Batman Revisited is a Batman fanfic by Zeible
that attempts to create an Ultimate Universe for the Batman mythos (With elements of related superheroes like The Question). The author's goal is to compress and reorganize the timeline, while making some changes that align with the author's preferences and to undo some things that fall under Fanon Discontinuity.
As Zeible is a troper herself the series is full of tropes in a matter befitting one of the most heavily-troped franchises of all time. Expect a lot of Shout Outs, Mythology Gags, and Continuity (Or discontinuity as the case may be) Nods scattered throughout.
This fic provides examples of the following tropes:
- Adaptational Badass: Going with Composite Character, here Salvatore Maroni is the supervillain Firefly- when in the original comics he was an ordinary gangster that stood no chance against Batman, here he's a credible threat who almost kills Jim Gordon.
- Adaptation Deviation: The timeline is wildly different from the source material, as evident from the get-go with The Killing Joke having happened in the past, even though Dick Grayson only recently became Nightwing and Renee Montoya is already the Question. In addition, more basic changes such as Bruce utilizing Powered Armor, Renee Montoya being Commissioner Gordon's Number Two, and several instances of Race Lift and Composite Character at work.
- Adaptation Distillation: Used to meld elements of Pre-Crisis and Post-Crisis Batman together- such as combining his Pre-Crisis backstory of being raised by his uncle with his Post-Crisis backstory by having Alfred be his uncle.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: The first story is set not long after Dick becomes Nightwing, making Cassandra's appearance an example of this, as she showed up almost twenty years after that had happened in real life. The trope is inverted with Barbara Gordon, who, while appearing from the start, is already Oracle and has never been Batgirl at the start of the story.
- Another example is with Bane, who is implied to have already broken Batman's back. There are also references to Jean-Paul Valley, hinting that the Knightfall arc already took place.
- An Inversion is found with Harvey Dent, who is still not Two-Face, three years into Batman's career.
- Adaptational Intelligence: Cassandra Cain is capable of sign language and understanding others' speech at the beginning, when in the original comics she was totally unable to communicate or understand speech.
- Adaptation Name Change: Martha Wayne's maiden name is now Pennyworth instead of Kane, going with what's listed under Related in the Adaptation. Jim Gordon's wife is renamed "Thelma", to keep her from being mixed up with their daughter Barbara.
- Adaptational Nationality: Martha Wayne, being Alfred's sister, is also English here instead of being implicitly American as she is in the comics.
- Adaptational Sexuality: Renee Montoya is a transgender woman in this continuity.
- Big Damn Heroes: At the end of the first chapter of One Big Joke, where Cassandra Cain saves Jim Gordon from Firefly/Sal Maroni.
- Clothes Make the Superman: Batman's Batsuit is halfway between Powered Armor and this; it provides him with tremendous durability and enhanced strength, in a way that is designed to be barely noticeable.
- Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Penguin is clearly modeled after Paul Williams here, his voice actor in Batman: The Animated Series.
- Composite Character: Several Examples;
- Sal Maroni is combined with Garfield Lynns, as the former now has the latter's identity as Firefly, while retaining his own status as a mobster.
- Alfred is combined with Bruce's uncle Phillip, as he is his mother's brother in this continuity and the one to raise him.
- Thelma Gordon is a combination of the character of the same name and Barbara Gordon Sr., sharing the name and relation to Barbara of the former and being married to Jim Gordon like the latter.
- Continuity Nod: The bomb that almost kills Batman and the Question in One Big Joke is from Kahndaq
- Crazy-Prepared: The Question emptied a gun hidden in Zsasz's hideout, then returned it right where she found it, in expectation that at some point he'd hold her at gunpoint.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Harvey Dent appears in the first story One Big Joke, pre-Two Face. His feud with Sal Maroni is also set-up, foreshadowing his future.
- Everything Is Online: Batman is able to hack a bomb at one point.
- Incredibly Obvious Bomb: Deadshot leaves a concealed but very loud bomb for Batman and the Question when they investigate the breakout at Blackgate prison; Bats is able to disarm it using a hacking gadget.
- Lightning Bruiser: Cassandra Cain, exemplified as they're beating Firefly with an aluminum bat. Gordon can only make out "a black blur" they're moving so fast- yet they're hitting with enough force to shatter Firefly's visor and wreck his armor.
- Mixed Ancestry: Bruce Wayne is 1/4 Lenape, 1/4 Black American, and 1/2 English here.
- Nice Guy: Batman is a lot more gentle here than in most versions, almost resembling the Adam West Batman in his politeness.
- Noodle Incident: Whatever went wrong the first time Renee Montoya and Batman had to work together.
- Omniglot: Renee Montoya is able to recognize Kahndaqi Arabic on a bit of smuggled LexCorp tech almost instantly, though she is unable to actually translate it.
- One-Steve Limit: Why Barbara Gordon Sr. was renamed to Thelma Gordon.
- Powered Armor: Bruce's Batsuit that he uses starting with One Big Joke is this, though to a milder extent than most examples.
- Race Lift: Bruce is changed from ambiguously-white to having mixed black, Lenape, and English ancestry.
- Related in the Adaptation: Alfred is Bruce's maternal uncle here- by extension that applies to Alfred and Martha Wayne.
- Translation Convention: Sign Language is rendered as English in angle brackets- a necessity, as it's impossible to actually transcribe sign language.
- Underwear of Power: Batman has them in this version, unlike in most current comics. He says they're just for maintaining color balance, which is a justification for heroes like Superman wearing them.
