History Fanfic / CatTales

* {{Spinoff}}: Fans of the universe have created more than a few side-stories to the main universe. they're all listed [[http://catwoman-cattales.com/index.html here.]]

-->''So I've got the trinkets. Brunhilda is still snoring away. Cujo, the killer schnauzer, is still locked in the bathroom. I close the safe, restore the power, slide the window back exactly the way it was – 8 minutes flat. Personal best for a private residence where I didn't have the floorplan going in. I drop down to the alley – and there… he… is…The Batman. Caped Crusader. Dark Knight. Guardian of Gotham. Crime Fighter extraordinaire. I am Vengeance, I am Justice, I am in desperate need of a personality transplant… Batman.''

* AbsurdPhobia: Discussed in ''Pussywhipped'', when Selina finds out F. Miller is in Gotham and starts talking with a few of her fellow Rogues about ways to deal with him. Some of their ideas involve instilling absurd fears, such as making him afraid of pens or toilets (the latter was Harley's suggestion). In the last scene, a brief e-mail exchange between Selina and Lois, Lois suggests making him deathly afraid of the letter "M".

* AdaptationalSexuality: In ''Trick or Treat'', Bruce asks about the villain Cavalier. Selina replies that he retired from crime, moved to Vegas and is now doing voiceovers for local radio. When Bruce is surprised that he "went straight", Selina's response is "Not exactly", then reveals that he's living with a blackjack dealer named Stan.
* AddictionDisplacement: In ''Vault'', Bruce mentions that his false identity of Matches Malone (whom he uses to infiltrate criminal settings like the Iceburg) used to smoke two packs a day and switched to chewing his trademark matchstick as a substitute.
* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: ''Polishing Silver'' is narrated from Alfred's first person POV.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Scarecrow makes the mistake of subtly trying to increase Oswald's paranoia in ''Napoleon's Plan''. When tallying up the costs of all this, Oswald sums up the reasons for Scarecrow's suddenly increased bar tab as the following:

* AuthorAppeal: ''Trick Or Treat'' shows that Chris Dee knows quite a bit about Literature/SherlockHolmes.

* BadGuyBar: The Iceberg Lounge. Also, they have instant messaging.

* TheButlerDidIt: Referenced in ''Trick or Treat'', when the Gotham Museum of Mythology and Folklore is opening a new wing, sponsored by the Wayne Foundation, dedicated to murder mysteries. They're holding a Mystery Whodunit party for Halloween to celebrate, and Bruce and Selina attend; Alfred also agrees to attend as "Pennyworth the Butler". Selina, on hearing this, snarks that he'll be hearing "the butler did it" all night. This being Alfred, he's naturally completely innocent.

* CatsAreSnarkers: This IS Catwoman we're talking about... though Whiskers and Nutmeg, her two cats, also count.
* CheckPlease: In ''An Arkham Tale'', Joker starts to make one of his octopus jokes at Killer Croc, only to discover he's being ignored. Then Croc informs him he's taken his anger management sessions to heart and is focusing on something else so he doesn't dismember the man getting on his nerves (i.e., Joker himself). Joker takes the hint, makes himself scarce, and utters the trope name.

** Discussed in ''Knight Before Christmas'' when Two-Face explains why Roxy Rocket is making out with Penguin after getting [[DrunkOnMilk drunk on Jello shots]]:
-->"Every office party, there's one. At City Hall, it was sweet Brenda O'Shea. Roxy's just that type to get tanked and Xerox her tush. And since we don't have a copy machine…Penguin."
** Also discussed in ''Pussywhipped'', in an extremely negative review of E. Brubaker's works that says there are too many pages between the covers and that the paper used in it could have been put to better use, such as "on which Marietta Klenofsky might have Xeroxed her lovely derriere at the next office party."

* CollectorOfTheStrange: Per canon, Batman's trophy room in the Batcave is used for displaying mementos from his stranger or more memorable cases. Selina begins adding things to it as well, eventually, such as a souvenir glass from the Iceberg Lounge and a 40,000 carat fiberglass diamond that had been used as a display piece in Falconi Jewelers. ''Trophies'', story #63, has Batman telling her the stories behind some of the stranger pieces (such as the giant penny and the robotic T-Rex) while they rearrange things to make room for said fiberglass diamond.
* ConsultingAConvictedKiller: In ''Amuse Bouche'', it's mentioned that federal agents occasionally get the idea to do this, and make the mistake of consulting ''Joker''. He's manipulative enough to make them believe anything, most of which he's making up entirely.

* DeadpanSnarker: Jason Blood. Just... wow. This is his reaction when Poison Ivy tries to green him: "Just because I look at you when you speak, you shouldn't assume that means I'm listening to you or care about what you say. That's just something I do to be polite." Both sides of Two-Face start a fan club for Jason when they hear about this.

** In ''Women Lacking Complexity'', after Two-Face and Mad Hatter use one of Jervis's hats to send Lark Starling (a BlackWidow with designs on Oswald) off to Wisconsin, Hatter comes to Wayne Manor to ask Bruce (whom he believes has experience in this department, due to his old womanizing habits) to compose one of these letters, so Oswald won't get suspicious about her leaving.
** In ''An Iceburg Tale'', Harley Quinn decides to break up Bruce and Selina, and get Catwoman back together with Batman (she's trying to strike at Joker via his "good buddy Brucie"). As part of this, she copies the letter from "Lark" to Oswald and uses it as the basis for one supposedly from Selina to Bruce. Unlike Oswald, Bruce doesn't fall for it.

** ''String Theory'' ends with [[spoiler:Zatanna]] suffering this, [[spoiler:having previously used white magic for decidedly negative purposes anathema to its purpose, along with casually using powerful magic for mundane things, and thus the universe itself sets things up to remove her abilities out of self-defense.]]
** In the climax of ''NMK Inc.'', it's shown that [[spoiler:Poison Ivy's powers have gone overboard to the point where she's become half-plant on one side. This power-up comes with severe consequences and starts killing her, and she's reverted to a normal human to save her life]] by the end of ''Spontaneous Generation''.

--->* That’s how I addressed your Fathers’ Day card.\\
* Is that prig with an “R” Yes. \\
* Why are you having new stationery made up? \\

-->And no matter which response the player chose, the character would say: “Why no, not at all. Why do you ask?”
* DisasterDominoes: In ''Awkward Pauses'', while browsing a shop in Key West that sells cheap and fragile souvenirs, Edward Nigma/Riddler's cane accidentally hits a few things and nearly breaks them... and then hits the storeowner, sending him backwards into a shelf. At this point, Eddie decides to run for it and slams the door behind him, triggering the shelf nearest it to topple into another shelf and setting off a domino effect. By the time it's done, every piece of merchandise in the store has broken, and the storeowner has to crawl out from under a pile of rubble before he can call the cops.

* DontTellMama: ''Something Borrowed'' has Jervis trying to hide his criminal activities from his maternal Aunt Maud when she comes to visit for a month, to the extent where he's told her he's a former editor who switched to running a nightclub after being downsized.

** ''Don't Fear the Joker'' has Scarecrow realize people are more afraid of Joker than him, and go about changing that.
** As shown in "Knight of the Mirrors", Lex Luthor ''wants'' the public to see Superman as this, and has dedicated a considerable effort towards making him look bad to everyone. As he puts it, "I don't want the Alien ''ridiculed'', I want him viewed as the greatest threat facing the human race since the Plague."
* DroppedABridgeOnHim: Stephanie Brown is murdered offscreen by a serial killer between two chapters of ''Polishing Silver''.
* DrunkOnMilk: In ''Knight Before Christmas'', at Harley Quinn's annual Rogue's Christmas party, Roxy Rocket manages to get drunk off the jello shots in the punch and ends up in the coatroom being intimate with Penguin. She is ''not'' happy when she snaps out of it and realizes what she's been up to.
* EarWorm: Invoked in ''Something New'', where Riddler can't get the song "76 Trombones" out of his head. It turns out to be a plot of Joker and Hugo Strange; Joker is seeking retaliation for Riddler repeatedly pinching Harley's behind at the Rogues' Christmas party in ''Knight Before Christmas'', and had Hugo inject Riddler with a viral microchip receiver, transmitting the song directly into his brain to drive him crazy.

* {{Gaslighting}}: ''Bruce'' of all people winds up pulling this on Joker in ''Fun and Games'' when he and Selina casually walk into the Iceberg, in costume, and treat it as if they were a normal couple on a double-date with Joker and Harley, acting like he and Joker are old pals and it's perfectly normal that they should be there helping the two celebrate what Harley claims is their anniversary, rather than trying to arrest either of the clown couple. Joker, who is unable to kill anyone (including Batman) that night for reasons that only make sense to him and Harley, finally gives in, hails a cab and checks himself into Arkham.

* TheGlomp: In ''Awkward Pauses'', after Two-Face has convinced Sly to return to Gotham and the Iceberg (while running his Key West bar long-distance), he flips his coin to decide how to show just how happy he is over Sly's choice. Unscarred-side would have been a pat on the shoulder and a comment about "How glad we were to have you aboard, soldier." Scarred-side, which he gets, prompts him to leap over the bar and tackle Sly with a monstrous bear-hug.

* GroinAttack: Used more than once. Among examples, Catwoman delivers a justified one to Joker during their battle in the last chapter of ''Don't Fear the Joker''. Unfortunately, it's not enough to stop him, and he is not amused.

** Dick and Barbara as well, after their wedding in ''Dearly Beloved''.
** Bruce and Selina are also this as a practical matter, lack of rings or ceremony notwithstanding... until ''Ever Fixed'' (story #75), where they get married for real.

* HighOnCatnip: In ''Something New'', Bruce manages to get Selina's cats stoned when, as Batman, he smears catnip on his boots before visiting her apartment (having apparently decided the cats were out to get him and using the catnip as a distraction). Selina doesn't think it's funny, but Barbara starts cracking up when Selina tells her about it.
* HopelessWithTech: Oswald Cobblepot is, as he says in ''Comedy of Errors'', "not adept at gizmos". Jervis recalls how Oswald is always calling one of his waitresses into his office to help with assorted electronic things, and thinks to himself that it's because Oswald's fingers are too fat to properly manipulate the equipment.

* HumiliationConga: Arranged for [[Creator/FrankMiller F. Miller]] in ''Pussywhipped''.

* IfIHadANickel: In ''World's Finest: Red Cape, Big City'', Lois tells her husband that "I can see the headlines now: ''Superman pisses off Batman. Gotham in Ruins.''" Clark just chuckles and says "If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard that one."
* IfYouEverDoAnythingToHurtHer: During ''The New Black'', the Arkham crowd finds that their regular psychiatrist Dr. Leland Bartholomew has begun dating the Iceberg's hostess Raven. Most have something to say about it, but it's Waylon Jones/Killer Croc's comment that fits this trope, and which Dr. Bartholomew finds strangely touching:

* IHaveNoSon: In ''The New Black'', Joker declares this in regard to Dr. Leland Bartholomew, head psychiatrist at Arkham, when he finds out the other man is dating Oswald's hostess Raven without Joker's approval.

** In ''War of the Poses'', Cassie's mental narration references this trope, as she thinks to herself:

* IronicEcho: "It seemed like a good idea at the time." Said first by Selina to Bruce in ''Normal'', and by Bruce to Selina later in ''Catfight''.

* KickedUpstairs: ''Demon's in the Details'' has Arthur doing this to one of his minsters. It's explained that some time back, he'd appointed a Minister of Surface Intelligence Evaluation, whose job is to monitor surface media and crosscheck it against the findings of younger "pier hoppers" (Atlanteans who snuck away to the surface to see the sights and find out what things are like). Minister Grah's reports, however, are becoming increasingly depressed, jaded, and bitter, so Arthur finds a way to transfer him to a meaningless counselor position where he can't do any harm and replace him with someone who actually ''wants'' to know more about the surface world.

* LethalChef: Bruce was banned from the kitchen for several years because of being one. It's not until Selina starts explaining cooking to him in scientific terms that he finally gets it, though he eventually gets banned from the kitchen again due to his obsession with examining some of Alfred's dishes at every stage of the cooking process, which Alfred is not amused by.
* LiteralMetaphor: In ''Something Borrowed'', Jervis comes to Selina's apartment to ask for help, and when he's being as clear as possible, Selina ''still'' thinks he's speaking in riddles. Turns out he's not:

-->'''Selina''': "And 'Aunt Maud' would be your little code phrase for…?"

* MobWar: Variant in ''The Gotham Rogues'' (story #65), in which Carmine "The Roman" Falcone and his associated mob bosses decide to wipe out the allied "theme criminals" for ruining a wedding that would have cemented an alliance between two crime families. The Rogues fight back, and by the time it's done, the majority of the mob members involved in the war are dead or in jail, the latter category including Carmine Falcone himself.

** In ''Satori'', Mad Hatter, Riddler and Two-Face show up at the manor to tell Bruce about some special rules they have for Selina, which they use to avoid getting on her bad side. One rule, which Jervis mentions Scarecrow learned the hard way, is "If she ever uses a phrase like 'Do that again and I'll set you on fire'—not an idle threat." Exactly what he did to prompt this is not explained.
** Whatever happened at Superman's bachelor party.
** In ''Riddle Me-Tropolis'': How did Riddler get Superman welded into that giant robot at the museum?

* NotWhatItLooksLike: In ''Blueprints'', Matt Hagen/Clayface shows his true "mudman" form to Sly. Sly starts staring at him wide-eyed, and Clayface gets annoyed because it looks like Sly, despite having been able to handle people like Joker with no problem, is "gawking at [him] like Frankenstein's monster". Then it turns out Sly is gawking not because of Clayface's looks, but because the man behind the mud is one of his favorite movie stars, a fact that surprises and pleases Clayface when he realizes it.

* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: As mentioned in ''Polishing Silver'', Joker firmly believes that only ''he'' is allowed to kill members of the Bat-family. When Stephanie/Spoiler is killed by a mugger, Joker is outraged, and hunts down and brutalizes the other man to make his point.

** Hugo Strange has been blackballed from a few events too, including Harley's Christmas party in ''Knight Before Christmas'', because the others don't like him.
** In ''Awkward Pauses'', Riddler gets banned from the Iceberg for unwittingly inspiring Sly, Oswald's best and longest-running bartender, to move away and start his own bar. He sneaks back in anyway, and it's later lifted after Sly returns.

** In ''Riddle Me-Tropolis'', it's noted that Bruce Wayne is this at STAR Labs simply because he's the owner of their biggest competitor, meaning he can only visit as Batman.

** In ''Heard the Latest'', when Harvey/Two-Face calls her about her romance with Bruce Wayne, Selina replies with the following:
-->"Harvey, there are very few people in this world I get to say this to: Your love life is far too strange for you to be giving me advice, 'kay."
** In ''Something Old'', Joker gets called "puritan" by Francois. On confirming that yes, he's just been called a Puritan and taking a moment to think about it, he finally says "Well that's a first."

* SawStarWarsTwentySevenTimes: When Clayface returns to the Iceberg during ''Blueprints'', Sly recognizes him as the actor he used to be and exclaims that "I have seen ''Space Tempest'' like 60 times!" Hagen, once he realizes Sly is a fan of his and not freaking out over his looks (as he initially thought), is pleasantly surprised.

* SecretSanta: ''Knight Before Christmas'' has Bruce and Selina attending Harley Quinn's annual Christmas party for the Rogues, where it's become a tradition for Mad Hatter to rig the Secret Santa matchings. Hence the infamous potpourri incident between Clayface and Ivy a few years back. Luckily, Selina has the sense to get Ivy a ''live'' plant as a gift.

* ShootHimHeHasAWallet: Non-lethal variant in ''Short Tales''. Batman has tracked down small-time crook "Sporting Joey", having identified him as the source of a series of clues that led to Batman's taking down several of the Gotham Rogues. When Joey explains the reason (he's started a "Fantasy Injustice League", akin to fantasy football but involving betting on criminals and their plans, and then hedged his own bets via sending the clues so the top picks by other thugs would get nabbed and he'd win the bets, getting a lot of cash in the process so he could pay back Penguin) and starts to reach into his coat, Batman grabs him and nearly yanks his arm out of his socket before Joey realizes his mistake and hurriedly explains that he's just reaching for the paper with his draft lineup.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: In ''Identity Element'', [[spoiler:Jack Drake survives Captain Boomerang's attack on him, though it's a close call.]]

* TakeAThirdOption: Harvey/Two-Face does it twice during his breakdown in ''Such an Idiot''.

** ''Pussywhipped'' makes it abundantly clear that Chris Dee does not like Creator/FrankMiller's take on Batman.
** Canon developments the author doesn't like tend to be portrayed as more tabloid lies. These range from the existence of Nyssa Raatko to Killer Croc's cannibalism to Renee Montoya being a lesbian, the latter being discussed in ''Women Lacking Complexity'' (see YMMV page for details).
** Tom Cruise gets a zing aimed at him in ''Blueprints'' when Matt Hagen says that the things he wants include "every goddamn role Tom Cruise destroyed in the last ten years that should have been mine".
* TalkAboutTheWeather: Discussed in narration in ''Armchair Detective'', when Clark drops in on Bruce soon after his accident:

* TerrifiedOfGerms: Oswald spends ''Riddle-Me-Tropolis'' like this. Scarecrow also inflicts it on a handful of people for one of his schemes (a series of armored car robberies) in ''Don't Fear the Joker''.

* VillainHasAPoint: Early in ''Blueprints'', a recently incarcerated Scarecrow exclaims "Good God, Doc, you look like death" to his psychiatrist, Dr. Leland Bartholomew of Arkham Asylum. After their session, Dr. Bart has to admit that "Patient Crane has a point", because he's had a full schedule of appointments (what with nearly every Rogue having been incarcerated) and little time to himself to relax between them or have a proper meal, and is exhausted from overwork. He also reluctantly agrees (though not out loud), when Crane claims he doesn't belong in the criminal wing of the asylum this time -- all he did was scare Jervis Tetch (and get hatted into doing his bidding for it), and that's hardly illegal.

* WealthyYachtOwner: Bruce, as part of his Fop cover. He even plans to buy a new gaudily expensive one to reinforce the public view of Bruce Wayne as a womanizing playboy in ''Go Rin No Sho'', but winds up changing his mind and not only dropping the "Fop Initiative", but getting a smaller and more practical yacht that he actually likes (or as narration puts it, spending "three million on the boat he wanted instead of thirty on the one he didn't").

* WhereDoesHeGetAllThoseWonderfulToys: It's explained in ''Watering Hole'' (the eleventh story) that Gotham's heroes and villains get a lot of their costumes and equipment from a specialist shop, run by Kittlemeier -- Selina was introduced to him by Riddler, as her backstory in ''Cattitude'' explains. (The character, incidentally, is not original to this series -- he first appeared in the short story "Neutral Ground" in the 1989 anthology ''Literature/TheFurtherAdventuresOfBatman''.)
* WordSchmord: Used in the titles for two chapters of ''Something Old''. Chapter 1 is "Joker-Shmoker, Who’s This Frenchman?"; chapter 2 is "Harley-Shmarley, Who’s This Frenchman?".
* XCalledTheyWantTheirYBack: In ''An Iceberg Tale'', when Hugo Strange appears on the makeover show '''''FAB!''''', one of the show's team uses this line:

* {{Xenofiction}}: Downplayed. Most of the action is from the point of view of human characters, but periodically, stories such as ''Something Borrowed'' and ''Splitzville'' will have segments told from the point of view of Whiskers and Nutmeg, Selina's two housecats.

* SecretSanta: The spinoff ''[=JLAin't=]'' has a yearly one for the central members of the Justice League. It's traditional that no matter who draws his name, Plastic Man always gets Silly Putty.

* TheDreaded: ''Don't Fear the Joker'' has Scarecrow realize people are more afraid of Joker than him, and go about changing that.

* SprayingDrinkFromNose: In "Armchair Detective", while at the Lyon family's summer home, Selina ends up investigating the murder of Noel Lyon, whom she learns had an affair with her future second (and current, as of her death) husband for over a year before divorcing her first. While looking into possible candidates for Noel's new lover (if she has one, since her doing so could be a motive for her murder), Selina's first thought is that she was with the rent-a-waiter William. That gets dashed when she learns William doesn't swing that way -- he'd spent the night with the flamboyantly gay Richard Flay. Later, while explaining this to Bruce over the phone, his guest -- Clark Kent -- hears it and ends up doing a spit-take through his nose, narrowly avoiding spraying the phone in the process.

->And no matter which response the player chose, the character would say: “Why no, not at all. Why do you ask?”

** [[spoiler:''String Theory'' ends with Zatanna suffering this, having previously used white magic for decidedly negative purposes anathema to its purpose, along with casually using powerful magic for mundane things, and thus the universe itself sets things up to remove her abilities out of self-defense.]]
** [[spoiler:Poison Ivy's powers go overboard in ''NMK Inc.'', to the point where she's become half-plant on one side. This power-up comes with severe consequences and starts killing her, and she's reverted to a normal human to save her life by the end of ''Spontaneous Generation''.]]

* HappilyMarried: Clark and Lois, of course. Bruce and Selina are also this as a practical matter, lack of rings or ceremony notwithstanding ([[spoiler: at least, until ''Ever Fixed'', when they're married for real]]). Dick and Barbara as well, after the wedding.

** Catman got blackballed from most Rogue events that Catwoman would be at because they don't get along.
** Hugo Strange has been blackballed from a few events too, because the others don't like him.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: [[spoiler:Jack Drake survives Captain Boomerang's attack on him in ''Identity Element'', though it's a close call.]]

* FunctionalMagic: Rule Magic; specifically, anything you do gets paid back threefold. [[LaserGuidedKarma Doesn't work out so well for Zatanna]] [[LaserGuidedAmnesia when she tried]] [[ComicBook/IdentityCrisis to mind-wipe Batman]], or how she basically ignores the universal rules with her brand of magic.