Characters / I Am Batman

Batman Main Character Index
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)

Characters in I Am Batman. Namely, Jace Fox and other characters as they appear in his various series and those surrounding them.

The Fox Family

Timothy "Jace" Fox (Batman V)

The Next Batman

^{Click here to see Jace in his Batsuit}

"I'm doing this because I know what happens when people think they're above the law. And if I die trying...I suppose that's justice too."

The enigmatic eldest son of Lucius and Tanya Fox, Timothy Fox was once the notorious Black Sheep of their family. A rebellious youth who during his teenaged years rapidly developed into a hedonistic playboy, indulging in a jet set life of non-stop partying and promiscuous affairs. But on the night of his seventeenth birthday, a neglectful Jace accidentally hit a man with his car, and fled when the dying man asked for help. Running to tell his father, Lucius used all of his resources to create a smear campaign against the victim to protect his son from imprisonment, against Tim's wishes.

Tim became estranged from his family and was shipped off to military school. It was there, he decided to channel the pain of his guilt to reinvent himself into a force for good, going on a self-imposed exile from Gotham to achieve this goal. After spending years refining his skills under various mentors, Tim changed his name to "Jace" and spent the remaining years of his exile as a covert operative who targeted various figures within the criminal underworld who were untouched by the law. However, after Lucius was entrusted with Wayne Enterprises, he summoned his son home. Using his family's vast resources to secretly continue his war on crime, Jace discovered that his father and Bruce Wayne were involved with Batman, and Jace took it upon himself to become the next Batman.

Tropes that apply to Jace Fox:

• The Apprentice: He's this to Katana, who decided to take the troubled young man under her wing during the years of his exile from Gotham and train him in the art of combat.
• Ascended Extra: The character of Tim Fox has appeared in a total of six Bronze Age issues of Batman as a very minor supporting cast member prior to his reintroduction in late 2020. Now not only has he's been elevated as a mainstay member of the Bat-Family, he's been heavily marketed by DC as the next in line to become Batman.
• The Atoner: One of his primary reasons for being a vigilante is to atone for accidentally killing a man as a teenager.
• Badass Biker: Similar to his counterpart in DC Future State, Jace's vehicle of choice is almost always a souped-up motorcycle that he uses to cruise through the streets of Gotham City.
• Badass Normal: The man is a formidable combatant who's seen his fair share of scraps over the course of his career as a field operative. He also tends to deploy into his missions with only the bare essentials in terms of equipment, forcing himself to rely more on his skills rather than a vast arsenal of gadgets and munitions.
• Big Applesauce: After the events of Fear State, Jace has officially become the Batman of New York and has been deputized by the Mayor as an agent of the NYPD's Special Crimes Task Force.
• Big Brother Instinct: Is fiercely protective of his two younger sisters Tamara and Tiffany. To the point that when he finds out from Tiff that a Paparazzi named Ubetz broke into Tam's hospital room to take pictures of her comatose body, Jace temporarily puts the brakes on his hunt for Tyler Arkadine and orders Vol to dig up everything he can to find the dude so Jace can... have some words with him.
• Big Brother Mentor: In a Batwing one-shot written by Camrus Johnson, it was shown that Jace was the one who actually inspired Luke to take up MMA back when they were both kids. Jace would teach Luke various moves like the Superman Punch in exchange for Luke helping out with his homework. But their positive relationship instantly fell apart after Jace's dire mistake turned the eldest sibling into a Broken Pedestal in the eyes of his younger brother.
• Black Sheep: Unlike the rest of his well-educated and upstanding family, Jace was spoiled rotten in his youth and cared very little for anything besides himself. The incident from his teenage years resulted in him further becoming this to the Fox family, with his mother and father sent him away for fear that he would incriminate himself — and to discipline him — and a divide was created between them as a result, while Luke is actively hostile towards him from that point on.
• Breaking Old Trends: All of the Batmen who canonically preceded Jace had a personal connection to Bruce Wayne before they put on the cowl. Either they were directly chosen by Bruce to take up his mantle (Jean-Paul), were raised and trained by him as a sidekick (Dick), or was a longstanding ally of his (Gordon). Jace, on the other hand, rose to become Batman entirely independent of Bruce, intentionally appropriating the mantle for his own crusade against crime and to help combat the Magistrate's occupation of Gotham City. While Bruce is aware that there's another Batman running around, he is too swamped with his own crime-fighting endeavors to immediately investigate Jace.
• But Now I Must Go: Jace decides to pull up his stakes and head for New York City with his mom and sister. He does this because, as he points out, while in Gotham, he's nothing more than "the other Batman".
• Calling the Old Man Out: Jace is by far the most vocal member of his siblings when it comes to voicing grievance with their parent's more morally dubious actions.
  • In regard to his mother Tanya, he calls her out as an Amoral Attorney who isn't above abusing the weaknesses in the legal system to get what she wants regardless of whether or not it's the right thing to do. Tanya defends her actions as doing what's necessary to protect their family, and even suggests that her son should start doing the same.
  • In regards to his father Lucius, he calls him out on using his money and corporate assets to drag a murder victim's name through the mud in order to create a favorable narrative that can shield the perpetrator (Jace) from the consequences. Lucius, like Tanya, also defends his actions, by pointing out that the man Jace ran over was the farthest thing from innocent and claiming that if the roles were reversed, Jace would see no justice done by virtue of him being a man of color.
• The Casanova: Back in the day, Jace was a notorious self-admitted one of these. Even if he failed to woo one girl who caught his eye, he'd always have another side chick on speed dial to rebound with. And when he returns home with a stab wound after his duel with Eabha O'Roark, claiming he got it while breaking up an assault, his brother Luke doesn't hesitate to voice his belief that it's more likely that Jace got himself hurt mackin' on someone else's woman again.
  Jace: Pleasure was random and disposable. And once it was had, I was on to the next.
• Childhood Friends: Jace is revealed to be this with his handler Vol. The duo both attended the same military academy as teens and have essentially been inseparable since.
• Cool Mask: Unlike Bruce's cowl, Jace's Batman cowl comes with a armored face plate that covers his mouth. I Am Batman reveals that its doubles as a military-grade biohazard filter as a contingency against Scarecrow and his Fear Toxin.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Jace Fox is this to Bruce Wayne much like fellow Bat-Successor Terry McGinnis was. Where as Bruce comes from a respected and beloved Old Money family, Jace is the son of a self-made entrepreneur and inventor who is the subject of controversy over his Nouveau Riche status. Where Bruce is defined by the tragedy that befell him and his parents at the hands of a random mugger, Jace is a former hedonist who is haunted by an incident he himself perpetuated during his youth which forced him into exile as a disgrace and is defined by his drive to atone for it. Where as Bruce's public persona is traditionally an Upper-Class Twit, Jace prefers to get by in life like a regular person and has an immense distaste for the Ultra-Rich and more specifically those who believe their wealth puts them above consequence. And where Bruce is incredibly stoic and grim under the cowl, Jace adopts a far more sardonic persona during his vigilante endeavors and is prone to swearing and talking shit during fights.
• Costume Evolution: After the first arc of I Am Batman, at the urging of Lucius, Jace ditches the faceplate on his costume so that he can be seen as a black Batman by the public.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Before he returned to Gotham City, Jace was a covert operative who targeted major figures within the criminal underworld alongside his long-time comrade Vol who in turn served as Jace's trusted handler. His body also is Covered with Scars over the numerous escapades he was involved in, including a mission in Markovia which resulted in him being tortured.
• Deadpan Snarker: One of the few things he takes after his old man. Even at his most brooding, Jace is a certified smartass.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?:
  • After enduring an entire issue of being psychically tormented by a darkness-empowered Sinestro trying to coax him into commiting suicide, Jace Fox not only channels enough Heroic Willpower to persevere through Thaal's mind games, he also proceeded to beat the shit out of the Lantern with the power of his own ring. Just for comparison, the last Badass Normal character to pull off a similar feat against Thaal was a ringless Guy Gardner.
  • Does it again during the Final Battle of Dark Crisis, where he kills Pariah with his own Anti-Matter Cannon after helping Mr. Terrific bring the weapon back online.
• Good Is Not Soft: He's as moral as Bruce is, but he's also angrier. Also, when he threatens to do horrible things to criminals, because he's not the Batman, they believe he'll actually follow through.
• Good Old Ways: A Justified example. In spite of having the vast resources of the Hibernaculum at his disposal, Jace makes the pragmatic decision to design his Batsuit to be considerably low-tech and utilitarian so he won't be tracked by the Magistrate's surveillance network. He also decides to forgo the usage of Batarangs and the other exotic gadgets and weaponry Bruce had employed in favor of sticking with the more practical armaments he's already familiar with.
• Hidden Depths:
  • He's a fan of 1970s retro aesthetics and Cassette Futurism. When Vol succeeds in aquiring the Helix to serve as their new Elaborate Underground Base, Jace convinces Vol to not tamper with the interior design because he's really digging how "Funky" it is.
  • While he considers Lucius and Luke to be the true geniuses of the Fox Family, the apple didn't fall far from the tree when it comes to Jace's ingenuity. During the Final Battle of Dark Crisis, Jace was able to impress Mister Terrific with his engineering skills by quickly bringing Pariah's Anti-Matter Cannon back online in spite of the weapon not even being native to their reality. When Holt asks how Jace pulled it off, the Bat earnestly replies that he learned from his father.
• I Hate Past Me: Jace's biggest personal conflict is that he harbors a ton of baggage over the consequences of his hedonistic past and a horrible mistake he made back when he was 17. His Guilt Complex over his sins has even developed to a point he has a genuine death wish; believing that it doesn't matter whether or not he dies trying to take down his target Tyler Arkadine, as his own death would still be justice served in his eyes.
• Legacy Character: The fifth Batman after Bruce Wayne, Jean-Paul Valley, Dick Grayson and Jim Gordon. Unlike Bruce's previous successors, when Jace initially takes up the cowl, Bruce is still active as Batman. Jace and DC's promotional material distinguish the two by still referring to Jace as Batman, but referring to Bruce as the Batman.
• Non-Idle Rich: With Lucius in charge of the former Wayne Industries, Jace's family is now one of the richest on the planet, and they were already well off before that. Jace, having benefited from abuse of power and witnessed privilege firsthand, decides to use the resources of his father's company to fight for others. Jace himself seems to dislike people like his father and Bruce Wayne specifically because of their abuse of their wealth.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: While under the influence of Sinestro's Mind Rape, Jace hallucinates himself beating the breaks off of Detective Whitaker for calling him a coward. Once he figures out what's really going on, Jace enacts this trope for real on Sinestro himself.
• Nothing Up My Sleeve: The underside of his Batsuit's armored gauntlets secretly house a pair of extendible batons to use in close-quarters combat. His later appearances would also reveal that his gauntlet can launch the batons as an improvised projectile and recall them back via a tethered grapple line.
• One-Steve Limit: Likely the out-of-universe reason for his rename from "Timothy", given that he was created before Tim Drake, but wasn't a prominent character until his reintroduction.
• Powered Armor: His first official "Batsuit" was actually a tanky powered exoskeleton equipped with various non-lethal crowd control munitions that he used to great affect stopping Arkadine's hired muscle from turning a peaceful protest into a massacre. However, the armor's sheer size and weight prevented Jace from making a clean getaway afterwards. Once it had sustained too much damage from the Magistrate's Mecha-Mooks, Jace was forced to abandon it to escape with his life.
• Prodigal Hero: He's the firstborn child of one of Gotham's most influential corporate figureheads who had led a decadent and sybaritic life of vice until a grave mistake ruined his name and forced him into exile. Now Jace has returned to Gotham, determined to save the city in it's greatest time of need.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Lucius discovers Jace is the new Batman when his faceplate is torn off, revealing his distinct goatee. When Lucius suggests Jace ditch the faceplate, he also shaves so he isn't recognizable.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Jace laments that, for as much as he dislikes Lucius and what he did to Enrique, he still deep down wants to prove himself to his father.
• You Will Not Evade Me: One of his favorite tactics is using the grapple launcher installed in his Batsuit's gauntlets to ensnare and violently drag his opponents into melee range similar to Mortal Kombat's Scorpion.

Lucas "Luke" Fox (Batwing II)

Jace's brother, who is also secretly the second superhero to go by Batwing. Luke has a rough relationship with his brother, and takes every opportunity to remind Jace that he is not welcome. Jace's return further strains Luke's own relationship with his family, compounded by his sister Tam's condition.

For tropes applying to Luke in general, see Batman: Bat-Family.

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• My Greatest Failure: How he views the incident with Ratcatcher and Tam. When her condition returns, he sets out to find a cure and fails, which only makes his guilt worse — and in turn how he treats Jace.
• Sibling Rivalry: Luke has an incredibly bitter relationship with his older brother Jace. Many of their interactions together tends to immediately derail into a flurry of petty insults, which in turn further adds to the general discord of the Fox household. This is primarily due to the fact that Luke can't stop seeing Jace as the same womanizing screw-up who got himself kicked out of the house and can't fathom why their parents continue to shelter him from the consequences of his actions.
• The Unfavorite: This is how he seems to be treated when Jace is around, despite being, on-paper, the ideal son for the Fox family. Lucius and Tanya go out of their way to support Jace and welcome him back, and admonish Luke for having anything but a loving relationship with his brother. Tam and Tiff love Jace regardless of his past, and Tiffany clearly has a lot of love for Jace, and they also call Luke out on his treatment of their brother — Tiff in particular, who also heaps on some guilt regarding his inability to help Tam. However, Luke just can't bring himself to pretend that he's okay with what Jace did and how he gets to come back without consequence.

Lucius Fox

"Even now, safe at home, I'm still with her. I can't free myself of the phantom pain she left inside me. It's a vision that won't end. It's a dream from which I can't wake. How can I...when I'm still living the nightmare? We're still living in their nightmare."

The CEO of Wayne Enterprises, appointed by Bruce Wayne, and the patriarch of the Fox Family. Lucius is an ally of Batman's and knows Bruce's identity, having worked on equipment for the Bat-Family in the past. However, he does not know about the activities of his two sons.

After being physically and psychologically tortured by Punchline during the events of the Joker War, Lucius has become totally disillusioned with masked vigilantes and has grown obsessed with developing an alternative to keeping Gotham City safe which doesn't involve relying on them.

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• Broken Pedestal: Lucius used to be a staunch supporter of Bruce Wayne and his crusade as Batman, agreeing to become his armorer so he can help change Gotham City for the better. But after he and his family end up being targeted by Bruce's rogues gallery on multiple occasions due to his association with Batman, Lucius has lost all faith in Bruce and blames him as the root cause for his current woes.
• Knight Templar Parent: He will hold nothing back to protect his children, up to besmirching a dead man's name and protecting his son from the consequences of his own actions against his will.
• My God, What Have I Done?: When he discovers Jace is actually the new Batman, he shuts down the T.A.L.O.S. program forcefully, realizing that crime cannot be solved by normal people like him. He later admits to Jace that he's going to get some psychiatric help.
• Papa Wolf: For all his faults as a parent, Lucius loves his children. Anyone who hurts them or does anything to them needs to watch out.
• Secret-Keeper: Discovers that Jace is the new Batman, but, having realized how far he's fallen, admits that he's proud of Jace for what he's become.
• Took a Level in Jerkass:
  • In works by John Ridley, Lucius is established to have been a neglectful father in the past, and also somewhat ruthless. Previously, this was not a trait of his, and he was an attentive father and a much more moral character.
  • He takes one in-universe as a result of his experience with Punchline during the Joker War, Lucius has become (even more) ruthless. He openly admonishes Luke for his trouble dealing with the changes their family is going through and calls his family weak.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: In the wake of the Joker War, Lucius becomes determined to protect Gotham and his family in a way that doesn't involve Batman and his cadre of vigilantes nor the shortcomings of the GCPD, creating a team of Powered Armor soldiers derived from the Magistrate to patrol Gotham. It's only when he realizes that Jace is out there as the new Batman does he realize how far he's fallen and shuts the project down.

Tanya Fox

A lawyer, and the matriarch of the Fox family. After what happened to Tam, Tanya has an open disdain for all superheroes, blaming them for bringing supervillains into the world.

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• Hidden Depths: Despite her cold demeanor, she goes out of her way to help Enrique Acevedo's family financially — albeit with the condition that they not pursue legal action against her family — with the justification that, while Enrique was everything the media said he was, they deserve some good from being tied to him.
• Knight Templar Parent: She stops at nothing to protect her family, and even stops Jace from confessing the full context of what happened in his hit-and-run accident.
• Mama Bear: Tanya loves her children dearly and isn't as emotionally neglectful (and later abusive) as Lucius.
• Parents as People: While she knows Jace messed up in his youth, she also partly blames Lucius for being so neglectful towards his family. Despite also having a trying career, she's shown to be the one more active in parenting them.

Tamara "Tam" Fox

The oldest daughter of the Fox family, studious and well-meaning. Tam was the closest to Jace before he left Gotham, and is glad to have him back. She was previously driven insane by Ratcatcher, but later recovered.

Her condition returns as a result of stress from her family and she enters a vegetative state.

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• Angst Coma: Sort of. She enters a coma as a lingering result of being poisoned by Ratcatcher, but it's the stress and angst from her family drama that causes her condition to return. It's only until the Fox Family stops their in-fighting does she wake up again.
• Cool Big Sis: She's upbeat, cool to hang out with and gets along with all of her siblings.
• Unexplained Recovery: She somehow recovered from the Ratcatcher incident between the end of Batwing and her reappearance in Batman (James Tynion IV). It doesn't last.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: While Tam was rescued by Luke in Batwing, she never fully recovered from what Ratcatcher and Menace put her through which has taken a significant toll on her health. Even when she finally does snap out of her coma, Tam's motor skills have severely degraded and needs intense long-term physical therapy to regain any hope of being able to walk again.

Tiffany "Tiff" Fox

The youngest child in the Fox family. She's excited for her brother's return, and not happy with Luke's treatment of him. She is aware of Luke's life as Batwing.

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• Big Brother Worship: She previously adored Luke, especially after learning his superhero identity as Batwing. But once it becomes clear that Luke has been using his vigilante lifestyle to escape the family drama back home on top of his unfair treatment of Jace, Luke has largely become a Broken Pedestal in her eyes.
• Child Prodigy: Tiff boasts an I.Q. of 190 and used to reads works from Alfred Adler and Raymond Cattell for fun.
• Kid Hero: After Luke fails to secure a cure for Tamara's condition, Tiff starts immersing herself in martial arts training with the implication that she wants to become a vigilante as well specifically to make up for her brother's perceived incompetence.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: She's gone from being the adorable kid sister of the Fox siblings to an angry teenager, partly due to the loss of innocence she's suffered in-universe as the captive of Menace and Ratcatcher.
• What the Hell, Hero?: She will repeatedly call out Luke, both for his treatment of Jace and his own failure with Tamara.

Gotham City Police Department

Commissioner Renee Montoya (The Question II)

"There are questions to be answered. Answering questions is kind of what I live for."

Formerly a Detective at the GCPD, and an out lesbian. Renee Montoya has endured a lot of hardship in regards to her sexuality and descent into alcoholism. But after embracing the teachings of the masked vigilante Vic Sage, Renee would rise to become Vic's successor as The Question. She was also previously in a relationship with Kate Kane.

After the Joker War, Renee was offered the role of commissioner of the GCPD by Mayor Nakano. Knowing that the no-masks policy would be enforced with or without her, Renee accepted the offer, to at least ensure that superheroes would not be killed on the spot. But once the events of Fear State saw the fall of the Magistrate and with it, Nakano's hardline policies against superheroes, Renee donned her mask and fedora once more to recruit the new Batman's help in solving Anarky's murder.

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• Affirmative-Action Legacy: The gay, Hispanic, and female successor to James Gordon as commissioner. She was also originally this to Vic Sage as the second Question.
• And Then What?: With the Magistrate down for the count and the GCPD successfully rebuilt from the ground up, Renee feels that she's finally hit a wall in Gotham and doesn't know what to do next with her life. She even admits to Adriana that she is genuinely considering accepting Villainueva's job offer and reestablish herself in NYC because of this.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: She tries to make sure the no-masks law is enforced without excessive violence, and also gives Whitaker a second chance when she learns he let Batwing escape.
• He's Back!: She adopts the Question persona once again to investigate the sketchy circumstances of Anarky's murder, as well as seek out Jace's insight on the case due to his connection to the parties involved.
• Hidden Purpose Test: According to Lucius, The Question didn't just show up in New York just to investigate a cold case and might secretly be sizing up Jace, citing how both her and her predeccessor were notorious investigators of human behavor. But exactly what she's testing Jace for is still a mystery.
• Rookie Male, Experienced Female: Her partnership with Jace has shades of this. Where as Jace is a fledgling Batman still going through the growing pains of his "Year One" phase, Renee is a veteran vigilante and homicide detective who leads the charge of their joint investigation and leaves the former impressed with how easily she can deescalate conflicts without immediatley resorting to threat of violence.
• Snap Back: Just prior to her commissionership, she had been a supporting character in Lois Lane as the Question (a move that was itself a Snap Back), during which she briefly mentioned that she had resigned from the GCPD to do so. And while its heavily implied that it was Nakano who brought Renee out of retirment, the exact circumstances involved in getting her back into the GCPD have so far not been explained.
• Straight Gay: She's gay, but it doesn't really come up until her reapperance in I Am Batman, where she belives the main reason Mayor Villanueva wants her as NYC's new Police Commissioner following the murder of Pete Becket is because her status as a Twofer Token Minority could be used to virtue signal to his constituents after Becket was outted as a bigot.
• Taught by Experience: Renee Montoya is quick to realize that, with Batman active in New York, other "masks" will start arriving to join in as well, something she would know on account of living in Gotham during the rise of the original Batman. In fact, she does just this as The Question.

Detective Adriana Chubb

A police officer who was promoted to the rank of Detective when the Joker War severely depleted the GCPD's manpower, Adriana Chubb is introduced as a By-the-Book Cop with a palpaple distate for masked vigilantism. But after the events of Fear State caused her to be transfered to the New York City, Adriana is now forced to work alongside the new Batman as the offical leader of the NYPD's Special Crimes Task Force.

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• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She's mostly professional about her work and tells Whitaker that she has no use for masks and is enforcing the no-masks law as part of her job. However, she seems to have an active disdain for superheroes, and fires on Batman when given the chance when he tries to quell a riot.
• By-the-Book Cop: She uses this as why she is enforcing the no-masks policy when discussing it with Whitaker. Everything she does is technically by the book, if not completely moral.
• The Commissioner Gordon: As the head of the NYPD's Special Crimes Task Force, it is now literally Adriana's job to work alongside New York's Batman on high-profile cases. A duty she initially loathes because of her prejudice against superheroes and the personal vendetta she developed against this Dark Knight in particular.
• Fire-Forged Friends: To say that her and the new Batman started off on the wrong foot is a gross understatement. In accordance with Mayor Nakano's anti-vigilante policies, Chubb has gone out of her way to try and apprehend or gun down the Caped Crusader until the events of Fear State forces the two to work together in order to defeat Seer's Moral Authority. Upon becoming the official head of Task Force Bat, Chubb gradually learns to swallow her pride and work with Batman in order to protect New York City. She even shows signs of softening her initial preconception of Bats when he genuinely apologizes for his earlier dismissal of the murder case she brought to his attention.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Chubb is more often than not going to let her emotions get the better with her in her line of work. This ranges from immediately ordering her forces to gun Batman down to insulting civilians like Tanya Fox. Chubb however, is aware of this, which is why she depends on Whitaker to help keep her worst impulses in check.
• Jerkass Has a Point: While Adriana is without a doubt an abrasive individual, she was right to call out Jace for his refusal to help the NYPD look into the circumstances of Devlin Rubel's murder just because the victim was wealthy. If she didn't keep pushing to convince him to take the Rubel case, it's likely Jace would not had uncovered the truth that Rubel was a sex trafficking pedophile and that his murder was just the most recent in a string of similar killings happening throughout the city.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Played with. In a surprising shift from her initial characterization, Chubb finally decides to let Batman walk away after he saved both her and the officers under her command from the Moral Authority's militiamen. But this leads to her facing a Disciplinary Hearing that culminates in her being transferred to the NYPD. When we see her in New York, she's clearly taken a Never My Fault attitude on this.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: She's The Leader of one in the form of Strike Force Bat, the media-given name for a NYPD Special Crimes Unit that was specifically created to work alongside Batman on high-profile cases. The problem? The Strike Force is almost entirely comprised of screw-ups and loose cannons from across the department.
• Those Two Guys: She and Whitaker are partners and serve as this, before their characters begin to really diverge — namely, how they react to the no-masks law. She is all for it.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Even though Jace saved both her life, the life of her partner, and the lives of all the policemen under her command from Seer's Moral Authority, Adriana still hates the new Caped Crusader and has developed a vendetta against him, since she blames him for her being transferred out of the GCPD as "punishment" for letting him walk.

Detective Whitaker

Adriana's long-time partner who was also promoted to Detective due to the events of the Joker War. Whitaker is introduced as the Blue Oni to Adriana's Red, a cool-headed cop who helps reign in his partner's more impulsive instincts. However, he's incredibly conflicted about Gotham's new anti-vigilantism policies enacted by the Nakano Administration.

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• Being Good Sucks: His decision to let Batwing walk away after Luke prevented their SWAT team from shooting kids nearly cost him his badge. When his partner Chubb ends up being sent to the NYPD over making a similar decision, he takes it pretty hard.
• Interface Spoiler: His out-of-character rant against Jace despite being established as the only cop in the story who is a vocal proponent of superheroes, becomes suspect once you realize that the detective was surrounded by an aura of yellow energy while on his tirade. Cue the next issue revealing this was all a hallucination constructed by Sinestro's yellow ring and the real Whitaker was just standing nearby, stunned by Batman's sudden Heroic BSoD.
• Last-Name Basis: Unlike Chubb, Whitaker hasn't been referred to by his first name.
• Nice Guy: His defining trait is that he is more willing to question the no-masks policy, as he's seen the good that superheroes do in Gotham. Unlike Adriana, we also never see him lose his temper, and he seems to be the one who keeps her in check.
• The Reliable One: This is the exact reason why Chubb recruits him to help her in New York. In the Ragtag Bunch of Misfits that is Strike Force Bat, Whitaker the only person she trusts to always have her back.
• Those Two Guys: He and Chubb are partners and serve as this, before their characters begin to really diverge — namely, how they react to the no-masks law. He questions it immediately and later lets Batwing go when he has him at gunpoint.
• Undying Loyalty: To Adriana. Without question.
  Whitaker: Chubb, in all my time in the PD I only had one partner. You. If you handed me a screwdriver and a wet napkin and told me we had to fight the devil, my only questions would be where and when. You are the best cop I've ever worked with. Period. You lead, Chubb, and I swear the rest of us will follow.
• What the Hell, Hero?: In issue #14, Whitaker accuses Jace of being a coward, claiming he ran from Gotham to New York when the post-Fear State climate got too much and by refusing to get involved in the Dark Crisis event, he was ruining Batman's reputation. This becomes Subverted in issue #15, where its revealed that Whitaker didn't even say those things and it was actually an illusion created by Sinestro to target Jace's insecurities.

Allies of Jace Fox

Hadiyah

"Look, Vol: You, Jace and I share things few people can understand. We're all trying to make up for lives that were lost and the ways they were lost. But I can't fix Jace when I'm still trying to fix myself."

Jace and Vol's friend, who he met after being "exiled" from Gotham, to a school for trouble children of the rich and powerful.

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• The Atoner: Like Jace and Vol, she's trying to make up for something terrible she did in her youth.
• Dark and Troubled Past: She did something terrible that led to her meeting Jace and Vol, but it's not explained what. It's later implied it involved killing someone.
• Everyone Can See It: It's obvious that Hadiyah and Jace are interested in each other, but neither ever says anything about it.
• Morality Chain: She's a source of moral guidance for Jace and Vol.

Vol

An expert hacker of Russian descent who first met Jace when they both attended the same military academy as teenagers. Vol would become both Jace's handler and tech expert during his days as a covert operative and now supports his old friend's newest endeavors as the next Batman.

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• Deadpan Snarker: Vol has a dry sense of humor which regularly manifests as snide remarks, usually at Jace's expense.
• The Faceless: Beyond a single flashback to when they were both teens, Vol has yet to make any physical appearance and communicates to Jace almost exclusively through secured telecommunications. The most we ever see his face, it's not a detailed look at all. This is finally averted in I Am Batman #6 where he finally meets Jace face-to-face in New York, revealing he's a lean blue-eyed blonde.
• Honest Advisor: Similarly to a certain British Butler, Vol is one of the few people in Jace's inner circle who isn't afraid to call him out on his self-destructive tendencies and will actively try to snap Jace out of it if he thinks his self-loathing streak is going to get the best of him.
• Mission Control: He served as this to Jace during his years as a covert operative, providing both mission-critical intel on his targets and technological support.
• Morality Chain: By his own self-deprecating admission, Vol was originally a Black Hat who learned how to become a hacker specifically to steal money and impress women. But it was ultimately Jace who convinced him that he could instead use those talents to combat injustice and oppression around the world...while still making money off of it.
• No Badass to His Valet: Vol might be Jace's loyal handler and resident Techno Wizard, but he'll never stop seeing the aspiring Dark Knight as the self-loathing dork he grew up with when they were classmates.
  Jace: I need to bleed this thing for all of its tech and use it for my own purpose.
  Vol: And that purpose is?
  Jace: Making sure people who think they're above the law get what they deserve.
  Vol: Yeaaaah. Your whole master plan sounds like you're still trying to work out your daddy issues.
  Jace: I do not have... Look, the privileged... They need to know that the things they think protect them can be turned against them.
  Vol: Right! But no daddy issues.
• Playful Hacker: He's a mischievous yet good-hearted computer hacker who acts as Jace's trusty guy in the chair.

Tatsu Yamashiro (Katana)

"It's not about you. It's about all the people who care for you. For them, for me...get rid of your guilt. Be a symbol of better things."

A Japanese Crusading Widower who wields a cursed sword that consumes the souls of those slain by it. Tatsu Yamashiro is a deadly vigilante who once served under Amanda Waller, became a founding member of The Outsiders, joined the Justice League of America, and fought alongside the Birds of Prey. But somewhere down the line, Tatsu saved the life of a young Jace Fox who had been imprisoned and tortured in the Eastern European country of Markovia. Sympathizing with his desire to repent for past sins, she became his mentor and played a major part in molding him into the Vigilante Man he is today.

For tropes applying to Tatsu in general, see Katana.

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• Big Damn Heroes: When Jace finds himself surrounded after getting critically injured by O'Roark, Katana backstabs one of the armed goons from the shadows before stepping in to lend him a hand.
• Mentor Archetype: She took Jace under her wing as a protégé after saving his life. Everything he knows about martial arts directly came from her tutelage.
• Older and Wiser: Katana was once a cold-blooded Crusading Widower who built her dreaded reputation by cutting down the Yakuza and other underworld figures associated with the murder of her family while bearing a cursed sword that steals souls. But in works by John Ridley, it is shown that Tatsu has gone under significant Character Development as a result of her past adventures and matured into a genuinely more merciful and heroic figure.
  Katana: The person I am now regrets the person I was. But I'm so thankful for the person I've become.
• Parental Substitute: Jace has a habit of referring to her as "Ma" both as a subtle dig at her age and because she more or less raised him during his exile from Gotham.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Not only does Tatsu express commonality in Jace's plight as a killer seeking atonement, she actively encourages him to abandon his Death Wish and use his talents to become the hero she knows he can be. It works.

New York City Officials

Mayor Rafael Villanueva

The Mayor of New York City. Determined not to repeat the mistakes Gotham made with their superhero community, Rafael Villanueva believes deputizing the new Batman prowling NYC is the only way to keep the vigilante in check.

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• Ambiguously Evil: Villanueva presents himself as a left-leaning progressive who seems to genuinely care about his city, but the fact that Manray targets him suggests that he's hiding something sinister behind all that good will.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: He makes it very clear to Batman that if he refuses to join the Special Crimes Task Force as a deputized agent of the NYPD, he will pour all of his resources into a unleashing a city-wide manhunt against him.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: He's the first politician we see who acknowledges just how much of an utter clusterfuck Gotham City's Magistrate Initiative was and that Christopher Nakano will be fighting for the future of his political career next election for allowing that mess to happen on his watch. He also fully accepts the fact that New York's Batman is here to stay and believes he can be a positive impact on the city for as long as he works alongside the NYPD.

Commissioner Pete Becket

The cynical and abrasive Commissioner of the New York City Police Department. Becket believes the Mayor's endorsement of Batman is a grave mistake that's destined to fail.

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• Bigot with a Badge: Commissioner Becket is a racist asshole who blames the rise in crime squarely on the city's marginalized communities and rarely bothers to disguise his utter contempt for Mayor Villanueva and his progressive policies. Which is exactly why he becomes Manray's next victim after Rubel.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: As a part of his Cold-Blooded Torture, Manray saws Becket's left foot off, slices off four of his fingers, and gouges his eye out. All before inevitably ending it and eviscerating the corpse into his latest pièce de résistance.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: It's clear right out the gate that nobody in Villainueva's administration actually likes this guy. Even Carmichael, the one person who is always seen talking with him, can't stand his racism.
• Thin-Skinned Bully: For all his bigoted shit-talking, Commissioner Becket is reduced to being a whimpering mess as Manray's captive. Relenting that he was wrong about Batman while clinging to the vain hope that Bats and the NYPD will save him.

Deputy Mayor Carmichael

New York's Deputy Mayor of City Affairs. Carmichael is a stoic yet ambitious politician tasked with ensuring the success of the new Special Crimes Task Force

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• Beleaguered Assistant: Similar to Commissoner Becket, Carmichael sees Mayor Villanueva's mission to turn Batman into an agent of the NYPD as a ticking time bomb waiting to go off, especially when the person chosen to lead "Strike Force Bat" is somebody who explicitly hates masked vigilantes. While he tries to uphold the duty the Mayor entrusted him with to the best of his ability, Carmichael intends to do it in a way that won't jeopardize his own political ambitions.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: He's the most calculating member of Villanueva's administration and wears glasses.

Villains

Tyler Arkadine

"You're gonna die, and you don't even know what for."

Tyler Arkadine is an international criminal fronting as a Wealthy Philanthropist who evaded Jace during a botched attempt to infiltrate his Vietnam compound.

Now, Arkadine's plotting has expanded into Gotham City, where he masterminds several false flag operations seemingly to the benefit of the newly established Magistrate.

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• Big Bad Wannabe: We're led to believe that he's the legit Big Bad of Jace's story. But I Am Batman reveals that he's only a bit player in a much grander scheme.
• The Chessmaster: He spends most of the events of Second Son manipulating events in Gotham from the sidelines and adapting his plans to stay at least ten steps ahead of Jace's attempts to stop him.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Exploited. On the surface, Arkadine is a golden-haired young man who uses his vast wealth for the welfare of others. In reality, he's an international criminal who isn't above getting innocent civilians killed to achieve his goals.
• Kansas City Shuffle: Jace goes after Arkadine under the belief that he's a trafficker. The reality is that Arkadine's true Evil Plan runs far deeper than that and going after him at all was just playing into his hand.
• Never Suicide: After one of the henchmen Jace apprehended makes a confession to the GCPD, Arkadine is extradited back to the United States where he is murdered while in police custody before being propped up by the assassin to look like a suicide.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Tyler Arkadine was a minor antagonist who didn't even make a physical appearance beyond his short debut in the first issue of Second Son before being unceremoniously killed off in I Am Batman. But the circumstances of his death puts Jace on the path of uncovering an insidious conspiracy involving Simon Saint, the United States Government, and his own father.
• Starter Villain: He's the first villain Jace faces over the course of Second Son and I Am Batman.

Eabha O'Roark (The Morrígan)

"It's only fun until somebody gets hurt. So let's get ya hurt."

The daughter of a IRA veteran who was an expert in "vanishing" people during The Troubles and trained alongside the Cumann na mBan, a Irish Republican women's paramilitary organization. Eabha O'Roark is a notorious mercenary currently under Arkadine's employ and operates as his primary enforcer in Gotham City.

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• Boyish Short Hair: Keeps her hair short and rather mannish.
• Dark Action Girl: She's a Fighting Irish female assassin who nearly killed Jace in 1v1 combat and could hold her own against Katana.
• I Can See You: She's fully aware that Jace has been shadowing her ever since he arrived in Gotham and even looked directly at him while he was monitoring her from miles away.
• Red Baron: She's known and feared as the Morrígan in the criminal underworld. Even Katana is familiar with O'Roark's title and the reputation it brings, which leads to her criticizing Jace for taking on such a dangerous opponent head on.
• Villain Respect: She considers Jace a Worthy Opponent and laments that his talents are wasted on being a Vigilante Man.

Ratcatcher

A Gotham City supervillain who can control legions of rats, he has become a sort of gang leader for stray kids in Gotham who have fled to the underground.

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• Jerkass Has a Point: While it's horrible that he's using kids, there is nothing to lead the reader to believe that he wasn't sincere when he said he was all the kids had. Given what we've seen of Gotham's wayward kids, he's probably not lying when he says Gotham did nothing for them.
• Small Role, Big Impact: His past crime of kidnapping the Fox sisters and poisoning Tamara continues to haunt the Fox Family to this day, inadvertently causing several growing rifts between the siblings and adding even more unneeded stress on their parents when Tam relapses back into a coma.
• Villainous Legacy: After he is killed, his mask is picked up by one of his followers in an ominous moment.

Seer

"This city doesn't want your old truth. It wants mine."

A villainous hacker who hijacked Barbara Gordon's Oracle system to enact a massive disinformation campaign against the already panicked masses of Gotham City, driving them to cause even more chaos under the belief that both the Bat-Family and law enforcement could no longer be trusted. After tormenting and outfoxing several heroes across the city, Seer has taken a particular interest in targeting the new Batman attempting to end their reign of terror.

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• Alliterative Name: Her true name is finally revealed to be Kira Kosov.
• Cassandra Truth: For all the slander and vitriol she gleefully spreads on the net, Seer wasn't lying when she claimed that Simon Saint and the Magistrate were just bit players in a much larger Government Conspiracy. A conspiracy that Lucius Fox is later revealed to be involved in.
• Do Not Adjust Your Set: With the Oracle system under their command, Seer has taken full control of Gotham's telecommunications. Giving her the ability to hijack every phone, computer, and TV screen in the city to spread their Malicious Slander.
• Evil Counterpart: To Barbara Gordon, specifically her Oracle persona. Seer exists to show what would happen if Babs' unparalleled skill and vast resources as a hacker was ever used for evil.
• Loners Are Freaks: Ever since she was a child she didn't know how to bond with other people, and that continues into adulthood.
• Master of Disguise: Utilizing some form of deepfake software, Seer is capable of impersonating anybody she wants. This has allowed her to send falsified orders to the Magistrate under the guise of Simon Saint and doctor footage painting Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown as terrorists.
• Mission Control Is Off Its Meds: Seer impersonated Oracle in order to sell their conspiracy theories to the public, corrupting what was once a trusted voice in Gotham into a intentionally misleading Harbinger of Impending Doom.
  Seer as Oracle: Batman is dead. And his little costumed friends are going to die soon, too. The only one who can save you is yourself. Don't believe anything you hear out there. Don't trust the Magistrate. Don't trust the Government. Don't trust anyone or anything with a bat on it's chest. Only trust yourself and the people you love. Hunker down and get ready for war. This is your Oracle speaking, Gotham City. I will only tell you the truth. The real truth. The truth they don't want you to know...
• Parental Neglect: She was an unwanted child and when her mother abandoned her and her father went to prison for his association with the Odessa Mob, she was left completely alone.
• Right-Wing Militia Fanatic: The Moral Authority, a growing collective of right-wing extremist groups who have all bought into Seer's slew of conspiracies, serve as her primary enforcers against the Bat-Family, the GCPD, and the Magistrate.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: Combined with Opaque Nerd Glasses, she wears some green-tinted round glasses that are constantly obscured and they served well to transmit her sinister hacking schtick.
• Secondary Color Nemesis: Her default outfit is a green coat with magenta fur collar. Plus her glasses are green-tinted and her clothes underneath her coat are purple and magenta as well.
• Secret Identity Apathy: In her own words, Seer knows everything Barbara knows by virtue of being in control of her system. That includes the secret identities of every member of the Bat-Family. However, Seer doesn't seem to care very much about taking advantage of this information compared to their drive to perpetuate Gotham's mass hysteria.
• Sinister Surveillance: Seer's eyes are everywhere in Gotham, having total access to every security camera in the city on top of the Magistrate's own aerial drones. According to Barbara, Seer doesn't even need to manually search for her targets as the cutting-edge recognition software she designed for the Oracle system can do it for her.
• Troll: Seer goes out of her way to actively provoke the Bat-Family any chance she gets, especially Barbara since it's her system that's enabling the villain to get away with causing so much mayhem.
• Villain Respect: In stark contrast to how she trolls the rest of the Bat-Family entirely for her own juvenile amusement, Seer holds Jace to a notably higher regard despite acknowledging that he's not the original Batman. And after he singlehandedly wipes the floor with the militiamen she sent to kill him, Seer goes out of her way to warn Jace of a genuine Government Conspiracy that's linked to all of the previous incidents he's been investigating.

Manray

"Let's make something beautiful."

A masked serial killer who debuted shortly after Jace's arrival in New York. He seemingly targets the city's corrupt upper class, horrifically torturing and mutilating his chosen victims before desecrating their bodies into his next ghastly work of art.

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• Ax-Crazy: Without a doubt.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: What he does to his victims in a nutshell. Every single unlucky bastard who attracts his attention is run through a gauntlet of Cold-Blooded Torture before he kills them with a blunt-force object and mutilates their corpses into morbid art exhibits.
• Expy: He's one of Paul Dano's potrayal of the Riddler from The Batman (2022), as a socioppathic serial killer who was inspired by the Batman to target their city's corrupt elite while exposing their crimes to the public. However, unlike that incarnation of Riddler, Manray isn't a Non-Action Big Bad and has both physically overpowered Jace during their first confrontation and single-handedly massacred Mayor Villanueva's entire security detail with little effort. Manray also seems to lack Nashston's raging narcissism, which makes his agenda as a Well-Intentioned Extremist come off as far more genuine.
• Improbable Weapon User: He confronts Jace armed with a laundry iron fashioned with metal spikes. The following issue also shows that it's linked to a metal chain so it can be used as an improvised flail as well.
• Knight of Cerebus: In the beginning, Jace Fox typically faced off against white-collar criminals, mercenaries, and corrupt law enforcement operatives like the Gotham City Magistrate. While the latter two were numerous and typically heavily armed, the threat they posed wasn't anything Jace couldn't just pulverize in a couple of pages. That all changed with the introduction of Manray, who beat the living shit out of Jace while making the hero question his entire life's purpose as a Vigilante Man. Manray's debut signifies a significant shift away from the relatively mundane antagonists the aspiring Dark Knight challenged before, while also putting the pressure on Jace to significantly step up his game if he wants to live up to the mantle he's carrying.
• Mad Artist: Good God. What Manray did to Devlin Rubel is by far the most horrific demise featured in I Am Batman so far. And all of his other "works" of pure Body Horror that Jace inevitably uncovers wouldn't be too out of place in a Silent Hill game.
• Malevolent Masked Men: Wears a red masquerade mask sporting a Third Eye insignia.
• Meaningful Name: His given alias comes from Man Ray AKA Emmanuel Radnitzky, an avante-garde visual artist who made sigifigant contributions to both the Dada and Surrealist art movements. Radnitzky's works have also been heavily rumored to have been the primary inspiration of the infamous 1940's Black Dahlia murder, with the vivisection and presentation of the victim's body being theorized to have been a twisted emulation of Radnitzky's techniques.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: While what he does is undeniably horrifying, the revelation that Devlin Rubel was a child-trafficking pedophile who covered up his twisted hobbies through philanthropy paints the artist's actions in a far more sympathetic light.
• Serial Killer: Both a Hedonistic and Mission-Based example. He clearly enjoys the suffering he inflicts on others but seems to only target those who explicitly had it coming.
• Shadow Archetype: To Jace Fox. Both are people who became Vigilante Men for the purpose of fighting crime and challenging systemic corruption. But Manray's methods gleefully employs ultraviolent acts of murder, mutilation, and mayhem.
• Superhero Paradox: Discussed. Manray claims to have been directly inspired by Jace's heroics in New York and started his own bloody crusade against the city's corruption with the hope they could eventually work together. This greatly distubs Jace, who begins to worry if his actions as Batman will only succeed in creating more evil like Manray.
• Villain Respect: He appears to have admiration of Jace as a fellow Vigilante Man and claims that he's here in New York to help him. Although Jace quickly becomes a Broken Pedestal to the killer once it becomes clear he doesn't share his depraved interests.

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