Given the vast number of characters introduced in the Batman comics over the years, it should come as no surprise that some characters are extremely divisive among fans.
- Jason Todd was initially so controversial that DC allowed for a fan vote to determine whether he lived or died. Ironically there were just barely more votes for him to die. There's also the rumor floating around that hundreds of votes in the "Jason Dies" line came from a single person, adding a large degree of uncertainty to the honesty of results regarding a poll designed to determine the character's popularity (and other claims that some voted for him to live only because they thought he was Dick Grayson). And surely he's got plenty of fans after killing a rapist.
- He actually is still this; fans either love him or wish there was a second phone-in vote to kill him off again. This isn't helped by his very inconsistent portrayals; some writers portray him as a very angry young man with a good reason to be furious at Bruce and who desperately wants to prove that he's a better hero than him but has a seriously skewed moral compass and sense of what heroism actually is, while others portray him as a one-dimensional modern-day '90s Anti-Hero with a side dose of Wangst. This has gotten worse ever since the New 52 began and the comics started portraying him in a more consistently sympathetic light with a closer (though still a bit strained) relationship with the Batfamily: Some like the idea of Jason getting some positive character development and healing from his trauma, others think that the new direction does nothing but make him a Karma Houdini and a canon example of Draco in Leather Pants and a third group likes the concept but finds the execution rushed and forced more than anything.
- It should be noted that even Frank Miller, the guy who introduced the idea of Jason Todd dying with Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, felt that it was a poor decision on DC's part. Though, he just felt the call-in method was crass.
- Bat-Mite. To some, he exemplifies everything wrong with the Silver Age. To others, he exemplifies everything right.
- The Robins in general. Either they're audience surrogates who provide an interesting insight into what it would be like to have Batman as a father, or they're useless and dated who only serve to hold Batman back. Dick has, fortunately, managed to shake that off by becoming Nightwing, a much more well-liked hero. Notably, the bulk of the former, 'Hold Batman Back' believers tend to be fans of the films rather than Comic Fans, where their only exposure to Robin is the Sixties show or the Schumacher films. So, their seeing them as dated is an understandable, if poorly sourced, opinion.
- Stephanie Brown/Spoiler/Robin IV/Batgirl III. Despite having a large fanbase, there are just enough people who hate her for her to qualify for this. Replacement Scrappy status aside, people either love her for being hope-filled, angstless, idealistic, and generally happy, while others hate her for all these things since they don't feel it 'fits' with the rest of Gotham's protectors. Some dislike her for her "incompetence" in crime-fighting before her becoming Batgirl (specifically during her Robin phase), but to be fair to her, this is a result of how several writers portrayed her even though she was actually perfectly capable in her initial appearances by Chuck Dixon. There's also the fact that both Bruce and Cass and to a lesser extent Tim, possess Charles Atlas Superpower level abilities, while Steph is a realistic depiction of a Badass Normal hero. So, she's either beloved for being unique and relatable, or bashed for being weak, stupid, incompetent, or accused of being The Load.
- Even The Joker has become this. He's either a freakishly awesome and funny villain as the Arch-Enemy, or he's overused and too competent to the point of being predictable. Writers who use a Dark Knight-esque Joker will either have people applauding it for the same reasons as Heath Ledger's interpretation, or lambasting it for mimicking something that was never supposed to fit into mainstream comics. The New 52 version of The Joker, in particular, is rather polarizing as either he provides a very creepy and fascinating look into Batman or is a childishly edgy villain.
- The Riddler. Some fans find him the lamest of the big-name rogues, with a mental disorder (OCD) that many find dull in comparison to the others. Emphasizing him as a "technically legal" villain has since quieted some of them down. Though back in the Golden Age and Silver Age, he actually was one of the most popular villains, since many of the other rogues who supplanted him hadn't been invented yet and he was generally more competent. This was lampshaded by Neil Gaiman in Whatever Happened To The Caped Crusader; an aging Riddler comments on how back in the day he was the big threat that Batman faced, yet now he seems like a small fry when you've got maniacs like the Joker around.
- Even Batman isn't inescapable of this status. Some people are sick to death of team-up stories where he's the Badass Normal who's the only one who can take down major villains while equally competent heroes he works with are taken out with little difficulty. It doesn't help under the hands of some writers he becomes a massive jerk, often acting like a gigantic dick to both friends and family alike but constantly portrayed as being in the right, and common reactions to stories like these are fans either cheering since well, it's Batman, or groaning and outright begging to have him get taken down a peg afterward. This has even made some fans prefer members of his supporting cast both for being more likable, or at least less moody and more fallible than him.
- Even among his fandom you can see a clear divide, often lining up closely with Alternative Character Interpretation and which stories fans grew up with. There is a large number of Batman fans who only know him through his darkest stories and see him as a brooding loner who should never work with other heroes at all and want his tales to dig into the darkest aspects of crime and human nature. Then some fans enjoy the "found family" aspect of Batman and like him as a center of the rich cast of personalities that is the Batfamily and want nothing but to see this utilized to the full extent and are sick of demands for constant darkness, wanting more balance and variety. Neither group really gets that well with people nostalgic for the good old days when Batman was a goofy Silver Age character, who consider darker stories an abomination and all members of the Batfamily except Dick and Barbara to "not count".
- Over the long, long history of the character, Batman/Bruce has been depicted as a compassionate man whose main motivation is bring hope to the hopeless, who is particularly sensitive towards the feelings and needs of children due to his own trauma, as shown by his numerous adoptions. He has also been shown as cold and singlemindedly obsessed with his crusade, driving him to near psychopathic behavior and moments of outright physical, psychological, and emotional abuse towards his children. Which is the “real canon” character and which is bad writing over the decades is an ongoing debate as the pendulum continues to swing wildly to this very day.
- The characterization of Harley Quinn in the New 52 is very divisive, especially because she tends to fall under Depending on the Writer. Harley giving explosive presents to children and killing them vs. the very clear attempt at Adaptational Heroism that her series fell under are the major extremes of her portrayals. The former's detractors feel that it was so darkly out of character that it should be Fanon Discontinuity while detractors of the latter feel that it's Draco in Leather Pants given canonicity. The more heroic portrayal is being applied more consistently as the series continues and fans are divided between it being a good way to make the character more sympathetic and likable or a bad direction that wasted a good villain.
- Joe Chill is another character fans can be divided on, especially when it comes to whether or not Batman should ever confront him. Some people feel he's an important Token Motivational Nemesis whose motives should be explored and whom Batman needs to confront sooner or later in order to get closure and/or test the boundaries of how far he's willing to go for the sake of vengeance and determine once and for all whether or not he's willing to maintain his code of non-killing when confronted with his parents' murderer. They also like the idea that Joe Chill has historically been depicted as no more than a common criminal, which allows him to work as a general representative of crime as a whole. On the other hand, many other fans feel that the murderer of the Waynes is best left as a dark, shadowy anonymous figure whose identity is better left as a secret and that trying to humanize the character and give him a name actually diminishes him. Also, the people who are against giving the Wayne murderer an actual identity think that if Batman does finally confront the murderer of his parents and either kills him or puts him away, then Batman's motivation and drive to fight crime will be diminished or disappear altogether since he'll have come full circle in avenging his parents' murder. Conversely, there's a segment of fans who think that the fact that Batman simply keeps fighting crime even after resolving his issues with Joe Chill is an important character beat, as it shows his career to be motivated by a very real sense of altruism rather than a simple revenge plot.
- Punchline, being the newest girl on the block, has her detractors and fans as well. Her fans are drawn to her look and her slightly different dynamic with the Joker, as she is fanatically drawn to his violence and sadism rather than loving him despite them like most iterations of Harley Quinn. On the other hand, her detractors see her as essentially just a misogynistic, victim-blaming, "pick me" recolor of Harley, since the reason the Joker doesn't act abusive toward her is supposedly that the Joker just happens to love Punchline more than he did Harley (which flies in the face of the facts on domestic abuse, as well as the Joker's traditional characterization and Word of God on his feelings toward Harley).
