Title Character
Batman (Bruce Wayne)
Allies
The Bat-Family (Batgirl | Batwoman | Jason Todd | Robin) | Extended Bat-Family & Other Supporting Cast (Azrael | Huntress)
Villains
Bane | Catwoman (Selina Kyle) | Clayface | Harley Quinn (Harleen Quinzel) | The Joker | Lady Shiva | League of Assassins (Ra's Al Ghul | Talia Al Ghul) | Mr. Freeze | The Penguin | Poison Ivy | The Riddler | The Scarecrow | Two Face | A-F | G-L | M-R | S-Z
Spin-Offs
Batgirl (2000) | Batman Incorporated | Dark Nights: Metal (The Batman Who Laughs) | I Am Batman | Nightwing (Dick Grayson) | The Outsiders | Red Hood and the Outlaws | Robin (1993) (Tim Drake) | Robin (2021) (Damian Wayne)
This page has Batman and his allies that are "officially" part of the Bat-family. Bold indicates currently held identities, since many of these characters have held multiple identities.
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The following members/identities have their own dedicated pages:
- Animal-Motif Team: They are all named after bats (Batman, Batgirl, Batwoman) or birds (Robin, Nightwing).
- Badass Family: The whole lot of them fight crime in Gotham City, even Alfred isn't exempt and has done plenty of his share of asskicking.
- Badass Normal: They became superheroes in a world full of Physical Gods with no superpowers of their own.
- Bat Family Crossover: Trope Namer.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: Batman has had intense training for more than a decade to prepare for his war on crime. He has also given nearly equally intense training to all of his proteges.
- Child Soldiers: Dick, Barbara, Jason, Tim, Stephanie, and Duke all started out as these. Cassandra was one under her father, David Cain, and started out as one as a vigilante post-Flashpoint. Damian still is one.
- Color-Coded Characters: Batman is blue, Robin is red, and Batgirl is purple when they work as a trio especially early in their careers. Once people start taking on new identities and new characters fill the old mantles it gets more complicated and irrelevant.
- Combat Pragmatist: As Batman once said, it's not fighting unfair, it's winning.
- Crazy-Prepared: It's how they're able to keep up with their superpowered colleagues.
- Depending on the Writer: What is Bruce's relationship with the Batfamily? It entirely depends on who's writing them at the time. While Alfred tends to be a consistent father figure to Bruce, Bruce can either be a Jerk with a Heart of Gold Papa Wolf that tries his best despite his stunted emotions or an cold, distant Jerkass who's outright abusive to them for not doing exactly what he says. How the Batfamily views Bruce also changes considerably, do they respect him and look up to him? Do they feel he's past his prime or do they outright resent the way he treated them? Fortunately, animated adaptations keep it simpler in that Batman and the Batfamily have an odd, yet deep connection to one another, and they tend to be the only ones that understand each other.
- Does Not Like Guns: Except for Damian, who's been trained from birth to use them, but he comes to abide by this rule of the Bat-family while with Dick. Jason and Kate Kane are also exempt.
- Dick carries a gun during his time with the Bludhaven police, but he doesn't use them as a vigilante.
- Dysfunction Junction: See their individual sections. The DC Universe seems to have a compulsion against giving any of the Batfamily a happy life.
- It's an explicit editorial mandate (with the New 52, at least) that no DC hero may have a happy personal life or be married. It has also been mandated that members of the Bat Family have to have miserable personal lives.
- It's even been mentioned now and then that Batman's mother's side of the family may well be suffering "the curse of Kane", as virtually anyone connected in some way to Bruce's mother's family tree suffers misfortune.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Much of the Bat Family, except for Nightwing most of the time, has this reputation in the superhero community due to the manipulative actions of their patriarch the Batman and his manipulative
Magnificent Bastard traits rubbing off on all of them. Comes to a head in the aftermath of the Tower of Babel comic arc where the family lost the trust of much of their allies due to Batman's contingency plans against his team and were even deemed as pariahs. - The Friends Who Never Hang: It's very rare to see all the members of the Bat-Family interact, most of the time it's Bruce and either a couple of Robins or Batgirls with the occasional Alfred. A primary example would be a lack of Stephanie having a dynamic with Dick despite both having close relationships with Cassandra, Barbara, Damian and Tim.
- Like a Son to Me: Most of the Robins and Cassandra are adopted by Batman and are legally his children. But his interactions make it clear that he's very emotionally attached to Duke, Stephanie and Barbara as well, as he is protective of them and can occasionally be seen in photos around the Manor.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Downplayed, since Cassandra Cain/Batgirl/Black Bat/Orphan, Damian Wayne/Robin, and Kate Kane/Batwoman all had some form of formal combat training before they became vigilantes, and Bruce and the rest did train extensively prior to going out in the field, but the Batfamily is essentially Bruce Wayne and his collection of orphaned, abused, and neglected children, most of whom are desperately looking for his approval.
- So Proud of You: Bruce is, at his very core, proud of his adopted children and biological child Damian, the issue is that Bruce often doesn't actually outwardly say this or express it in some fashion, which makes them feel as if they have to earn the approval they already have.
- Superior Successor: In many aspects, the Batfamily does outclass Batman as a whole, which he doesn't actually have an issue with. In fact, he wants all of them to be better than him, well aware that he is a man with many flaws.
- More specifically:
- Dick is the better acrobat between the two, and can perform maneuvers that Bruce couldn't pull off on even his best of days. He's also better at being The Leader, being a Nice Guy and The Heart means that he's better at cooperation and getting others to listen to his ideas and plans than Bruce.
- Jason is seen as an outright more effective Terror Hero Anti-Hero than Bruce, as his brutality and his admittedly loose lines of what he'll cross has caused him to be seen as a rather fearsome foe. Jason has better Improbable Aiming Skills than Bruce.
- Tim is outright stated to be a Gadgeteer Genius that's a level above Bruce, and Bruce himself claims that Tim is to usurp the position from him in terms of being The World's Greatest Detective due to his level of intellect quickly growing to outdo Bruce's own.
- Barbara might not have outdone Bruce before her tragic incident, but her role as Oracle has gotten her so good at collecting information and using it effectively that it outdoes what Bruce himself can do. Which is why that she is one of his most trust worthy and reliable sources of information.
- Cassandra outdoes Bruce in hand-to-hand combat and when she isn't hampered by her Logical Weakness can oppose some of the best fighters in the DC Universe which includes Lady Shiva, who is stated to also be above Batman in terms of skill. She's also better at using a Sherlock Scan on people, being much better at being able to tell what people are feeling than Bruce.
- On a lighter note, Alfred is the better parental figure than Bruce, being very open, kind, and warm to others and knows what others need to hear.
- More specifically:
- The Team: Bruce Wayne/Batman is The Leader and later the Big Good of the Batfamily, mostly levelheaded and mastermind type. Dick Grayson/Nightwing is The Lancer, his cheery personality as a child and charisma as an adult make him a foil to the brooding Bruce, and a much more respected leader whenever he takes charge. Barbara Gordon/Oracle becomes Mission Control and Team Mom feeding others intelligence reports from afar. Jason Todd/Red Hood is the Token Evil Teammate as a Fallen Hero that is sometimes on their side but just as likely a villain. Tim Drake/Red Robin is a Gadgeteer Genius variety of The Smart Guy, and generally Bruce's Number Two since Dick usually rides solo or leads a second group. Damian Wayne/Robin is the Young Gun and current Kid Sidekick, who's dark, overly ambitious and still adjusting to Bruce's code. Cassandra Cain/Black Bat is The Quiet One and The Big Guy despite her small stature, and Stephanie Brown/Spoiler/Batgirl is the most upbeat and hopeful of the family. Alfred is consistently in the background as Old Retainer Team Dad and occasionally Battle Butler. Selina Kyle/Catwoman is the most recurring Sixth Ranger bouncing back and forth between heroic and villainous.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: This is usually what you get if you put two or more of them on the same case, or Vitriolic Best Friends, depending on the writer.
- Thou Shall Not Kill: Once again except for Jason and to a degree Damian (who was raised to be a killer, and abides by the Batfamily's no-kill policy but still doesn't entirely believe in it). Kate also mostly refrains from killing out of respect for the Bat symbol, but has killed or threatened to kill various enemies and doesn't have the same moral issues with it that Bruce does.
- True Companions: While how much they all get along can vary from writer to writer, but the Batfamily tends to be incredibly close to one another, knowing each other well and being more open with each other than they are with most others.
With his identity as Bruce Wayne's guard dog, Ace fought alongside his master and his ward in their never ending crusade against crime... at least until Crisis on Infinite Earths where he was by and large abandoned by DC. Ace re-appeared in 1991 as a dog living in the Batcave, no longer wearing the Bat-Hound mask, but disappeared again after the No Man's Land storyline. In more recent times, Ace has made regular appearances on the animated Krypto the Superdog television series, and was one of the main characters in the DC League of Super-Pets movie. Bruce Wayne also had a dog named Ace in Batman Beyond, who even got to be the focus of one rather touching episode.
A new "bat hound" has appeared in the New 52. Named Titus, he is the pet of Damian who was bought by Batman for him.
Later, in DC Rebirth, Ace would appear in a one-off story, and was given to Bruce as a gift by Alfred. At the same time, Titus is still around.
- Canine Companion: He is one for Batman, or Bruce depending on continuity.
- Decomposite Character: It seemed like Titus was the New 52 version of Ace, and was even part German Shepherd. But Tom King's story in the Rebirth Batman annual has Alfred give Bruce a dog called Ace, and he is in fact actually called the Bat-Hound by Bruce. Because of this, Ace and Titus are now two different characters.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: He didn't trust AzBats and remained away from him, in a hidden section of the Batcave, alongside Harold.
- Gratuitous Animal Sidekick: In his first incarnation.
- Multiple-Choice Past: Each time he's adapted to a new continuity, his origin is heavily revised to justify Batman having a dog. Did he help Batman anytime his owner kept him at Bruce's care? Batman got him from a Native American? Was he a dog trained for illegal fights who escaped and was found by Bruce? A dog given to Damian?
- Policeman Dog: In stories that he narrates himself, he's depicted as an expert detective.
- Race Lift: Or Breed Lift, as the case may be. He's a German shepherd in the Silver Age, while his Post-Crisis version is a puggle. Titus is a great dane/German shepherd mix.
Probably the most famous butler in existence (even though he's often closer to being a valet), in current continuity Alfred and his ancestors have served the Waynes for generations; when Thomas & Martha Wayne were shot, he was the one who raised Bruce. (In the Golden and Silver Ages, Alfred joined the Wayne household shortly after Bruce had started his Batman career.) It seemed natural, then, that Bruce trusted him the most. From the start, Alfred knew that Bruce was Batman - in fact, he has often assisted his master with his latest experiments/inventions, even though he sometimes wishes that his master will settle down and live a normal life. He serves as Bruce's best friend, father figure, and eternally loyal companion.
During several critical junctures in Batman's career, Alfred was the key factor in his survival. A master surgeon, Alfred was almost always the one to patch him back up after particularly gruesome battles, since Batman couldn't very well simply go to the hospital. Alfred can be said to be the closest thing to a father figure that Bruce has - his advice is often the only one that Bruce gives a second thought about. Or, as Michael Caine has said, he's more of the replacement mother figure in contrast with Gordon's replacement father.
Alfred is, if necessary, the only person who can tell Batman what he can and cannot do. This makes sense as Alfred is the person Batman trusts the most. Batman made a promise to never use a gun - Alfred did not and has, on occasion, wielded and used a shotgun.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: Pre-Crisis, Bruce was already Batman and had taken Dick under his wing when Alfred came to work for him. Post-Crisis and every other version afterward would see Alfred as a part of the Wayne household since either, Depending on the Writer, Bruce was a child or before Bruce was even born, and would replace his Uncle Philip as Bruce's surrogate father.
- Age Lift: Post-Flashpoint. While he's not young, he's noticeably less wrinkled and isn't greying anymore.
- Almighty Mom: Alfred is the quintessential male example.
- Amateur Sleuth: Alfred had a great desire to be a detective in the early years after he was added to the cast. He studied detective work via correspondence course, and once even took a month's vacation so he could go to a nearby town and be a detective.
- An Arm and a Leg: In Endgame his hand is cut off by the Joker. He refuses to have it reattached with Bruce presumed dead, though he does get a new one attached after Bruce's return after Superheavy.
- Art Evolution: This is a minor case of Ret-Canon. Initially he was an overweight butler. But in the 1943 Batman film serial Alfred was played by William Austin, who was tall and thin, and had the moustache. To match this, comic book Alfred promptly went off to a health resort to lose weight and grew a moustache.
- Badass Normal: Like the rest of the family, though without being a costumed superhero.
- Battle Butler: Perhaps the ur-example. Not exactly a battle butler, but his skill at espionage and disguise rivals Batman's, and as a retired secret agent he knows his way around a shotgun. A former combat medic, he's also a skilled surgeon, and has served as Batman's private physician over the years (just think how tough that job must be...). He also wields a shotgun in several iterations. And he once shot a Predator in the face with a blunderbuss. And the Batman Who Laughs admits that on his Earth, it was Alfred who came the closest to killing him. Not Nightwing, the Robins, Batgirl, the Justice League, not the friggin Spectre, it was Alfred who came the closest to ending the fallen Dark Knight's reign of terror. He only failed due to a last-ditch play at Alfred's morality.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Alfred is undoubtedly one of the sweetest, kindhearted elderly gentlemen you will ever meet... but unlike most of the rest of the Batfamily, he will bust a cap in your ass if he deems it necessary. He's also the only person that Bruce will, without any snark or back-talk, truly listen to.
- Breakout Character: Alfred was originally intended to be a comedic foil to Batman and Robin, but eventually got more serious. The Post-Crisis version had him as an out and out Battle Butler, and surrogate father figure to the entire Bat-Clan. He eventually got his own series in 2019.
- Came Back Wrong: An odd phase in the character's history came in the Silver Age when he was killed off in a Heroic Sacrifice to save Batman and Robin from a deadly trap. However, a mortician used experimental radioactive treatment to revive Alfred as a stony-skinned creature called the Outsider, driven to crime by his singleminded hatred for Batman and Robin as he blames them for his own death. Alfred was restored to his normal self, but lost all memory of his stint as the Outsider. However, his Outsider persona occasionally emerged as a Superpowered Evil Side. On Earth-3, Alfred's Evil Counterpart is permanently known as the Outsider.
- Characterization Marches On: Alfred started out as a goofy, clean-shaven, overweight butler and would-be detective who would endanger himself while trying to solve a mystery and then solve it at the end through dumb luck. He later becomes a slim, snarky and really competent butler showing medical and fighting abilities.
- Combat Pragmatist: When he has to fight, he either prefers to strike from behind or to be the only member of the household who's perfectly willing to bring a gun to a fistfight. One issue of Nightwing had him save Nightwing from a hulking metahuman via both, by shooting the villain in the back with rubber bullets... which he only used instead of the normal kind because Robin pestered him to.
- Cool Old Guy: For just one example, the guy listens to The Prodigy. It's canon!
◊ - Cultured Badass: He's polite, used to be a theatre actor, can cook and clean, and is a former S.A.S agent who acts as a Hyper-Competent Sidekick to the biggest Badass Normal of the DC universe.
- Deadpan Snarker: Constantly makes ironic (but highly polite and proper) comments on Master Bruce's lifestyle.Batman: Jim will pull through!
Alfred: Or what, master Bruce? You'll dress up like a giant bat and haunt the night for the rest of your life? - Depending on the Writer: How much Alfred approves of Bruce's vigilante lifestyle varies from story to story, especially in adaptations where he can range from very begrudgingly resigned to his fate, or an active enabler who helps in Bruce's training. In most modern comics, Alfred is generally supportive, if very snarky when voicing disagreements, but even he has limits. If Bruce does something especially reckless, Alfred won't hesitate to lay into him like a worried parent.
- Dramatic Drop: When he sees that Stephanie Brown is still alive, he drops a tea tray. Steph comments that it's good to see him lose his cool demeanor.
- Give Him a Normal Life: After Bruce came back amnesiac in the Superheavy arc, he tries to keep him out of the loop of his former vigilante life, and urges Bruce to settle down with someone. All the while taking over the Batcave to make kids be Robins, and letting Jim Gordon become Batman to protect Gotham.
- Good Hair, Evil Hair: Subverted; the pencil mustache that he's normally portrayed with is usually associated with villains.
- Good Is Not Soft: Very kind and supportive, but unlike most of the rest of the Batfamily, he's perfectly willing to kill. He was a soldier after all.
- Go-to Alias: Alfred tends to use "Thaddeus Crane" (his middle names) whenever he has to go undercover.
- The Heart: Alfred's love and support is the glue that keeps everyone's sanity together, and without him Bruce and the rest of the family would be way less grounded.
- Heroic BSoD: Alfred's unflappable attitude breaks down whenever Bruce is seriously injured or thought to be dead to the point that he refuses to reattach his hand after Bruce is thought dead at the end of Endgame saying that he has no master to serve, and pitifully begs Bruce not to become Batman again once he recovers his memory.
- Hired Help as Family: Alfred Pennyworth is the Waynes' butler/valet and he is treated as a beloved member of the family, to the degree that when Thomas and Martha Wayne are murdered, Alfred takes their son Bruce under his custody and raises him like his own son. The feeling is quite mutual, with Alfred and Batman mourning each other as "my son" or "my father" when one believes the other has died.
- Presumably Thomas and Martha Wayne left a will with instructions of who would raise Bruce - it seems that person was Alfred since no-one else comes forward.
- Honest Advisor: Alfred, who knows Bruce Wayne better than anyone, isn't afraid to tell him when he's taking himself too seriously or when he's doing something that probably won't end well. He's also the person Bruce most respects, and probably the only person he trusts completely. And when you consider Batman's list of associates include Nightwing, Wonder Woman, and Superman, that is the highest of all possible praises.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: Batman's other sidekick. Seriously, Alfred is in charge of: cooking, cleaning, creating convenient excuses for the Bat-Family's absences, emergency medical attention, acting as mission control, emotional counseling, and support, teaching Bruce how to drive (since his parents died before he was of driving age), teaching Bruce how to be a father, being Bruce's surrogate father, grounding the Batfamily with his trademark snark, sewing GPS trackers onto all their clothes, being a chauffeur (which includes flying private jets), making sure the Batfamily actually gets to sleep, on top of organizing every Robin in Gotham City. Bruce values the man for a reason - he can, it seems, literally do everything.
- Legacy of Service: Depending on the Writer. Some stories establish that his father Jarvis had worked for the Waynes before him.
- The Medic: As former field medic, Alfred is capable of performing minor surgery and stitching wounds for the members of the Batman Family.
- Mission Control: Is frequently this for the Bat-Family due to his more-lacking combat skills and the fact that he needs to be present at the manor to come up with excuses for the Bat-Family. He's also this to the Robins in We Are Robin, organizing them under the callsign, "The Nest".
- Morality Pet: Even with his frustration with the Batfamily, Jason manages to either avoid targeting Alfred, or is on fairly amicable terms with him. When he's killed by Bane in Batman (Tom King), Jason hunts down, humiliates and kills Bane in return.
- My Greatest Failure: He considers the fact that he didn't do enough to keep Bruce from becoming Batman this, thinking if he helped Bruce emotionally, he could've avoided that from happening. In Batman: Dark Victory, he even swears to Dick to do better by him.
- Neck Snap: He was killed by Bane through this during Batman (Tom King).
- Nice Guy: Alfred is extremely caring, fatherly, and eternally loyal to Bruce, become his true father figure after the death of Bruce's parents. He has since extended this to his adopted family, and the cavalcade of Batman's other friends.
- Not So Stoic: Sometimes loses his composure when one of his adopted family is in trouble. He also loses his snark when the situation is really dire.
- Old Retainer: He was the friend of Thomas and Martha Wayne before they got murdered. He continues to refer to Bruce and Dick as "Master Bruce" and "Master Dick" mostly as a term of affection; he still sees them as his boys, rather than grown men.
- Papa Wolf: See Beware the Nice Ones/Combat Pragmatist. He's still a Battle Butler despite his age. He will step in to assist his entire adopted family if he has to. On one occasion, he even shot a PREDATOR that was overwhelming Batman.
- Parental Substitute: Openly acknowledged in a holo-message Bruce left to play in the event of his death. He refers to Alfred as his father and thanks him for raising him. Following the events of Final Crisis, he quietly grieves, "My son has died." Bruce pretty much hit another Heroic BSoD when Alfred died from Bane snapping his neck in Batman (Rebirth), and he is acknowledged by the Batfamily to be their honorary grandfather figure in his wake. Upon his death he left everything to Dick Grayson in his will.
- Prefers Proper Names: Alfred is close to the Bat Family, however he often uses the formal given or surnames of his comrades (I.E. "Master Bruce/Master Wayne", "Master Richard") for the sake of formality.
- Real Men Cook: Considering that Bruce is quite a Lethal Chef, he is shown cooking for his adopted family lots of times.
- The Reliable One: While Batman trusts his family to protect Gotham and his colleagues to save the world, Bruce entrusts the contingency plans in the event of his death to Alfred.
- Retired Badass: Former S.A.S soldier who still can kick ass if he wants to. The Pennyworth comic gives a different origin where he was part of MI5.
- Secret-Keeper: Naturally he is the first guy that knows Bruce's secret.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Despite being Bruce's biggest confidant, the stress of Bruce's actions do get to him and he'll resign in frustration. A notable incident happened in during Knightquest when the still-crippled Bruce refused to rest with Shondra Kinsolving still missing.
- Servile Snarker: We actually considered naming this trope after him.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: He is always dressed in a suit or tux.
- Shipper on Deck: He often plays this to Bruce and Selina in adaptations as well as in the mainstream as he sees her as someone who truly understands Bruce in ways that no one else does.
- Shotguns Are Just Better: Bang! Bang! Bang!◊
- Smart People Speak the Queen's English: British, and loves to give out a lot of Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness snark.
- Stealth Pun: He's Batman's batman.
- Team Dad: He may be a dad to Bruce but he's more team grandpa for the rest of them.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: Averted. He respects his master and the family's no-killing rule to the point of following it most of the time, but he personally has no issue with breaking it. He also doesn't share their no-firearms rule, so he's perfectly willing to pump any villain who tries to break in full of lead. Bruce generally lets him get away with it since it's the only way Alfred could realistically defend himself when he's in danger, and because he knows that Alfred has more integrity to kill without Jumping Off the Slippery Slope.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Starting with Scott Snyder and continuing through Tom King, Alfred's been known to enjoy making cucumber sandwiches.
- Undying Loyalty: Alfred will never EVER abandon Batman, except for the one or two arcs where he temporarily retires, because he thinks he's holding Batman back from growing up ("Officer Down", for example).
- Vague Age: Alfred's age in relation to Bruce hasn't been determined outside of "already an adult when Bruce is a child". This has led adaptations to vary wildly with his age in relation to Bruce's such as him being in his early 50s either when Bruce is three years into his career as Batman or when Thomas and Martha Wayne died, to being in his early 70s as a 30 year old Bruce Wayne starts his career as Batman, to being in his mid-60s working for a Bruce who's in his 40s and been active for 20 years, to being in his late 50s during Bruce's second year as Batman, to the novelization of Batman: No Man's Land (which takes place ten years into Bruce's tenure as Batman) saying he's 60 at the oldest.
- The Watson: Along with all his other roles, Alfred frequently acts as a sounding board for the Bat-family in discussing their cases. His comments and questions have been known to trigger Eureka Moments in Batman and the rest of the heroes as they figure out a key element of a mystery.
- You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: Alfred calling Batman 'Bruce' and not Master Bruce, is a rare occurrence, and only happens when something is very, very bad, or when it's very, very heartwarming.
Azrael first debuted in 1992 with the Batman: Sword of Azrael miniseries. The reason Azrael was created was to introduce a replacement for Batman during the Knightfall arc.
So, anyway, Jean-Paul Valley was just an ordinary postgraduate student in Computer Science at Gotham University, when his father stumbled into his dorm, bleeding to death. Just before he died, his ol' father informed him that he was actually the most recent in a long line of enforcers/assassins who worked for the Sacred Order of St. Dumas. So, after a series of misadventures involving a trip to Switzerland, training with a short old guy, allying with Batman, and defeating the weapons dealer that killed his father, Jean-Paul had learned that every Azrael was trained by being subjected to a series of subliminal messages (known as "the System," this training was "programmed" into an individual, and remained latent until activated by hypnosis) since childhood. Inspired by Batman, he rejected the Order of St. Dumas and saved the Caped Crusader from death. He even filled in for Batman for a while during the Knightfall arc, while the Dark Knight was incapacitated. Unfortunately, Azbats went crazy due to the System, and made a suit of armor to replace the Batsuit, which included adding a bloody flame-thrower and claws to it. The whole point of the arc was to show fans who wanted Batman to be more like The Punisher what would happen if that want became reality. Anyways, when the fan reaction was largely negative, they had Batman reclaim the title in a battle where he outwitted Jean-Paul, who finally came back to his senses when he took off the Azbatsuit's helmet.
So he went back to being Azrael, and even got his own title, which ran for a solid 100 issues (retitled Azrael: Agent of the Bat at issue #47 in an attempt to boost sales by tying it in with Batman). He even changed his costume a few times, and was a major player in the Batman: No Man's Land arc. His comic was okay for the majority, but all good things must come to an end eventually. Unfortunately, the writing and art got really crappy, despite Denny bloody O'Neil and Sergio Cariello being the main creative team, killing off Jean-Paul in the final issue, after which he was never mentioned or heard from again, aside from popping up in Blackest Night for a single page. Some have speculated that the reason Azrael: Agent of the Bat was never really popular was because O'Neil and Cariello were the only creative team the book ever had, which often resulted in old ideas recycled, and almost no character development for Jean-Paul.
A few years after the Cosmic Retcon of Flashpoint, Jean-Paul was reintroduced to the DC Universe in Batman and Robin Eternal. This version of Azrael was created by the woman known as Mother, his parents killed, his mind wiped and reprogrammed to serve as an assassin for the Order of St. Dumas. Encountering the Robins helped him break his conditioning, seeking revenge on the Order and Mother for what they'd done to him, and after Mother had been defeated, he set out on a quest for redemption for his past crimes.
More info on Azrael personal page.
During Pre-Crisis, Elizabeth "Betty" Kane was the niece of Kathy Kane and dressed up along with her aunt in order to meet their heroes (and potential love interests) Batman and Robin. This was until 1967 when the then current Bat-editor Julius Schwartz decided to take her out of the comic. She would later gain new life as a part of the "Titans West" on Teen Titans.
Post-Crisis, Mary Elizabeth "Bette" Kane was a teenaged tennis and academic prodigy who, after becoming infatuated with Robin, decided to become a superheroine herself. From there, she created the identity of Flamebird. She was part of the Teen Titans for a while and did her best to attract that Robin, eventually meeting him during the formation of the Titans West until the Teen Titans would disband as a whole.
However, not being a superheroine and just being a tennis prodigy with perfect grades and lots of money got boring after a while, so she attempted to reignite her Flamebird identity. Her initial attempt was through trying to recreate the Titans West, such as in the 1990 Hawk and Dove Annual, to no success. However, through Nightwing's attempt to get her to quit, Bette gained a strengthened will to continue being Flamebird out of spite.
In the New 52, she became Kate Kane's protege and was forced to retire the Flamebird mantle. Her uncle Col. Jacob Kane promised to train her if she still wanted to be a vigilante after she was gravely injured and rendered comatose by the villain Hook. Under the tutelage of Jacob and his Murder of Crows, she became Hawkfire and successfully took down Hook. After being badly injured again soon after this, she took a break from vigilante work. As of the Rebirth era she had enrolled at the United States Military Academy, seeming to be in her second year.
As of Infinite Frontier, Bette has returned to being Flamebird, joining her friends Hank Hall/Hawk, Dawn Granger/Dove II and Karen Beecher/Bumblebee as part of a renewed Titans West.
See the Teen Titans: Original Teen Titans character page for her tropes.
The Tomorrow Knight. Forty years into the future, Batman hasn't been seen in Gotham for decades, but 16-year-old Terry McGinnis, an ex-juvenile delinquent whose father was murdered on the orders of Derek Powers, the corrupt CEO of Wayne Enterprises after a hostile takeover, accidentally stumbles upon the secret that the reclusive billionaire, Bruce Wayne, was in fact the legendary Batman. Bruce isn't happy about the kid finding this out and is especially unhappy when said kid calls him out on his inaction over the corruption that still plagues Gotham. But after some bonding over some breaking and entering and stopping chemical weapons from being distributed, Bruce eventually decides to offer Terry the chance to be trained as the new Batman in Neo-Gotham.
In his crime fighting, Terry usually has Bruce's help via radio as well as quite a few advanced toys in his combat suit, including flight, limited invisibility, enhanced strength, and a whole lot more. Unlike his predecessor, Terry likes to talk and rile his opponents. He is decidedly less cynical and jaded and thus has a far healthier view of the role of Batman. Terry sees being Batman as an active redemption for his past sins as a criminal and a "bad kid" but he's also not afraid to enjoy the perks of the job and how it can be the coolest thing in the world.
The Terry McGinnis character started out in the animated series Batman Beyond, originally pitched as a show starring Batman in high school. Defying all odds, the show was a runaway hit. These adventures, however, only took place in the alternate world of Earth-12 of the DC multiverse. In 2010, after nearly a decade of lobbying and one or two teaser appearances, DC officially made Terry and his future world part of the DCU multiverse with Terry officially appearing first in Superman/Batman Annual #4. In the post-Crisis DCU continuity, he is the fifth known incarnation of Batman (after Bruce, Jean-Paul, Dick, and Damian) and was under the guidance of Damian Wayne instead of Bruce. The poor kid.
Years later, as part of the New 52, Terry was adopted into the mainstream DCU once again. He was one of the protagonists of the Futures End series, and is depicted as being trained by Bruce once again, and is now the fourth Batman (after Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson and Jim Gordon). He now also has an AI in his Batsuit called Alfred.
Over the years, diverging versions of Batman Beyond have headlined their own series. Listed below are general tropes applying to the character as he has appeared. For tropes specific to those versions, please see their respective pages.
- Alternate Company Equivalent: Comparisons can be drawn between him and Spider-Man 2099, both being a Legacy Character to a present day superhero in a cyberpunk future setting. Moreover that Batman and Spider-Man were one of the handful of direct crossovers between the two companies. Like how 2099 is a stoic character to contrast Spidey's chattiness, Terry is snarky much like Peter when Bruce was usually stoic.
- The Atoner: Terry believes his time as Batman makes up in some small part for all the trouble he caused as a delinquent.
- Break Them by Talking: Terry pulled one of these over on the Joker.
- Badass Normal: He can still kick ass outside the suit.
- Canon Immigrant: He was very popular, but the setting of his story seventy years into the future, as well as being a new Batman, were significant roadblocks in allowing him to be included in the comics. His entrance was delayed for over a decade.
- Clothes Make the Superman: The suit isn't invulnerable, but it was at first the only thing allowing Terry to be in the field without being torn to shreds before he got more training.
- Cool Car: His Batmobile flies.
- Contrasting Sequel Protagonist: Unlike Bruce who is infamously stoic, Terry talks as dirty as he fights to throw off an opponents game. This was his main weapon against the Joker when he returned, as the clown didn't take to heckling well.
- Dating Catwoman: Terry had his own version of this on the show and now there's a (new) Catwoman in the new comic.
- Deadpan Snarker: "A huge smoking hole. Could be a clue."
- Delinquent: Terry used to be a criminal when he was a kid, but seemed to be scared straight by juvie hall.
- Terry's own particular form of Combat Pragmatism draws heavily from his street fighting days; in fact, he's one of the dirtiest fighters in the bat-family (which is saying something).
- Depending on the Writer: his need to rely on the suit's abilities or not at least in the DCAU to help him at first but later on he's shown being just as good as Bruce is out of the suit as well has in it.
- High-School Sweethearts: Terry and Dana. In the future, Dana will eventually know Terry is Batman, and they'll get married.
- Legacy Character: He's the second or fifth Batman depending on the continuity you follow.
- New Neo City: Terry operates in Neo-Gotham.
- Ordinary High-School Student: "Until a moment of violence brought him to the home of Bruce Wayne....."
- Red-Headed Stepchild: One of the biggest signs that Bruce was his biological father. Since Mary and Warren McGinnis were red- and light brown-haired respectively, only one of his grandparents could have had black hair. Meaning it was a serious genetic stretch for Terry to have it, let alone his little brother too.
- Secret Legacy: Thanks to DNA replacement therapy that Warren McGinnis unknowingly went through, Terry is Bruce Wayne's son.
- Troubled, but Cute: Following the trend of the Bat-family, if not the entire comic book genre, Terry is a handsome guy with a troubled past.
- You Fight Like a Cow: Terry likes to talk when he's kicking your ass.Ma Mayhem: This is getting old, Batman.
Terry: Look who's talking.
Luke Fox is the son of Bruce Wayne's coworker Lucius Fox, who took up the mantle of Batwing in Batwing #19 in the summer of 2013.
- Deflector Shields: Luke's armor comes equipped with a personalized electro-magnetic based force field that's more than capable of tanking automatic fire from point blank range. However, hard-hitting weapons such as a high-caliber sniper rifle were shown to be able to pierce his field.
- Depending on the Writer: Luke's personality changes depending on what role he is filling at any given point.
- He's just a pretty normal guy in Batwing and Batman Eternal, angsting about his mistakes as you'd expect. In Detective Comics (Rebirth), he's a showy, charismatic supergenius inventor with a big ego, seemingly to contrast him with Tim Drake, who he was replacing on the cast, and whose defining trait was being "the normal one" on the Bat-Family. He'd return to his more everyman and subdued characterization in The Next Batman: Second Son and I Am Batman.
- His relationship with Lucius. Originally, it was established that Luke had something of a rebellious streak towards his father, but nothing particularly overt beyond refusing some big job offers, and that the relationship was otherwise loving. However, in The Next Batman: Second Son and subsequent works with Jace Fox, Lucius is established to have been a neglectful father to his children. Also, Luke is established as more of The Dutiful Son type, while Jace is the rebellious one, in contrast to his previous characterization.
- Expy: Of Tony Stark in Rebirth, complete with a car that contains his armour, which Tony had used a year before. He's a flashy, charismatic inventor superhero with a penchant for power armor and being smug.
- Genius Bruiser: Luke is not only a talented MMA fighter, but is also a brilliant mind who constantly tinkers and improves his batsuit. In Gothtopia, he synthesizes a cure for the hallucinatory gas that engulfed the city.
- Legacy Character: Becomes the second Batwing at the urging of Batman after David Zavimbe quit.
- My Greatest Failure: Not being able to save his sister, Tamara, from her condition after she was poisoned by Ratcatcher. His little sister Tiffany also holds it against him.
- Mythology Gag:
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Word of God is that his Batsuit is explicitly based in part off of that of Terry McGinnis. His personality is also similar. - His cowl vision mode is explicitly called Detective Mode.
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- Pet the Dog: After hearing about some of the crap Killer Croc went through while serving time with the Suicide Squad, Luke decides to let Weylon off the hook for attacking him in exchange for helping him apprehend the Riddler and his goons.
- Powered Armor: Moreso than his predecessor. It covers his whole body, has retractable wings, and all kind of gadgets stocked in it.
- Reed Richards Is Useless: He designed prototype non-lethal weapons to be used by the GCPD, with the logic that they could be used to stop criminals without killing them. Kate Kane then pointed out that while the technology is advanced, the GCPD would never be able to afford or mass produce it.
- Reimagining the Artifact: In a way, Luke Fox was initially conceived as a reimagining of the Pre-Crisis Tim Fox as the smart-assed troublemaking son of Lucius Fox, but debuted with both a significant boost in intelligence as a tech prodigy and combat prowess as an MMA practitioner to justify his rise to becoming David Zavimbe's successor as the second Batwing. But when Tim actually did return to continuity in late 2020 as Jace, Luke was rewritten into being a dutiful responsible son to contrast with Jace's regained status as the true Black Sheep of the Fox Family.
- Secret Identity: Bruce Wayne isn't telling Lucius he's working with Luke, which the writers note will cause eventual friction between the two if Lucius ever finds out.
- Sibling Rivalry: Ever since his big return in Batman (James Tynion IV), Luke's bitter rivalry with his older brother Timothy "Jace" Fox has defined a large bulk of their interactions together. Luke even makes an active and spiteful effort to keep referring to Jace by his given name as both a petty "Fuck You" and to ensure Jace never forgets whatever Noodle Incident he committed in the past which brought infamy to his name and effectively exiled him out of Gotham for much of his life.Jace: Hey, Luke.
Luke: Well hello, Jace. It's Jace right? Don't want to offend you by accidently using your real name.
Tam: Luke c'mon...that's not necessary.
Luke: Clearly it is! He gets set off every time you call him Tim. Isn't that right...Timmy? 'Cause you think, you change your name, you change your past. Doesn't change anything. It sure as hell doesn't change what you put this family through. - The Smart Guy: He's one of the most tech-savvy members of the Bat Family. Batman actually recruits him for the team he and Batwoman run because Luke is the only one smart enough to actually operate and maintain the technology Red Robin created before his apparent death.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
- He's Terry McGinnis a few decades early.
- In-universe, he's brought into the team to replace Red Robin, the Batfam's other resident Gadgeteer Genius.
- The Unfavorite: He seems to be this in his family, at least when Jace is around. His parents go out of their way to help Jace and give him chance after chance, as well as emotional support, while they mostly berate Luke for not doing the same. Similarly, his little sister Tiff shows much more affection towards Jace than she does to Luke.
Come the Modern Age, Kathy has been revamped as Katherine "Kate" Kane, a lesbian and a Jew who is much less of a Distaff Counterpart to Batman. During the series 52 (following Infinite Crisis), she filled in for the Caped Crusader while he went on his self-discovery journey. She became the star of Detective Comics after Batman's "death" in Final Crisis. The first issue sold out despite the notoriously low popularity of female-headed superhero comics and the old claims that gay characters don't sell.
Previous to her series, in 52, DC had some trouble fleshing out the character. She was basically a Lipstick Lesbian with Combat Stilettos. However, when she got her own series, both these traits were promptly dropped. While Kate is definitely not butch, she does wear her hair short out of costume and insists on wearing tuxedos to dances. She also now wears practical flats in costume.
Kate is first cousins with Bette Kane, the original Bat-Girl and later Flamebird. After years of speculation from fans based on her surname and DC all-but outright stating it, Kate and Bruce Wayne were confirmed to be cousins during the "Zero Year" event of the New 52, and were further specified to be first cousins in Detective Comics (Rebirth). This means that Kate is also cousins with Damian Wayne; first cousins once removed, to be exact.
More info on Batwoman personal page.
Bluebird
Alter Ego: Harper Row
First Appearance: Batman Vol. 2 #1 (November, 2011)
Harper's father had a habit of breaking things, then would disappear for stretches of time. During this time Harper would fix the things her father broke. Harper claims that her earliest memories are of watching the building super strip and graft wires, and fix things that seemed beyond repair. Harper soon developed a talent for fixing things herself. Her relationship with her father is stated to have been abusive, as she lists herself and her brother among the things he would break. Eventually Harper applied for emancipation. After achieving this, she moved out, taking her brother Cullen with her, and applied for a job with the city electrical engineer, and gets a job doing maintenance on the city's electrical grid.
Harper and Cullen moved into the narrows, and broke contact with their father. After an encounter with Batman, in which he saves her and Cullen from a gang, it inspires her to find ways to help him. She begins looking up videos of Batman online, and soon discovers that he's been sabotaging city security cameras, to avoid any clear footage being found of him. Knowing due to her job, that he can't access the cameras from remote, she becomes curious as to how he achieves this. She soon discovers Batman's private enhancements to Gotham's electric grid and uses it to track her new hero. She also begins working on a way to improve the boxes, hoping to repay the Batman. Later she sees part of the grid go offline, assuming something is wrong, she investigates and finds herself in a position to assist him in capturing Tiger Shark. Batman subsequently visits her at work shortly after, and tells her to not to get herself involved in his activities again.
And yet, eventually, she takes up the identity of Bluebird and is seen working with Batman essentially as his sidekick, using the name Bluebird, with a costume seemingly inspired by Nightwing's blue outfit. After discovering her origins and the role of Batman and Cassandra Cain in her life, she hung up the mask and now volunteers around Gotham, while still maintaining a friendship with Stephanie Brown, Tim Drake and Cassandra Cain. However, with Gotham recovering from the Joker War, Dr. Leslie Thompkins has asked her to redon the mask to watch over the captured Punchline.
- Arch-Enemy: Punchline becomes this at the end of her backup series Punchline after she corrupts her brother Cullen and later manipulates her way out of prison.
- Badass Normal: She's a superhero martial artist/marksman who doesn't receive any fighting training before.
- Child Soldiers: Was intended to be the perfect Robin by Mother. It didn't work out that way.
- Cool Big Sis: To her little brother, Cullen.
- Demoted to Extra: As Harper was designed primarily as a replacement for Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown during the time when both were Exiled from Continuity, her role was vastly reduced after the New 52 era ended and both characters were restored to prominence in the Batfamily.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Shows a great degree of skill with computers and electric equipment.
- Heartwarming Orphan: Both her and her brother.
- It's Personal: Starts taking down Punchline personally due to her words affecting her brother Cullen, who sympathizes and even wants to see her free.
- Jerkass: She has a tendency to be unpleasant to others, though she's usually a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
- Nonconformist Dyed Hair: She dyes her normally black hair blue and purple and she's a non-conformist, bisexual crime fighter.
- Precocious Crush: Downplayed. Harper, in her mid-to-late teens, has a crush on Batwoman, who is 10-15 years older.
- Screw Destiny: After learning of Mother's plan for her life, Harper violently rejects it and turns on her.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: She was created to replace Cassandra Cain after Scott Snyder was told by editorial that he couldn't use her. However, Divergent Character Evolution set in rather quickly, and as a result, the two girls have very little in common.
- Took a Level in Badass: Has been training herself and manages to create some makeshift gadgets such as tasers. By Batman Eternal, she has her own costume and arsenal, able to keep up with Batman as an official member of his allies.
- Unwanted Assistance: Batman tries to get her to stop. She doesn't.
Goliath is a bat-dragon that Damian befriended while in the League of Assassins. Damian slaughtered Goliath's family, but after Goliath doesn't fight back, Damian tearfully adopts the then baby Goliath as a pet. Talia allowed this, but encouraged Damian to raise Goliath as a weapon. In the year where Bruce Wayne was "dead", Damian and Goliath began a globetrotting adventure called the "Year of Atonement", where Damian sought to make amends with those he wronged during Talia's "Year of Blood".
Damian would go back to regular superheroics after his atonement, freeing Goliath. Goliath chose to stay with him, but Damian tasked Maya Ducard with caring for him.
Not to be confused with the previous Goliath tied to the Batfamily, a Red Robin villain who can be found on the character sheet for Tim's series here.
- Big Eater: The thing eats a lot, and his meals are often the size of Damian.
- Last of His Kind: Courtesy of Damian, who killed the rest of his species.
- Remember the New Guy?: He's introduced in Robin: Son of Batman as a pet Damian has had for most of his life. Why he never appeared and has never been mentioned before isn't explained, and it's just implied that he's been on Al Ghul Island with Ravi the entire time.
- Weak Sauce Weakness: Any kind of sonics. Maya eventually learned to manipulate her own sonic equipment to better guide Goliath.
- Undying Loyalty: Despite what Damian did, Goliath is completely unwavering in his love for the brat.
The daughter of Alfred Pennyworth, and a former member of the Special Reconnaissance Regiment. First appears in the New 52 during Batman Eternal after not appearing for several decades. While she has no interest in becoming a vigilante herself, even after discovering Batman's secret, she acts as Mission Control like her father after Hush injects him with fear toxin. She later played the same role on a global mission with Batwoman.
- Ambiguously Brown: Julia is biracial, but her mother's ethnicity is not known.
- Ambiguously Gay: Several of Julia's comments during the first arc of Batwoman (Rebirth) suggest that she finds Kate Kane attractive, and that the two of them may have even had sex.
- Badass Normal: Joins the SRR, and manages to beat Selina Kyle, albeit after she hadn't practiced for a time.
- Boyish Short Hair: Her modern incarnation has consistently had short, cropped hair.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: After the Rebirth Batwoman series, she was completely absent from comics for over three years, with no real explanation. Perhaps most infamously, she was not around to react to the death of Alfred, her own father, in the immediate aftermath.
- Deadpan Snarker: Inherits this from her father.
- Elites Are More Glamorous: Played with. She's introduced as a special operations soldier of the SRR, but is almost immediately severely wounded and taken out of that line of work.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: A crime boss impales her through the torso, ending her SRR career and leading to her Mission Control work with the batfamily.
- Lawful Stupid: On her mission with Kate, she often chastises Kate, sometimes harshly, for relatively minor infractions. For example, she admonished Kate for stealing an EMP from her personal weapons cache despite the device proving necessary to deactivate explosives that would have destroyed an island and killed thousands of people.
- Legacy Character: Kinda. Her call-sign when working with the Batfamily is "Penny-Two", whereas Alfred was "Penny-One".
- Like Brother and Sister: Word of God claims she and Bruce are intended to be this.
- Mission Control: Often operates behind the scenes in the Batcave. She later became this for Kate Kane specifically.
- Parental Abandonment: Alfred does this, though it wasn't willing on his end due to a breakup with her mother.
- Race Lift: Julia was white in the Pre-Crisis continuity, but her post-Flashpoint counterpart is biracial.
- Ret-Gone: She was no longer canon in Post-Crisis.
- Unrelated in the Adaptation: Her mother was Mademoiselle Marie in the pre-Crisis continuity, currently they're not related at all (due to her unknown mother having darker skin).
- Wait, What?: Not her, but she inspires this from the Batfamily whenever they discover she's Alfred's daughter in Eternal.
Duke Thomas is a teenage prodigy who helped organize the We Are Robin movement, a collective of young vigilantes who adopted Robin's iconography to fight crime during Batman's absence. After his parents were driven insane by the Joker's toxin, he was invited to move into Wayne Manor as Bruce's new partner.
- 10-Minute Retirement: At the end of Robin War.
- Affirmative-Action Legacy:
- Technically the first African-American Robin, though he never officially held the title. When he was officially made Bruce's partner, Bruce went out of his way to say that Duke was not Robin, but someone new.
- However, in the The New 52: Futures End, he officially became Robin after Damian's death.
- Black and Nerdy: Though a more physically capable example than usual.
- Child Prodigy: Duke is a very gifted student, and was shown preparing to take the Riddler's quiz challenge before Batman intervened and stopped the villain himself.
- Civvie Spandex: His Robin outfit consisted of a red jacket with the trademark "R" logo and a protective helmet. Bruce later gave Duke a proper costume when he made him his new partner.
- Cool Helmet: Wore one in We Are Robin, and was then given a new one as part of the suit Bruce gave him.
- Cultured Badass: One of his Robin War descriptions is "Vigilante Poet".
- Empowered Badass Normal: Dark Nights: Metal reveals that Duke is a metahuman with the power to... do some very vague things. Brian Hill's run on Batman And The Outsiders 2019 attempts to rectify this by having his ambiguous light-based powerset be corrupted by one of Ra's Al Ghul's enforcers, causing Duke to develop a much more clear cut style of Darkness Manipulation in its place.
- Then this gets escalated even further in his Secret Files solo series, where it's established that Duke basically hit the Superpower Lottery as a "Photokinetic" metahuman. Not only can he generate and manipulate both light and darkness, Duke also has a Healing Factor, an Aura Vision that allows him to uncover hidden clues, identify and track other metas, and perceive structural weaknesses that can be exploited. He can even bend light to turn himself invisible to get the drop on his opponents.
- Foreshadowing: Before Duke was officially inducted into the Bat-Family, Bruce had a hallucination during Batman: Endgame that showed Duke as a costumed hero named Lark.
- How Do I Shot Web?: By the end of his first solo comic issue, he has a basic idea of some things he can do and how to activate them, but he's still far from proficient.Duke (internally): So...Signal powers go!
Duke: Out loud then. Powers...on. Powers? #$%@&- Duke is inevitably put into this same position again after his light powers get corrupted by Ishmael. While Bruce insists that Duke suppress his new abilities until a more permanent solution can be found, Duke instead seeks to master his control over the shadows to become a better crimefighter.
- Like a Son to Me: Played both ways. Bruce has come to not only respect Duke as a capable hero, but also has given clear signs that he views him as a son, offering him to live at his manor when Duke's parents are infected with Joker gas. There are also a few times where Duke refers to Bruce as not only a friend and mentor, but as a father.
- Mission Control: Serves as this for Batman after officially becoming part of the Bat-Family.
- No Name Given: While he was previously known as (an unofficial) Robin, he had no superhero name as a member of the Bat-Family for his first few storylines, with Bruce generally just calling him "Mr. Thomas" while they're working. As of the miniseries Batman and the Signal, he has taken the name of the titular Signal.
- Only Sane Man: When Bruce informs the Bat-Boys that Bane is coming to Gotham and will likely attempt to kill them all, Dick, Jason and Damian immediately state their desire to stay and fight. Duke is the only one to heed Batman's warning.
- Platonic Life-Partners: Becomes this with Cassandra Cain after they both join the Outsiders. The duo constantly lean on one another as close friends and confidants when they're not currently busy kicking ass together.
- Power Glows: One of his light-based powers is the ability to see the points where Null takes in light energy to convert into negative space.
- Reimagining the Artifact: Downplayed. The Lark identity and general aesthetic first appeared in an old Silver Age story but Duke never officially adopted the alias beyond a hallucination sequence. These days, he officially goes by Signal as an alias.
- Red Herring: When Duke was first introduced, it was heavily hinted in stories like The New 52: Futures End that he would become the new Robin. While he did become a Robin, it was after Damian Wayne had already been resurrected, and never in any official capacity.
- Superior Successor: Having learned from the various mistakes he's made since taking other young men and women under his wing as sidekicks, Bruce reveals that he deliberately designed Duke's training as a multi-phase "immersion program" so the kid could eventually become this trope to those who came before him within the Bat-Family. Bruce even grants Duke his own base of operations in the form of the Hatch, gifts him a data-drive holding all of his personal files, contingency plans, and journals written over the course of his career as Batman to study from, then promotes Duke as Gotham's sole protector during the daylight hours, all so the fledgling hero can continue fostering his true potential.Batman: I failed Jason. Damian requires continuous supervision. Dick had to leave to find his own identity and city. But you? You represent Gotham's best. A born-and-bred Gotham metahuman with unparalleled detective skills who will be trained for League-level leadership? That's a legacy worth fighting for.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Pre-Identity Crisis (2004) Tim Drake, as a nerdy everyman and Only Sane Man who lives with an older relative instead of at Wayne Manor.
- Unique Protagonist Asset: He's notably the only official member of the Bat-Family who explicitly possesses actual superpowers where everybody else is some degree of Badass Normal.
- We Used to Be Friends: After officially joining the Bat-Family as Gotham's latest costumed hero, Duke inadvertently ended up alienating his old friends in the We Are Robin movement. The most tragic examples being Riko Sheridan and Daxton Chill, who both think Duke is a Sell-Out who turned his back on the Narrows so he could become Batman's "diversity hire."
Huntress (Post-Crisis / Rebirth) / Matron
Alter Ego: Helena Bertinelli
First Appearance: Huntress #1 (April, 1989)
The Post-Crisis version of the Huntress. Her name is Helena Bertinelli, the daughter of one of the Gotham's major Mafia families. At the tender age of eight, she was forced to witness the brutal massacre of her entire family. After spending years training (one of her masters was Richard Dragon, who trained The Question and Barbara Gordon), she returned to Gotham to become the costumed vigilante, the Huntress. Unlike most members of the Bat-Family who eventually built a level of trust with her, Batman held a deep distrust of Huntress for a long time, believing to be too much of a loose cannon, although he eventually trusts her enough to sponsor her for the Justice League (her original JLI membership apparently having been forgotten).
Notably, she helped maintain order in Gotham during the No Man's Land storyline, as a temporary Batgirl (and eventual Batman) when she discovered that criminals feared the Bat more than her Huntress costume. She has since been forced to resign from the Justice League, although she still operates as a member of the Bat-Family and the Birds of Prey team.
In The New 52, she's Matron, a secret agent working for Spyral in the ongoing series Grayson. She recruits Dick Grayson, who is believed to be dead, to be her partner. After the events of Grayson and after Helena Wayne has departed for Earth 2 (the place, not the comic), Helena Bertinelli leaves Spyral and adopts the identity of the Huntress.
See Huntress personal page for more info.
A remnant of the Starro alien being that Batman kept in a jar. While Batman only wanted to use him as a probe, they eventually developed a deeper, more affectionate father-son relationship.
- Badass Adorable: Especially in a Robin suit.
- Non-Human Sidekick: He's one of the only two Robins to not be human entirely, next to the Toy Wonder version of Robin from the 853rd century.
- Starfish Alien: Quite literally, due to being a Starro alien.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: When he relapses into Starro's alien conquering parasite ways, Batman gives him this speech to give him hope.
An android created by Batman as a contingency for himself should he ever cross the line and take a life. When Penguin frames Batman for his murder, Failsafe activates with the sole objective of stopping Batman by any means necessary.
- The Ace: The personified conglomeration of Bruce Wayne's genius.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Created with the same tech as AMAZO in case Batman ever broke his one rule of not killing. But it apparently can't tell the difference when Batman is framed for murder and promptly starts hunting him.
- Always Someone Better: Due to Batman's incredible martial arts skills, Failsafe is programmed with all the same fighting skills and then some.
- Crazy-Prepared: Anyone who knows Batman knows of his contingency plans should any member of the Justice League turn rogue. Failsafe is the answer to if he himself went rogue. Batman himself calls it "a paranoia of youth". As lampshaded by Tim, it's a contingency plan created by another contingency plan.
- Cruel Mercy: Once programmed with compassion enough to not kill Bruce, it elects to send him to a reality where Bruce doesn't exist; an oppressed Gotham for him to save.
- Combat Tentacles: It can extend tendrils to grapple and prick pressure points.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Its speech bubbles and faceplate are color coded to indicate mood. Red is hostile, orange is neutral, and blue is non-hostile.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Forces Batman to retreat when it attacks, and Batman's allies can barely keep up with it, with only Nightwing able to land a hit. It gets to the point where Batman has to adopt his Zur-En-Arrh personality. Because Batman knows the League's weaknesses, Failsafe takes them out easily.
- Heel–Face Brainwashing: It's ultimately defeated by exploiting a new opening in its armor to forcibly implant a sense of compassion so it won't kill Batman. It sends him to another reality instead.
- Kirk Summation: As it fights Batman and his allies it scathingly deconstructs him and the reasons it was made. That Bruce makes himself and his allies suffer for his own ends, that there is seemingly no end to his crusade, that in making Zur-En-Arrh to be a "pure Batman" he made someone more callous instead of sentimental even though Batman is supposed to be motivated by altruism.
- Hero Antagonist: Failsafe was created to ensure there could be someone or something that could stop Batman if he ever went over the edge and took a life, so the intention for good was there. But when Batman is framed for murder by the Penguin, it becomes a much bigger problem than its original purpose.
- Moral Myopia: It's intended to take out Batman should he ever cross a line and become a genuine threat to others, but to do this it has no problem enslaving Oracle and taking control of Gotham, letting crime run rampant to lure him out.
- Power Copying: What is implied by the statement it incorporates Amazo-tech, but not really elaborated on what that means.
- Thou Shall Not Kill: Created with this in mind. Should Batman ever break his no kill rule, Failsafe will activate and hunt him down renlentlessly. Doesn't mean it won't maim anyone in its way, since that's technically not killing them. It even leaves a kryptonite dagger in Clark.
- Trap Master: As part of its strategic superiority, any place it sets up camp in will be filled with traps.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: After it fulfills its programming it rockets into the sky to parts unknown.
