMansLand'' that smacks HARD of FridgeBrilliance. After the earthquake decimates Gotham, Jim Gordon actually considers looking for a career outside of Gotham, only to discover that to law enforcement outside of Gotham, he's considered a joke. Now us as readers would feel immensely insulted at this, since we KNOW that Jim Gordon is the hardest working, most honest, good man in the entire Gotham police force, maybe even the DCU, but then put yourself in those cops' shoes: Gotham is a WretchedHive with the highest crime rate in the nation; it's constantly plagued by the most insane, violent criminals in the entire DCU; is legendary for police corruption; and to actually maintain a semblance of order, the police actually informally condone the actions of a masked vigilante. From an outside point of view, Jim Gordon does totally seem like an incompetent.

* Being a BadassNormal is what Batman's all about. He's meant to be "feasible" in our world. Nonetheless, it has puzzled me in the past that whenever they give him [[EmpoweredBadassNormal temporary superpowers]], it's always [[ImaginationBasedSuperpower someone else's powers]] or a [[PoweredArmor mech-suit]] or something that otherwise has little to do with bats. Then it occured to me: that is precisely the ''point''. If they gave him non-tech powers entwined in ''his'' mythos (like make a pact with some Bat-god or whatever), those powers would be much, much harder to throw-away by the end of the issue! No matter how well meaning the author of such a story, no matter how carefully he disposes of those powers, the potential for abuse is tremendous... people would be tempted to bring those powers back into the story more and more often, undermining the point of them being a one-shot deal, and it could cripple the hard-earned reputation of the Bat-mythos as the ultimate BadassNormal.
* I knew that Batman in recent years is said to have a secret plan to defeat any of his fellow heroes in case they go evil. I came to realize that he did, in fact, also have a plan in place to defeat himself if he went evil: having a second person close to him, with a similar past, has spent his life studying Batman's fighting style (and adding his own twists to it), is personally familiar with both his lives as Batman and Bruce Wayne, and is young enough that he wouldn't be corrupted by whatever cynicism drove Batman himself over the edge. In other words: Robin.

** The one person he stays civil towards at all times is Alfred. Even when he's angry, exhausted, bitter, ect. He would never hurt Alfred willingly. So if he ever does, everyone will know that he's either gone too far or influenced by another being. And since the entire Bat-Family (and most other heroes that visit the Batcave) love and are loved by Alfred, they will not hesitate to protect him and fight Bruce.-Calico

* A cross-media example; one of the frequent observations / criticisms of the ''[[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum Batman:]] [[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity Arkham]]'' series of video games is that the in-game Detective Vision, which enables you to analyse your surroundings and the people around you for clues, threats and secrets at the expense of dulling the surrounding environment to a hazy blue colour and causing everyone you encounter to appear as a skeleton, is so useful it is rarely worth switching it off, which it's felt ends up dulling down the graphics for the player's gaming experience. In the games, as a shout out, this is also what turns Batman's eyes into white slits, as in the comics. Which leads to the inescapable conclusion that in the comics, Batman finds it so useful that ''he never switches it off either'', and because he's, well, Batman he doesn't care that the world seems dulled down as a result.

* Red Robin is a ridiculous name, mainly because of the American restaurant chain. But it occurred to [[Tropers/{{Maridee}} me]] that they wouldn't have Red Robins in Gotham. It's a target painted precisely for the Joker. Wouldn't be surprised if they don't have UsefulNotes/McDonalds, either.

* The Red Robin suit Jason Todd and Tim Drake wear really just seems to come out of nowhere as a ShoutOut to ''ComicBook/KingdomCome''. However, Jason found it on Earth-51, where Batman killed every supervillain in response to Jason's death. The Batman of this earth also states that he intended to give it to his Jason when he became older. Assuming that before ''A Death In The Family'' these two earths were identical, this means the Batman of New-Earth developed the same suit for Jason with the same intended purpose. This probably means that Batman predicted that Jason would eventually want to strike out on his own, just as Dick had, and created a suit just for this purpose.

** There's also the fact that Dick Grayson found his parents' killer and had that closure only a year or so after their deaths, whereas Bruce Wayne found Joe Chill 15-20 years after his parents' death (or not at all depending on which version of Batman you're reading). Batman and Robin taking down Tony Zucco allowed Dick to move on much faster than Bruce, who still had a few years to discover Joe Chill and Lew Moxon. This is noted in Secret Origins #13 when Dick is on Tamaran telling Jericho his origin story.

* A lot of people wonder how Batman managed to miss the Joker several times with the weaponry on the Batwing. Unlike [[StarWars Luke Skywalker]], Batman is no Jedi. Anyone trying to fire at a six foot target in a plane with anti-vehicle guns, especially when he was flying straight at the Joker, is pretty much just hoping for a stray bullet to get blown at its target. Sure the Joker would have to have been nuts to just stand there, but not hitting the Joker was just about as likely as actually hitting him. The Joker, [[ImprobableAimingSkills on the other hand]]... I've got nothing.