History Fanfic / CatTales

* BadBoss: Asides from the usual candidates of Joker and Two-Face (depending on the coin flip), Ulstarn manages to gain a global reputation in D.E.M.O.N., entirely for singlehandedly turning the Gotham City posting into a punishment reserved for those who screw up spectacularly. This is due to his sheer paranoia and idiocy, and operatives who return from Gotham are described as broken.

** Dick and Barbara are also this, [[TheyDo after they get married.]] They're basically an example of what Bruce and Selina could be, [[DysfunctionJunction if they weren't both so neurotic.]]

-->''I salute you, World's Greatest Detective.''

* UrbanLegendLoveLife: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] by Bruce: he can't be [[RichIdiotWithNoDayJob the Fop]] without some sex exploits of him, but he can't let [[DumbBlonde the 'Bimbos' he dates]] see all the scars he's gotten from fighting crime. Solution? get them drunk, lay them out in the manor, and [[WhatDidIDoLastNight let them fill in the blanks.]]

* PutOnABus: More than a few characters have been more or less written out over the course of the series: Clayface, Talia, Greg Brady, etc. [[TheBusCameBack Characters subjected to this]] [[CommutingOnABus have been known to reappear again, though,]] so it's hard to tell if something will stick.

* {{Flanderization}}: Pretty much any woman Batman has ever been hinted at romantically besides Selina has had their negative personality characteristics played UpToEleven so that they are nothing but annoying self-absorbed harpies or immature, irresponsible idiots; there is little doubt that this is entirely intentional. Character development eventually brings (some, but not all of) them out of this.

* HyperCompetentSidekick: Sly, the bartender at the [[BadGuyBar Iceberg]]. He's dedicated to keeping the bar up and running, and it's clear that he could take over the Gotham underworld if he put his mind to it (considering that in trying to keep the Iceberg afloat, he's executed an inadvertent ''coup d'etat'' over Penguin - ''twice'').
* 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:

* ShipperOnDeck: Incredibly, ''Joker'' is this to Bruce and Selina - but not Batman and Catwoman. [[spoiler: Harley]] attempts to take advantage of this when [[spoiler: she and Joker break up]] by breaking up Selina and Bruce and getting her together with... Batman.

* 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.
* VillainsOutShopping: A recurring theme is showing what Batman's Rogues Gallery do with themselves when they're not duelling with Batman, with the answer apparently being that they tend to act like a rather dysfunctional yet close-knit band of office colleagues, including romantic tensions and cringe-worthy get-togethers. The first story, for example, depicts Selina joining the other criminals for a karaoke evening.

* 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''.)

-->"Ugh, Hugo sweetheart - 1967 called, they want their glasses back. Wonderful invention Dearie, they're called 'contacts'. Say it slowly with me: 'con-tacts.'"
** "Hugo, Honey, 1967 called. They want their glasses back." is also the title of chapter 3 of the same story.
** For a variant, there's also the line "Somewhere in Minnesota an encyclopedia salesman is missing his sport coat…"

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: This is, word for word, the description Bruce gives to [[ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} Dick]] of the second part of Catwoman's show.
* 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. (See the YMMV page for why this ended up Hilarious In Hindsight.)

* BattleCouple: Tim (ComicBook/{{Robin|Series}} III) and Cassandra Cain (ComicBook/{{Batgirl|2000}} II) after they start dating. Mind you she could probably snap his back over her knee.

* BerserkButton: Any reference to Bruce being accepted as part of the Rogues' Gallery extended family usually sends him into a roaring case of [[KnightTemplar Psy]][[AxCrazy cho]][[RoaringRampageOfRevenge bat.]] The Rogues themselves warn Bruce not to mention F. Miller's autobiography of Catwoman lest he provoke a similar response from Selina... or to even mention that she has an obvious attraction to Batman, for similar reasons. She set Scarecrow ''on fire'' once for the latter.

** Poison Ivy. In almost every single ComicBook/PostCrisis depiction of her character, she has a poisonous kiss, is a skilled chemist, and while less common, is able to psionically control all plant life. Here, however, she's pretty much just a jumped-up gardener with pheromones, no skill to manipulate people without those phermones, a weak control of plants and a massive ego. She needs to take the magical equivalent of steroids in order to pull off any large-scale manipulation of plants.
** Talia is equally de-badassed. Master of armed and unarmed combat? Nope, flunked out of DEMON assassin training and can't even get into a non-lethal catfight with Selina without tripping over her own two feet. Genius-level intellect? Nuh-uh, can't even plan out something more complicated than a MissingStepsPlan. Skilled in managerial tasks and has helped keep both the League of Assassins and DEMON in the black for decades? No way, she can't even balance her checkbook and provide for her own welfare without daddy's credit card, let alone anybody else. Secretly undermined Lex-Corp during Luthor's stint as president, leaked Luthor's under-the-table dealings to Superman and blew the whole company out to Wayne Enterprises when the time came to take him down? HAH! She tanked that multi-billion dollar, multinational company all by herself, no motivation necessary! Seeing as how Talia is Selina's main rival for Batman's affections, this is blatantly intentional, especially as Talia ends up [[spoiler: falling for an OC]].

** [[spoiler:''String Theory'' ends with Zatanna suffering this, having previously used white magic for decidedly negative purposes anathema to its purpose and casually using powerful magic for mundane things, and thus the universe itself sets things up to remove her abilities.]]

* 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.]]

* AGodAmI: Ivy is convinced of this, which is why she suffers a VillainousBreakdown after the world decides to [[HumiliationConga prove her wrong.]]

* HardWorkHardlyWorks: Averted. Anybody who uses magic to do what regular hard work would also do gets a blast of LaserGuidedKarma to the face. Batman is quite aware of this, which is one of the reasons that he really hates magic.

* HeroicBSOD: Bruce has a couple.The first is when he (as Bruce Wayne) is visited by Two Face, Riddler, and the Mad Hatter when he starts dating Selina, and is told that he's "part of the family now."

* HulkSpeak: Killer Croc

* INeedToGoIronMyDog: At one point, Selina recalls some of the various excuses her fellow Rogues have to leave town during January, which tend to qualify.

* LegacyCharacter: Clayface disguises himself as the Monarch of Menace, an old Silver Age villain, to get around the unofficial [[PersonaNonGrata ban from the Iceberg]] that Poison Ivy's [[DisproportionateRetribution freakout about a bad Christmas present]] caused. He later decided he didn't even care and returned as himself.

* MagicAIsMagicA: [[spoiler:[[CosmicRetcon Zatanna learns the hard way]] [[DePower that the universe really doesn't like it]] [[MutuallyExclusiveMagic when you use White Magic to do undeniably evil things...]]]]

* MamasBoy: The other Rogues firmly consider Jervis Tetch to be one, since he insists on setting up an elaborate ruse for his maternal Aunt Maud rather than the fast and easy way of "hatting" her. (Also because he actually calls his mother at least once a month.)

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Miriam, the owner of [[TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday the local magic goods shop]], has one of these when she realizes that Poison Ivy, the woman she just sold power-enhancing magic rituals to, is the same person that caused the forest trees to attack the Highland Games.

* OmniscientDatabase: Well, it is the Batcomputer... also, the Rogues seem to think Oracle is an A.I. version of this, unaware that it's a living human.

** Gladys Ashton-Larraby will never let her husband, Randolph Larraby III, forget that he insisted on naming their son (who typically goes by Randy-quad) after himself and therefore "numbering" him "like a movie sequel", "rather than letting him enjoy the distinction of the illustrious Ashton legacy". She also tends to remind him how he once indulged in insider trading with aid from Ra's al Ghul, and how it's only thanks to Bruce Wayne's generosity that this didn't ruin their standing in Gotham society.

* ParodySue: Nocturna seems to be Chris Dee's take on this trope. Making her debut by robbing Batman and getting away with it? Check. 'Enthralling' the male half of the Iceberg with heady monologues about the night? Check. Obsession with seducing Batman with a wave of her arm and a monologue, ignoring the fact that the other villainesses, sans Catwoman, have tried and failed dozens of times? Natch. What makes her this instead of a bad Mary Sue is that she has absolutely no respect from the rogues, and is captured, literally, by being duped by the other villainesses into thinking Azrael was the better seduction target, with absolutely no effort expended by the Bat-crew. Her own husband even thinks she's a nutcase and wishes she'd never talked him into the Thief Of The Night/Nocturna gig, [[OnlySaneMan instead wanting to tour Gotham like a normal person]].
** Just to add another layer to the whole thing; the villainesses watching Nocturna try to seduce Azrael from a nearby video rental store. In the middle of Nocturna's attempt, Harley finds a bunch of erotic tapes titled, word for word, phrases that Nocturna has been using since her arrival at the Iceburg to make herself sound [[PurpleProse mysteriously sophisticated]].

* ArtifactTitle: The title was derived from the name of Selina's stage show, which closed before the last chapter of the first story.
* AssShove: Ivy inflicts this on Two-Face with a clay pot after he accidentally kills her pet flytrap Ivan.
* AuthorAppeal: ''Trick Or Treat'' shows that Chris Dee knows quite a bit about Sherlock Holmes.
* AwesomenessByAnalysis
* BadBoss: Asides from the usual candidates of Joker and Two-Face (depending on the coin flip), Ulstarn managed to gain a global reputation in D.E.M.O.N., entirely for singlehandedly turning the Gotham City posting into a punishment reserved for those who screw up spectacularly. This is due to his sheer paranoia and idiocy, and operatives who return from Gotham are described as broken.

** When [[spoiler: the Iceberg gets burned to the ground,]] Vault quickly becomes the Rogue's new watering hole.

* BerserkButton: Any reference to Bruce being accepted as part of the Rogues' Gallery extended family usually sends him into a roaring case of [[KnightTemplar Psy]][[AxCrazy cho]][[RoaringRampageOfRevenge bat.]] The Rogues themselves warn Bruce not to mention F. Miller's autobiography of Catwoman lest he provoke a similar response from Selina.

** Poison Ivy. In almost every single ComicBook/PostCrisis depiction of her character, she has a poisonous kiss, is a skilled chemist, and while less common, is able to psionically control all plant life. Here, however, she's pretty much just a gardener with pheromones, a weak control of plants and a massive ego. She needs to take magical steroids in order to pull off any large-scale manipulation of plants.
** Talia is equally de-badassed. Master of armed and unarmed combat? Nope, can't even get into a non-lethal catfight with Selina without tripping over her own two feet. Genius-level intellect? Nuh-uh, can't even plan out something more complicated than a MissingStepsPlan. Skilled in managerial tasks and has helped keep both the League of Assassins and DEMON in the black for decades? No way, she can't even balance her checkbook and provide for her own welfare without daddy's credit card, let alone anybody else. Secretly undermined Lex-Corp during Luthor's stint as president, leaked Luthor's under-the-table dealings to Superman and blew the whole company out to Wayne Enterprises when the time came to take him down? HAH! She tanked that multi-billion dollar, multinational company all by herself, no motivation necessary! Seeing as how Talia is Selina's main rival for Batman's affections, this is blatantly intentional, especially as Talia ends up [[spoiler: falling for an OC]].

** [[spoiler:''String Theory'' ends with Zatanna suffering this, having previously used white magic for decidedly negative purposes, and thus the universe itself sets things up to remove her abilities.]]

* DisproportionateRetribution: Clayface getting Poison Ivy a Christmas gift of Potpourri (dead and dried-out flowers meant to smell good) resulted in him [[PersonaNonGrata blackballed from the Iceberg]] for years so they didn't have to deal with Ivy freaking out and destroying the bar.

* EveryoneCanSeeIt: Everyone who knew Bruce pre-series recognized his attraction to Selina/Catwoman.

* NotSoDifferent: Batman does not take it well when Superman points out that both he and The Riddler, by Batman's own description, are motivated by injustice: Batman by the fact that crime exists in his city, and Riddler by the fact that the idiots and bullies of the world are the ones who always succeed over genuinely smart people.

* AGodAmI: Ivy is convinced of this, which is why she suffers a VillainousBreakdown after the world decides to [[HumiliationConga prove her wrong.]]

* ARareSentence:
** 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."

* BadBoss: Asides from the usual candidates of Joker and Two-Face (depending on the coin flip), Ulstarn managed to gain a global reputation in D.E.M.O.N. for making the Gotham City posting a dire punishment. He did this by virtue of his sheer paranoia and irrational logic, and operatives who return from Gotham are described as broken.

* {{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 he and Harley, finally gives in, hails a cab and checks himself into Arkham.

* TakeThat: ''Pussywhipped'' makes it abundantly clear that Chris Dee does not like Creator/FrankMiller's take on Batman.

-->'''Jervis''': "For my Aunt Maud,"... "She's coming to Gotham for, like, a month. She wants to stay with me. She thinks I'm an editor at Harpers and Row. Selina, what am I going to do?"

* 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".

* 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.

** 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.

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

** Gladys Ashton-Larraby will never let her husband, Randolph Larraby III, forget that he insisted on naming their son (who typically goes by Randy-quad) after himself and therefore "numbering" him "like a movie sequel", "rather than letting him enjoy the distinction of the illustrious Ashton legacy".