Batman
Canon Immigrant in this franchise. open/close all folders
The DC Animated Universe
- Harley Quinn, from Batman: The Animated Series. This Perky Female Minion (and girlfriend) of the Joker was nearly as insane as he, and the dynamic they created was unique among supervillains. After being imported to The DCU, she got her own series that lasted 38 issues and a major role in the short-lived Birds of Prey (2002). She went on to co-star alongside Poison Ivy and Catwoman in Gotham City Sirens, as well as appearing in the hit video game Batman: Arkham Asylum, and its sequels, Arkham City and Arkham Knight. She currently stars in the new Suicide Squad, and the relaunched Harley Quinn is DC's best-selling female-led title. Margot Robbie portrays her in both the 2016 Suicide Squad and 2020 Birds of Prey movies. She was originally the Trope Namer before it was renamed to cure it of Trope-Namer Syndrome.
- Renee Montoya, a police officer and detective of the Gotham City Police Department, was created for the animated series, but actually appeared in the comics first due to the lengthy production time of the show. She guest starred in numerous Bat-Family titles before being cast as one of the lead characters in Gotham Central, then 52. She also wore the mantle of The Question for a time.
- Lock-Up also made the leap to The DCU in the New 52, surprisingly before Harley.
- Roxy Rocket is a recursive canon immigrant — she originated in The Batman Adventures comic based on the animated series, then made it into the series, before finally migrating from the series to the DCU proper as an enemy of Batgirl.
- Sewer King, also from the animated series, appeared in 52. He appeared in one issue, only to die at the end of said issue.
- There's Raven, Jay and Lark, the Penguin's henchwomen from the DC Animated Universe. Lark was adapted from the comics while Jay and Raven were original characters, and it wasn't until the New 52 reboot that they were made canon.
- The weirdest example is Condiment King, a throw-away joke villain. — twice!
- The initial version was In Name Only, as he was a teenager named Mitchell Mayo who worked in fast food before he willingly became a villain. He was also Lean and Mean, and Red and Black and Evil All Over.
- A Truer to the Text version of the original character appeared in Detective Comics #1000, being including being a stocky adult clad in blue and white named Buddy Standler. That said, it was left clear if he's still a comedian like the original Standler or even if he's Brainwashed and Crazy like the original Standler or another case of Adaptational Villainy like Mayo was.
- Veronica Vreeland originated in the animated series and finally made her first mainstream DC Universe appearance in the 2018 DC's Beach Blanket Bad Guys Summer Special one-shot. Prior to that, she also showed up in the out-of-continuity Batman: White Knight mini-series.
- Terry McGinnis was seen in a few issues, but these were all set in the DC Animated Universe continuity (this includes his mini-series). As of Batman #700, however, he's been inserted in the main DCU timeline as both an alternate universe Batman, and in the main universe as a possible future successor to Damian Wayne. Damian in this case fulfills the role Bruce did in the DCAU. Another version of Terry showed up in Futures End. This one had been mentored by Bruce in a Bad Future, and had travelled back in time to the period of Futures End to try and Set Right What Once Went Wrong.
- Derek Powers was a Corrupt Corporate Executive from Batman Beyond who ran a company called Powers Technologies. Scott Snyder made the Powers family and their company canon in his Batman run, with Geri Powers, Derek's ancestor, acting as a supporting character. Derek himself eventually appears in a Gotham Academy annual, where he travels back to the present in an attempt to murder Warren McGinnis, the young boy who will eventually grow up to be Terry's father.
- As part of the 2017 Superman: Multiplicity issues (of which is also a sequel to 2015's The Multiversity), the legacy expies of some heroes introduced in Batman Beyond episodes "The Call" (Mareena (AKA Aquagirl), Kai-Ro, Micron, and Warhawk) would be made canon, though as part of
Earth-12◊. In addition Danica Williams (AKA Flash II), who appeared in some semi-canon Batman Beyond sequel comics is also included among the Earth-12 Justice League Beyond members. - In a split between this and the Expy trope, Gotham Academy also introduced a young girl named Katherine Karlo, who eventually turns out to be Clayface's "daughter" (that is, a piece of his body that gained free will). She is the DCU's version of Annie, a one-shot character from The New Batman Adventures with the same basic backstory and premise, in all but name, though given that Clayface is named Basil Karlo, it may have been a bit more obvious the connection this time.
- Nora Fries, Mr. Freeze's cryogentically frozen wife. She was created for Batman: The Animated Series and then imported into the comics in Batman: Mr. Freeze #1, as was Ferris Boyle, the Corrupt Corporate Executive who caused the accident that transformed Victor into Mr. Freeze. Even Batman & Robin used Nora as a plot device. The addition of Nora and her tragic story had a massive impact on Mr. Freeze's popularity; prior to his appearance in the cartoon, he'd been killed of during one of the miniseries about Tim Drake's Robin before prior to Tim starring in Robin (1993) and was brought back in Knightfall during the Knightquest portion.
- Sin Tzu, the villain from Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu (based on The New Batman Adventures), makes his debut in "Suicide Squad's Most Wanted: El Diablo and Killer Croc # 3".
- The DCAU interpretation of Clock King, who was originally a Green Arrow villain, made the jump to the comics as a Batman foe. A character with the same name and time motif had appeared on the '60s Batman (1966) TV show.
- The Grey Ghost from Batman: The Animated Series eventually appeared in Batgirl, only to be killed off in one of the final issues. He showed up again post-New 52 in Gotham Academy as the school's drama teacher.
- Kathy Duquesne originated in Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman, and later made the jump to comics in the DC Comics Bombshells series. She was later joined by Ellen Yin from The Batman.
- Kyodai Ken/the Ninja, a minor villain from Batman: The Animated Series, was introduced in Peter J. Tomasi's first arc for Detective Comics. While the cartoon version was a petty thief out for revenge against Bruce Wayne for ratting him out when he tried to steal from his master, the comic book version is a loyal bodyguard for Kirigi, one of the men who trained Bruce — and was a hallucination.
- Andrea Beaumont, a.k.a. the Phantasm of Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, appeared in Tom King's Batman/Catwoman maxi-series, almost 28 years after her original film debut.
- Summer Gleeson is mentioned by name in the Batman: No Man's Land storyline.
- Red Claw made her comic debut in Tini Howard's Catwoman run.
- The first issue of Punchline: The Gotham Game sees the (chronologically first) version of the Royal Flush Gang from Justice League make their comics debut.
The 1960s TV series
- Batgirl is an interesting case. The character was created by DC Comics in 1966, at the behest of Batman (1966) TV-show producer William Dozier. Technically, she appeared in the comics (just barely) before her first broadcast appearance — but she exists only because the television show wanted an "official" young female character fighting alongside Batman and Robin.
- Chief O'Hara, a fairly important character from the '60s live-action Batman series, went on to make scattered appearances in the comics, having both an Earth-One counterpart (whose most noteworthy appearances were in "The Master Plan of Doctor Phosphorus" and "Sign of the Joker") and an analogue on Earth-Two (who is significantly older and mainly appeared in the Huntress back-up stories featured in later issues of Wonder Woman (1942), where he becomes police commissioner of Gotham City after the death of Bruce Wayne and is regarded by Bruce's daughter Helena as an old family friend in spite of O'Hara obviously not existing in the Golden Age Batman comics). A mustached version of him also appeared Post-Crisis in Batman: Dark Victory (where he is the first casualty of the Hangman killings) as well as the 2000 Silver Age story arc and Batman issue 700 in Grant Morrison's run (both of which contradict O'Hara's death in Dark Victory by depicting him as alive and well during Dick Grayson's period as the original Robin).
- King Tut from the Batman (1966) TV series appeared as the main villain in a story arc of Batman Confidential, giving him Canon Immigrant status some 40-something years after he first appeared. King Tut also makes an appearance in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, which makes him an immigrant from one TV canon to another.
- Brave and the Bold also went one step further, having cameos by the likes of Louie the Lilac, Bookworm, The Archer, Marsha Queen of Diamonds, The Siren, Ma Parker, Black Widow, Shame and Egghead. All had a cameo in a prison break, in one episode. All of them were villains created specifically for the '60s TV series.
- Egghead made the jump to the DCU as well in Gotham Academy, though looking less like Vincent Price.
- Bookworm first officially made the jump to the comics in a 1989 Huntress story that saw him killed off. He returned in the New 52, where he's the school librarian in Gotham Academy.
The Arkham game series
- The new, female Copperhead was created for the video game Arkham Origins, but was announced to be coming to the New 52 before the game was even released. However, due to nixed plans, her comic debut happened long after the game's release as part of DC Rebirth.
- Detective Comics #1000 introduces the Arkham Knight from the video game of the same name into the DC Universe. However, rather than being Jason Todd like in the game, the comic version of Arkham Knight turns out to be Astrid Arkham, the daughter of Jeremiah Arkhamnote .
Elsewhere
- Carrie Kelly was first introduced as the new Robin in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, but during the New 52, she appeared in the mainstream continuity as Damian Wayne's drama tutor. She wore the Robin outfit to a costume party as a Mythology Gag, but thus far there's been no indication she'll actually become a costumed hero in this continuity.
- Chase Meridian was created for Batman Forever as Bruce's new love interest and a Gotham psychologist who worked with the police. Years later, she was brought into the DC Universe via the Legends of the Dark Knight digital comic, which established her as a psychiatrist who worked at Arkham. She has since appeared more prominantly in the Arkham Rising storyline as the chief psychiatrist of the new Arkham Tower.
- Scorn, Robin's Evil Counterpart from The Batman, was made canon in the New 52 continuity.
- Lau, the Hong Kong banker from The Dark Knight film, made a brief appearance in an issue of Red Robin.
- Batgirl (Rebirth) introduced a character named Ethan Cobblepot who seems to be based on the version of Penguin who appears in Batman: The Telltale Series, given his appearance and skill with computers.
- The Bridgit Pike version of Firefly from the Gotham live-action show made her comic debut during James Robinson's Detective Comics (Rebirth) fill-in arc.
- Richard Sionis, a proto-Black Mask who also appeared in Gotham, is established as a previous Black Mask in the Rebirth comics as well, being the father of Roman Sionis.
- Following the unexpected departure of Ruby Rose from Batwoman (2019), the writers created a new Batwoman named Ryan Wilder to take over as the protagonist of the series. Prior to the airing of Batwoman's second season, DC introduced Ryan into the comic continuity in the aftermath of The Joker War, with a cameo in Batgirl #50. It appears increasingly unlikely that Ryan will follow her show counterpart, however; as of September 2022, she herself has reappeared only once note , Kate Kane still operates as Batwoman with no reason to give it up or otherwise leave, and Kate was shown to still be Batwoman in the potential future of DC Future State.
- The DC Pride 2022 one-shot brought over the Music Meister from Batman: The Brave and the Bold to fight Damian Wayne and Connor Hawke, and gave him the real name of "Darius Chapel".
