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Bat-Family

Batman

Bruce Wayne / Batman

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_dark_knight_returns.png

Who the hell do you think I am? I'm the goddamn Batman.

Gotham City's chief vigilante. After a 10-year retirement, Bruce Wayne dons the cape and cowl to combat the rising crime rate.

Adaptational Jerkass: Traditionally Bruce Wayne empathizes with Dick Grayson following his parent's murder. Here, the goddamn Batman abuses the poor boy within seconds of his life-changing tragedy and expects him to endure the same self-inflicted torture Bruce put himself through.
The Alcoholic: Dialogue from Gordon and Alfred at the start of the series suggests that Bruce is dangerously close to becoming one if he's not there already. Once he resumes the mission, it's never mentioned again, as it was possibly his way to retire himself in the first place.
Art Evolution:
- Miller's rendition of Batman starts off rather traditional if not bulkier. It's only as the series goes on that noticeable wrinkles start appearing on his face and his posture begins hunching over.
- Batman starts off more or less in the typical Neal Adams design with a baby blue cowl and yellow oval around the symbol. After being beaten by the Mutant Leader, he switches to a darker cowl and oval-less symbol, hearkening back to the darker, more vicious version of the character from his pre-Robin years in the Golden Age. His All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder suit also adopted this color scheme.
Badass Normal: This is (the goddamn) Batman, after all.
Blood Knight: Miller takes this side of Batman to an outrageous character-breaking degree in All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder; Batman is literally burning criminals alive and then having sex with Black Canary because he feels so alive.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: Batman swears in his inner monologue that he's firing rubber bullets on the Mutants. There's seriously no way he's not trying to directly convince the reader he's telling the truth.
Cape Wings: The imagery is invoked when Batman uses his cape to appear to break his fall when confronting the police during the Joker's attack on The David Endochrine Show and the Joker later on at the fair. The cover art used as the page image above also invokes this imagery.
Character Catchphrase: In All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder, every issue has him uttering the line, "I'm the Goddamn Batman!", or a variation of it.
Character Development:
- Of a sort. In All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder, Batman was a gruesome individual. He treated everyone in the story like dirt, insisted that Dick eat a rat for dinner, threatened Alfred for feeding him a proper meal, slapped Dick for crying over the loss of his parents, and gleefully killed (dirty, some willing to murder kids) cops chasing him and was overall a deranged, loathsome maniac who ironically gained some humanity from Grayson.
- Batman: The Dark Knight Returns could be interpreted as Bruce Wayne being older, wiser, and struggling to hold on to his humanity and/or sanity. By The Dark Knight Strikes Again, Bruce Wayne seems to have reverted back to his All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder personality. In short, what you have here is one seriously messed-up man who is not as rational and logical as he thinks he is.
Chest Insignia: Turns out the bat symbol on Batman's chest serves an actual purpose, as it's bulletproof.
Batman (internal): Why do you think I wear a target on my chest? I can't armor my head.
Combat Pragmatist: Batman becomes one in his second fight with the Mutant leader since brute force failed spectacularly the first time.
Crazy-Prepared: To the point of having glowing green boxing gloves.
Death Seeker: Bruce has become one by the start of the story, and after he becomes Batman again, he frequently remarks on how certain things would be good or bad deaths as the story progresses.
Defeating the Undefeatable: Batman beats Superman. Or at least it got the better of him. Not without some trickery, and Superman holding WAY back, but still.
Determinator: Despite being gutshot and stabbed multiple times by the Joker and shot at several times by the police, Batman still manages to elude them by getting to the Bat-Copter.
Doesn't Like Guns:
- Played straight at first in issue 4, as Batman invokes the trope in his speech to the Sons of the Batman:
  Batman: *breaks a shotgun in two with his hands* This loud, clumsy, stupid thing... this is the weapon of the enemy. We do not need it. We will not use it.
- That being said, he will use them when they're necessary. In the first issue, he uses a rifle to shoot a grappling line between the Gotham Towers to confront Two-Face and his henchmen. In the fourth issue, he uses Commissioner Yindel's gun to shoot some plastic explosives. He also gets pushed into using one when taking on three Mutant kidnappers who have a toddler as a hostage. The confrontation culminates with Batman pointing one of the Mutant's guns (a frigging M60 GPMG) at the last kidnapper, who is holding the hostage at gunpoint.
  Mutant: I'll do it man, believe me! Believe me!
  Batman: *Shoots her and rescues the child* I believe you.
Evil Laugh: He's arguably a Villain Protagonist by the time of All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder, and usually utters a psychotic form of laughter to showcase this.
- In the second issue Batman plows through numerous corrupted cops with his batmobile at high speed, all while Laughing Mad. Dick was understandably scared crapless.
- In Issue #5, he cackles loudly as he runs through the rooftops and later descends upon a gang that was about to rape and murder a woman.
Expository Hairstyle Change: Of a sort. At the start of the story, Bruce has a mustache, but after a sleepwalk (or psychosis-driven fugue; it's not made clear which) into the Batcave, Alfred notices that he's shaved it off...and he didn't realize he'd done it.
Faking the Dead: Batman fakes his death in the final chapter. It fools everyone except Superman, whose enhanced hearing lets him pick up a faint heartbeat.
Feeling Their Age: Batman starts as a Retired Badass, but soon returns to crime-fighting. Throughout the story Batman keeps on lamenting how slow he's become, culminating in the fight between him and the Mutant leader, who is, as Batman himself states, "in his physical prime". Batman loses, but only because he "tried to fight like a young man". Later he beats the Mutant leader with some Combat Pragmatist moves. After his fight with the Joker (which included several stabs to the gut) and subsequent escape from the GCPD, his age shows yet again to the point of losing consciousness.
Flatline Plotline: Batman's ultimate plot in the fourth issue is to remove himself from the public spotlight by faking his death. Being Batman, he kills himself for a while using a special drug, using the fight with Superman both as a cover and as an excuse to work out his anger and frustration with Superman.
Foreshadowing: Due to age and rust, Batman isn't as stealthy as he used to be. The thugs he's pursuing in the first chapter hear floorboards creaking under him and note that "[...] he never used to make noise before." This bites him hard in the third chapter when the Joker hears one of the funhouse mirrors creaking under his weight and shoots him as he breaks through it.
Forgiveness: Bruce Wayne has forgiven Joe Chill for killing his parents, finally understanding that all he ever wanted was money before the situation escalated. Despite this, his Batman mindset still wants to punish him for robbery and murder in general. This is in contrast to the newer generation of criminals whom Bruce thinks is more “pure” in savagery and evil than Joe Chill ever was.
Bruce: He flinched when he pulled the trigger. He was sick and guilty over what he did. All he wanted was money. I was naive enough to think him the lowest sort of man.
Going Cold Turkey: When Bruce takes up the cowl again, he quits the sauce. He doesn't have any withdrawal issues, possibly because Batman is an even stronger addiction.
Heroic BSoD: In the first issue, Bruce, lost in thought, wanders to the spot where his parents were killed and is confronted by Mutants. Their dialogue (casually talking about killing Bruce and having a quota for murders, and then dismissing Bruce as their target just as casually because he's "into it") shakes Bruce to his core, as he started the confrontation equating them to his parents' killer in his head.
Bruce: No. Not him. Not him. He flinched when he pulled the trigger. He was sick and guilty over what he did. [...] These... These are his children. A purer breed. And this world is theirs.
Honor Before Reason: Batman knows that it's best if he just shoots the Mutant leader in the dump, but he can't bring himself to cross that line... and it nearly gets him killed.
Hypocrite:
- In All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder, Batman challenges Dick Grayson to prove he's either "an avenger or a detective" by killing Jocko Boy, the man who murdered his parents. While Bruce is pleased when Dick spares him and ostensibly chooses "detective", Batman's crime-fighting methods include setting criminals on fire with thermite and bleach, poisoning criminals, and smashing through police barricades. Not only does he strain the plausibility that he actually sticks to Batman's typical one rule, but it's highly unlikely that if he ever got his hands on him, he would show his parents' murderer the same mercy that Dick shows his.
- In hindsight, Batman's What the Hell, Hero? scolding to Spawn's use of lethal force, even straight up chucking a Batarang in Spawn's face when asked to shake hands, in the 1994 one-shot comic, Spawn/Batman, becomes this by the time of All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder. Where Batman suffers some amount of Motive Decay with his ultraviolence on the criminal underbelly and corrupt authorities of Gotham City.
Hypocritical Humor: In TDKR Batman stated that Dick was the one who called his mode of transport "the Batmobile". In ASBAR we find out it was actually Batman. Dick thought the name sounded stupid.
Inexplicably Awesome: By the age of 25 he'd already amassed a fully-stocked Batcave and could run circles around any member of the Justice League.
Invincible Hero: By the time anyone comes up with anything he's already twelve steps ahead of them. Is Superman heading for the Bat-Cave? No problem! Just use the gigantic Kryptonite gloves over there! Got captured? No biggie! It was part of Batman's plan all along. It gets so bad that Batman can literally storm into Luthor's base of operations, beat him up, cut his face, and just leave with absolutely zero consequences. In the page image, he spells out why—he wanted to inspire terror in Luthor, to let him know that his empire was crumbling. And he wanted to give Hawkboy the honor of killing Luthor.
Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Subverted. Batman doesn't have to actually get violent with perps to get info. Instead, he lets their fear of him do his work for him, although in some cases a bit of setup is needed.
- In one instance, Batman scares a perp (the one who had the page quote applied to him earlier on) into talking simply by walking toward him; the perp falls through a window trying to get away, injuring himself, and talks after Batman tells him that he's the only person who can save him from bleeding to death.
- In another instance, he hangs an unconscious Mutant upside-down from a gargoyle at the top of a skyscraper, puts a hand over the Mutant's face, and slowly moves his hand away when the Mutant wakes up and tries to cut a deal. What makes this even more effective is that the reader doesn't realize all this until it's all said and done; the sequence is drawn from the Mutant's perspective until the last panel.
  Batman (internal): It was tough work carrying two hundred and twenty pounds of sociopath to the top of one of Gotham's Twin Towers. The scream alone is worth it.
Lantern Jaw of Justice: His face is perfectly rectangular.
Laughing Mad: Bruce often cackles like a maniac when operating as Batman in All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder.
Made of Iron: Subverted. The aged Batman absorbs a lot of punishment throughout the series, and every injury clearly pushes his body to the breaking point. He's noticeably slower in each subsequent chapter, and Alfred laments that he won't be able to effectively patch him up much longer.
Motive Decay: Downplayed. While Batman doesn't perform a Face–Heel Turn in All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder, he's much more focused on the thrill of punishing evildoers (especially with the gracious use of ultraviolence) than caring for the wellbeing of others. Especially with how he "recruited and train" the recently orphaned Dick Grayson.
Never My Fault: Several moments in All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder have Batman repeatedly blame Dick Grayson for coming into his life and becoming his sidekick, completely ignoring the fact that he's the one who abducted the boy against his will in the first place.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: While Batman's return helps save Gotham from the Crapsack World it has become in his absence, it also causes the Joker to snap out of his 10 years of catatonia and gives him a motive to return to crime.
Nominal Hero: In All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder, Batman is depicted in an absolutely psychotic light, abusing Robin and slaughtering dozens of police officers with absolute glee, and is only considered heroic due to being on the good team.
Ostentatious Secret: As Ollie points out to Bruce.
Sure, you like to play it mysterious, but it's a loud kind of mysterious. Especially lately.
Pet the Dog: Batman takes Robin to his parents' graves to allow him to properly grieve. He also shows compassion to Catwoman when he finds her injured.
Politically Incorrect Hero: In addition to calling Dick retarded, Batman dismissively refers to Wonder Woman as "the Wicked Witch of Lesbo Island".
Powered Armor: Batman dons a highly advanced suit of armor (among other things) to fight Superman.
Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: "You don't get it, do you? This isn't a mudhole. it's an operating table, and I'm the surgeon!"
Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Inverted, in that it's the winner of the climactic battle that delivers it just before he dies.
I want you to remember...the one man who beat you...
Profanity Police: Batman cuts off a kid — whom he just rescued from gunpoint seconds ago — encouraging him to "kick [the Joker's] ass" with a "watch your language, son".
Protagonist-Centered Morality: Anyone who is not Batman or disagrees with what he's doing is ineffectual, stupid, and/or evil. Anyone who is Batman or agrees with his methods is heroic and awesome.
Psychopathic Manchild: This take on Batman isn't fighting crime because he wants to protect innocent civilians or preserve order. He's simply a violent man who picks targets that won't get much sympathy.
- It's even worse in All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder. In addition to the joy he takes in violence, Batman has the temperament of a child, getting incredibly moody and angry whenever someone isn't impressed with his cave or gadgets. Possibly done as a deconstruction of Batman. We hope.
Redemption in the Rain: The shot of fifty-five-year-old Bruce Wayne appearing as Batman for the first time in ten years, during a thunderstorm.
Batman: I'm a man of thirty—of twenty again. The rain on my chest is a baptism—I'm born again.
Resurrection Gambit: Batman's ultimate plan in the last chapter is to take himself out of the public spotlight by faking his death. However, he knows that Superman will be the government's tool to stop him and actually faking death won't fool his super senses, so he takes a drug that actually does kill him by stopping his heart after a couple of hours, but restarts his heart later on. The problem is that Superman hears his heartbeat start back up while he's in his coffin; fortunately, he simply winks at Carrie Kelly (the new Robin) and leaves, keeping Batman's secret.
The Scapegoat: Batman is accused by the media of inspiring several incidents, from a mentally-ill mob enforcer putting on a Batman costume and turning on his boss to a very disturbed man's religiously motivated shooting up of a porn theater. Meanwhile, a shop owner who actually WAS inspired by Batman chases off a purse-snatcher attacking an old lady. No one is hurt enough for this to make the news.
Sir Swears-a-Lot: Don't say anything about his choice of name for his car.
Not one word. I've taken enough grief for calling my goddamn car the goddamn batmobile. I'm the goddamn Batman and I can call my goddamn car whatever the hell I want to call it.
Sociopathic Hero: This version of Batman actually takes pleasure in inflicting pain on criminals.
Spiteful Spit: After the Joker's death, Batman pauses just long enough to spit in his corpse's face before making his getaway.
I waste one second...with a goodbye.
Stalker without a Crush: Batman says he'd been scoping out Dick Grayson as a sidekick for months before his parents were even killed.
The Strategist: Batman knows he cannot win a direct fight against Superman, so he comes up with an elaborate strategy to defeat him. After testing the limits of Superman's powers and tiring him out with a variety of weapons, Batman arranges for Green Arrow to shoot his opponent with a Kryptonite-tipped arrow, severely weakening him. The Man of Steel then suffers a tremendous beatdown that only ends when Bruce suddenly suffers a heart attack.
Technical Pacifist: Batman at this point is the only one out of keeping his word. He clearly does not care about killing enemies anymore, letting subordinates use lethal force liberally, and actually shows a disturbing amount of glee over Hawkboy brutally murdering Luthor. Eventually, he opts to break his code altogether when he happily kills Dick Grayson himself.
Testosterone Poisoning: He's ridiculously muscular and savors violence.
Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Implied. During Alfred's Inner Monologue in All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder, it's suggested there was always something "off" about Bruce even before the tragic loss of his parents.
Utility Belt: Prominently featured in the first issue. Batman uses items from it to defuse one of Two-Face's bombs, and does a mental run-through of its items in boredom while he's waiting for Two-Face to make his move on Gotham's Twin Towers.
Villain Protagonist: He's arguably this in All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder, where Batman's "methods" in crimefighting amount to ultraviolence on the criminal underbelly and corrupt authority of Gotham City with sadistic glee, even killing them if it's convenient, and having little to no care for the crippling injuries he inflicted upon them. His "recruitment and training" of the recently orphaned Dick Grayson amounts to kidnapping the 12-year-old boy and outright abusing him, never mind the fact that he was stalking the kid beforehand with the implication that would've recruited Dick even if the latter's parents weren't killed.
Verbal Tic: During his younger years he had a habit of referring to himself as "the goddamn Batman".
Weak, but Skilled: Best shown in his fights with the Mutant Leader. The first time, Batman, insecure about his old age, takes on the Leader, who's in his physical prime and gets his ass handed to him, only being saved by Carrie's intervention. In their second fight, Batman, realizing he lost the first time because he "tried to fight like a young man", goes about it intelligently by handicapping the fighting area, using a mudhole to limit his opponent's movements, and using his superior experience in fighting techniques to overcome the Leader's physical superiority.
Would Hit a Girl: When Yindel holds Batman at gunpoint in the Tunnel of Love and tells him to freeze, Batman punches her in the face, breaking her nose and glasses and knocking her out.
You Are the New Trend: Rather than ignoring the Sons of the Batman, he recruits them as his own personal army after disarming them and all but calling them out for being fools in their old tactics. Admittedly, he had stopped them from following their previous leader who was proclaiming "This is our chance to raze Gotham... to purge Gotham."

Carrie Kelly

Carrie Kelly / Robin / Catgirl

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/carrie_kelley.jpg

A thirteen-year-old who decides to take the law into her own hands. She willingly joins Batman on his return as the new Robin.

Affirmative-Action Legacy: The first female Robin. When she comes of age Carrie eventually becomes Batwoman.
Bi Fauxnen: Carrie has a very androgynous fashion sense, enough to be mistaken for a boy.
Boyish Short Hair: Carrie has very short tomboyish hair.
Break the Cutie: This is essentially what happens when Carrie sees the bodies of the Cub Scouts who took the poisoned cotton candy from the Joker. Batman's internal dialogue lampshades it. Pushed along further with her fight with Abner when he ends up decapitating himself via a low hanging awning on the rolled coaster they’re on. When Batman radios her in the next issue, she’s still frozen in trauma over it.
Cat Girl: She adopts this moniker in The Dark Knight Strikes Again.
Cheap Costume: Carrie Kelly's Robin suit is an off-the-rack costume. She even appears to paint the frames of her glasses black to better emulate his mask for her first patrol.
Hypocrite: Catgirl berates one of the 'Batboys' in issue one about killing some soldiers and even beats him up for it. Yet in issue three she clams to have killed the Joker imposter "without an ounce of remorse" and "without a shred of regret" with an arrow through the head. True he couldn't die from that, but she didn't know that at the time.
Legacy Character: To both Robin and Catwoman. She's the third Robin after Dick Grayson and Jason Todd and later Catgirl, named after Catwoman. She also briefly assumed the Batman identity.
Plucky Girl: Carrie, who at the age of 13 gets herself a Robin costume and goes out to fight crime armed only with a slingshot and a few firecrackers, and who earns Batman's respect by attacking the goddamn Mutant Leader when he's just about to defeat Batman. She downplays the perky associations of this trope, tending to be more sarcastic than outright cheerful, but she's spirited as hell and, apart from the occasional BSOD, never gives up.
Two First Names: "Carrie" and "Kelley" are common given names for girls.
Viewer Name Confusion: It's Carrie Kelley, but "Kelly" is ubiquitous among fans.

Alfred Pennyworth

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_8658.png

Bruce Wayne's lifelong manservant.

Cool Old Guy: Alfred is so up in years, yet is still serving and snarky.
Deadpan Snarker: Alfred is very weary of Bruce’s resumed holy war against crime which he demonstrates by being as catty as possible.
Let the Past Burn: In the final issue, Alfred burns down Wayne Manor so that nobody can look through it for evidence or clues after Batman's identity as Bruce Wayne is revealed to the public while faking his death.
Mr. Fanservice: In All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder Alfred gets a shirtless scene, which reveals he's in ridiculously good shape.
Not Listening to Me, Are You?: Alfred persuades Bruce to donate to:
Alfred: ...the Committee for the Prevention of Obsessive Behaviour in Middle-Aged Men.
Bruce: Write them a check.
Only Sane Man: Alfred finds himself making crazy suggestions.
Alfred: Maybe we shouldn't force [Dick] to survive by eating rats.
Servile Snarker: Alfred has always been sarcastic, but in TDKR he takes further, as he is at first very unhappy with the way Bruce has let himself go in his retirement from the cowl, and is even more unhappy when he goes back to being Batman because it not only makes him seem like he's forgotten the lessons of the past, it means Alfred has to patch him up again when he's hurt.
What the Hell, Hero?: Alfred chides Bruce for his senseless torture of Dick Grayson (age 12) when the poor boy was orphaned mere hours ago.

Sons of Batman/Batboys

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_8711.jpeg

A group of Batboys in The Dark Knight Strikes Again.

The remnants of the Mutant Gang, who were recruied to continue Batman's legacy.

Ax-Crazy: The Sons of the Batman don't lose any of their viciousness once they break away from the Mutants, they just start targeting criminals.
Men of Sherwood: The Sons of Batman Vigilante Militia made up of ex-gang members takes a while to become non-violent enough for Batman to trust them, but they help break up a riot after a blackout, and help stock his new Bat-cave after he fakes his death at the end.
There Is No Kill Like Overkill: The Sons of the Batman, who have turned their over-the-top violence as former Mutants to fighting crime instead of creating it. At one point, it's mentioned that they used napalm to break up a three card monte game. One SOB, after killing the aforementioned Nixon mask robbers, took a pair of wire cutters and sliced off the store owner's fingers on one hand because, as he put it, "you did nothing to stop them."
Vigilante Militia: Several members of the defeated Mutants gang become true believers and declare themselves the "Sons of the Batman." Unfortunately, they clean up the streets with the same viciousness that marked their prior affiliation, and Batman has to take them under his wing ... if only to train them in a way that protects Gotham City from their idea of "crimefighting."

Gotham City

Government

Mayor

Mayor of Gotham

Too Dumb to Live: The Mayor meets with the Mutant Leader alone, with no guards or security. It doesn't end well for him. Gordon himself lampshades how dumb that was.

Deputy Mayor

Deputy Mayor of Gotham

Law Enforcement

James Gordon

Former commissioner of the Gotham Police Department and a trusted ally to Batman.

Retirony: Inverted, Commissioner Gordon proves he is still a badass by living till his planned retirement.

Commissioner Yindel

Commissioner Ellen Yindel

The new commissioner of Gotham PD.

Affirmative-Action Legacy: Gordon's successor is a woman.
Foil: To Carrie. The two look similar and are an example of Affirmative-Action Legacy regarding Batman's allies. The key difference is that Carrie idolizes Batman while Yindel (at first) sees his flaws.
Inspector Javert: Unlike Gordon, Yndel sees Batman as nothing more than a thug who needs to be brought in line.
The Lopsided Arm of the Law: Law enforcement puts way more effort into stopping Batman than the Mutants or the massive crime wave seizing Gotham.

Civilians

Dr. Wolper

Dr. Bartholomew Wolper

A psychologist who treats Arkham patients, underestimating how malicious they can truly be.

Dumbass Has a Point: While he's quick to blame Batman for the spike in crime, the story does confirm that the Joker only came out of his coma due to Batman's resurgence.
Freudian Excuse: Dr. Wolper blames Batman for making the Joker into a raving loon. He might have a point, but the Joker kills him.
Hates the Job, Loves the Limelight: The fruits of his labors are pretty superficial and he's addicted to the publicity his work will provide him.
Horrible Judge of Character: He's a qualified psychologist, yet he apparently can't tell when his patients are lying to him.
Informed Attribute: Doctor Bartholomew Wolper is considered the psychological expert on the Batman, but when his arguments include the idea that Batman is responsible for his villains' actions, it's hard to treat the man as a qualified expert when he has made such a significant error.
Insane Troll Logic: Doctor Wolper argues that the Joker himself didn't commit his crimes, Batman did, through the Joker.
Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Dr. Wolper assumes people like the Joker and Harvey Dent can be rehabilitated, not knowing that the Joker chooses to be a monster and Harvey Dent can no longer distinguish right from wrong anymore.
Narcissist: If it wasn't obvious, Dr. Wolper is a very pretentious person, calling Batman a "disease" for his war on crime and defending Joker's actions by excusing him as the victim. He also tells Harvey he should "thank [him]" after his face is fixed, completely unaware that his mind is permanently damaged beyond repair.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: His treatment of Harvey Dent apparently had some crossed wires, as the former DA and criminal was meant to cure his split personality, but instead it made him into a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing.
Theory Tunnelvision: Dr. Wolper is so fixated on the idea that Batman is the problem that he even argues that the Joker is a "victim" of Batman's psychosis.
Too Dumb to Live: Dr. Wolper, and the entire studio audience/host for the talk show which the Joker attends. At one point, Joker even announces that he's going to kill everyone in the room, but Wolper foolishly dismisses it as a simple joke. A few minutes later, the villain's robots fly in, filling the entire studio with deadly toxins.

Selina Kyle

Selina Kyle/Catwoman

A former cat-burglar who has since become the manager to a legitimate escort service.

Dating Catwoman: Literally; it's never said outright, but Selena's voicemail to Bruce is a huge hint, they kiss before Batman and Robin go after the Joker, and Gordon has to restrain her from physically attacking Superman after Bruce Wayne's funeral concludes.
I Was Quite the Looker:Her looks and figure faded quite noticably with age.

David Endochrine

A nighttime television host.

No Celebrities Were Harmed: He's based on David Letterman — and murdered by the Joker.

Vicki Vale

A journalist.

Department of Redundancy Department: "Someone murdered his parents. Right before his eyes. Brutally. Brutally. It was brutal."
Likes Clark Kent, Hates Superman: In her very first appearance, Vicki Vale complains about Batman, saying that Gotham deserves a better resident superhero... then talks about how at least Gotham has Bruce Wayne, whom she describes as "rich as Howard Hughes" and "hot as the Sun".
Lingerie Scene: Vicki Vale's first appearance is three pages of her parading around her apartment in pink lingerie and high heels. Doubles as Sex Sells. Some editions feature Miller's script for this scene, which gets pretty disturbing as he goes on and on about how detailed her underwear should be, and even calls himself shameless when he asks for a closeup of her ass.
Ms. Fanservice: She spends a fair amount of her establishing scene in lacy lingerie with generous amounts of Male Gaze before switching to a revealing dress.

Criminals

Joker

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_8716.jpeg

Gotham's most dangerous criminal.

Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder he's a Sad Clown.
Adaptational Attractiveness: While he still won't be winning any beauty contests, Joker is much more fit and muscular than the unhealthily lanky frame of most other incarnations and his face displays more conventionally handsome features. That is, until his final confrontation with Batman and subsequent death, in which his face gradually become more traditional Joker-like.
Adaptational Curves: Joker is usually depicted as being very lanky and gaunt. Here, however, he looks like he could bench-press a truck. It's all the more shocking once you realize he's been catatonic in Arkham for a decade. He is also depicted as vaguely handsome looking in comparison to other depictions.
Ambiguously Gay: Joker addresses Batman in a flirtatious manner, even leading him into a Tunnel of Love during their chase scene. Confusing matters is that he's prone to kissing women while wearing toxic lipstick.
Ambiguous Situation: In The Golden Child a Joker is now POTUS, but it's not clear if he came back from the dead or is a new Joker entirely. His face looks like it suffered serious burns some time ago, which lines up with Joker's corpse being set on fire.
Ax-Crazy: The Joker is depicted as having a love/hate fixation on Batman that he feeds with his indiscriminate killing.
Joker (inner dialogue): They could put me in a helicopter and fly me up into the air and line up the bodies head to toe on the ground in delightful geometric patterns like an endless June Taylor dancers routine — and it would never be enough. No, I don't keep count. But you do. And I love you for it.
Deadpan Snarker: The Joker lays the snark on thick, but only truly descends into the cackling madman we're familiar with in his final moments as he twists his head around.
Death by Disfigurement: Toyed with. Batman breaks the Joker's neck just enough to cause paralysis. The Joker finishes the job by himself, both to frame Batman for his death and to spite Batman.
Death Seeker: After Batman paralyzes the Joker, the latter decides death (especially once where he gets to frame Batman for it) is preferable to his current predicament and happily breaks the rest of his spine.
Die Laughing: Joker laughs the entire time he's twisting his head around to finish breaking his neck, leaving a grin on his face as he dies.
Dying Smirk: Batman manages to defeat the Joker, leaving him physically paralyzed. The Joker mocks Batman one last time and proceeds to snap his own neck while laughing. When Batman incinerates the body, the Joker's smoldering corpse is still grinning...
Batman: Stop Laughing.
Eye Scream: The Joker's right eye is struck by a batarang during his final battle against Batman.
Hannibal Lecture: The Joker, paralyzed from the neck down, hits Batman with one just before killing himself.
Joker: You won't get far. But then, it doesn't matter if you do. They'll kill you for this. And they'll never know you didn't have the nerve. I'll see you in hell!
Human Shield: As Batman's chasing the Joker through the fair, the Joker tries this with one of Carrie's friends. Batman promptly tags him with a handful of batarangs.
Implied Rape: It's implied that the Joker assaulted Selina during his visit between her change of attire (a dress and later, a Wonder Woman costume), the fact that said costume is wrinkled, Selina's face being bruised, and the fact that the Joker used mind control lipstick on her.
Mirror Character: To Batman as always. Back in All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder the Joker was a Sad Clown while Batman was a cackling maniac. When Batman retired, the Joker went into a catatonic state, which he snapped out of once Batman returned.
Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: It's implied by her state of dress, the fact she's not in the same clothes she was when the Joker first met with her, and the fact he was using mind-controlling lipstick that the Joker raped Selina.
Sissy Villain: He wears lipstick and mascara as part of his image.
Spiteful Suicide: After Batman nearly breaks Joker's neck, Joker finishes the job himself after the only witnesses have fled, leaving Batman to be accused of murder.
Unfulfilled Purpose Misery: The Joker has been completely catatonic ever since Batman's retirement. But as soon as he hears that He's Back!, all his criminal instincts return to fight Batsy once again.
Villain in a White Suit: Traditionally the Joker is a Secondary Color Nemesis with green hair, a purple suit, and green/purple plaid accessories. After his release, he dresses in a white suit, although he still has the green hair. Combined with the chalk-white skin this gives him a ghostly, overexposed appearance.

Harvey Dent

Former District Attorney and disfigured criminal.

Beyond Redemption: Having his face repaired and going through rehabilitation did nothing to suppress his criminal urges.
Despair Event Horizon: Batman suspects that Harvey Dent has been pushed across this. In their final confrontation, it's confirmed by his dialogue and emotional breakdown.
Fearless Fool: Gets some deconstruction in Harvey Dent, who at the climax of their confrontation leans so far out of his helicopter to try to shoot Batman that he falls from it, with Batman (not knowing for sure that it's actually Dent) noting that whoever it is has Dent's lack of sense of self-preservation. The deconstruction comes from Dent being a Death Seeker who may have done that on purpose.
Split-Personality Takeover: Happens to Two-Face. The reconstructive surgery fixed his face, but seeing himself whole broke his mind and left his evil side in control.
Tragic Monster: When Batman confronts him after his last relapse, he finds himself empathizing with Harvey's inability to let go of his dark side.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Harvey disappears from the plot after getting caught one more time.

Mutants

A city-wide youth gang.

Attempted Rape: The Mutants accosting Carrie and her friend in the arcade would likely have raped them had Batman not intervened.
Ax-Crazy: The Mutants kill indiscriminately and with an almost childish glee; one even mentions that they have a quota for murders. Their leader is just as deadly, openly proclaiming that he'll kill Batman and Gordon and eat their hearts.
Future Slang: The Mutants are all over this one. "Balls nasty!"^notea strong epithet, "spud" vs. "slicer-dicer"^noterookie Mutant vs. long-timer, "chicken legs"^notewomen, and many others.
I Fight for the Strongest Side!: Once the Mutant leader is defeated, the gang disintegrates into several splinter groups that define themselves by whatever figurehead they're following; the only thing that remains consistent is their use of violence.
Mugging the Monster: Defied. The Mutants who are about to attack Bruce at the beginning realize that not only is Bruce really big and strong-looking, but he doesn't seem to be afraid of them and even looks like he's "into it". They wisely decide to head to the arcade instead.
Shout-Out: To the X-Men. They even wear visors similar to Cyclops.

Mutant Leader

Ambiguously Human: He is quite deformed, possesses some degree of Super-Strength, eats human meat and is the Mutant Leader, so he might not be as human as one could think.
Arc Villain: Defeating the Mutant Leader because of his followers puts an end to the mutant gang's hold on the city.
Combat Pragmatist: The Mutant leader puts his claw-like fingernails and filed teeth to good use in the first fight against Batman.
Hulk Speak: The Mutant leader's dialogue is laced with this, but he can talk normally when he wants to, implying that it's done to play up his monstrous image.
I'm a Humanitarian: One of the Mutant leader's Catchphrases is his boasts that he will eat Batman's heart. The Mutant Leader also rips out the mayor's throat with his teeth while in captivity.
Man Bites Man: The Mutant leader puts his filed teeth to good use against Batman and the mayor.
Scary Teeth: His dentures are unnaturally long and sharp.

Rob and Don

Recurring Extra: Rob and Don keep running into Batman but hardly play a significant role in the story.
Those Two Guys: They pop up at various points going from one gang to another, always as a pair.

Bruno

A Nazi-themed criminal.

Brawn Hilda: Bruno is a muscular, heavyset yet very beautiful and pretty lady.
Ms. Fanservice: Bruno is a muscular, heavyset yet very beautiful and pretty buxom lady wearing basically nothing... and she's wearing swastika pasties.
Stripperific: She's topless save for some swastika-shaped pasties and her trousers expose her buttocks.
Older Than They Look: She appears in both Returns and All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder completely unaged.
Those Wacky Nazis: Bruno, a burly woman working for the Joker, has swastika pasties on her boobs and butt cheeks for no reason other than to hammer in that she's bad news.

Abner

Joker's henchman.

Vigilantes

Batgirl

Barbara Gordon/Batgirl

A 15-year-old with a taste for vigilantism.

Adaptational Early Appearance: Much like The Batman, this series sees Barbara Gordon become Batgirl before Dick Grayson becomes Robin.
Adaptational Personality Change: This version of Barbara is more openly precocious and got into vigilantism for the thrills rather than to help anyone.
Age Lift: She's 15 rather than a young adult.
Precursor Hero: She's basically Carrie Kelly Snr.

Black Canary

A barmaid.

Adaptational Nationality: Black Canary is Irish here.
All Amazons Want Hercules: She openly lusts after Batman.
All Girls Want Bad Boys: She gets turned on by Batman's brutality.
Domino Mask: Unlike most depictions of Black Canary, this one wears a Huntress-style mask.
Ms. Fanservice: It's Black Canary, so this is a given. Jim Lee's art style emphasizes her hourglass figure quite nicely.
Refuge in Audacity: Black Canary is a barmaid who wears a stripperiffic outfit as part of her job. One night, the accumulated tension of unattractive men hitting on her in the most vulgar way wears her patience so thin she is ready to explode. Then one of them actually gropes her. She snaps, and beats the everliving crap out of everyone, to unconsciousness. She makes a point of making one of them swallow his wedding ring, for obvious reasons. She loots their bodies. She torches the place. She runs away on a motorbike by jumping over a ramp and into the air. Coincidentally, Detective Gordon's car was passing right under. He brushes it off, saying they've got bigger things to worry about. He is right. All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder Gotham is only marginally less insane than Sin City.

Superheroes

Justice League

Superman

Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_8630.jpeg

The Metropolis-based hero.

Adaptational Jerkass: In All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder Superman is much more quick to anger than the usual calm mild-mannered depiction. There's also his reaction to hearing that Batman has kidnapped Dick being more concerned about the authorities taking action against the Justice League rather than the boy's safety. He also threatens to kill Wonder Woman if she attempts to kill Batman.
Adapted Out: Lois Lane is nowhere to be found or mentioned. Instead, Wonder Woman is Superman's primary Love Interest in The Dark Knight Series.
All-Loving Hero: Zig-zagged. Superman values all life on Earth. As he tries to recover from being caught in the Coldbringer's blast, his internal monologue admonishes Lola Wong for assuming that his attempt to let it detonate somewhere safe was anything remotely close to "harmless", citing all the small animals that live there that have now basically been atomized. However, during his time in the Corto Maltese, he can be seen clearly dealing with Communist forces with lethal measures.
Anti-Villain: Superman is a Punch-Clock Villain overlapping with Hero Antagonist in this miniseries. He only reluctantly fights against Batman under orders from the US government.
Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Superman’s behavior after his fight with Batman shows he genuinely respected him and had no ill will against him, even willing to cover for Bruce afterward.
Destructo-Nookie: Superman and Wonder Woman have sex so over-the-top it alters the earth's weather patterns.
Don't Make Me Destroy You: Throughout the fight between Batman and Superman, Supes makes it clear from the start that he doesn't want to kill Bats and practically begs him throughout to just give up so he doesn't have to.
Human Weapon: Superman here is nothing but an icon who reports directly to the President, who gives him orders that include waging a one-man war in a Banana Republic, stopping the nuclear strike that follows (he doesn't completely succeed), and assassinating Batman, all of which he does without question.
Mistaken Death Confirmation: During the climactic fight between Batman and Superman, Superman hears Batman's heart starting to become arrhythmic and slow down and thinks that Batman is deliberately fighting him to the death, and is completely convinced when Batman finally dies. However, at his funeral, Superman hears Batman's heart start back up and realizes that he faked his death, but decides to keep this a secret and leaves with a wink at Carrie Kelley.
New Powers as the Plot Demands: Superman can now absorb energy from the Earth to heal himself and replenish his powers. It was always the Power of the Sun before.
Person of Mass Destruction: Superman is treated as the best deterrent against nuclear warfare.
Physical God: Wonder Woman calls Superman this.
Punch-Clock Villain: Superman is not happy about much of what he has to do but does the job nonetheless.
Willfully Weak: This is apparently Batman's (and Miller's) main problem with Superman, as he stops being treated as a Butt-Monkey once he starts taking the attitude to match his power as a Physical God.

Wonder Woman

Diana Prince/Wonder Woman

Superman's second-in-command.

Adaptational Jerkass: Wonder Woman is depicted with an overt hatred of men in this setting. Her first scene has her angrily pushing her way past a civilian man on the street whilst calling him a "sperm bank". The rest of her dialogue and inner thoughts show that she seems to view men in general as worthless. The one exception is Superman. Her reaction to Batman's actions is to suggest killing him and handing his head over to the authorities. And no, she wasn't kidding about that.
All Amazons Want Hercules: Wonder Woman really hates men. That is all men except Superman. After the two get into an argument, Supes stomps on the ground hard enough that it knocks her over. This turns her on and leads to the two making out.
Best Her to Bed Her: Wonder Woman allows Superman to lay with her simply because he's stronger.
Composite Character: She takes Lois Lane's position as Superman's Love Interest in The Dark Knight Series.
Destructo-Nookie: Superman and Wonder Woman have sex so over-the-top it alters the earth's weather patterns.
Intimate Healing: Superman is completely healed of his injuries after having sex with Wonder Woman. According to Miller himself, this was done to highlight the fact that women are "nurturers and life givers".
Power Dynamics Kink: Implied if not outright stated to be the case of Superman and Wonder Woman's relationship. Her response to Superman feeling down about Batman beating him (again) is to punch him in the face and say, "Where is the man who threw me to the ground and made me his prize?".
Straw Feminist: In All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder Wonder Woman is introduced shoving a guy out of her way while growling "Out of my way, sperm bank." It seems she's mostly unsatisfied by men's failure to live up to her expectations, rather than actually claiming superiority or even equality as a woman: men are overhyped, weaker than they are supposed to be than they claim to be. Superman proves to be a subversion: his boy scout, simple morals clash with her pragmatism and warrior ethos, but he has the power, strength, and intimidation to back up his statements, and that really turns her on.
Super Breeding Program: Implied. She conceives two children with Superman but views regular men as vermin.

Green Lantern

Hal Jordan/Green Lantern

A superhero whose powers are limited by his imagination and the color yellow.

Adaptational Dumbass: He allowed Batman to pick the place and time of their meeting, which meant giving Batman time to paint a small room with limited exits completely yellow.
Adaptational Wimp: He's seriously injured by Robin on the Boy Wonder's first outing. Guardian of the Earth, ladies and gentlemen.
Adaptational Badass: And yet, when he returns during the events of The Dark Knight Strikes Again he is depicted as a being of near-godlike ability, able to shapeshift flawlessly into any form of his choosing and capable of growing large enough to hold the Earth in the palm of his hands. Lex Luthor and Brainiac treat his return as one might treat an incoming asteroid. The narration hints that after leaving Earth, he transcended the limits of humanity and becomes something like the Abstract Apotheosis of willpower itself.
Butt-Monkey: Green Lantern exists pretty much to be humiliated and insulted by Batman, then gets his neck injured by Robin so Batman gets to save his life.
Idiot Ball: Green Lantern accepts Batman's offer to meet at a time and place of Bats' choosing, instead of just picking him up with his ring and keeping him manacled with it til he spills the beans.
I Never Told You My Name: Green Lantern gets shocked when Batman casually calls him Jordan.
Our Wormholes Are Different: A throwaway line during Hal Jordan's journey back to Earth about the wormhole being where he still left implies he can create or move them.

Captain Marvel

Dropped a Bridge on Him: A giant building was dropped on him.

Lara

The love-child of Superman and Wonder Woman.

Non-Human Humanoid Hybrid: Lara's half-Kryptonian and half-Amazon.
Semi-Divine: She's half-Amazon on her mother's side.

Batman's Resistance

Green Arrow

Oliver Queen/Green Arrow

An archery-themed vigilante and Marxist.

Artificial Limbs: He gets a prosthetic arm in The Dark Knight Strikes Again.
Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: An odd example occurs in All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder, since although the story takes place before The Dark Knight Returns, it features several notable characters from said story (Superman, Catwoman, the Joker, Bruno), yet Oliver Queen himself is nowhere to be seen^note. This is strange, especially when one considers that characters who didn't appear until The Dark Knight Strikes Again (Wonder Woman, Plastic Man) get rather prominent roles in this story.
Cool Old Guy: He's able to fire arrows despite missing an arm and was able to steal a kiss from one of the Superchix despite being visibly old enough to pass for her dad.
Handicapped Badass: At some point prior to the beginning of the comic, Superman caused Green Arrow to lose his left arm, which he is still bitter about. It hampers him but doesn't make him any less effective of an archer.
I want a piece of him. Just a small piece will do...for old times' sake.
Improbable Aiming Skills: The Green Arrow can precisely shoot an arrow at Superman despite only having one arm, being in the dark and under the rain, and hanging upside down.

The Atom

Ray Palmer/The Atom

A superhero that can shrink down to a molecular level.

Swallowed Whole: Carrie accidentally swallows Ray Palmer early on, leading to a Vomit Indiscretion Shot.

The Flash

Barry Allen/The Flash

The Fastest Man Alive.

Dark Is Not Evil: He wears a black variant of his old suit.
Hamster-Wheel Power: This is what the Flash has been up to lately.

Plastic Man

Eel OBrien]/Plastic Man

A shapeshifter and one of the most powerful beings on the planet.

Heart Is an Awesome Power: One of the cooler bits of the series is that Miller really woke people up to just how utterly, insanely ''powerful'' Plastic Man is. A lot of comics released after this seemed to run with Miller's description of Plas as a Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass of epic proportions.
Wild Card: He's completely off his rocker, but Batman recruits him because his powers allow him to do anything the other Resistance members can't do.

Elongated Man

Ralph Dibny/Elongated Man

A rubber-man who spruiks Gingold.

The Question

Vic Sage/The Question

An Objectivist vigilante.

Expy: A weird inversion, or something. This story's The Question is basically Rorschach from Watchmen, and Rorschach himself was a Captain Ersatz of the original Question, so this makes this version of the Question closer to the original Ditko Question and oh no, we've gone crosseyed.
Properly Paranoid: He scribes his journal on a typewriter because he doesn't trust computers. Given rise in surveillance, he's not wrong to do so.
Straw Political: Being an Objectivist, he views every other ideology as one and the same and is always looking to get in a shouting match with anyone without considering the logic of their own convictions. Also, he believes Ayn Rand wasn't extreme enough for him.

Supervillains

Lex Luthor

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_8663.jpeg

Adaptational Ugliness: While rather presentable-looking in the main comics continuity, Luthor here is drawn as a morbidly obese hunchback with a pointy, crooked nose.
Big Bad Duumvirate: With Brainiac.
Evil Old Folks: His skin is wrinkled and he has what appears to be liver spots in some places.
Expy: This incarnation of Luthor is practically a stand-in for The Kingpin, being a Diabolical Mastermind with a hulking physique.
Gonk: Lex Luthor, an iconic Diabolical Mastermind, Übermensch and Man of Wealth and Taste, for some reason is depicted here as a cigar-chomping, hulking neanderthal with huge hands and a hunchback, to the point that it looks as though his hands are physically weighing him down, forcing him to walk with a hunch and thereby making him a literal knuckle-dragger, causing one to wonder if he is actually meant to be physically deformed.
Large and in Charge: Lex Luthor is normally portrayed as being average in build. This version of him, on the other hand, looks like a hairless gorilla.
Villain Decay: Brainiac and Lex Luthor aren't nearly as smart in TDKSA as they are in other stories. In fact, some of the decisions they make are downright moronic.
Zorro Mark: Batman carves one onto Lex Luthor's face.
Catgirl: "The Boss leaves his mark. [we see Batman use a batarang to make the three quick slices] It must mean something to him... "

Brainiac

Big Bad Duumvirate: With Lex.
Villain Decay: Brainiac and Lex Luthor aren't nearly as smart in TDKSA as they are in other stories. In fact, some of the decisions they make are downright moronic.

Joker II (spoilers)

Joker II/Dick Grayson (Age Twelve)

A new Joker that's killing off superheroes.

Adaptational Villainy: Dick Grayson typically grows up to become Nightwing, who's usually regarded as a contender for The Heart of the DC Universe's heroes on Earth. Here, he's the new Joker who kills several superheroes before Batman stops him.
Ambiguously Gay: Of the Depraved Homosexual variety.
Depraved Homosexual: It's implied that Dick Grayson had the hots for Batman, but was rejected by him, which led to Dick becoming a villain. At the end of the comic Batman taunts him with all sorts of quasi-homophobic euphemisms relating to his supposed "sissiness".
Dirty Old Man: He's at least middle-aged and he forces a kiss onto the 16-year-old Carrie.
Face–Heel Turn: From Batman's Kid Sidekick in All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder to a villain here. Yeah, this happened big time to him.
Freudian Excuse: Just look at how horribly this kid was treated in All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder (kidnapped, starved, verbally abused, etc.) and you'll understand why he eventually went evil a lot more easily.
Hero Killer: By the time Batman catches up to him he's already killed off The Guardian, The Creeper, and Martian Manhunter.
In the Hood: Dick's first costume has one, and he wants to be called "Hood" (after Robin Hood, since he also has a bow and arrows). But Batman just pulls the hood down over his face to show how impractical it is, and declares he is "Robin". Grant Morrison referenced this moment when writing their Batman & Robin series, when the now-adult Dick tells Damian that Bruce isn't a fan of hoods using the same teaching methods.
Kill It with Fire: He's become a Nigh-Invulnerable Monster Clown super-assassin that can survive all attacks, but is finally destroyed once and for all when he falls into the Lava Pit that formed in the destruction of the Batcave.
Sacrificial Lion: The Guardian, the Creeper, and the Martian Manhunter all die in horrible ways to prove how dangerous this new Joker actually is.
Secretly Earmarked for Greatness: Batman's been keeping an eye on Dick Grayson for some time prior to their first meeting, to the point of knowing his entire educational history off by heart, suggesting that he would have been willing to recruit Dick even if his parents hadn't been murdered. Of course, given Batman's objectively demented behavior throughout the series, this led to speculation that he arranged for the murders just to get a sidekick - though this was ultimately disproven when the Joker was revealed as the assassin's paymaster. Given how he ultimately ended up, it really puts Batman's psychotic attitude into perspective.
Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Given how Batman treated him in his youth, you can't really blame the guy for going off the rails as hard as he did.

Other Characters

Lana Lang

A Metropolis-based correspondent who supports Batman's methods.

I Was Quite the Looker: She gained weight with age.

Jimmy Olsen

Cassandra Truth: He points out that the POTUS is a simulation, but is ignored due to the influx of moronic vox pops.
The Peeping Tom: Happens when Jimmy Olsen visits Vicki Vale in the hospital. The reader is repeatedly informed by the narration boxes that Jimmy doesn't watch, but he is clearly shown turning his head near the bottom of the page.

Superchix

A superhero-themed pop group.

Ms. Fanservice: They're more well-known for their sex appeal than for displaying any actual talent.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: Based on female pop groups like Destiny's Child and the Dixie Chicks.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: They're always one disagreement away from splitting up.

Characters / Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

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