Characters / Gotham - Wayne Enterprises

Bruce Wayne

Bruce Wayne / Batman

Age 12: "I'm learning to conquer fear."

Age 16: Now the bad guys are learning to fear him.

Age 29: The Dark Knight has arrived.

Played By: David Mazouz, Mikhail Mudrik (adult)

Voiced by: Iván Bastidas (Latin-American Spanish), Mutsumi Tamura (Japanese)

"I don’t want revenge. I want to understand how it all works."

The son of Thomas and Martha Wayne. After the murder of his parents, Bruce conducts his own investigation, which leads him on the path to fighting crime.

---

• Action Hero: Starts to become a skiled fighter somewhere in the third or fourth season. By the fifth season, he can take out an entire gang of regular criminals on his own, and by the series finale, has finally become Batman.
• Adaptational Wimp: In the comics the killing of his parents sets him on the path of the future Batman almost immediately. Here it takes him a bit longer to grow into this decision, as he's immediately focused on killing whoever killed his parents. The show makes clear this is deliberate, showing it was a series of events, influences and decisions that turned him into Batman. By season 5 he's grown into both his combat skills and vigilantism.
• Affectionate Nickname: Alfred sometimes affectionately calls him "Master B."
• Age Lift: Is 8 when his parents are killed in most Batman media, but he's 12 in Gotham.
  • This is also applied to himself in the setting in general. In this continuity Bruce manages to be younger than a good number of his supporting cast by a somewhat more noticeable margin than the comics and other continuities and is even younger than a few characters that he was the same age or older than in those continuities.
• Arch-Enemy: Bruce is the focal nemesis of Jerome Valeska, Ra's al Ghul and Jeremiah, Jerome's twin brother.
• Badass Longcoat: Starts wearing an impressive overcoat during his vigilante activities in season 5.
• Bat Deduction: True to form, it's how he finds the entrance to the future Batcave in his father's study. He remembers his father always came in the room to play piano in the evening but kept the door locked at all times, and uses that to deduce his father hid something in the room. He later remembers Lucius Fox called his father "stoic" and remembers a Roman emperor who was described as such; he picks up what is apparently the sole book in the study on said emperor and in it finds a remote control for the cave entrance.
• Battle Couple: Bruce fights alongside Selina, a girl he has long been fond of, particularly in the latter half of season 4 and season 5.
• Batman Gambit: Pulls a spectacular one on Silver St. Cloud with help from Selina and some hired thugs to figure out what her family knows about his parents' killer. He had them kidnap the two of them, fake torturing him and hit him a couple of times, then got them to threaten Silver.
• Becoming the Mask: By the later seasons it's clear the public image of Bruce Wayne is the mask, with the secret vigilante very much the "real" Bruce. However, "Pax Penguina" has Alfred convince him that he can use his public image to stand up to Penguin and do good by influencing the people. But after he kills Ra's al Ghul he goes down a downwards spiral and turns into a drunk playboy party animal.
• Bratty Teenage Son: Not always, but he can be very rude to people who fail to live up to his ideals or if they are unwilling to help with his goals. Seen most significantly in season 4, when his guilt and depression over killing Ra's sees him abandon any desire to protect people, indulge excessively in drinking and partying and even fire Alfred.
• Brainwashed and Crazy:
  • In the second half of season 3 Bruce is kidnapped by the Shaman who offers to remove Bruce's pain of the death of his parents. Unfortunately by removing his pain it makes it easy for the Shaman to shape his mind and make him a weapon for his goals. Subverted, eventually; despite being brainwashed, Bruce's willpower is still strong enough to prevent him from killing people and he eventually breaks through his conditioning by himself.
  • Again in season 5, when Ivy almost makes him shut down Gotham's water purification plant in order to make it a paradise for plant life.
• Broken Pedestal: Realizes that his father was in on the corruption in Wayne Enterprises the whole time and adds him to his suspects list. Soon he learns his father didn't have a choice in the matter.
• Call-Forward: Bruce's observations on the man who murdered his parents showcase his keen attention to detail, a notable sign of his potential and eventual blossoming into a crime fighting detective.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Since he was 12, he has been infatuated with Selina Kyle, and they both have a Will They or Won't They? relationship. Naturally.
• The Chosen One: According to Ra's al Ghul, a prophecy has foretold that Bruce will be the one to inherit his throne. He's also the only one capable of wielding the dagger that can kill Ra's, and does so. Twice.
• Combat Pragmatist: Thanks to Alfred's training (and Selina's influence) Bruce is perhaps the least reserved fighter in the cast. He has no reservations with tackling someone from behind and he doesn't hold back when fighting the likes of Jerome - their battle in the Hall of Mirrors is full of feints, rabbit punches, kidney shots, and elbows to the face.
  Jerome: What kind of hero tackles someone from behind?!
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: In the finale, he's never once referred to as "Batman".
• Create Your Own Villain: Selina might understand his abandoning Gotham without even telling her face-to-face, but it's clear without him around to guide her morals he's pretty much ensured her becoming Catwoman - not that it's necessarily a bad thing for him...
• Creepy Child: In the first few seasons this isn't played for horror, but for tragedy: Bruce engages in very reckless and self-destructive behavior since his parents' death, including punching a bully hard enough that it could've killed him had Alfred not intervened. It takes the positive influences of Alfred, Gordon and Selina to really get through to him.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Is commonly seen wearing black, a trait that becomes more recognized later in the series to the point where he obtains a suit that is a prototype of the Batsuit, but Bruce is also destined to become Gotham City’s greatest protector.
• Dating Catwoman: Not remotely surprisingly given the particulars of that trope: he falls for Selina early on, and while their relationship is all over the place over the seasons, it's clear he's got a lot of affection for the morally ambiguous thief - and she for him.
• Deadpan Snarker: Suits his relatively emotionless delivery, especially as he gets older.
  Alfred: Lucius Fox's armor is bullet-proof; my mask is not.
  Bruce: Don't get shot in the face. Got it.
  Alfred: ...do I detect a note of sarcasm, Master Bruce?
• Death Glare: He's really good at staring menacingly when angry.
• Despair Event Horizon: He refuses to give up the mystical dagger's location to Ra's, even when he has Alex hostage - as a result, Ra's slits the boy's throat. The guilt and shame he feels are enough to push him into breaking his Thou Shalt Not Kill rule, actually killing Ra's (albeit at his own instigation).
• Establishing Character Moment: The entirety of the series is a long line of them, showing that unlike other continuities Batman is born of a series of circumstances, encounters and decisions.
  • The earliest comes at the end of "The Balloonman", he realizes that a person who kills criminals is still a criminal, and he firmly decides that that is not who he's going to be.
  • Telling Leslie that he hadn't felt frightened or despairing when Galavan was about to kill him, but that he'd never felt more alive.
  • His awe and wonder as he sees Azrael pull off moves that will one day become his signature.
  • His absolute refusal to kill Jerome, and the establishment of his Thou Shalt Not Kill rule.
  • "They Did What?" sees him summon a horde of bats to attack Bane via Lucius' techno-trickery, and looks thoughtfully upon them as one flies in front of the moon to show what looks like the Bat-symbol.
• Face Your Fears: Immediately after his parents' death, he becomes obsessed with never feeling that kind of fear again and starts pulling stunts like standing on the edge of Wayne Manor's roof. Alfred has to get Gordon in to teach him that feeling fear isn't a bad thing - it tells him where the edge is between recklessness and stability.
• Foil: A rather interesting one to Oswald Cobblepot, which is only fitting with their status as the deuteragonists. They are both scrappy, tough as nails orphans that fight blood, tooth, and nail for the city they love, and they both work outside the law to control it. They both see an ally in Jim Gordon, but Oswald's "relationship" with him is considerably more one-sided. Their Animal Motifs are the flying mammal and the flightless bird. They are both traumatized by the murder of their parents and hunt down their killers, but Bruce ends up showing mercy while Oswald exacts brutal revenge. Oswald was the son of a poor Hungarian immigrant, and Bruce was raised in extreme wealth, but they both understand isolation all too well, and people tend to underestimate them. Oswald puts on a servile mask to hide his proud and ambitious nature, while Bruce puts on a cocky demeanor to disguise his kind and humble nature. Both of them are somewhat lonely, but have a select few people they care about deeply. By the end of the series, they’ve both overcome the odds and risen to power. Fittingly, Penguin even seems to see some of himself in Bruce.
  Bruce: Let these men go.
  Penguin: (gently) You're young. You have a good heart. No.
• From Zero to Hero: At the start, this little boy inspires only mockery in the evildoers for the awkward questions and observations he makes about them; fast forward to the finale where as Batman, he takes down Penguin and Riddler, two of the series' most formidable villains, in seconds.
• Genre Blindness: He tells the Board of Wayne Enterprises that he knows that they are corrupt and that he won't tolerate such actions. The Board then decides to hire a spy and order a hit on Alfred. Astonishingly, Bruce doesn't learn from this; a few seasons later, he does the same thing in hopes of flushing out the Court of Owls. They respond by sending a Talon to kidnap him, then threaten him into dropping his investigation.
• Great Detective: "Viper" is the start of him becoming the Greatest Detective as he starts assembling the information to figure out how the Mob was able to take over the Arkham project from Wayne Industries, complete with a wall of data. In subsequent years he proves more than capable of deducing the mysteries of the Court of Owls without any assistance.
• Guile Hero: As he doesn't grow into an Action Hero until the end of the series, he's forced to be this, relying on brains over brawn to achieve his goals. Select examples include living on the streets with Selina in order to gain a close-up view of crime, playing on Jerome's Attention Whore tendencies to convince him to not kill him without an audience (giving Gordon time to find him), and acting like an Upper-Class Twit if it suits his plans to be underestimated.
• Guilt Complex: Something he seems to have picked up from Gordon; he takes responsibility for stopping Jerome after he escapes Arkham because he chose not to kill him in their prior encounter - thus whatever Jerome does now is on his head. Selina calls him on the absurdity of this.
• The Heart: Played with; in the aftermath of his parents' death, he's very openly emotional, trusting, and honest, even if he needs a push in the right direction sometimes. However, as the series goes on he grows more and more into The Stoic, and while Alfred and Selina especially still see the caring side of him, he becomes far more secretive about what he's doing, especially with Gordon.
• He Knows Too Much: Due to snooping into his parents' murder, the Wayne Enterprises board of directors wants him dead.
• Heroic BSoD: In season 5 he's hurt and bewildered by Selina's assertion she never changed from the kid who always looked out for number 1 after she killed Jeremiah Valeska (though she actually hasn't). Subsequently he expresses genuine bewilderment to Harvey he can't stop those he cares about slipping into darkness.
• Heroic Willpower: Bruce is able to resist his brainwashing performed on him by the Shaman and doesn't kill even when ordered to do so. In fact the shock of actually fatally stabbing Alfred is enough to break him out of his condition entirely. Ra's al Ghul is delighted by this as Bruce's willpower means that he is truly worthy to become Ra's heir.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Among other things makes it known to the Wayne Enterprises board he's onto them (which directly results in Alfred getting stabbed) and falls hard for Silver St Cloud. Selina calls him out on this. The following season it's shown he learns - he immediately sees through Maria Kyle's need for money being the reason she returned to Gotham, where this time it's Selina who's desperately hoping for the best.
• Hypocrite: More due to his relative inexperience early on than anything, but when Bruce catches Selina stealing wallets at a charity event in "The Last Laugh" and calls her out on it, she correctly reminds him she stole Bunderslaw's safe key for him - something he shamefacedly mumbles "was different".
• I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Definitely has hints of this with Selina. By season 4 he's accepted her randomly popping in and out of his life as a matter of course, because he knows she'll have his back when he truly needs it.
• I Work Alone: After being burned by Selina and frustrated by Gordon's lack of progress in his parents' case, he develops this mentality. The predictable happens a few episodes later when Bruce goes on a long hike without Alfred, and promptly falls down a hill and sprains his ankle. Some gentle prodding from Alfred makes him realize that sometimes it's good to have people to rely on.
• Innocently Insensitive: Sometimes he makes social gaffes out of naiveté, especially whenever he's talking to Selina since he's prone to be disapproving of her lifestyle.
• It's All My Fault: Bruce feels guilty over not having done anything to stop his parents' deaths. But as Selina points out, there wasn't much he could do.
  Bruce: And you saw me? What I did? What I didn't do?
  Selina: What are you talking about? What could you have done?
  Bruce: I don't know, something!
  Selina: You're dreaming, kid. A gun's a gun.
• It's Not You, It's My Enemies: A large-scale version: Jeremiah almost kills Gordon and Leslie to get at him, while Nyssa al Ghul almost destroys the city to pay him back for the death of Ra's. Consequently, he leaves Gotham to get the training he needs to become Batman, but also so the people he loves won't be targeted by those gunning for him.
• Just a Kid: He has a long way to go before he becomes the Dark Knight, and he hates being reminded of the fact.
• Kid Detective: He investigates his parents' murder, the corruption at Wayne Enterprises and later their links to the Court of Owls and succeeds at all of them with remarkably little outside help, uncovering the murderer and ferreting out the poisonous influences in his family's corporation. He's good enough that the Board at Wayne Enterprises wants him dead.
• Love Hurts: He's really hurt when Selina ends their friendship; it seems to have killed whatever childhood innocence was left in him. They make up, but their relationship thereafter is complicated, to say the least.
  Alfred: [Upon finding them having a conversation on the edge of a roof] Why can't you two go to the cinema like normal teenagers?!
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: While he and Selina are living together, he cooks, cleans and sews.
• My God, What Have I Done?: His encounter with Ivy in Wayne Manor and the subsequent hallucinations it causes make him realise what an ass he's been to Alfred.
• No Social Skills: Ever since his parents' murder, he's been having trouble talking to kids around his age (aside from Selina, who's not exactly normal). He seems more at ease with adults.
• Odd Friendship: Bruce gets along well overall with Selina Kyle, a street kid, despite the disparity in their backgrounds.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In Season 4, after Bruce kills Ra's al Ghul, he is wracked with guilt, and starts barking at servants, is short with even Alfred, and starts partying at clubs and (under-age) drinking heavily.
• Orphan's Ordeal: Coping with the loss of his parents was traumatic enough; also coping with Alfred's stabbing, the corruption within his parents' business, and his own growing suspicion that Thomas had secrets of his own made it worse - and that was just the first season.
• Parental Abandonment: His parents were murdered in the first episode.
• Puppy Love: Becomes infatuated with Selina the moment he sets eyes on her. She's a lot savvier than he is and much as she grows to care for him, tends to give him the runaround until late season 4.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: He's able to get out of many scrapes once he starts his vigilante career based on knowing many of the characters in the GCPD; after he's arrested for breaking and entering (he was actually confronting a gang, and they fled before he did) Gordon lets him go without even hearing the details, while Lucius gifts him a prototype Bat-suit based on guessing what he was up to.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!:
  • When the government won't fly in the supplies needed to help the Gothamites stranded in No Man's Land, Bruce uses his connections to buy said supplies on the mainland and a helicopter to fly them in.
  • Played for laughs in "A Day in the Narrows". When a club won't let him and his friends in to party, Bruce just buys the club on the spot.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: As much as he admires and respects Gordon, by the beginning of season 4 he's convinced that working outside the law is the only way to battle connected threats like Ra's al Ghul.
• Secret Identity: Picks up a "billionaire brat" persona in "They Who Hide Behind Masks", throwing around money and pretending to be a spoiled brat.
• Self-Harm: Bruce deliberately injures himself as part of training himself not to feel fear - much to Alfred's horror.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: He has a very formal way of speaking, even as a ten-year-old boy. This gets him into trouble the first time he tries to pass for a streetwise teen so he can investigate a crime.
• Ship Tease: He and Selina are already entering the Dating Catwoman relationship, and embody that trope in full in the Distant Finale as both of them take on their costumed identities.
• Skyward Scream: After his parents are killed, Bruce lets out a bloodcurdling scream with his head pointed up.
• Spotting the Thread: It's Bruce's observation that the killer had shiny shoes that causes Gordon to suspect that there was more to the murder than a simple mugging, and then confirm that the supposed killer had been framed.
• Stalker with a Crush: He's seen looking in on Selina during one of her thefts after he becomes Batman, and she instantly knows it's him.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Is already practicing this, apparently, as Alfred mentions that Bruce has done this more than once to him. He pulls it on Selina, and the experienced thief is impressed by how quietly he can move. In the Season 4 premiere he pulls a full Batman-style version on Gordon for the first time, to Gordon's utter confusion, and does it to Bullock midway through season 5. He does it in the middle of a crowded room in "They Did What?"
  Bullock: (impressed) Kid's fast.
• Stiff Upper Lip: As advised by Alfred when surrounded by the media after his parents' murder.
• Stronger Than They Look: Bruce has taken a gradual level in badass over the first three seasons, and it shows when he assists Selina in stealing a MacGuffin from the Court Of Owls - there are laser triggers for alarms all over the floor, so in order for Selina to reach the case, she uses a crossbow to fire a cable across the room to act as a tightrope and it's secured by Bruce, holding Selina up and keeping the rope taut enough to walk across by himself.
• Survivor's Guilt: Made quite clear in "Harvey Dent" he is suffering from this. He asked Selina if she saw how he didn't do anything to protect his parents. Selina is completely baffled, as she knows there was nothing he could have done.
• These Hands Have Killed: Bruce stares in horror at his hands once he has killed Ra's Al Ghul.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Bruce's attitude towards this is one of the things defining the early evolution of his moral code; he realises early on from the Balloonman killings that killing people, even criminals, just makes you a criminal yourself, and can't bring himself to kill Reggie when he has the chance - with Selina doing the deed for him. When he finds Matches Malone, his parents' killer, he fully intends to kill him, but finds he can't, even when Matches wants him to, and later spares Jerome as well after realizing killing him would make him just like the Evil Clown, while stabbing Alfred fatally is enough for him to break out of the Shaman's conditioning. He finally subverts this trope in "The Blade's Path", where he actually kills Ra's al Ghul out of guilt over letting the latter murder Alex, and after Ra's threatens to kill all his loved ones. He reacts exactly as you'd expect. In season 4 he's shown to have fallen into a deep depression over it, which sees him pushing Alfred and Selina away.
• Token Good Teammate: Bruce is at odds with the rest of his company regarding their unethical conduct.
• Took a Level in Badass: Lots of them. He steadily gets more and more physically impressive, with training from Alfred and later the League of Assassins meaning that by season 5 he's thrashing near enough the entire Mutant gang by himself. But we also see his mental transformation, in how he steadily gains more insight and ability into how Gotham really works - going from a clueless child to someone who puzzles out near-enough on his own the goings on at Wayne Enterprises.
• Took a Level in Jerkass:
  • His obsession with finding his parents' killer grows all-consuming at the start of Season 2, with his actively chewing out Gordon for not taking every measure possible to help him while on the force (which pushes Jim into making a deal with Penguin that ends with Jim killing a man). However, once Jim nearly gets killed in a shoot-out at the GCPD, he makes a point of apologizing.
  • Again in season 4 - he experiences severe guilt over killing Ra's, leading to his losing himself in partying and underage drinking. He alienates both Alfred and Selina, and even fires Alfred from being his legal guardian once Alfred tries to bring him to his senses. The two reconcile a few episodes once Bruce realizes what an ass he's been (with an assist from Ivy's hallucinogenic poison).
• Tritagonist: Gets the most character development besides Gordon and Penguin.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: In the first season alone he self-harms, listens to heavy metal, draws truly weird artwork in his notebook, repeatedly skips meals, and tries to "conquer fear" by balancing on the roof/top of the stairs and seeing how long he can hold his breath underwater. It takes until Selina arrives at Wayne Manor for him to show some semblance of returning to normality.
• Tranquil Fury: He rarely loses his cool, but his encounters with Jerome, Ra's and Jeremiah all have him simmering with cold fury.
• Two First Names: Per the DC Comics characters norm, both of his names can be used as given names.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Played for laughs at the end of season 2; after being rescued, he tells Alfred and Selina he had a perfectly feasible escape plan (despite being tied up and facing at least a dozen cultists), to their mutual exasperation. Played deadly straight in season 4 when he fires Alfred, after everything his butler had previously done for him.
• Unstoppable Rage: Bruce's fury over the apparent murder of Alfred is expressed through a fiery rage that has him hitting Jerome harder than ever and being incredibly brutal in the fight. Then he sees himself in Jerome's clown akeup in the mirror and realises he's no different from the psycho after all.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Even after the death of his parents, he's quite open and trusting in the first couple of seasons. By season three, he's becoming more secretive and suspicious, and season four has him adopting a "spoiled rich brat" public persona to conceal his goals - though it's very much not an act for the first half of the season.
• UST: Bruce and Selina never resolve their shared infatuation, even by the end of the series.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: He suffers from dissatisfaction when he sees his parents' murderer Matches Malone isn't a monster but a sad old man, abandoning his attempt to kill him. Again after he killed Ra's al Ghul, who was indirectly responsible for Thomas and Martha's deaths.
• We Used to Be Friends: He used to get along well with Jeremiah.
• What the Hell, Hero?: After encouraging him to end his affiliation with Selina for her own safety, Alfred explodes at him when Bruce reveals he sent her to Arkham to discover Hugo Strange's secrets. And Alfred gives him a long line of these when calling him on his shitty behaviour after killing Ra's.
• When He Smiles: He's usually brooding, so seeing him smile like whenever he's playing around with Selina makes it all the more special.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: While still childish in some ways, he still shows a great level of maturity and intelligence for a child his age. Best exemplified in his detective skills. "The Demon's Head" highlights this, having Bruce console a boy his own age who just lost his grandfather with the wisdom of someone matured by his own grief.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Seems to have Selina pegged as a young Femme Fatale and was (justifiably) suspicious of her offer to let him kiss her. Turns out she just wanted to kiss him.

Alfred Pennyworth

Alfred Pennyworth

"Now, I will raise the boy the way his father told me to raise him."

Played By: Sean Pertwee

"Pick your battles. Don't let them pick you."

The Wayne family butler and Bruce's guardian now that his parents are gone.

---

• Adaptational Badass: While he's often portrayed as a badass in the comics, his combat skills are rarely on show as much as here - he's gone toe-to-toe with the likes of Tabitha, Azrael and Zsasz on an even footing. Only Gordon really exceeds him in terms of combat capability.
• Adaptational Dumbass: He's certainly not stupid, but in the comics he's often portrayed as just as skilled as Bruce at using Batman's computers and gadgets. Here, he and Bruce need Lucius Fox for dealing with breaking into Thomas Wayne's computer systems.
• Adaptational Jerkass: A common fan motion especially in early seasons is that Alfred acts a lot harsher towards Bruce and while still deeply caring, he is far less understandable and careful with Bruce than he is in the comics and most adaptations. This is Justified, as this Alfred is younger than other incarnations of the character and for that far more unexperienced and just starting to accept his role as Parental Substitute for Bruce.
• Adaptational Personality Change: Previous live-action adaptations of Alfred depict him as being almost always proper and polite in dealing with others and acting as a Servile Snarker in order to be a counterpoint to Batman's intensity and focus. In this series, Alfred is a much coarser character, speaking flippantly to Gordon and even angrily berating Bruce for disobeying him (while still calling the boy "Master"). The press materials says he's from the East End, a rough neighborhood.
• The Atoner: Revealed in conversation with Tiffany that he saw looking after Bruce as making up for the violence of his past. After Jeremiah blows up Wayne Manor he becomes this in No Man's Land, actively seeking out people to help as a way of making up for letting the Waynes' legacy be destroyed - which ends horribly after he goes up against Bane to save Barbara and Lee, resulting in his being crippled.
• Battle Butler: But of course. This version of Alfred is specifically described in the press materials to a "tough-as-nails ex-marine from East London." Case in point: When Gordon, Montoya, and Allen are sneaking up on Wayne Manor, Alfred goes out with a knife and takes down Allen and gets the drop on Gordon and Montoya before Gordon talks him down. In "Lovecraft", he's able to take on professional assassins in a fist-fight, and shoots and kills one from quite a distance as they flee the manor.
  Ivy: Who are you, his bodyguard?
  Alfred: If need be, Miss, yes.
• Badass in Distress: In season 4, thanks to Jeremiah Valeska.
• Badass Teacher: He's realised by season 2 that if he's unable to dissuade Bruce from finding out who killed his parents, he's going to make sure he's as well-prepared for it as can be. Best seen when he fights Cupcake, offering a running commentary to Bruce on the weaknesses in his technique even when he's taking a severe beating and ending the fight in a way that shows Bruce how to take down a larger, stronger opponent.
• Because I Said So: Pulls this when Bruce asks why he has to go back to school.
• Berserk Button: Any hint of Bruce being in danger and he will come after those responsible, no questions asked.
• Break His Heart to Save Him:
  • Smashes up Thomas Wayne's computer at the start of season 2, to Bruce's utter horror, because he's sure the information on it will only end up getting Bruce killed - especially after he sees the bullet-riddled Kevlar in Thomas' lair. Interesting variant in that it fails - Bruce (after calming down) tells Alfred he understands exactly why he did it, but he can't let it deter him from the truth, leading Alfred to get the computer fixed.
  • Later, he encourages Bruce to do this with Selina, as while he'll support Bruce no matter what he refuses to let their activities put her in danger.
• Career-Ending Injury: The brutal beating he got from Bane left him walking with a cane ten years later, ending his days of actively assisting Bruce.
• Combat Pragmatist: He uses whatever he can find to fight off armed assassins assaulting Wayne Manor, including a cane and a dropped pistol. Later, when Tabitha attacks him he immediately targets her injured arm.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Defeats Zsasz in about 5 seconds in "The Trial of Jim Gordon", though Zsasz has the excuse of being Brainwashed and Crazy due to Ivy. Is on the receiving end a few episodes later, courtesy of Bane.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Implied to have been a POW once. There's also the matter of his meeting Thomas Wayne via the latter covering for him in an incident where he'd woken up covered in blood and with no memory of how it happened.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: He's visibly unsure what to do with himself once Bruce fires him.
• Do Wrong, Right: While he's less than thrilled with Bruce's investigations into Wayne Enterprises, he respects Thomas' instructions to let him choose his own path to the letter, and makes sure Bruce receives the combat training he needs.
• Elites Are More Glamorous: Is a former Special Air Service member.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Alfred gets stabbed and is badly wounded by his old wartime buddy, Reggie, who was ordered by the Wayne Enterprises board of directors to kill Alfred. Luckily, he was only hospitalised as a result.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With Selina: while they have multiple rocky patches (her killing Reggie, his throwing her out after the fight with Five in season 3) by late season 4 they've both come to accept the other as having Bruce's best interests at heart - in their own way.
• Foreign Curse Word: He's fond of using uniquely British swears like "bloody" and "arse."
• Good Is Not Soft: He loves Bruce like a son, and is unquestionably one of the good guys - but as a former SAS member, he's far more willing to take extreme courses of action in pursuit of Bruce's safety than Gordon. He was more than willing to let Bruce beat a bullying Tommy Elliot senseless, engaged in Cold-Blooded Torture with Kathryn, flat-out killed the Shaman to ensure he didn't make Bruce destroy the city, and has killed numerous mooks in the various scrapes they get into.
• Honor Before Reason: Thomas' instructions for him if he ended up being Bruce's guardian were to let Bruce choose his own path. That means if Bruce doesn't want to see a psychiatrist, he won't see a psychiatrist - and if Bruce wants to be a crime-fighting vigilante, well...
• Hypocrite: When Bruce wants to kill the man who killed his parents, Alfred says he'll do it for him so he won't have a death on his conscience. And yet he slugs Selina for doing that exact thing, when she kills Reggie to protect Bruce and keep his hands clean. To be 100% fair, that was likely more because stabbing or no, Reggie was still an old friend.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: We know that he cares about Bruce, but he comes off as extremely abrasive, though this appears to be a sort of tough love approach. This is well exhibited at the beginning of "Selina Kyle", where after learning that Bruce has been burning himself to "test his own strength", he responds by first seizing him and calling him a "stupid boy", followed immediately by tightly hugging him and trying to reassure him.
• Like a Son to Me: He clearly cares for Bruce as if he were his own son. He finally straight up says Bruce is the only son he'll ever have in "They Did What?"
• Made of Iron: Much like Gordon, Penguin and other characters, he's taken a lot of abuse in the series and kept on trucking. Best seen in season 2 when he's knifed in the back by Tabitha, buried alive and tasered by uncomprehending cops. Only the last keeps him down, and he's back on his feet in a few hours tops.
• The Obi-Wan: Once he's made up his mind to support Bruce on his quest for justice, he's the one that insists he get the training for it, as well as pushing him to appreciate the value of Thou Shalt Not Kill. By the start of season 4 he's also teaching Bruce of the value of the good he can do as Bruce Wayne, not just a vigilante.
• Odd Friendship: He and Lucius establish an alliance when both realize that they care for Bruce as his guardians. He's also got this with Harvey Bullock.
• Only a Flesh Wound: He takes a bullet to the upper arm but shoos paramedics away and spends the rest of the episode seemingly no worse for wear. Averted when his old friend, Reggie, stabbed him in the chest and put him in the hospital and again when the pasting he takes from Cupcake lands him there again while Bruce hunts down Matches Malone.
• Open-Minded Parent: Thomas Wayne's will said that Bruce should choose his own path, so Alfred gives Bruce quite a bit of leeway. He still insists that Bruce go back to school and be around kids his own age, and as seen with his strictness about meal times, he has his limits in how far he'll go.
• Papa Wolf: Not even a gunshot wound is enough to slow Alfred down if he thinks Bruce is in danger.
  • While at a Wayne Enterprises event, when he sees poison gas about to enter the room, he takes off his jacket and puts it around Bruce's head to protect him.
  • When he and Harvey arrive at where Bruce and Selina are being held in "Lovecraft", two goons immediately open fire on them. Bullock takes cover. Alfred advances into the ambush.^note British & American military doctrine for a near ambush calls for troops to immediately assault the ambush position to get out of the killing zone.
• Parental Substitute: To Bruce, along with Gordon.
• Parents as People: There's no doubt that he and Bruce love each other, but Alfred's parenting methods are rather harsh, particularly since Bruce is so sensitive and recently traumatized. While Tough Love is shown to be his default style, it's also indicated that he resorts to it because he's unsure how else to proceed, struggling to provide the father figure Bruce needs in the sudden absence of the Waynes. In the early seasons he often has to ask Gordon for help when it comes to Bruce's more emotional outbursts.
• Promoted to Parent: After the Waynes are killed, he becomes Bruce's legal guardian.
• Retired Badass: An ex-Marine AND SAS member. He's capable of keeping up with and beating much younger assailants.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Goes ballistic when his waitress friend Tiffany is killed by her abusive boyfriend to frame him, immediately tracking him down and kicking the crap out of him regardless of the fact he's a wanted man.
• Semper Fi: Alfred is a former Royal Marine. It should be noted that Royal Marines Commandos are different from the American Military branch that share their name. They are amphibious trained and special operations capable. Their nearest equivalent would be Force Recon US Marines.
• Servile Snarker: This version of Alfred is an extremely blatant version of a servile snarker. His voice practically drips with venom as he inserts himself into Gordon and Bruce's conversation at the end of the pilot episode.
  Gordon: We killed an innocent man.
  Alfred: Riiight... So? Who did it, then?
  Gordon: I don't know.
  Alfred: I see. Sterling work there then, mate, innit?
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Upon meeting an old friend from the army, he quickly grows uneasy reminiscing about their missions and says the faces of everyone he killed still haunt him.
• Sherlock Scan: In season 4 he can tell from the way a potential assailant is standing that he's out of shape and three drinks in, shortly before kicking his ass.
• Ship Tease: Alfred tries hitting on Leslie when attending a charity ball. Doesn't go anywhere in following seasons though, and is likely just a Mythology Gag regarding their comics relationship.
• Shipper on Deck: Zigzagged with his attitude to Bruce and Selina. Although he initially dislikes Selina because of the danger she puts Bruce in, he still encourages Bruce's crush on her (mainly because she's the first one to get him laughing and smiling again). Then she kills Reggie, and he tells her to stay far away from Bruce as possible. Things change though, and by late season 4 he's visibly come to accept it.
• The Soulsaver:
  • When Bruce tells him he wants to kill the man who killed his parents, he merely replies that Bruce is too young to have a death on his conscience....so he'll do it for him.
  • Takes a darker turn in season 2 when he adamantly tries to defeat Bruce's efforts to identify his parents' killers, knowing that doing so will just bring greater levels of emotional pain and vengeance.
  • Taken to even greater extremes at the end of Season 3, when Ra's al Ghul commands brainwashed Bruce to kill Alfred, and the captive butler sincerely insists that he's willing to let him, if that's what it takes to bring Bruce back to himself. Because he knows if he doesn't say so, Bruce will never be able to live with what Ra's is compelling him to do.
• Sour Supporter: His Undying Loyalty to Thomas' wishes to let Bruce forge his own path often run headlong into his Papa Wolf instincts to keep Bruce safe as said path turns out to be a descent into extremely dangerous vigilantism. Consequently, while he'll support Bruce to the bitter end he doesn't have to like it, and is usually the first to point out the flaws in Bruce's actions.
• Stiff Upper Lip: Alfred instructs Bruce to steel himself and not let the public see him cry as they walk away from where Bruce's parents are lying dead.
• 10-Minute Retirement: He's fired by Bruce in the middle of season 4, but the two mend fences later.
• Threat Backfire: His promising Lucius Fox he'd tuck him up like a kipper if he betrayed his and Bruce's trust in any way might have gone better if Lucius had any idea what a kipper was.
• Tough Love: It's partly his Jerk with a Heart of Gold personality, but it's also partly because he's struggling to deal with having to act as Bruce's Parental Substitute so unexpectedly.
  • He gives Bruce a comforting hug after his parents are killed, and then he instructs him to not be seen crying in public.
  Alfred: Don't look. Head up, eyes front! Don't let them see you cry.
  • He also finds Bruce crying after Selina both rejects him and tells him that she lied about seeing his parents' killer, then asks if Bruce would like to sweep up the mess and move on or if he would like to keep crying.
  • Bruce falls on a hike and sprains an ankle, then climbs all the way up the hill only to find Alfred sitting there with a fire, clearly settled in. When Bruce asks why he did nothing to help, Alfred answers, "I didn't put you there, did I?" In this case, Bruce has been pushing everyone away - this is Alfred's way of making him realize he needs help sometimes.
• Undying Loyalty: To the Waynes, even after their death. He resolves to follow Thomas' instructions for him as Bruce's guardian: "let him choose his own path".
• Ungrateful Bastard: Openly slaps Selina for her killing of Reggie - despite that being her doing it because Bruce couldn't, so he couldn't expose them to the board of Wayne Enterprises.
• Verbal Tic: He addresses people as "mate" instead of "sir" like you would expect from a butler. He does seem to reserve this for people he doesn't work for, though. He changes his tune by the second episode, though, when he needs help with Bruce.
• What the Hell, Hero?: If there's anyone in the cast who'll give Bruce a verbal ripping for his worse decisions/behaviour, chances are good it'll be Alfred. His flipping out when he discovers Bruce sent Selina to Arkham to spy on Hugo Strange is particularly noteworthy.
• Worthy Opponent: Exchanges smiles and nods of wry respect with Victor Zsasz in "Pax Penguina", when the two men draw on each other simultaneously at the opening of the Iceberg Lounge.
• Would Hit a Girl: Rare heroic example.
  • Immediately socks a female assassin on the jaw once he realizes that she's at Wayne Manor to hurt the children.
  • He slaps Selina for killing Reggie.
  • When confronting Kathryn during a police interrogation, he stabs her through the hand without a second thought.
• Would Hurt a Child: Slaps Selina, who can't be more than 14 at that point, for killing Reggie.

Molly Mathis

Molly Mathis

Played By: Sharon Washington

A middle management executive at Wayne Enterprises and former employee of Well Zyn, the developers of Viper.

---

• Alliterative Name: Molly Mathis.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: At first she she seems like a nice person, then we find out she's involved in corrupt and unethical business practices, like the creation of Viper. Then she orders a hit on Alfred.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: She's among the corrupt executives working within Wayne Enterprises. Enough to hire a spy to look into Bruce's findings and kill Alfred.
• Disc-One Final Boss: It looks like she's responsible for the Wayne murders with other corrupt members of Wayne Enterprises - then season 3 reveals they're actually beholden to the Court of Owls.
• Oh, Crap!: She clearly didn't enjoy the news that Bruce was researching "irregularities" in the company.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Mathis is only in the show for two episodes but her impact is vital to Bruce's overall storyline.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Mathis' arc fizzles out once Bruce starts looking into the Court of Owls. There has been no mention of her ever since she put a hit out on Bruce Wayne and become a Karma Houdini in her actions.
• Would Hurt a Child: She (and the rest of the Board) have no problem killing Bruce so they can continue their illegal activities.

Sid Bunderslaw

Sid Bunderslaw

Played by: Michael Potts

A Wayne Enterprises executive who hired Reggie to look into Bruce's investigation of the company.

---

• Affably Evil: Openly admits that Wayne Enterprises subverts regulations every way it can, but comes across as fairly nice despite catching Bruce breaking into his office.
• Breaking Speech: Gives one to Bruce how every Wayne family member finds out about the company's corruption and tries to stop it only for them just to accept it as normal business practices.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Theo is subjecting him to some brutal torture since he requires his help with his own Evil Plan.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: By his own admission and apparently very proud of it.
• Eye Scream: Tabitha rips out his eye so they can pass through his security safe.
• No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: He is very insistent in offering Bruce a cookie.
• Pet the Dog: Seems to genuinely offer Bruce a chance to get out of his troubles with the Board by warning Bruce to just accept the truth and live the life outside of the corruption that his parents wanted him to have.
• Uncertain Doom: He has one of his eyes ripped out by Tabitha. Afterwards, there has been no mention of him or his fate.

Thomas and Martha Wayne

Thomas and Martha Wayne

Played By: Grayson McCouch (Thomas) & Brette Taylor (Martha)

The wealthy leaders of Wayne Enterprises, and the loving parents of Bruce Wayne. They're gunned down in front of their young son during a fateful encounter with a mysterious masked killer.

---

• Adaptational Badass: In every other version of the Batman story, Bruce's parents are simply there to get killed in front of him and instill his hatred of crime. This time, Thomas is revealed to have been well on his way to becoming a crime fighter himself when he was killed, and it's clear that Bruce's transformation into Batman will be built on what he started. This seems to be inspired by the comics story Flashpoint, which presented an alternate universe in which Thomas became Batman.
• Broken Pedestal: Bruce is devastated to learn his father was eventually convinced to let the company's sordid dealings continue, and adds him to his board of suspects. But soon realized he didn't have a choice.
• The Bus Came Back: Sort of: In an attempt to become the most important person in Bruce's life, Jeremiah Valeska had Tetch whammy two similar-looking people who then got exacting plastic surgery to look like Thomas and Martha.
• Death by Origin Story: Whoever killed them is the mystery the main characters are trying to solve. The mystery is solved before the second season is out, but the real story is just beginning, with Bruce's quest to find the killers gradually advancing from corrupt Wayne Enterprises to the Court of Owls and eventually Ra's al Ghul.
• Dies Wide Open: Both Waynes die like this, Martha instantly and Thomas managing to lock eyes with his son for an instant before expiring.
• Happy Flashback: Bruce flashes back to hiking and watching the sunrise with his father in "Scarecrow".
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: You've got to give them credit for trying to improve the quality of life in Gotham City. Thomas in particular hid a lot of secrets that only proved how saintly he was.
• Posthumous Character: Considering that it's their murder which kicks off the plot...
• Token Good Teammate:
  • As far as the Wayne Enterprises management is concerned. They were the only ones who saw Viper and its sequel, Venom, for the bad news they really were.
  • Thomas was also this to the Indian Hill team; he was ultimately the only one who cared about those being subjected to its human enhancement project, even sending them into hiding for their own protection.

Xander Wilde

See his character page.