Batman (Comic Book)

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"Criminals are a superstitious, cowardly lot..."

I made a promise on the grave of my parents to rid this city of the evil that took their lives. By day, I am Bruce Wayne, billionaire philanthrophist. At night, criminals, a cowardly and superstitious lot, call me...BATMAN.

The Dark Knight. The Caped Crusader. The World's Greatest Detective. The Most Dangerous Man on Earth. One half of The Dynamic Duo.

The Cowl of The DCU.

The Badass Normal Superhero.

The Goddamn Batman.

Created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger (who until 2015 was uncredited^note), Batman is also one of the greatest Trope Makers and Trope Codifiers in not just comics, but all visual media; one of the oldest superheroes still in print — having debuted in Detective Comics #27 (May 1939) — Batman is one of the three best-known superheroes ever (alongside Superman and Spider-Man), one of the flagships of DC Comics and one of the most popular comic book characters ever created.

At the age of eight, billionaire heir Bruce Wayne witnessed the murder of his parents at the hands of a mugger. Swearing vengeance against all criminals and vowing never to take a life, Bruce used his parents' vast fortune to travel the world and hone his fighting abilities and detective skills. When he felt he was ready, Bruce returned to his beloved Gotham City, intent on removing the criminal element that had overrun the city in his absence. Donning a costume with a bat motif to strike fear into criminals and armed with his keen intellect and arsenal of crime-fighting gadgetry, Bruce protects the streets of Gotham as "The Batman" at night while pretending to be a clueless playboy billionaire by day.

In addition to this appealing and (for its time) unique origin story, Batman has an iconic supporting cast and, more crucially, the single largest and most iconic Rogues Gallery in all of comic book history, as well as one of the most beloved. Many of them are up there with the Dark Knight himself in terms of pop culture relevance and recognition. While his Arch-Enemy, The Joker, is the most recognizable, villains such as Harley Quinn, Two-Face, The Penguin, The Riddler, Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Bane, The Scarecrow, and Mr. Freeze are recognizable even to those with only the most basic knowledge of comics. Over time, many of his enemies began to be written as dark reflections of certain aspects of Batman's personality, such as The Joker with overall sanity, Two-Face with duality and identity, Scarecrow with the use of fear, etc..

The Batman mythos has expanded into virtually every medium in the decades since the character's debut, and there's a good argument to be made for Batman being the most critically and culturally successful superhero in history. To put it simply, he has never gone out of style. Further proven by the wide variety and range of mediums he has been adapted into over 80 years and counting. He has been different things in different times. A pulp-fiction costumed hero modeled on The Shadow in his early stories, a campy pop-art TV Show in The '60s, a Darker and Edgier post-apocalyptic anti-hero in the mid-80s, Art Deco retro Genre Throwback in late eighties and early-mid 90s, modern neo-noir in The Oughties and the ultimate spectacle fighter in The New '10s. Initially, Batman swung between a bright, shiny Cape and a dark, nightmarish Shadow Archetype and the iconic Cowl. Since The '80s, the latter has been the main default trend, albeit varying in degree of darkness. Of course, since the character is inherently appealing, versions friendlier to children continue to be produced and made well into the current era, standing alongside the darker take on the character.

Along with Superman and Wonder Woman, he's one of the Big Three of The DCU. He has also been a member of the Justice League of America on and off (mostly on) since its founding.

This series has a (very long) Character Sheet.

For a list of comic storylines and other works in the franchise, go to the franchise page here.

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Various parts of the franchise have provided the name for:

General trope examples:

Tropes among all versions:

Tropes A-M

Adaptational Superpower Change: Harley Quinn had no super powers in the original animated series, but with her immigration to the comics, she got some powers from her new friend Poison Ivy.
Adaptational Wealth: As Movie Bob put it...
In the early Batman comics, Bruce Wayne was only pretty damn rich. Old money, didn't have a day job, you get the idea. But by now, he's so wrapped up in the daily affairs of the DC Universe that he routinely hangs out with aliens and gods, fighting apocalyptic wars, monitoring the globe with satellites, building space stations and paying for most of it himself because he's freakin' Scrooge McDuck levels of rich.
Advantage Ball: Batman almost always has the advantage in direct conflict. Three guys with knives or a dozen Mooks with machine guns, it makes no difference. As such, the general method of his rogues gallery to deal with him is to attack him indirectly, especially by undermining what he believes in and threatening those he values.
Aesop Collateral Damage: As said above, in War Games, Leslie Thompkins (a pacifist who took an oath to not harm others) purposefully let Stephanie die just to prove her point about the dangers of kids fighting crime. (This was later retconned into her having hid Stephanie away for a time to help her get out of crime fighting.)
Affably Evil:
- Ra's Al Ghul. Depending on the Writer of course. But in his more humane portrayals, he's presented as someone who treats Batman with as much respect as can be for a mortal enemy and instead of wanting to kill him, would rather Batman marry his daugher Talia and take over his empire.
- The Penguin comes across as this most of the time, as the owner of a popular upscale night spot, but he can go from a gentleman criminal to a vicious bastard if he needs to.
Affirmative-Action Legacy: Batman's first sidekick and later successor Dick Grayson was retconned to be part Roma. And after Batman's supposed demise, his longest-running title was given to the Jewish lesbian Batwoman. Also, The Dark Knight Returns featured a female Robin.
All Girls Want Bad Boys: It's not so much that Bats is a bad guy, but compared to a lot of the other team members within his various groups, his dark, brooding act stirs up the loins of many a female, both superpowered and non.
Almighty Mom: Alfred is the quintessential male example.
Alternate Universe: Earth-Two, where Batman married Catwoman and had a daughter, the Huntress.
Amateur Sleuth: Alfred had a great desire to be a detective in the early years after he was added to the cast. He studied detective work via correspondence course, and once even took a month's vacation so he could go to a nearby town and be a detective.
Ambiguously Gay: Aside from accusations on all sides, The Joker sometimes delivers Ho Yay, depending on the writer. After a while, some writers decided to incorporate that aspect of the character into their stories to create ambiguity on purpose.
Ambiguously Jewish: A number of writers have wondered whether Batman is Jewish. Some continuities make Kate Kane, the current Batwoman, Bruce's first cousin and since she's Jewish, that would mean Bruce's mother Martha Kane was Jewish, and since Jewish ethnicity is matrilineal, that would make Bruce Jewish. Of course across the media, Bruce has never identified as Jewish (or by any ethnic identity for that matter). Both of Batman's creators, Bob Kane and Bill Finger were Jewish incidentally but Bill Finger was explicit about the fact that he saw Bruce Wayne as a WASP and that he wanted him to have a Patrician identity.
Ambiguously Related: Bruce Wayne and Kate Kane split the difference between this and Depending on the Writer. They’re both from rich Gotham families and Kane is Martha Wayne’s maiden names. Usually in the comics and the handful of adaptation she’s in in, they’re just vaguely distantly related but sometimes they’re explicitly first cousins.
Amnesiac Costume Identity: One comic starts with Batman waking up, only remembering who he is on seeing his outfit. He tries to stop a crime and is quickly beaten down. Then the real Batman shows up, explaining that the man we've been following since the beginning is an ordinary citizen (who likes to get kinky in the bedroom). He and his wife were roleplaying a Rescue Romance scenario when the man hit his head, resulting in the comic's events. Batman leaves, but asks that they stick to Superman outfits from then on.
Animal Lover: Even though Batman's son Damian is an anti-hero who struggles to avoid maiming and killing his foes, he has a soft spot for animals. He's become a vegetarian, gone on tirades against people who kill animals for profit, and adopted, over time, a cat, dog, cow, dragon-bat, and Japanese dragon. He also beat up a king and his entire court for kidnapping Goliath (said dragon-bat).
Animal-Motif Team: The Batman Family are all either themed after bats (Batman, Batgirl, Batwoman) or birds (Robin, Nightwing).
An Asskicking Christmas/Twisted Christmas: Christmas is never a happy time for Batman. Not only is it an emotional time for him since the loss of his parents, but his enemies LOVE the irony of stirring up crap on what's supposed to be the happiest holiday of the year. The Joker, Mister Freeze and the Calendar Man, in particular, have stirring up crap during Christmas practically as a tradition (though at least Calendar Man is partially justified in this, given his particular obsession/MO). Batman's had at least one Christmas story in pretty much all media he's been featured in. This is so common for Batman that the aversion of these tropes is its own trope that he named!
Animal-Themed Superbeing: Bruce, his sidekicks, and many of his enemies are animal based, albeit none of them have animal powers at all and the outfit is largely an aesthetic and metaphorical concept based on social connotations. For instance, Batman doesn't have echolocation powers and it refers to him being nocturnal and his cape-and cowl silhouette looking like a giant bat when he goes Roofhopping. While Selina Kyle is shown to have an affinity with cats in later stories, originally it was a reference to her being a cat burglar, which was a poetic concept (stealthy like a cat) and not a literal one (since cats don't steal), while Robin's red tunic has a resemblance to the red-breasted American Robin, his name was a Shout-Out by his co-creator Bill Finger to Robin Hood. Likewise, Penguin is so-called for wearing the Penguin-suit. It wasn't until much later in fact, in 1970, with Man-Bat that you had an actual animal themed superbeing in the Batman mythos.
Anti-Hero Substitute: When Azrael took over as Batman during the Dark Age.
Anti-Villain: Lots. Most of Batman's Rogues Gallery are some shade of antivillain; turning to crime as a result of some past trauma is very common. There are also a fair number of real villains.
Arch-Enemy: The Joker is quite possibly the most famous example in the medium. There are some other guys who qualify as Batman's Arch-Enemy, who are as much dangerous, just not as much popular: Bane, Rā's al Ghūl, The Penguin, Two-Face, The Riddler, Hugo Strange, Owlman, Brother Eye and, in more metaphorical sense, Bruce Wayne's own humanity.
Arkham's Razor: Not related to Arkham Asylum, but Riddler's riddles work this way. The obvious interpretation of his Riddles is almost never the answer. For a relatively grounded example, his first-ever crime used the clue "banquet," sending Batman and the police to a charity dinner. The real, and much less conventional meaning of the clue was that the Riddler had flooded a bank vault — gotten a "bank wet" — to defeat its pressure-sensitive locking mechanism and was looting it in scuba gear.
Armor-Piercing Response: When Tim Drake tells Bruce that Batman has to have a Robin:
Bruce: Where is that written in stone? There's no more need for there to be a Robin...
Alfred: ... than there is for a Batman?
Artistic License – Biology: After getting a nasty cut during the Cataclysm storyline, Batman's internal monologue states that his belt has "anticoagulants to stem the bleeding." An anticoagulant actually makes blood thinner, and thus would make a cut bleed worse.
Artistic License – Geography: Gotham City is stated to lay at a major tectonic fault line, thus the catastrophic earthquake experienced in Cataclysm. While the exact location of the city in regards to real world geography has always been vague, it is somewhere close to New York. There are no fault lines anywhere near the entire east coast of the United States.
Ax-Crazy:
- The Joker.
- Firefly is also notorious for this kind of behavior, enough so that he actually managed to frighten Killer Moth and caused him to dissolve their partnership once he realized just how deranged he was.
Badass Creed: In The Button, it's revealed that while exploring caverns that would later become the Batcave, Thomas told Bruce the Wayne motto, which subconsciously had a tremendous effect on Bruce's personality.
Thomas Wayne: Sometimes we fall, son. But always remember, Waynes never stay down. We rise.
Badass in Distress: Currently the trope picture.
Badass Normal: One of the most emblematic examples of this trope in media. Whereas the rest of the DC Justice League has all sorts of amazing superpowers and while the villains he faces regularly have powers themselves, Batman relies on no more than gadgets, vehicles and extremely sharp judgement.
Bad Cop/Incompetent Cop: Gotham City Police Department, in most new-millennium portrayals. Except for Gordon. Eventually got its own comic series, Gotham Central, about the few honest cops in the city who have to deal with working in the second most corrupt department in the country.
- It often seems like a woefully understaffed Police Department. Chicago, one of the basis cities for Gotham, has nearly 15,000 officers. The most we ever see on one page at one time is about twenty for Gotham, no matter how big the crisis (until The Dark Knight Rises, where they move out of this trope and into Red Shirt).
Bald of Evil: A few villains qualify. Professor Hugo Strange, Batman's earliest recurring villain, is one example. He combines this with Beard of Evil, Morally Ambiguous Doctorate, and permanent Scary Shiny Glasses.
- Captain Stingeree combines this with Eyepatch of Power and Beard of Evil.
- Minor villain Karl Hellfern, a.k.a. Doctor Death.
- The Monk, a Golden Age villain later brought back in the Bronze Age, is completely bald . . . and a vampire.
Bandaged Face: At least one the villains is bound to have this happen to them at some point. Hush in particular is known for this.
- Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight Returns.
Bash Brothers: On occasions, Batman and Robin. This trope could have easily been called "Dynamic Duo".
- Batman and Red Hood/Robin II: even after all the time that passed between Jason's death and his return, they're able to fall right back in to this and work together flawlessly.
Bat Family Crossover
Batman Cold Open: Batman does this all the time, hence the Trope Namer.
- Batman #608 (the first part of the "Hush" arc) has a particularly cool version, depicting Batman (with Crazy-Prepared Badass Normal stats turned up) sneaking around a shipyard and taking down four of Killer Croc's thugs in rapid succession to save a small boy who happens to be heir to an enormous fortune.
Batman Gambit: The Trope Namer
Bat Scare: Generally associated with Batman, and clouds of bats often appear when he enters the Batcave. On at least a few occasions he has weaponised this, using bat-influencing ultrasound to set up a Bat Scare which distracts an opponent.
Bat Signal: The Trope Namer. Again.
Becoming the Mask: Bruce Wayne adopted the identity of Batman as a means to fight injustice. As with most Batman tropes, this is the dark version. It's not that he loves being Batman so much he doesn't want to go back to being Bruce Wayne. It's that he IS Batman because he has to be even when dressed and acting like Bruce Wayne. It's a strong contrast to the modern version of Superman, who always thinks of himself as Clark Kent regardless of the costume.
Bedlam House: Arkham is one of the most famous in fiction.
Berserk Button: Anyone getting killed, whether by any fault of his own or someone else's. Bats is not good with death, for obvious reasons. If you've killed someone within his vicinity, he may not kill you, but you may wish he had. Related to it, guns (more specifically the idea of wielding them), as it was one of them that made Bruce Wayne into the man he is now.
"Best Of" Anthology: The Best of Batman is a 13-episode DVD anthology, where the episodes are drawn from multiple Batman cartoons, all of which were known to be fan favourites.
Best Served Cold: One of the classic examples.
Betrayal Insurance: The idea that Batman has a stockpile of kryptonite in case Superman ever goes rogue is extremely common. The idea that he also has plans to take down any other Justice League member he might have to is almost as common.
- Subverted in some adaptations in which Superman gives the kryptonite to Batman, because Batman is the only person he trusts with it in case Supes is somehow compromised.
Big Damn Heroes: Batman and his extended family make a regular habit of this trope.
Big Good: Despite being curmudgeonly, brooding and feared by almost everyone, he, Superman and Wonder Woman tend to share this role in the larger DC Universe.
Big, Screwed-Up Family: Batman canonically (and legally - Damian is the only biological one) has five children: Dick, Jason, Tim, Cassandra, and Damian. He, Dick, Jason, and Tim are all orphans. Cassandra and Damian have living parents but both are tyke bombs raised by a cult of assassins. Cassandra couldn't talk or read until she was in her mid-teens. Pretty much all of them have died at one point or another. That's just the immediate family too! Other members of the extended clan like Barbara got shot in the spine to torture her dad, Stephanie Brown had a Teenage Pregnancy and a second rate supervillain dad. She also died (later retconned into being put into hiding) solely because Leslie Thompkins wanted to teach Bruce a lesson. Catwoman's background has pinged all over the place but usually she's a Street Urchin orphan who had to steal from a very young age to provide for herself and her sister, Maggie. They're all waifs, misfits and strays that would belong nowhere if not together.
Black-and-White Morality / Black-and-Grey Morality: Tends to depend on the tone of the particular story, with the lighthearted ones being the former and the Darker and Edgier ones being the latter.
Blasting It Out of Their Hands: Batman often disarms gun-toting foes with a well-aimed batarang.
Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: With Batman: Reborn and Gotham City Sirens, as well as Blackest Night, Harley Quinn, Catwoman, and Poison Ivy take on this trope respectively.
- The three Batgirls: Stephanie, Cassandra and Barbara respectively.
Blood Bath:
- Garth Ennis once wrote a comic where the villain was a drug lord who got people hooked on a drug so he could kill them, fill a pool with their drugged-up blood, and get high by bathing in it.
- In Batman: The Cult, Deacon Blackfire bathed in blood, supposedly to make himself immortal.
Blue Means Cold: Mr. Freeze wears a refrigerated suit which is generally portrayed as blue but it varies a bit depending on the adaptation. Occasionally, his skin is also depicted as having a blue tint.
Bored with Insanity: The Joker several times.
Breakout Character: Alfred was originally intended to be a comedic foil to Batman and Robin, but eventually got more serious. The Post-Crisis version had him as an out and out Battle Butler, and surrogate father figure to the entire Bat-Clan.
Breeding Slave: In one storyline in Tales of the Dark Knight, Batman, who had just started working as a vigilante, actually enjoys what he does until he meets the Monster of the Week—the son of a Nazi female scientist who looks down on him but grows somewhat fond of Batman, trying to get him to have a child with her. Partially through her son's help, Batman manages to escape and swears to never think of what he does as 'fun' ever again.
Breakout Villain: The Joker is a big one. Originally he was supposed to be killed in his second appearance back in 1940. Fast-forward 70 years later and he's the most famous villain in all of comics.
- A cross-media example is The Riddler. Prior to the 1966 TV show, Edward Nygma had made only three appearances including his 1948 debut. Thanks largely to his delightfully demented portrayal by Frank Gorshin, he is now one of Batman's arch-nemeses, second only to the aforementioned Clown Prince of Crime and, perhaps, Oswald Cobblepot.
Bright Is Not Good: Some members of the rogues gallery (Such a the Joker and the Riddler) tend to wear bright and colorful oufits, in contrast with Batman's dark costume.
Bulletproof Vest: Batman's costume has evolved into a suit of advanced lightweight armor with the Chest Insignia intended to draw fire to his thick chestpiece.
Cape Swish: Especially in the 1960s TV series.
Cardboard Prison: Arkham Asylum is a cardboard — actually more like tissue paper — Bedlam House; Blackgate, preceded by Gotham State Penitentiary, is this for those few (see below) of the Rogues Gallery who aren't full-blown psychotic, or at least who aren't currently presenting as such.
Cast Full of Crazy: Virtually all of Batman's rogues gallery are portrayed as mentally ill in some way or other; and the man himself has varying emotional disturbances (mainly stemming from the murder of his parents) Depending on the Writer. In some versions, the entire legally sane and reasonably emotionally stable population of the Bat-Universe, friend and foe alike, can be numbered in single digits — see Gotham.
Catchphrase: At least once every continuity, expect situations set up to dramatically deliver the line "I'M BATMAN!"
Character in the Logo: Various iterations of the Batman logo have his name in front of a bat-shaped symbol with his head on top of it.
Characterization Marches On:
- The first appearances of Batman are notorious for him lacking a code against killing, although even then killing wasn't routine. For example, in his very first story, The Case of the Chemical Syndicate, he punches the villain into a vat of Hollywood Acid, and shows no remorse for it. In the Post-Crisis version of the event, the crook tries to flee, as he cannot stand the shame of being sent to prison, and falls into the acid by accident.
- In an even more shocking case of questionable morality, Catwoman's first appearance ends with Batman deliberately letting her escape purely because he thinks that she's hot, and joking with Robin about it. Note that Catwoman, also contrary to her later character development, had casually murdered a guy for getting in her way during the story.
- The Joker's first Golden Age appearance had him not as a comedy obsessed Evil Laugh happy nut job that people are likely to see and assorted later comics and adaptations depict him as (such as, Batman: The Animated Series), but rather as a fairly straight forward killer and thief (with a slight jewel obsession) who associated with the titular playing card because it resembled him, not the other way round. He also didn't do a noticeable Evil Laugh until his third-last panel in his debut issue, where (true to form) he thinks he's about to die.
- Two-Face initially appeared in a three issue arc where Harvey Kent was driven mad by his scarring and used a coin toss to determine whether he acted heroically or villainously. At the end of the story he was reformed and disappeared for the rest of the Golden Age. He was brought back in the 50s as Harvey Dent and instead of being equally villainous and heroic he was a gangster who was obsessed with the number "2," with the coin playing a lesser role in his crimes.
- Jason Todd was initially a Dick Grayson clone whose parents were circus trapeze artists killed by Killer Croc. He was also a natural redhead who dyed his hair black so nobody would realize there was a new Robin. Post-Crisis on Infinite Earths, he was retooled into his better-known modern incarnation as a (naturally brunet) street kid. (Although some of the writers for the non-main line books didn't get the memo for a while, leading to some inconsistent depictions.)
Charity Ball: Bruce Wayne, being a wealthy playboy, attends a lot of these. Sometimes they even go off as planned.
Charles Atlas Superpower: See that page for more info
The Chessmaster:
- The Riddler. See "Hush" for details.
- Batman himself is a heroic version of this trope due to being a brilliant tactician and superb analytical skills.
Chest Insignia: In Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, he reveals that most of his armor is bulletproof, but he wears a chest insignia because he couldn't make his mask and cowl protective enough (in most versions, he leaves his mouth and chin uncovered). "Why do you think I wear a target on my chest?"
Chew-Out Fake-Out: Tim Drake/Robin, after losing nearly all of his biological family, sets up an actor to pretend to be his fake uncle so that he doesn't have to go into the foster care system. Batman, being Batman, naturally finds out, and Robin assumes he's about to be reamed out for going behind Bruce's back... but all Bruce can say is that he's so proud of Tim for taking the initiative, and gives him some tips on how to make the deception foolproof.
Chick Magnet: Lucky man. Some members of the Batfamily such as Nightwing is also one in his various incarnations, this extends to even Cat woman herself just like Batman.
Chronic Villainy: Gotham's recidivism rate is proportional to the popularity of his Rogues Gallery, so it's about 100%.
The City Narrows: It would be pretty hard to do the origin story without that one dark alley that you really shouldn't go into. Similarly, City Noir. In Gotham, the absolute worst neighborhood is literally named "The Narrows." Gotham City is a nice place to live.
Clark Kenting: Many heroes throughout the franchise have a rather easy time hiding their secret identities. Especially notable in live-action series.
Classy Cat-Burglar: Catwoman more often than not.
Clothes Make the Legend: You don't even need to see his emblem - Bats is so infamous and feared that he can be identified just by the silhouette of his cowl.
Coins for the Dead: In a comic from the 80s, a serial killer is murdering Gotham's homeless by giving them two gold coins coated in poison. When they die, he then places the coins on their eyes.
Combat Parkour: Batman makes use of this. Especially in a confined space surrounded by thugs, at which time he is forced to twist, pounce, and perform somersaults and back handsprings to narrowly dodge attacks coming from multiple directions. Then once out of danger he makes a few attacks of his own to defeat them.
The Comically Serious:
- Because nothing's more hilarious than Batman singing karaoke, while still completely straight-faced. Though in the rare instance where he cracks a joke, it's all the funnier because of it.
- In Superman/Batman #44, Superman has been hit in the eye with a shard of Kryptonite and has to wear an eyepatch until it heals.
  Superman: I have a strange favor to ask you.
  Batman: No, Clark. You can't borrow my pirate ship.
- Averted in the Golden Age stories, where Batman loves to joke and make wisecracks as he's roughing up the bad guys. He's as bad as Robin.
The Commissioner Gordon: The Trope Namer

Competence Porn: Batman is described by Grant Morrison as hyper-competent in his Justice League phase, and even then a good part of the appeal of the "World's Greatest Detective" and his stories was seeing him use and apply his intelligence, skills, and resources to come out on top against every enemy and challenge no matter how dire and outmatched he is. This also applies to his supporting cast who are all at the top of their game, Commissioner Gordon, Alfred, Lucius Fox, Oracle, with the Kid Sidekick Robin originally being created as an Audience Surrogate precisely to provide an emotional center to his stories and an element of vulnerability.
Continuity Nod: Crossing over with Mythology Gag, when Batwoman resurfaces in 2006, her suit borrows very heavily from the one made famous in Batman Beyond, especially in regards to the Bat Symbol she uses.
Contrasting Replacement Character: Batman needs a Robin to act as his sidekick and Morality Pet. However, every official Robin is different from the last one.
- Dick Grayson's loving parents were murdered and he was taken under Bruce's wing out of sympathy. His tenure of Robin established the role as a lovable, wise-cracking sidekick and foil to Batman. Despite his guardian's anti-social tendencies, Dick is arguably one of the most beloved and sociable characters in the DC universe next to Superman and is a natural-born leader because of this.
- Jason Todd grew up on the streets with a dad who walked out on him and a drug addict for a mother. He was adopted by Bruce after he caught Jason stealing the tires off the Batmobile. His personality was coarser and was betrayed by his own mother to the Joker. Depending on the Writer, Bruce didn't like or tolerate Jason as much compared to Dick. After his resurrection, Jason becomes the Red Hood, a dark and gritty Anti-Hero willing to cross lines Batman won't.
- Tim Drake was born into an upper-middle-class family with a neglectful father who wanted a Jerk Jock for a son. Instead of Batman stumbling upon him by accident, Tim sought him out and offered to become Robin after seeing the turmoil Batman went through in the wake of Jason's death. Initially depicted as a chipper and talented teenager, he slowly becomes grimmer and more brooding after a number of tragedies in his life.
- Damian Wayne is Bruce's biological son with Talia al Ghul. He's an Insufferable Genius who is already a master of hand-to-hand combat and trained in every skill one could expect a Robin to have. But his brutal upbringing under the League of Assassins made him indifferent to murder, which makes him come to blows with his father and adopted brothers. In time, he grows to appreciate his role as Robin and steps away from his murderous past, making him a much kinder and more empathetic young man, even if he retains his penchant for Brutal Honesty and snark.
Cool Car: Practically the Trope Codifier. From WAY back in the day, few modes of transportation have been considered awesome as universally as the Batmobile.
Cool Garage: The Batcave has many functions depending on the time and continuity, but it's always one of these.
Cool Plane: The Batwing. Same deal as the Batmobile, cool since before it became a thing.
Cop Killer: Wrath, an Evil Counterpart of Bats, specializes in killing law enforcement officials.
Cops Need the Vigilante: Comic books play this every which way, but Batman is perhaps the worst offender. He is, and always has been, more or less a de facto agent of the Gotham PD. That they have the Bat-Signal up on the roof confirms that. Therefore pretty much everything he does is entirely illegal, as it contravenes all the rules of evidence gathering, chain of custody, interrogation, etc. Some recent series have gotten more sophisticated, going so far as to actually get this right (Batman is an agent of the police and therefore this is inadmissible, or Batman is entirely unconfirmed and you can't prove there's any contact making this very murky but admissible, for example), though some have gotten it wrong while trying to be clever (no, bringing in a bureaucrat whose only job is to turn on the Bat-Signal doesn't make it okay because the bureaucrat is acting as an agent of the police which makes Batman an agent of the police). Learn more here.
Corrupt Corporate Executive: Bruce's Starter Villain, Alfred Stryker, was a businessman willing to murder his partners to take full control of the company.
Corrupt Politician: Aversions are easier to find.
Costume Evolution: Most characters have had outfit changes over the years. Batman himself started with a cape that was shaped like bat wings, before it changed to a cape with a jagged hem.
The Cowl: Trope Codifier.
Crapsack World: Gotham City is one of the best and most famous examples in all of comics.
Crazy-Prepared: Batman plus the Bat-family count so many examples of the trope they have their own subpage.
Creepy Souvenir: Villain Mr. Zsasz marks a notch in his skin every time he murders someone. He has scars all over his body.
Crimefighting with Cash
Criminal Doppelgänger: Bruce Wayne's childhood friend Thomas Elliot (a.k.a. Hush) got facial reconstruction surgery to look more like Bruce so that he can impersonate him and more easily get away with sapping Bruce's wealth.
Criminal Mind Games: The Riddler's MO.
Cuckoo Nest: "Mask", a two-part story in Legends of the Dark Knight, showed Batman waking up as a scrawny Bruce Wayne in an asylum. His psychiatrist explained that he had retreated into fantasy after the death of his parents. As it turned out, the psychiatrist was the vengeful son of one of Batman's enemies. However, the story ended with alternating scenes of Bruce standing tall and strong as Batman over Gotham after finally freeing himself, and of scrawny Bruce Wayne still in the hospital and being labelled brain dead.

Dark Is Not Evil: And ironically, most of his rogues (particularly the Joker) are very colorful.
Dating Catwoman: Trope Codifier.
- On-again and off-again with Selina Kyle, both before and after he learned her true identity. Some say the only woman he has ever loved.
- He has a similar relationship with Talia al Ghul, the daughter of Arch-Enemy Ra's al Ghul - they even had a child together (though Bruce was drugged during the actual act), the fifth Robin Damian Wayne.
- Bruce tends to be attracted to women on the wrong side of the law more often than not. Gotham City Sirens notes that the only two women that Batman has ever loved were Catwoman/Selina Kyle and Talia al Ghul, both members of his Rogues Gallery.
Deadpan Snarker: Alfred, especially when Frank Miller's writing him.
Death by Origin Story: Thomas and Martha Wayne, The Flying Graysons.
Deducing the Secret Identity: Over the years, some of Batman's villains have uncovered his Secret Identity as Bruce Wayne. The most common method is using the process of elimination to answer the question Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys? and deducing that, since Batman uses so much expensive gadgetry (the Batsuit, Batmobile, Batarangs, etc.) and seemingly replaces them with no issues (blow up a Batmobile and he'll have another one soon), it is a given that he would NOT be some working-class guy, but rather a very wealthy citizen of Gotham, and Bruce Wayne just so happens to fit that description.
- Bane figured out Bruce Wayne's identity by simply studying Batman and Wayne's physical mannerisms, instantly deducing that they're the same. Bane has never really cared much about his identity though, as he finds Batman to be a Worthy Opponent, and the threat of revealing his identity doesn't mesh well with his ideologies.
- Owlman is an evil Thomas Wayne version of Batman from Earth-3. When he traveled to Earth-2, he visited the Wayne family graves and deduced that the Batman of Earth-2 is Bruce Wayne because he must be the only surviving member of the family.
- Ra's Al Ghul deduced Batman's identity by following the money. He has too much respect for his Worthy Opponent to ever entertain the thought of revealing it.
- Tim Drake's origin as Robin involved him, at just 9 years old, working out both Robin and Batman's identities: He noticed that Robin was performing a quadruple somersault that Dick Grayson had performed while in the circus. Thus if Robin was Dick, then by extension his adopted father Bruce Wayne would be Batman as well.
- At the end of Batman: Hush, it's revealed that The Riddler pieced together Batman's identity and orchestrated the whole plot with that information. He threatens to blackmail Batman once he's caught, but Batman points out that The Riddler would never, ever give away the answer to the biggest riddle in Gotham, rendering it useless.
Depending on the Writer: As with most stories which have been told over decades, there is a lot of this. Examples that illustrate the range of interpretations include Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, which presented Batman as a dangerously-obsessed, deeply-disturbed, paranoid control freak, as opposed to the stalwart Caped Crusader of Batman. This vast range is sometimes the basis for whole story arcs.
- One example is his creation of the Brother Mk I satellite, which was created by Batman to keep an eye on all of the meta-humans, hero and villain alike.
- Another story, "Tower of Babel", centers on Ra's Al Ghul obtaining a file containing Batman's contingency plans to cripple each and every member of the Justice League "just in case" and using them to his own ends. The existence of the files and the secrecy under which they are kept infuriates The League and lead to his expulsion.
- This is hinted at in The Dark Knight.
  - Another issue of interpretation is whether he became a man the night his parents died, or if he never truly grew up.
- Some versions of Poison Ivy gave her powers to grow and control plants with her mind. While other adaptations she had no superpowers (Unless you count being immune to all poisons), she was simply a massive eco-terrorist who loved plants more than any human.
Destroying a Punching Bag: Batman is shown doing it in Detective Comics #526, leading Alfred to worry that Bruce is pushing himself far too hard.
Determinator: Bruce himself, of course, and to the point that it is the common familial trait of the entire Bat-family.
Deus ex Machina: Batman often solves situations by just happening to have a gadget on hand. Back when he killed people, Batman once confronted a Doctor Doom who threw a grenade at him. Batman then shields his and Robin's body with...this. It's not even a frickin' gadget!
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: He tends to do this more often during crossover events.
Disney Villain Death: Starter Villain Alfred Stryker knocked into a vat of acid during his scuffle with Batman.
Distaff Counterpart: At least three still breathing (two girls and a woman).
Doesn't Like Guns: Even more than he despises killing.
Double Consciousness
Dramatic Necklace Removal: His parents' death scene frequently has this.
The Dreaded: Both Batman and The Joker have been shown to terrify even those FAR more powerful than they will ever be.
- And if not fear, (in the rare circumstances) at the very least respect, as given by Darkseid, who is basically the DC equivalent of the Devil
- To put the Joker into perspective, he scares Superman.^note
Dub Pronunciation Change:
- His name is pronounced "bah-tch-mahn" on most Brazilian Portuguese dubs. Out of all the DC superhero names that end in "man", his is notoriously the only one that doesn't somewhat replicate the original pronunciation.
- In a similar way, Italian dub always pronounced his name as "But-mahn".
Dumb Muscle: Killer Croc, Amygdala and Clayface at times.
- Averted with Bane, who has the mind of a criminal mastermind as well as the colossal strength to back it up, but played annoyingly straight in several adaptations. Though completely averted with The Dark Knight Rises.
Eagle-Eye Detection: One of the many skills employed by the Bat-family.
Early-Installment Weirdness: In the early comics, Batman was not only perfectly willing to use firearms, he even directly killed his enemies. This bit of bat-history is so infamous, that it even provides the page image for this trope!
- His tech was also much more simplistic early on—the original Batmobile was just a simple red convertible.
- His series was initially set in it's own distinct continuity, with no existence of other superheroes prior to retcons—an issue of Batman from the 40s, for instance, had Dick Grayson get an autograph from Jerry Siegel, identified by name and explicitly noted as "the creator of Superman".
- In the Joker's first appearance, he was a far cry from the loony sociopath he's known as now—he was a straight faced crook with a gimmick, and Batman was the one cracking the puns while fighting him! Notably, he was supposed to be killed off for good in his second appearance, but he ended up becoming so popular, he immediately became a series mainstay, which soon established another trope in the process.
- The Scarecrow was originally a standard hoodlum-for-hire (albeit one who used to be a college professor) who terrorized his victims the old-fashioned way: with guns and death threats (in this era, fear gas was actually the gimmick of the now-comparatively obscure Hugo Strange). He also managed to hold his own against Batman and Robin physically, at least for a little while.
  - Fittingly, in The Batman Hugo Strange is basically the show's fill-in for Scarecrow, as he used the same fear tactics and psychological intimidation. One episode even had him make Batman hallucinate into thinking a Zombie Apocalypse had started, when in fact, the "cure" he tried to trick Batman into using, was actually the real Zombie virus.
Elaborate Underground Base: So elaborate that it indirectly caused the end of the 1966 series. After ABC cancelled it, NBC was ready to pick it up — but the Batcave had already been torn down, and NBC judged the expense of rebuilding it would outweigh the potential profit.
Eldritch Location: Arkham Asylum frequently has shades of this, particularly in series dwelling upon its inmates and staff, or its history.
Elemental Shapeshifter: Clayface is a walking mountain of mud, and can use his powers for shapeshifting or brute strength. He's one of the few recurring villains Batman admits to being no physical match for.
Emerging from the Shadows: Whether it's Batman, or other characters.
Epic Hail: The Bat Signal: the most badass searchlight in existence.
Everybody Smokes: Despite the fact that Golden Age Bruce Wayne is well known to smoke a Distinguished Gentleman's Pipe (and the occasional cigarette), he actually only smokes for a relatively short period of time, from his debut in Detective Comics #27 to the final regular appearance of the pipe in Detective Comics #51, two years later. The pipe makes an occasional appearance in a panel or two in Detective Comics #74 and in Batman #36, but Bruce never smokes regularly after those first two years of publication.
Evil Counterpart: Quite a few.
- For starters, there's Prometheus (although he's more of a JLA-specific villain than a Batman villain) and Black Mask (or Roman Sionis) who has a similar back story to Bruce (son of wealthy parents who died by unnatural causes, although in Roman's case his parents were Rich Bitches who were killed by Roman himself, and Roman ran his company into the ground with his own carelessness).
- One of the origins of Catman tried to build him up as an evil mirror counterpart who was inspired by the death of his parents to become a supervillain complete with Catmobile and the like. The idea got dropped quickly.
- Hush is a much more recent example, especially when you get into his backstory and how intricately entwined it is with Batman's.
- Killer Moth (of all people) was originally presented as an Evil Counterpart. His MO was that he was an anti-vigilante; he showed up to rescue criminals. He even had a Moth Signal criminals could use to summon him!
- Then there is Bane, whom Chuck Dixon created from the idea of a "dark mirror" for Bruce Wayne. They both lost their parents at an early age, but instead of affectionate guardian raising him in comfortable wealth, Bane grew up in possibly the worst prison on earth. Nevertheless, he honed his intellect and body until he could escape and then return for payback. He's Bruce Wayne Gone Horribly Wrong.
- An obscure character called The Wrath is gloriously over the top in how closely his backstory mirrors Batman's. His parents were career criminals who were gunned down by the police in front of him the same day as Bruce Wayne's parents were killed. Thus, the Wrath dedicated his life to fighting law and order. Even his costume is almost just a Palette Swap of Batman's.
- Deadshot is another, an idle rich boy who moonlighted as a vigilante before turning villain, and also had a retconned family tragedy as his motivation. More gun-focused than the above examples. He's moved further away from this than his friends Bane and Catman, and is sometimes used as an Anti-Green Arrow these days.
- Kobra was originally conceived as this as well, being fabulously wealthy and having his own international team of associates loyal to him, in much the same way as Batman's own teammates were to him. Kobra was so much so this that one edition of the DC Heroes RPG had his stats identical to Batman's.
- Deathstroke is occasionally implied to be this, given immense training and discipline, and is one of the few low-powered supervillains who's single-handedly defeated the Justice League in combat, in much the same way Batman is often implied to be capable.
- Man-Bat was a literal take on this, working off the in-universe assumption many people have that Batman is some sort of supernatural monster. Kurt Langstrom is a dedicated scientist, almost fanatically driven to his work, just like Bruce, but is an occasional ally to Batman, too.
- Ra's al-Ghul has elements of this, most notably in his desire to save the world even at cost to himself, his reluctance to work with others as an equal, and his personal skill. Notably, both Ra's and Batman respect each other enough to work together occasionally, and sometimes Batman is even implied to sympathize with Ra's views, if not his methods.
- Black Mask was originally like this, a rich kid turned villain due to a personal tragedy, but the characterization is largely eclipsed by the later mob boss take on him.
- Azrael as AzBats was an intended subversion of this trope. While capable physically, Azrael was nowhere near Batman's match mentally or psychologically, and quickly degenerated.
- While not to Black-and-white counterpart standards, The Dark Age of Comic Books and later retellings posit that most of Batman's Rogues Gallery reflect a part of Batman's characterization.
Evil Cripple: Averted in one Golden Age story. A villain named Clubfoot with a clubfoot (obvously) and a Hook Hand is killing members of the Storme family. It turns out that the actual family member who has the club foot is innocent and being framed by the family lawyer, who was Obfuscating Disability.

Evolutionary Retcon: Batman started as the tights-clad caped crusader, following the model of certain athletic garb of the day — particularly acrobatic performers such as circus aerialists and tightrope walkers and strength-based athletes like wrestlers and circus strongmen. Starting with The '90s, artists and writers have experimented with making his costume more plausible and sensible given the beatings that Batman takes in the course of his adventures. This evolution ultimately resulted in realizing Batman's outfit as a heavily armored, high tech suit that employs military issue polymers created by Wayne-Tech. Even the cape is now actually functional and allows limited gliding.
Exalted Torturer: Since so much of the story has Batman's no-kill rule mined for drama, this has obscured the fact that a good deal of what Batman does, such as intimidating, scaring, and often times physically beating people up in order to get information flirts with torture and Police Brutality. His actions during the Tower of Babel story where he created countermeasures in case the League went rogue had him analyzing his teammates in such a way so that he could devise traps that tortured them in ways tailored to their superpowers.
Excuse Me, Coming Through!: He is carrying a live bomb after all, you would've run screaming too, admit it.
Expy: Batman himself started out as this of several characters: the secret identity and basic costume of Zorro, the fear factor and night-orientation of The Shadow, the supreme training and physical/mental abilities of Doc Savage, and of course the detective abilities of Sherlock Holmes. Fortunately, he evolved into his own unique character.
- Kirk "Man-Bat" Langstrom is one of Curt "The Lizard" Connors. Really, regardless of where each character ended up, the only difference between their origins is the specific ailment they were trying to cure and the specific animal they were working on.
- During the aftermath of Knightfall while Azrael is filling in for Bruce as Batman, Jean-Paul's Darker and Edgier (and crazy) version of The Dark Knight starts off as a commentary on comics of the time, but slowly he explicitly becomes Frank Miller's Dark Knight, cemented when Jean-Paul makes himself gauntlets with metal claws.
Face Car: The Batmobile sometimes has his masked face on it.
Face Death with Dignity: In "The Joker Walks the Last Mile", after turning himself in, confessing to a long list of crimes and getting the death sentence, the Joker walks to his execution, confident that he will make a fresh start once he pays the ultimate penalty with his life, and once his mooks follow through on his plan and bring him Back from the Dead.
Face Your Fears: Whenever Scarecrow manages to get Batman with his Fear Gas, expect this to occur.
Family Extermination: Batman’s parents were murdered by a criminal; Depending on the Writer, this is either an example of this — i.e deliberate targeting of the Waynes — or just a tragedy of them being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Either way, unfortunately for the (DC) underworld, there was a Sole Survivor.
Family-Unfriendly Death:
- Clayface is the best example in Batman lore. Everything he does: the morphing, the voice, that thing he does where he morphs his features back-to-front rather than turn around. the big kicker is the times he absorbed people inside him to kill them, which he once temporarily did to Wonder Woman.
- And then there's the Clayface whose main power was to melt people he touched into bubbling puddles of protoplasmic muck, which is described as horrifically painful even though it's extremely fast.
Fantasy Counterpart Culture: As per Bill Finger:
"Originally I was going to call Gotham City 'Civic City.' Then I tried 'Capital City,'...Then I flipped through the New York City phone book and spotted the name 'Gotham Jewelers' and said, 'That's it,' Gotham City. We didn't call it New York because we wanted anybody in any city to identify with it."
- Dennis O'Neill likewise noted that Gotham and Metropolis represented two sides of New York City:
'Gotham is Manhattan below Fourteenth Street at 3 a.m., November 28 in a cold year. Metropolis is Manhattan between Fourteenth and One Hundred and Tenth Streets on the brightest, sunniest July day of the year.''
- In general, Gotham is a New York City where The Great Depression and The Big Rotten Apple era never ended, nor has the city been gentrified, which gives the setting an advantage over the Marvel Universe which on account of being set in a real city has much of its original verisimilitude and characterization become The Artifact^note. Much of the city still has violent crime, corrupt police, slums and poor neighborhoods and banana republic level corruption of civil institutions that's analogous to the fake cities of Grand Theft Auto, and has more in common with third world major cities. For instance the of No Man's Land story arc, repurposed in the Batman: Arkham Series, The Dark Knight Rises and the final season of Gotham, is closer to the Kowloon Walled City than anything in America.
- Film and TV adaptations generally make a much more stylized city, such as Tim Burton's films with its hellish gothic architecture as opposed Joel Schumacher's neon-vegas approach. In the DC Animated Universe, Gotham is made into a melange of areas, looking like The Remnant of The '40s Film Noir era in Batman: TAS but looking more modern, sleek and stylized in TNBA, with Batman Beyond looking like a Blade Runner kind of city, with Hong Kong and Tokyo influences. Christopher Nolan's films made the city an amalgam of Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and New York.
- For Gotham, a 2014 ''Guardian'' article states the approach was a combination of the above; shot mostly in NYC which occasionally had to be made worse for the production, with a skyline that's "a composite of photographs of buildings from various cities that were carefully chosen for their Gotham-like feeling, and then manipulated digitally to bring the Gotham look to it that we wanted."
Fat Bastard: Starter Villain Alfred Stryker was an overweight man willing to kill to take control of a company.
Felony Murder: One telling of Batman's origin has this law be the explanation for why Batman is a vigilante and not a badged police officer. One of Bruce Wayne's law professors poses a hypothetical situation where two teenagers steal a car for a joyride and end up hitting and killing a pedestrian. When Bruce states that only the driver should be held responsible for the death, the professor corrects him that both teens are responsible because they both participated in the felony that killed the victim. Bruce finds this shockingly unjust, leading him to decide to work outside the law.
The Fettered: Bruce, of course, but in some interpretations Jim Gordon too.
Fiction 500: The most famous example in the DC Universe, although Lex Luthor is right up there too.
Fighting Back Is Wrong: Bruce Wayne had promised his friend Thomas Elliot that his parents would be saved by his father (Dr. Thomas Wayne). After Dr. Wayne was only able to save Mrs. Elliot, Thomas lashed out and attacked Bruce for the false hope he gave him. When Bruce tried to fight back he was reprimanded by his father, who consoled Thomas.
File Mixup: In the old story "Robin Studies His Lessons", Dick Grayson is kept off duty because he's been getting bad grades. However, then Dick catches some crooks, using scientific knowledge that seems awfully strange given he's supposed to have gotten lousy grades in that class. Bruce checks it and the administrators apologize for confusing Dick's grades with those of another boy.
Finger in the Mail: The maniacal doctor Hush from turns this around by sending Batman the entirety of Catwoman... minus her heart. She gets better.
Flying Firepower: The villain Firefly is this, possessing a jetpack and an arsenal of incendiary weapons.
Foil: There's quite a lot of contrast being drawn between Batman and his Rogues Gallery and many of the Robins. So much, in fact, that we gave them their own page.
For Want of a Nail: There's an Elseworlds story that explores what'd happen if Joe Chill didn't kill Batman's parents. Apparently Bruce wouldn't have become Batman, Gotham would've become less of a CrapsackWorld, and he and Jack Napier would've become Heterosexual Life-Partners.
Found the Killer, Lost the Murderer: The Pre-Crisis Batman, long after he finally tracked down the murderer of his parents, Joe Chill, discovered that Chill was actually an assassin hired by the mobster Lew Moxon who wanted revenge on Thomas Wayne for getting him arrested. Batman reopened the case to hunt his parents' true murderer down, a discovery that was especially galling considering Robin pointed out that by leaving him alive, Bruce was manipulated to be Moxon's alibi since a 10 year old could not be expected to know that a simple stick-up gone murderous was more than it seemed.
Fourth-Wall Observer: The Joker occasionally, but especially in non-canon story lines and Emperor Joker.

Frequently Full Moon: When Batman patrols the streets of Gotham at night, you can count on a full moon being in the background while he perches on a ledge with his cape billowing dramatically in the wind.
Friendly Pirate:
- Batman: Leatherwing: An Elseworlds take on Batman who is a pirate named Captain Leatherwing, who plunders ships of rival countries on behalf of English royalty, doing so in the hopes of eventually buying back lands stolen from his murdered parents. Despite his piracy, he is a Lovable Rogue who does not harm innocents and even saves them on occasion.
- Bruce Wayne himself becomes one in when he gets sent back in time by Darkseid's Omega Beams during Final Crisis and ends up in 18th century North America where he has a run-in with Blackbeard. To escape the legendary pirate, Bruce fakes his own death and then dons pirate gear, where he dismantles Blackbeard's crew before engaging and defeating him in sword duel.
Friend of Masked Self: Bruce Wayne often claims to have a cordial relationship with Batman to explain why the Caped Crusader shows up to his rescue so often. Since the Morrison run, Bruce Wayne publicly funds Batman.
Frigid Water Is Harmless: In one issue, The Penguin falls through the ice at the South Pole and climbs out completely fine. This is given zero explanation (the Penguin is by all accounts a completely ordinary human), save for Batman remarking in surprise that "he's immune to the cold!"
Frothy Mugs of Water: Inverted. Bruce Wayne doesn't drink, afraid that it'll ruin his edge; however, a socialite like himself must on occasion be seen drinking, to erase any suspicion of being Batman. Thus, he will often drink non-alcoholic beverages, usually ginger ale, prepared to look to others as though they are made with alcohol. He'll even go so far as to act drunk, usually as an excuse for slipping out to chase after criminals.
Frozen Face: Joker.
Furnace Body Disposal: In a Golden Age Batman story, a businessman is killing his rivals and using the furnace in his factory to get rid of the bodies. Batman quickly learns the truth and confronts him one night. Batman even tells him that he knows he's disposing of a body right now. When the businessman asks how he could know that, Batman points out that it's late at night, the factory is shut down...but the furnace in the basement is roaring.
Genius Bruiser: Bane, but applies to Bats applies as well.
The Gimmick: Saying "Batman's Rogues Gallery has plenty of examples of The Gimmick" is bit like saying "Water is wet".
Glamour: Poison Ivy is pheromonally irresistible.
Go-Karting with Bowser: As noted on the trope page, Batman visits Two-Face at Arkham occasionally for a friendly game of chess.
Go-to Alias: Batman has either created or taken from a deceased criminal (depending on the continuity) the identity of small-time crook "Matches" Malone to infiltrate the underworld. Similarly, Alfred tends to use "Thaddeus Crane" (his middle names) whenever he has to go undercover.
Godzilla Threshold: Whenever Batman realizes he needs Superman or the Justice League, and not just the Bat-Family.
Grappling-Hook Pistol: Favorite method of transportation when the Batwing or Batmobile aren't practical.
Green Thumb:
- Pamela "Poison Ivy" Isley is one of the most famous examples of this trope. Her levels of deadliness vary across different adaptations. She has shown some capacity for good, also. When Gotham was in the midst of No Man's Land, Ivy killed Clayface and used her powers to grow fruits and vegetables for the stranded people to eat in a coordinated effort with Batman. Other times, she can at times be an eco-terrorist, ranging from destroying polluting industries to considering exterminating the human race so they'll knock off the polluting. Otherwise, she gets her kicks by feeding people to giant pitcher plants and Venus Fly traps. Lady's in Arkham for a reason.
- Also, her predecessor, Jason Woodrue, the Floronic Man. He's enough of a plant-man that he can be mostly "killed" and reborn via growing back. He once regrew amongst cannabis after spending some time as a hero under the name Floro, leading to him trying to "save the world" via getting everyone high on super-weed, a plot which Batman stops but Gordon questions if he was right.

Guile Hero: Generally, the darker or more "realistic" the story, the more Batman embodies this.

Harmful to Minors: Seeing his parents gunned down in front of him as a child has clearly left a big mark on Bruce's psyche.

Hide Your Lesbians: A curious case with Harley and Ivy, despite the various comics and shows having open gay relationships that are as blatant as any other, Harley and Ivy's relationship is still danced around. Word of God has stated their relationship is sexual, and there have been many moments that imply as much. But any question or statement that might confirm this is either deflected or cut short, making it practically a Running Gag.
Hired Help as Family: In most depictions, the Waynes' butler, Alfred Pennyworth, is treated as a beloved member of the family, to the degree that when Thomas and Martha Wayne are murdered, Alfred takes their son Bruce under his custody and raises him like his own son. The feeling is quite mutual, with Alfred and Batman mourning each other as "my son" or "my father" when one believes the other has died.

Holding Out for a Hero: Some versions of the story explore the idea of Gotham being too dependent on Batman.
- Commissioner Gordon often has the worry of relying too much on Batman to patrol Gotham, and points it out in No Man's Land by claiming that he can't get himself hired anywhere because his reliance on an "urban legend" damages his credibility. Usually though, he has to admit that the corrupt and perpetually-underfunded police department couldn't handle Gotham's crime rate before, and probably couldn't now.
- And, as Battle for the Cowl demonstrated, Gotham does indeed become a lawless warzone the moment Batman disappeared and only returns to something resembling normality (for Gotham) once Dick accepts that there must be Batman (and he's it).
- This happened LONG before Battle for the Cowl. A large portion of the "Knight" arc (Knightfall/Knightquest/Knightsend), apart from being a Take That! at people who wanted a Darker and Edgier Batman, was to point out that a huge part of the problem in Gotham was mostly psychological in nature, and that Gotham needs Batman, even a fake one.
Hollywood Healing: Someone who's been through the physical injuries Batman has suffered should really show more signs of it. Averted in most stories that show Bruce later in life, where he's often crippled by the cumulative effect of the injuries he takes and the punishment he inflicts on his body.
Honest Advisor: Alfred, who knows Bruce Wayne better than anyone, isn't afraid to tell him when he's taking himself too seriously or when he's doing something that probably won't end well. He's also the person Bruce most respects, and is the only person he trusts completely in more continuities than any other individual.
Hope Bringer: One constant running theme, no matter the writer, is that Batman serves as a symbol of hope to the good people of Gotham. Even the biggest Deconstruction stories and adaptations, like The Dark Knight Trilogy and the Batman: Arkham Series, consistently portray him in this regard.
Horrifying Hero: Batman by Tim Burton is the first one to truly invoke this trope: A flawless combination of Bob Ringwood's theatrical costume design, Michael Keaton's performance and the visceral musical score of Danny Elfman, Bruce Wayne becomes a mythical, demonic figure that struck such raw terror into the heart of evil that the average petty thug could only incoherently scream to the police: "I'm telling ya man: A Giant Bat!!!"
Horror Hunger: Killer Croc is frequently depicted as being a cannibal, while one of the multiple versions of Clayface to appear exclusively in the comics had a case of Body Horror where not only was it contagious, but the only way to keep it from killing him was to kill other people with it.
The Hyena: Joker is practically the Trope Maker in comics.
Hypocrite: In Batman Heart of Hush, Hush mocks Batman's crime-fighting career as a sign of his inability to move on from his past. This is pretty rich considering that his own vendetta against Bruce stems from a grudge he's held since childhood for something that wasn't even Bruce's fault.
An Ice Suit: Mr. Freeze.
Iconic Sequel Character: Robin doesn't make his first appearance in Batman until Detective Comics #38, 11 issues and a year of publication after Batman's first appearance in Detective Comics #27.
I'll Kill You!: In his first appearance, The Joker was not played at all as funny, even in a dark way. He was, in fact, a permanently smiling psychotic gangster with no sense of humor whatsoever. In his first fight with Batman, Bats is actually the one making puns, Joker's Line? "I am going to kill you!"
Immortality Field: The Lazarus Pits, all metaphysically connected through Ley Lines, overlap with Fountain of Youth but zigzag in regards to being an Immortality Field. By bathing in a pit, an injured person can have their wounds healed, the old are made young, and the deceased can be brought back to life^note. However, anyone who uses the pit and is not injured or dying will be killed. Also, each pit can only be used once, but its user will retain its effects even without staying in one and they're free to use another the next time they're in critical condition.
Impressed by the Civilian: Jason Todd's origin story saw him as a troubled street kid who managed to steal the tires off the Batmobile - historically a high tech and well protected vehicle. This feat impressed Batman enough to make the boy the second Robin.
In Harm's Way: Batman almost never retires, when he does its usually because he's too infirm to continue fighting crime, and even then he guarantees he has a replacement, and participates in crime fighting from the back lines. In fact, more than a few works have all-but-stated that Batman can never retire. Played with, in that the reason for Batman's drive is less that Victory Is Boring, and more that his end goal lies somewhere between the eradication of evil and the resurrection of his dead parents and reclaiming his childhood (without that harming anyone else), which needless to say he's never accomplished.
In Prison with the Rogues: Batman has been locked up in Arkham Asylum a few times as an inmate, with his rogues gallery for company.
- In the first arc of the Batman series Shadow of the Bat, "The Last Arkham", Batman is locked in Arkham Asylum, and while isolated at first, Jeremiah Arkham invokes the trope by having Batman fight Amygdala first and then the other villains, in an attempt to break Batman's spirit. It doesn't work as Batman defeats them all.
Insane Equals Violent: Batman villains are serial representatives and offenders of this trope.
- This results in part because of Characterization Marches On. The original Batman villains were master-criminals typical of pulp villains with no real motivations other than basic greed or lust for power. The first Joker dressed in white paint and didn't have silly gag-based antics. After the 50s, where comics were subject to Bowdlerization, Joker became a harmless villain with gag based antics celebrated in the 1966 TV series. When Dennis O'Neil, Steve Engelhart and other writers sought to make Joker menacing again, they had to justify the gag-based elements which had become The Artifact as well as other motif-themed criminals such as The Riddler who became famous thanks to the show.^note Their solution was Hollywood Psych, and they added Arkham Asylum into the mix. Since then, almost all of Batman's villains were described not merely as supervillains but as psychopaths.
- Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns partly plays this straight and partly parodies it, by showing how absurd Batman's conflict with supervillains become when made a discourse to the popular psychology and sociological analysis of prime time cable news. Popular psychologists and careerist shrinks like Bat Wolper tries to cure the likes of Two Face via plastic surgery that repairs the bad-half of the face. It turns out to be the wrong half, the real Harvey Dent was the scarred out part of his face, representing his guilt and self-loathing. The book also shows Joker closer to the original Bill Finger characterization as a joyless psychopath who speaks in a Creepy Monotone, although it does this by playing up the Foe Romance Subtext element to whole new heights. Batman himself in Frank Miller's books is shown to be somewhat of a Functional Madman most of the times, except for All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder, where he's just as bad as any of his foes and explicitly wants to take over the world.
- Alan Moore wrote The Killing Joke in part to reconcile all the elements of the earlier Joker origins with his new characterization as a psychopath, in the process he raised the question whether Joker can be truly held accountable for his actions on account of his mental illness, whether he can potentially be cured. While the "one bad day" element of Joker and the book's depiction of him as Batman's Shadow Archetype has endured, Moore felt that introducing realistic psychology is pointless with the function that Joker, as an entertaining supervillain, is supposed to perform.
- Two-Face wasn't evil until one side of his face was ruined and (depending on the version) his insanity either began or became much worse. In fact, most Batman villains tend to fall into this category... with the exception (usually) of Humpty Dumpty, who saved Batgirl from falling off a building, fixed her dislocated shoulder, and went quietly to the asylum.
Insufferable Genius: The Riddler. Many versions have proving he's the smartest man in Gotham and/or smarter than Batman as his only motivation.
Interclass Romance: The Batman and Catwoman romance in the Post-Crisis era. He's Gotham's richest man, she's a poor orphan street kid turned criminal. In the original comics, Catwoman and Selina Kyle were Classy Cat-Burglar who stole for the thrill and Selina in civilian life had the identity of a prominent socialite. In modern comics, she was made poor to give her a Just Like Robin Hood motivation, to add spice in her dynamic with Bats. She's the only major Love Interest for Bruce who comes from a poor background (most of his Girl of the Week being rich heiresses, models, and so on, while Talia Al Ghul is basically a Princess) and their dynamic often invites Batman realizing how privileged he really is from his more street-smart and grounded girlfriend. In The Dark Knight Rises, the class differences becomes part of their Slap-Slap-Kiss dynamic while in the Batman: Arkham Series, Selina often expresses angst that Batman and Bruce are out of her league (and not just because he's a hero and she's a thief).
Irisless Eye Mask Of Mystery: One of the most notable superheroes to have this trope as part of their design (to the point that he, along with Robin and Batgirl, provide the image for that article). A notable exception in printed media is when Alex Ross portrays him, much because of the artist's realistic style.
- This carried over well into the animated adaptations. Indeed one particularly famous scene in Batman: Mask of the Phantasm derives much of its effect from the way the Irisless-look brings about a total transformation of the man into the superhero.
- The Live-Action films and TV Shows obviously could not pull off this effect, until the finale of The Dark Knight where a brief sequence requiring Batman to interact with sonar imagery results in proto-Augmented Reality Goggles covering under his mask. The AR mask became the means by which this was adapted in the Batman: Arkham Series and has since entered the comics as well. The look returned in the Armored Costume of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
It Gets Easier: Why Batman doesn't kill.
Just Like Robin Hood: Catwoman, occasionally, especially in recent years.
Just Whistle: The Bat-Signal serves this purpose.
Killed Off for Real: Martha and Thomas Wayne, or Batman's PARENTS. The ones that ARE DEEEAAAAAAAD!!! (Most of the time.)
Kinky Role-Playing: One comic features an amnesiac Batman (having fallen out of a window) trying and failing to stop crime, being easily taken out by gang members who comment on his potbelly and lack of skill... and then the real Batman shows up. It turns out the first one was role-playing a Rescue Romance scenario with his wife and fell out the window. Batman requests that the next time they do this, they go with a Superman costume instead.
Knight in Sour Armor: In some of the darker depictions of Gotham City.
- In general, Bruce is almost always a Knight in Sour Armor (or in this case a Dark Knight in Sour Armor) with the only possible exceptions being when he makes some wry observation about a situation he or the JLA are in.
Knockout Gas: One of his standard tricks, Batman has used knockout gas from various sources: bombs, canisters, guns, etc. In the DC/Marvel Crossover where Bats met The Incredible Hulk, it's even shown to work on Ol' Greenskin.
The Lancer: Not in his own series. To Superman in the Justice League, but as the biggest and most recognizable superhero after Superman, he's effectively this for the entire industry.
Laughably Evil: Can anyone not say Joker? And, well, Harley Quinn as well (which, in some cases, manages to even overshadow Mr. J, her Puddin').
Laughing at Your Own Jokes: The Joker is a maniacal clown who often laughs at his own macabre jokes. Woe be it for any of his Mooks who fails to laugh along with him. Or fails to laugh hard enough. Or only seems to be pretending to laugh. Or laughs at a joke he wasn't supposed to. It sucks, being one of Joker's Mooks.
Laughing Gas: The Joker has laughing gas or venom as a part of his varied arsenal. If anyone inhales or is afflicted by it, they are left in a state of laughing madly and helplessness. Depending on the type of story (either kid-friendly or mature), how badly it affects people varies. In one story it can just be a harmless distraction that distracts opponents or victims, allowing the Joker to do what he wants while everyone is laughing their butts off. But in more Darker stories, the victims of his Joker gas are left laughing so uncontrollably that it can end up with them no longer being able to breathe, leaving corpses with their faces contorted into horrifying and pained smiles.
Laughing Mad: Oh, guess. The Riddler has his moments as well.
Lecherous Licking: Catwoman frequently does this to Batman.
Legacy Character: In some retellings, Bats himself; in more, his most famous sidekick.
Less Embarrassing Term: Spoiler's costume is not purple, it's eggplant. "Purple would've looked stupid."
Lighter and Softer: Yes, the Batman television series and Brave and the Bold cartoon, but John Byrne's crossover with Captain America set in the 40's shows that Batman can be The Cape and still be hard as nails and Awesome by Analysis; for example, Batman showing Bucky that the Batmobile's design is intended for city use, such as being able to switch off the headlights and still be able to navigate easily.
Living Doll Collector: The Mad Hatter's shtick.
Load-Bearing Hero:
- Blockbuster does it in a story, holding up a collapsing mine prop long enough for Batman and the miners to escape.
- Also during the Cataclysm event: a condemned criminal on death-row (who continually proclaims his innocence throughout his arc) keeps rubble from falling on his lawyer and a nun who were there to witness his execution. Earlier in the arc, he'd helped defend them against several escaping inmates, helping add to the reader's sympathies to the character. Subverted when he reveals that he really did commit the crime for which he was condemned, just before he finally passes out and dies when the rubble falls on top of him. Coincidentally right when he was scheduled to be put to death.
Loners Are Freaks: Even though most of his fellow heroes respect him, quite a few do take this viewpoint due to his standoffish and sometimes paranoid nature.
Loners Will Stay Alone: Batman is trapped in one of these due to his own inability to maintain a relationship with anyone.
Love Cannot Overcome: This is why Silver St. Cloud broke up with Bruce Wayne in a famous 1970s arc: she can't handle knowing that he's risking his life against people like The Joker every night, so she abandons him and Gotham. This seems to be the source for many other examples of this trope from Batman adaptations in other media.
Mad Scientist: Lots of them, beginning (in real time) with Hugo Strange and including Starter Villain Alfred Stryker experiments on guinea pigs in his spare time when he's not being a Corrupt Corporate Executive.
Make Them Rot: The villains Clayface III (Preston Payne) and Clayface V (Cassius "Clay" Payne) could make the bodies of living creatures melt by touching them. Clayface VI (Dr. Peter Malley) could make them melt without touching them.
Masquerading As the Unseen: In Silver Age comics, Bruce would sometimes have Superman or even Alfred^noteif it was for a non-fighting event wear the cowl if he had to be in two places at once.
Master of All: Within works centered around him, especially those without superpowers (such as the movies), Batman tends to be this. He's the World's Greatest Detective, skilled in every scientific field, a Master of Disguise, a capable leader, one of the top martial artists in the world, has a ton of high-tech gadgets thanks to being high in the Fiction 500, has trained his body to Charles Atlas Superpower level, and often displays random skills such as being a capable actor just in case he might have need of that skill. In works where he teams up with superpowered or magical characters, not so much.
- Bruce Wayne majored in The Theatrical Arts in college - acting for him is not a random skill, it is his primary skill. Batman has always been about the showmanship.
Master of Disguise: Sometimes he can even don them over his cowl.
Master Poisoner: Poison Ivy, the Joker, the Scarecrow
Master Swordsman: It's not an often-displayed ability as Batman typically fights hand-to-hand more commonly, but whenever he crosses swords against foes like Ra's al-Ghul, Azrael, or the Cavalier, Bruce will also show that he's extremely skilled with a blade in his hands.
McNinja
Merchandising the Monster: After being convinced by several of his robins to visit a nearby Bat Burger, Bruce Wayne has to control his anger at the idea of seeing the Joker's name, a known homicidal maniac, being used to publicize a special sauce. Something that also seems common in many other stories, where no one seems to have a problem making publicity out of the criminals terrorizing Gotham daily.
Metallicar Syndrome: The Batmobile is Awesome, but Impractical: it gives away the fact that Batman (a hero who depends often on stealth) is in the neighborhood! Some versions have the ability to disguise their appearance as more normal cars, however.
- Sometimes out and out invoked, as Batman scares criminals and regularly uses this fact to his advantage.
Mini Dress Of Power: Catwoman's outfit sometimes is this.
Misery Builds Character: Batman envelopes the very heart of this trope.
Monster Clown: The Joker. Accept no substitutes.
Monster Fangirl: Harley Quinn to the Joker.
Mook Horror Show: One of the the best examples in comics.
Mooks: almost literally countless.
Moral Myopia: Villains operate on their own twisted morality.
Mr. Fanservice: Batman/Bruce Wayne. Also, Nightwing. Or more accurately, Nightwing's ass. Along with them Tim gets quite a bit of shower scenes to show off his very fine body. Depending on the writer and artist, the The Joker gets in on the act, and depending on how you feel about older men, Alfred too.
Ms. Fanservice: On the other end of the pole, all the female villains, anti villains, and rogues, then most female supporting characters with Cassandra Cain being the most notable exception. Even there, some artists...
Multiple Demographic Appeal: In the 60's television show, Batgirl was added to attract two demographics that weren't watching the show — young girls and their fathers.
Murder by Inaction:
- In issue #633, Robin (Stephanie Brown) dies due to torture and Batman later discovers that Dr. Leslie Thompkins deliberately withheld treatment that could've saved her life but chose not to in order to teach the kids of Gotham a lesson about superheroing. This was retconned into Thompkins making Batman think that Stephanie died, but she didn't really die.
- AzBats does this with Abattoir, to Robin's horror. Worse, this leads to the death of an innocent person.

Tropes N-Z

Never Recycle a Building: Gotham is usually shown as having a huge amount of derelict real estate — particularly warehouses and / or carnivals — that has been left to rot rather than destroyed, no matter how many criminals seek them out for headquarters or meeting places. More recent stories have begun lampshading this, either by commenting that a severe depression caused by the death of the Waynes (or Gotham's general boom-bust economy) led these places to fold quickly, or by showing that Wayne Enterprises and other companies are actively trying to develop in these areas.
Never Smile at a Crocodile: Killer Croc. Depending on the writer, he's a man with a really bad skin disease (which makes him look like reptilian) or in some others a full-blown, hungry crocodile-man.
Nice Day, Deadly Night: Gotham is shown as a deadly city mostly by night, which is the moment when the Caped Crusader defends the city from threats ranging from thugs to supervillains.
Nocturnal Crime: Batman prefers to operate at night, because in Gotham that is usually when the majority of crimes that need his attention occur. Batman himself has wryly noted on several occasions that his costume is much more effective at night.
- The Joker throws a lampshade on this in The Dark Knight, when he crashes a meeting of underworld leaders and mockingly tells them that the reason they have the meeting in the middle of the day is because they do not want to go out at night due to being scared shitless of Batman. He also points out to them that not being able to operate at night has severely cut into their profits.
No-Harm Requirement: Being a Technical Pacifist, Batman usually does everything he can to avoid excessively harming his foes. A lot of his crime fighting gadgets are even explicitly designed to incapacitate foes without killing them or causing excessive harm. Though Darker and Edgier versions tend to drop this.
No OSHA Compliance: A lot of Gotham's buildings, warehouses and factories are like this, but the most glaring example is the Batcave. Platforms suspended over near-Bottomless Pits with nary a bit of railing in sight. The health hazards of all the moisture and wild bats have been pointed out from time-to-time as well.
No Sense of Humor: Batman is sometimes depicted as this, Depending on the Writer. Even when he does, it tends to be an extremely dry sense of humor that characters In-Universe have difficulty parsing. Sometimes used for symbolism, with Batman's sense of humor improving and increasing the more "normal" and sane he is at the time or the inverse, with him laughing being the most terrifying thing possible.
The Notable Numeral: The Dynamic Duo and Titanic Trio.
"Not So Different" Remark: In many of his incarnations, the Joker is very fond of pointing out that Batman has no greater claim to sanity than he himself does, often lampshading - if not directly invoking - this trope.
Obfuscating Stupidity: Brucie's outward persona is like this, to make him seem harmless and Not-Batman-At-All.
Offhand Backhand: Considered to be one of his trademark moves.
Officer O'Hara: At first a generic cop who would just say "Saints Preserve Us!" anytime something dramatic happened, later reinvented by Jeph Loeb with heavy influences by The Untouchables.
Offing the Mouth: The number of times that Gotham City mooks have been killed by their bosses precisely for this reason could fill up a page in and of itself.
Old Money: Where Bats gets the money to fund his crimefighting. The Waynes are one of the oldest, richest, and most respected families in Gotham, and often depicted as having been involved in its founding. Sometimes it's his mom's family that's this while his dad's family is Nouveau Riche after his grandfather made all the money.
One Super One Powerset: Batman is the head of Wayne Enterprises, has fought against and alongside many superpowered beings that possess advanced technology, use magic, and have reliable and effective mutagens. Despite this, he has been, and most likely always will be, only a mere Badass Normal Crazy-Prepared genius detective.
Orphan's Ordeal: In most versions, Batman becomes who he is through witnessing the deaths of his parents as a child, leaving him to dedicate his life to ridding Gotham of crime.
Panacea: Ra's al Ghul's Lazarus pits.
Papa Wolf: Batman himself, and Commissioner Gordon when his kid's involved.
The Paragon: Depending on the continuity.
Parental Abandonment: HIS PARENTS ARE DEEAAAAAAAD!
Photo Doodle Recognition: In one Golden Age story, Bruce Wayne realises that a new playboy in town and the master thief he is hunting are one and the same when Dick Grayson doodles a moustache and goatee on a picture of the playboy in the newspaper.
Picked Flowers Are Dead: Poison Ivy is known to react this way.
Pimped-Out Cape: In some continuities where his cape has some gadgets built-in.
Plant Aliens: He has dealt with them in the story "The Plants of Plunder".
Plant Mooks: A common tactic used by Poison Ivy is to grow her own army of obedient Mooks.
Playful Pursuit: In "Date Knight" by Darwyn Cooke and Tim Sale, originally published in Solo #1 but later collected in various places. Basically just Batman and Catwoman chasing each other around Gotham and indulging in massive Foe Romance Subtext. The ending has Batman tied up and hanging from a gutter with lipstick kisses all over his face.
Possession Presumes Guilt: In one Golden Age story, a murderer frames Bruce Wayne by shooting a bullet through his own hat with the gun he had just used to commit murder, and then throwing the gun at Bruce who had come in when he heard the shot. Bruce instinctively catches the gun, and so is holding a smoking gun next to a dead body when the police burst in a few seconds later, with the murderer claiming Bruce had tried to kill him too, pointing at the bullet hole in his hat.
Power Copying: Batman tends to keep items from his defeated villains handy, such as a vial of Scarecrow's fear gas, and one of Mr. Freeze's guns.
Power Trio: Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman have been called the "holy trinity" of the Justice League. They even starred in a comic called Trinity for a short time together.
The Proud Elite: He is handsome, and, while charming, tries to be aloof enough that he makes people think he's a bit arrogant. However, when he catches criminals as Batman, he'll get them jobs at Wayne Enterprises. Even the Ventriloquist got a second chance once on an episode of New Batman Adventures.
Psycho for Hire: Zsasz, sometimes Bane, occasionally Killer Croc, and even The Joker when it suits his fancy.
Psychological Horror: The insanity of the Bat-villains can drive them to do horrific things, which in turn causes severe psycho-trauma to survivors and even witnesses.
Rainbow Motif: The colors tied to each of the Robins combined with Batman's indigo creates a subdued rainbow motif. Dick is Blue, Jason is Red, Tim was Green, Stephanie is Purple/Violet and Damian is Yellow. Things got muddled by bringing Timmy Todd's uniform from the DCAU in for Tim and tying him to red and the Bat's costumes less and less frequently including dark blue so the motif has been lost over the years.
Real Life Superpowers: The Trope Codifier for comics. To the point that people often question (in both real life and fiction) if he actually has real superpowers.
Reckless Pacifist: Batman, on and off. Excluding incarnations that actually did kill people (or just refused to save them), The Bat has been known to get really, really rough with with his enemies despite his Thou Shalt Not Kill policy.
Reckless Sidekick: Jason Todd (in the issues leading up to his death), Damian Wayne
Recruited from the Gutter: Jason Todd was a street urchin who stole the wheels off the Batmobile. Bruce Wayne takes him in (later adopting him) and trains him up as his new sidekick.
Red Baron: The Batman has been known as the Caped Crusader, the Gotham Guardian, the Masked Manhunter or more commonly, the Dark Knight, which came from Darknight Detective. A Silver age World's Finest cover referred to him as "the Cowled Crimefighter."
Red Is Violent:
- Jason Todd, after coming Back from the Dead, made a Face–Heel Turn and became a more violent vigilante than Batman himself under the name of Red Hood.
- In the alternate universe of Flashpoint (and in the animated adaptation), Batman/Thomas Wayne is more cruel and ruthless than this universe's Batman, able to kill his enemies to stop menaces, being only compared with Marvel's Punisher. This version of Batman incorporated the red to the costume, mostly in the cape, the symbol and the red eyes.
- There's also Batman of Zur-En-Arrh (who dresses in red and purple), who was an uninhibited alter ego that Bruce Wayne had constructed to protect himself in the event that his base psyche was under attack.
  I'm what you get when you take Bruce out of the equation...
- And from Battle for the Cowl saga, one of the men who wants to take Batman's legacy is the ruthless Two-Face, who wears a Batman costume splitted in two colors as his normal motif, having one side black/dark blue and the other one red.
- Anarky.
Reinventing the Telephone: The Batsignal
Relationship Reboot: After Infinite Crisis, Batman returns to Gotham City and decides to give the former corrupt cop Harvey Bullock another chance.
Reluctant Warrior: Hates violence, but is prepared to use it to stop crime. Subverted by every interpretation since the dawn of the Dark Age, so Batman's mileage may definitely vary.
Resurrected Murderer: Detective Aaron Radmuller, from Gotham County Line, was a Killer Cop and Serial Killer who would wipe out entire families, even the children. Radmuller did this as part of a ritual where he tricked Batman into killing him. Radmuller revived upon death as a zombie-like figure with control over any who had passed in Gotham and used them as his personal army of monsters to attack.
Resurrection Sickness: What Ra's Al Ghul experiences after using the Lazarus Pit.
Revealing Skill: In the backstory of the third Robin (Tim Drake), this is how he learned the secret identities of Batman and Robin (Dick Grayson): by watching news coverage of the Dynamic Duo's escapades, during which Robin performed a complicated gymnastics move (a quadruple somersault) — which it had been established could be performed only by orphaned circus artist Dick Grayson.
Revealing Reflection: One arc has Selina Kyle run for Mayor of Gotham. Worried mobsters hire Gunhawk to silence the cunning minx, and Gunhawk tries sniping at her from an adjacent building during a fundraiser. Selina notices the sniper's reflection in a champagne flute, and dives for cover in the nick of time.
The Reveal Prompts Romance: Batman has unmasked himself as Bruce Wayne to various women in various continuities. Neither the reveal nor the romance has stuck, yet.
Revenge Is Not Justice: Depending on the Writer, Bruce walks a very, very thin line between both sides of this equation, and it is actually one of the biggest reasons he absolutely refuses to kill criminals, even the ones that most people would not care to see gone like the Joker. As he sees it, the moment he starts killing crooks he will just find reasons to keep on going, and that is the moment he really would not be any different from all of the psychos in Arkham Asylum.
Reverse Cerebus Syndrome: When the stories first began, they followed the pulp magazine model. Things became Lighter and Softer shortly after Robin was introduced, and the Jack Schiff era relished in this trope. Julius Schwartz attempted Cerebus Syndrome when his term as editor started, but then the 1960's show debuted and the trope was forced to reverse itself for the comic to emulate the show. The syndrome has waved back and forth since then.
Rhymes on a Dime: In Batman #525, Mr Freeze's mooks, Ice and Cube, do this. At least Ice does, speaking after Cube and rhyming with what he said. (This was before Batman: The Animated Series' backstory for Freeze became Ret-Canon'd into the comics).
Cube: Rappers, Ice, we ain't.
Ice: My lines, Cube, are too quaint?
Cube: Knock it off, Ice.
Riddle Me This: The Riddler's Catchphrase and MO.
Rival Turned Evil: Hush, Deadshot. Subverted with Red Hood II, Catwoman Played with with Bronze Tiger. The current canon has him as a member of the League of Assassins, a part of the same class as Bruce Wayne, and thus is one of the few people who knows Bruce is Batman. Nevertheless, they're still friends, even while Tiger is serving time in Arkham, and Batman can rely on him.
Rod And Reel Repurposed: The Cult of Zafub from Legends of the Dark Knight #128-131 are a group of assassins who specialize in killing their targets using that target's greatest skill. So a stunt driver gets run off the road, an army guy might be forced into a Sniper Duel, a master martial artist might be beaten by a better martial artist and, as we see in the comic, a fisherman gets killed by an assassin with — you guessed it — a fishing rod.
Rogues Gallery: Quite possibly the most famous, extensive, and recognizable Rogues Gallery in all of comics. Also easily one of the most violent.
Rogues Gallery Showcase The Long Halloween, Hush.
Roguish Romani: Subverted. A plotline in the comic strip of the 1940s had a Gypsy lad framed for murder. The Gypsy is dressed in colorful clothing, hot-tempered, especially when it comes to the honor of his sister, and distrustful of the police and legal system.
Romanticism Versus Enlightenment: On the face of it Batman sounds like a man of the Enlightenment, he's very rational, methodical and even a little cold, extremely well read and intelligent and a master detective, however Batman's stories are purely romantic, complete with criminals who are embodiment of concepts, ideas and general irrationality rather than anything close to the real-world. The idea of madness and insanity is presented as an all-pervasive force, impervious to any rational understanding (cf, Arkham Asylum) and most of Gotham seem to accept and trust the Vigilante to keep order rather than the institutions of municipal, state and federal government. Batman himself is the embodiment of that most Romantic archetype, the Byronic Hero complete with giant mansion with subterranean lair for him to brood in.
Rule of Cute: Funko Inc.'s collection of super-deformed, button-eyed DC heroes and villains, most of whom are Batman-related. Just look how cute that widdle Caped Crusader is! Also, LEGO Batman.
Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: Cassandra Cain, but also Bruce Wayne in a few things.
Same Race Means Related: For a time, Lady Shiva and Cassandra Cain where the only characters of East Asian descent in the Batman comics. It was eventually revealed in Cass's book that Shiva was her mother.
Sanity Slippage: Depending on the Writer, but some feel Batman's already lost his mind and is a functioning psychotic. Eel O'Brian summed it up best when Bruce was separated from Batman.
Eel: All that rage and no place to put it. No training to use it. So it just eats away at ya more and more until they eventually lock you up. Until you and Raynor and me are fightin' over a pudding cup in the psycho ward.
Save the Day, Turn Away: The ending of Batman: Year One.
Save the Villain: Too many times to count.
Say My Name: If you haven't figured it out by now, He's Batman
Secret Identity Apathy: Batman and the Joker have always been the most well-known example. At one point, the Joker actively threatened a mob boss who'd tried to buy Batman's secret identity from Hugo Strange, declaring that learning the truth of Batman's identity would ruin all his fun.
- Almost every major enemy of Batman is either acting upon a personal obsession with Batman himself (they really don't care who he is, because they actually want to torment/challenge/kill Batman in the first place), or is otherwise completely self-absorbed into some kind of madness that put them completely beyond the way a normal criminal would behave. These factors combined make the whole "let's find out who Batman is so we can take advantage of it" plot a quite uncommon one in the Batman universe, to the point that is very well known that several villains already know or suspect who Batman is, but they really don't care and won't use that knowledge in any specific way.
Secret-Identity Identity: Depending on the Writer, and something of a Cyclic Trope. Bruce Wayne is a violent, obsessive loner who plays the dual roles of Batman (who gives him the power to instill fear in criminals and take revenge) and "Billionaire Playboy" Bruce Wayne (leading the carefree life he cannot truly enjoy, and actually disdains). He usually identifies more with Batman (to the point of calling himself such in his head), but not always. The two things they all have in common is that they are self-absorbed, and that they cannot get over the murder of Bruce's parents in Crime Alley.
Self-Made Orphan:
- Bruce Wayne's childhood friend Thomas Elliot tried to kill his parents at a young age in order to inherit their riches and because his father was an abusive monster and his mother a simpering money hungry lunatic. He only succeeded in killing his father, and, to avoid suspicion, didn't try again, only truly being orphaned when he smothered his raving senile mother in a fit of anger. This left him with a bitter hatred of Bruce, who tragically lost his parents soon after Tommy tried to kill his. Later on in his life, he joins the Riddler (who discovered that Bruce was Batman on a vendetta against him, feeling that, not only did Bruce get the riches Tommy wanted, but that he was wasting those riches as well. Predictably, his vendetta eventually causes him to lose everything and become the full time Super Villain Hush.
- Black Mask killed his parents in a fire to inherit their business and fortune. Unfortunately, he was a lousy businessman and when he tried to burn down the factory to cover his tracks, he wound up with the facial injury that gave him his villain name. He was a lot better at being Ax-Crazy than a businessman anyways.
- In a look at The Joker's childhood in The Brave and the Bold revival issue #31, as a child the Joker burned down his house with his bickering parents inside. This being the Joker, who knows how accurate the story is.
- According to The Long Halloween, Jonathan Crane (the future Scarecrow) killed his mom. On Mother's Day.
- The Penguin. In most versions his father dies of bronchial pneumonia, but in Penguin: Pain and Prejudice His father's behavior and commentary eventually pushed him too far, and he murdered Tucker Cobblepot, leaving him alone with his mother. The only one that showed any signs of loving him.
- A one-off character in the debut issue of Gotham Knights is a child that kills his parents.
- Thanks to having a few too many time-travelers in his life (or a few too many writers recycling the same idea), Bruce Wayne himself is one several times over. The general structure of how is "time-travel saves the Waynes and dooms the timeline, adult Bruce Wayne from the doomed timeline has to undo it to stop whatever caused it and thus send his parents to their deaths". The worst example is when Booster Gold does it with the intent of undoing it as a gift. Bruce was also forced to let his Flashpoint timeline father die after visiting it in The Button.
Servile Snarker: Alfred was a candidate for Trope Namer.
The Shadow Knows: Bruce Wayne is occasionally depicted as casting a shadow with Batman's silhouette, emphasizing the idea that Bruce is a mask for Batman.
Shadow Archetype: Several of Batman's villains apply, such as The Joker (obsession and mental issues), Catwoman (night animal motif and skills with things like spying and thievery, was also a wealthy socialite in the Golden Age), The Penguin (was created as a parody of Bruce's image as a fop), and Two-Face (dual nature). Batman himself has served as a Shadow Archetype for Superman.
Shoe Shine, Mister?: In one early comic, Robin goes undercover as a shoeshine boy, and when the villain of the week stops to get a shine, Robin secretly applies a tracking device to his shoe.
Shout-Out:
- The Joker's first appearance has civilians dismissing his threats over radio as a hoax, much like the 1938 The War of the Worlds broadcast, mentioning it in all but name.
- The 1960's Batman series was generally held in disfavor by Batman's comic book creators, but prolific Batman writer Chuck Dixon was a fan of the show, and snuck in some tributes here and there. Most notably in a two-parter featuring pirate-themed villain Cap'n Fear, which was structured much like a two-parter for the show, and began "in the shadow of the Westward Bridge."
- In the one-shot Vengeance of Bane, the titular villain ambushes four mooks that resemble the four actors within The Three Stooges. This wasn't the only appearance of the Stooges in comics.
- The armor costume that jim Gordon wore during DC You is thought to have been inspired by Apple Seed
- Arkham Asylum is named for the town of Arkham which appears in several of H. P. Lovecraft's works.
Shrine to the Fallen: Batman keeps Jason's costume on display in the Batcave.
Shrunken Head: One of the final Pre-Crisis Batman stories from 1986 involved an ax-murderer making one of these from the head of his victim, a woman he murdered out of jealousy.
Sidekick: The assorted Robins have their own page!
- Robin I: Dick Grayson. Circus Brat, saw his parents killed in front of him, taken in as Wayne's ward.
  - The original Earth-2 Grayson grew up, became a politician, and stayed Robin even after his Batman died. He himself died in the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
  - The Earth-1 Grayson was a founding member of the Teen Titans, was urged to retire by Wayne after nearly getting killed by the Joker, changed his supranym to Nightwing, and mended his fences with Wayne. He later took over the role of Batman when Wayne was apparently dead, and continued in the role for a while when he returned. Returned to being Nightwing in the New 52.
- Robin II: Jason Todd.
  - The pre-Crisis Todd was a redheaded circus acrobat whose parents were killed by Killer Croc. He dyed his red hair black, became Robin, and was later adopted by a minor villainess named Nocturna. He vanished into Canon Discontinuity after the Crisis.
  - Post-Crisis Todd had black hair, and was a Street Urchin taken in by Wayne. His father was killed by Two-Face; his mother was killed by the Joker in the same explosion he himself died in. Noted for being a bit of a jerk, even before he died.
  - Around Infinite Crisis, Todd came back from the dead. He is now an adult villain calling himself the Red Hood. This Todd has had black and (later) red hair, so he's apparently an amalgam of the pre-Crisis and post-Crisis Todd.
- Robin III: Tim Drake. Mother killed by the Obeah Man very early in his career, father killed by Captain Boomerang much later. Later became Red Robin II. In the world of the New 52, it's possible he was never just "Robin", but accounts differ.
- Robin IV: Stephanie Brown. The daughter of the Cluemaster (a minor Batman villain), she originally went by the Spoiler, and was Tim Drake's girlfriend. She was Robin very briefly (during a period when Drake and Wayne were arguing), before Batman faked her death. Later became the third (or fourth, or fifth, depending on how you count) Batgirl. In the World of the New 52, she is once again the Spoiler and it is not known how much of her backstory remains.
- Robin V: Damian Wayne. Batman's son, born and raised in secret by Talia al Ghul. Became Robin while Wayne was presumed dead. Mildly psychopathic, considering he was raised by assassins, but he received Bruce's blessing to continue as Robin. He was killed by his own clone.
- Helena Wayne: In DC Comics' New 52 line, Helena was the Robin of Earth 2, which she and Supergirl fled following the deaths of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. She adopted the duel guise of Helena Bertinelli/Huntress, while Supergirl became Karen Starr/Power Girl.
Sidekick Graduations Stick: Grayson is one of the more triumphant examples, though Todd, Drake, and Brown have all moved on as well.
Signature Laugh: Several, represented different ways in different media:
- The Penguin's "wah wah" squawking laugh.
- Riddler's high pitched giggle.
- Joker's maniacal cackle (particularly Mark Hamill's interpretation).
- The Scarecrow's infamous "HRROOO HRRAAA", which nobody knows how to pronounce.
Signature Team Transport: Batman has plenty of Bat-vehicles, but the Batmobile is the most iconic.
Silver Fox: Depending on the art style, Commissioner Gordon can be one of these.
Simple Solution Won't Work:
- One explanation given for why Batman doesn't kill supervillains who keep breaking out of prison/containment (especially mass-murdering monsters like The Joker) is that he's afraid of Jumping Off the Slippery Slope and end up killing not just supervillains but anyone he sees as breaking the law.
- In various comic book arcs (including "Hush"), it's explained that one reason he doesn't kill criminals (not even the Joker) is because the Gotham Police is willing to tolerate him as long as he doesn't (only the law is allowed to terminate the Joker, Joker Immunity through Insanity Defense notwithstanding), and if he ever does truly become a Judge, Jury, and Executioner they will label him as another mad-dog costumed psycho and do their damnedest to get him. Batman, who treasures his friendship of James Gordon and prefers not to have to deal with yet another hassle in his war on crime, accepts this.
Skull for a Head: Black Mask
Small Steps Hero: Bruce could stop being Batman and use his fortune to clean up Gotham permanently, but that would mean ignoring the common crime that happen every night. The fact that he has the power to not only stop crime and save the world regularly is one of the things he admires about Superman.
Smug Snake: The Riddler. But significantly less so since his reformation in Detective Comics #822. Still smug, but a highly successful detective as well.
Snow Means Love: A rather tragic example: flashbacks in one comic show a pre-transformation Dr. Victor Fries, starved for love his whole life, finally find happiness with his future wife Nora, and the two share a tender first kiss as snow falls around them. What makes it tragic is the fact that we already know that eventually Nora contracts the rare disease that results in her being placed in suspended animation while Victor feverishly works to save her...before he himself is turned into Mr. Freeze. The fact that they share their first kiss while snow falls around them is romantic...but still bitter irony considering the mutation that Victor ends up undergoing later on.
Socially Awkward Hero: It varies by the writer, but Bruce Wayne is often depicted as not really understanding how to behave like a normal Millionaire Playboy, and finds hosting a Wayne Foundation party more stressful than taking on the Joker.
Spirited Competitor
Stealth Hi/Bye: Contender for Trope Codifier.
Starter Villain: Alfred Stryker, a chemical executive who is killing off his business partners so he can take sole ownership of the company. Like many starter villains, Stryker is physically unimposing and dies by the end of his issue without much fanfare.
Step into the Blinding Fight: Often invoked by Batman with his use of shadows and smoke pellets to scare criminals. It disorients his enemies and make them easier to pick off one by one. In The Dark Knight Rises Bane was a member of the League Of Shadows and knows of their tricks of using darkness to distract enemies in battle, so when Batman tries to use these same tactics on Bane, he mocks him for it and goes into a Badass Boast about how he is made of Shadows.
The Stoic: Even when threatening mooks as a Guttural Growler, Bats never really loses control. During a fight with The Punisher, while Frank Castle's internal monologue is about giving into rage and joining the chaos, Batman prefers to remain cool and avoid being consumed by other people's rage and use that to his advantage.
- Not So Stoic: Often a case of O.O.C. Is Serious Business. In the comic/episode Mad Love, Harley is seriously creeped out by Batman laughing. Amongst those who know him, him breaking stoicness is a sign his mental state isn't the same as normal, good or bad. Losing his temper with Alfred means he's either under the influence of something or the villain of the story has successfully gotten under his skin (except ASBAR, where it means he's clearly a hobo pretending to be Batman). Being emotional, especially crying, means he's officially broken and usually has severe PTSD (examples include when he died hundreds of times in Emperor Joker, the death of Jason Todd, after torture by the Court of Owls, and an exception of happy crying at the end of Flashpoint). Laughter either means Joker toxin or he's extremely happy, oftentimes in love.
Stolen by Staying Still: In one short story, a gem vanished from inside a special display case in a museum. The thief was the curator, who had designed the display case and the lighting for the exhibit. The top pane of glass was a special lens that, when the light shone through it, made the case appear to be empty. He then palmed the gem as he was dissembling the case for the police.
Story-Breaker Team-Up: Whenever the Bat-mite shows up.
Strapped to a Bomb: The story "And The Executioner Wore Stiletto Heels" has the villain going above and beyond by covering the victim in glue and sticking the bomb to their chest (and sticking the victim to the ceiling, too). By the time Batman finds them, there's not nearly enough time to do something about the bomb...
Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred!: Joker is prone to this.
Sudden Name Change:
- Stephanie Brown's mother was named "Agnes" when she originally appeared in Detective Comics, but her name was later changed to "Crystal." According to Scott Beatty (who was the first to rename her), he had asked DC editors about the name of the mother but no one could remember, leading to an accidental name change that stuck.
- The Post-Crisis Huntress had a case of her middle name changing. In her first origin and early appearances, her full name was "Helena Janice Bertinelli". In her revised origin and later profiles, her name became "Helena Rosa Bertinelli".
  - Huntress' parents were named Guido and Carmela in her original 1989 origin, but their names were later changed to Franco and Maria by the time of Greg Rucka's retelling in the Cry For Blood miniseries.
- Harvey Dent's wife is generally known as Gilda, but was renamed "Grace" in a 1989 Secret Origins story and the name carried over to her animated counterpart in Batman: The Animated Series. All later comic appearances switched her name back to Gilda.
- Harvey himself was originally introduced as "Harvey Kent". They changed his name so there'd be no confusion with that other fellow.
- While Poison Ivy's civilian name was initially established as Pamela Isley, Gerry Conway inexplicably gave her the name of "Lillian Rose" when he wrote her origin in World's Finest #252. Post-Crisis, Neil Gaiman would re-establish the Pamela Isley name (along with overhauling her origin).
  - Gotham has gained some controversy for changing her name from Pamela Isley to Ivy Pepper.
Superheroes Wear Capes: One of the surviving The Golden Age of Comic Books Trope Codifiers.
Superheroes Wear Tights: See above. More recent portrayals have his costume be a high-tech suit of body armor that only looks like this. How realistically this is portrayed is Depending on the Artist.
Supernatural Fear Inducer: Batman enemy Scarecrow uses fear gas to cause hallucinations, paranoia, and even full on panic-induced heart attacks in his victims. Sometimes this overlaps with I Know What You Fear, while other times it's just straight up irrational terror.
Superhero Sobriquets: The Dark Knight, the Caped Crusader, the World's Greatest Detective, the Dark Knight Detective. Robin is the Boy Wonder and Joker is the Clown Prince of Crime, the Thin White Duke of Death, and the Harlequin of Hate.
Survivor Guilt: His ENTIRE LIFE revolves around the guilt he felt at his parents' murder.
Suspect Existence Failure: The Gotham City Police Department once has a prime suspect in a series of brutal killings with a veritable mountain of damning evidence against him, up to and including his going around and bragging to everyone who would listen that he did it all. It turns out that all of the evidence is manipulated or outright fabricated, because the guy is trying to make a name for himself of another's deeds. For reasons beyond human understanding, he decided to pick Gotham's most infamous and self-aggrandizing mass-murderer to bite off from — The Joker. No bonus points for guessing how it ends for him.
Talking through Technique: With Cassandra Cain.
Technical Pacifist: Since Robin's first appearance, at least.
The Teetotaler:
- Batman typically never drinks alcohol for fear of losing his edge, and usually drinks disguised ginger ale instead.
- Inverted when it comes to drugs, however. Batman has tried them all, as well as subjecting himself to every toxin his enemies have used (many of which are powerful hallucinogens) to be better prepared for all of them as well to build up immunity. And the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh takes it to the extreme.
Temporary Scrappy: When Batman gets his back broken in The '90s, he is temporarily replaced by Jean-Paul Valley. This iteration of Batman is an Ax-Crazy Darker and Edgier '90s Anti-Hero that sent most fans into a rage. His entire purpose is to show why the real Batman isn't an Ax-Crazy vigilante. Ironically enough, this storyline is a response to fans complaining about Batman not being "hardcore" enough for the grimdark 90s because he doesn't kill or brutalize his enemies. So DC called the readers' bluff by giving them exactly what they wanted. As the writers expected, fans hated it. The storyline ended with the real Batman beating down his replacement and taking back the mantle, something that was planned from the start.^note Interestingly, Valley was still popular enough to have his own series, and the character still has fans. He's undergone some Character Development, so he isn't so obnoxiously hardcore anymore.
Terrible Trio: There's a group of fairly obscure villains called the Terrible Trio (who, as far as can be told, weren't in mind when naming this trope). Made up of the Shark, the Fox, and the Vulture, the Terrible Trio is of extremely variable threat, and they don't show up very often because they're pretty mundane as Batman rogues go.
- Though in each animated series they appear in, they gradually become more badass. In Batman: The Animated Series they were billionaires who committed crimes because they literally did EVERYTHING exciting, who (Mainly Fox) completely crossed the Moral Event Horizon. In The Batman they were teenage social outcasts considered "freaks" by the majority of their college campus. In which they stole the Man-Bat formula and transformed themselves into BeastMen (Though they tweaked it to keep their own sentience unlike Man-Bat) and plotted to "Turn everyone in their college into animal people like them, so everyone would be the same" in Batman: The Brave and the Bold they were warriors who stole ancient animal totems to turn into giant powerful beastmen. In every animated appearance, Fox is always the leader and usually always the final battle for Batman.
Terror Hero: Batman seeks to put enormous fear into anyone he goes up against. Given that he's one of the most dreaded heroes in comics, even among superpowered villains despite having no superpowers himself, he is very good at it. Even Superman is unable to put the kind of fear in criminals that Batman does.
Thememobile: The Batmobile, the Batwing, the Batcycle, etc etc...
There Are No Therapists:
- Most depictions for the past two decades have made it clear Mr. Wayne has... issues... lots of issues.
Bruce Wayne himself: "Any guy who dresses up as a bat... clearly has issues."
- Double Subverted. There are numerous psychologists in Gotham City - just none you'd actually want helping you. Scarecrow and Hugo Strange would rather drive you mad for laughs, whereas Harley Quinn and Jeremiah Arkham couldn't even keep themselves sane. Then there's the crack staff of Arkham Asylum, who will probably be curing their first patient any day now.
  - How many levels of subversion did they reach when Arkham did successfully cure Cluemaster... of his obsessive need to leave clues. Now he's just a criminal genuis who doesn't give our heroes any way to anticipate his next crime.
  Robin: "Gee, thanks, Arkham!"
  - How about the fact that in multiple continuities, including the titular video games, Arkham was founded not to cure the mentally ill but to exterminate them.
  - Though averted in Batman: The Animated Series, multiple episodes have shown that certain villains such as Penguin and Harley Quinn were cured, though Penguin went back to villainy when his heart was broken and Harley Quinn was starting to snap back in less than a hour after release, simply over a misunderstanding towards a shirt she paid for, which just went downhill further and further. Then there was the Ventriloquist in The Batman who was completely rehabilitated, only for Hugo Strange to pull him back in For the Evulz.
- Even worse, Amanda Waller's Suicide Squad oftentimes uses it as a harvesting ground because it's where anyone who Batman stops tends to end up, so wearing a costume and going there is often a one way trip to government conscription and a head bomb. And now and then supervillains slaughter a ton of people there.
- In the It Takes a Thief storyline in JLA, Bruce and Batman are separated into two personlities. Bruce is full of rage, while Batman is a soulless, faceless cipher. Eel O'Brian (Plastic Man's original identity) sums it up:
  Eel: Everyone figured that when you split Bruce Wayne and Batman, you get a fop and a lunatic. Which is true. But not like we thought.
Thou Shalt Not Kill: Though at best a Technical Pacifist, and motivated by the real-world considerations of his creators, there are two in-universe explanations for his adherence to the code:
- In the Novelization of Knightfall, Gordon in an internal monologue reveals he only works with Bats because he doesn't kill. The moment he crosses the line, according to Gordon, his relationship with Batman will be over and he'll be marked as a criminal like any other — as indeed he was in the very earliest stories. Bruce is smart enough to know this. But, even more importantly:
- In Batman: Under the Red Hood, Batman is trying to explain to a resurrected Jason Todd why he can't even bring himself to rid the world of The Joker:
  Batman: But if I do that, if I allow myself to go down into that place... I'll never come back.
Paging Frank Castle.
Token Motivational Nemesis:
- Joe Chill the mugger, who is seldom seen again after serving his narrative purpose of introducing us to and traumatizing Bruce Wayne. In some versions, notably Frank Miller's, he doesn't even have a name.
- Joe Chill did appear again in a 1948 followup to the origin story, where it's revealed he eventually became a small-time gangster. Unfortunately for him, Batman soon found him out, leading to a classic confrontation. Chill also appeared post-Crisis in several stories. Post-Zero Hour he was specifically stated NOT to be the Wayne killer, bringing Batman's desire for vengeance back to the way Miller envisioned it.
- Batman had to ally with Joe Chill when facing a legacy of The Reaper, a crazed slasher vigilante. At several points, Batman has the choice of whether to save Joe's life and each time, he does.
- Joker sees Batman like this.
Tontine: The very first Batman story, The Case of the Chemical Syndicate, used this as a plot point.
Too Dumb to Live:
- A security guard in Arkham Asylum: Madness ran head first in to this trope when he decided to put the Name "Milton Napier" on a plaque to screw with The Joker. It ended badly. For the guard that is.
- Speaking of The Joker, any Gotham City mook that decides to work for him is Too Dumb to Live. What do those mooks have to look forward to? If they're lucky: almost certainly getting their asses kicked by Batman. But not only does the Joker routinely kill his own Mooks for failing him, he'll do it to try and kill Batman, because they have outlived their usefulness, because they might have said something that he didn't like, or because he was bored. How dumb to you have to be to work for a guy who will kill you for shits and giggles? The rest of Batman's rogue's gallery aren't much better, but the Joker takes the cake.
  - There are a couple explanations. Some of the Joker's mooks are almost as crazy as him and are drawn to his madness. The Joker's randomness also means that he'll shower his mooks with money as often as he kills them for kicks^note, so working for the Joker is basically Russian Roulette.
- Let's face it: Thomas Wayne. Instead of waiting for Alfred to show up and chauffeur them back to the mansion, he decided to take a shortcut through Crime Alley. All dressed up. At night. In the rain. It's just a pity his foolishness got both himself and his wife killed, and his son traumatized along with him.
  - It wasn't called Crime Alley back then. It's canon that it used to be a nice neighborhood called Park Row. The Wayne murders signaled the beginning of the decline of the neighborhood. But then again, they walked into some random, trash-strewn alley, through a side door of the theater, because that's how rich people routinely exit such establishments.
  - How about in the Pre-Crisis origin, a gangster named Lew Moxon directly threatens Thomas Wayne with death for getting him arrested and admits he'll get someone to do it for him? Wayne does not tell anyone of this death threat and Moxon hires Joe Chill to do the job and he follows through.
- Any supervillain who has ever shown up in his city and thought, "What threat could a mere mortal pose to me?"
Joker: "There's nothing mere about that mortal."
- Also, anyone who has ever teamed up with The Joker and then decided to double cross him thinking, "He's just a clown with too much free time. What could he possibly do?"
  - At least people who team up with the Joker usually have their own Joker Immunity to prevent serious problems. Henchmen that work for the Joker though are just asking to be killed.
- Anyone that does crime in the vicinity of Jason Todd. At least people who Jason targets himself are just unlucky, but people that know Red Hood is a problem at the moment and continue? Basically committing suicide.
- Anyone who takes a job at Arkham. Literally anyone. Security guards, psychologists, janitors, lawyers, secretaries, heads, anyone who works at Arkham is a moron and/or destined for evil. The Great White Shark holds a special place for being the one man dumb enough to intentionally be committed to Arkham by exploiting Gotham's lax standards for an insanity plea after being arrested for being a crime lord. Needless to say, by the time he left Arkham he was both insane and missing several body parts. Harleen Quinzel in just about every version of her origin took a job at Arkham hoping to get famous. She did, as a supervillain in an abusive relationship with The Joker. Hugo Strange was evil beforehand, so whenever he's working at Arkham it makes sense. The founder of Arkham? Went insane and was committed to Arkham. The current generation of the Arkham bloodline? Also crazy. Guard Aaron Cash? Lost a hand to Killer Croc, somehow has survived numerous breakouts. Most other guards? Slaughtered weekly. Yes, there are always positions open at Arkham and getting hired is easy. No, it's not better than homelessness and starvation, because now you're working at Arkham and are basically doomed.
Too Funny to Be Evil: Usually the Riddler. Less often the Joker.
- And those who believe this of The Joker are often proven fatally wrong.
- In The Animated Series, The Riddler just seems more lighthearted. The Joker applies to this more.
- This is basically a "class" of Batman villain, typically the most absurd ideas of the Silver Age. Some have been revamped, such as Calendar Man. Others are tragic figures, such as Kite Man. And others have just been left as sheer jokes, such as the Condiment King.
Tragic Dream:
- This is what motivates Mr. Freeze, wanting to cure his wife.
- After an extenuating day being Batman, Jean-Paul Valley reflected that after being the Avatar of the Order of St. Dumas, who wanted to conquer Jerusalem back again to Christianity, and presently being the Temporary Substitute to Batman, who wants to stop crime in Gotham City, he finds the fanatical obsessive founder Dumas was the wiser: sure, Jerusalem was never conquered again, but it was a tangible goal that could be achieved... ending crime forever in Gotham is a madman’s dream.
Trespassing to Talk: Batman frequently does this, and he usually uses a Stealth Hi/Bye to get away when he's done.
The Trickster: A role sometimes shared by Joker and Riddler, depending on the situation and motivation.
Troll Fic: Batman Hero Of Gotham. Characters die and randomly come back to life (In Chapter 3, the Joker dies and then comes back to life for no reason in around 12 sentences), The Penny Plunderer is called "one of the most powerful villains in Gotham", Batgirl walks off a backbreaker from Bane, and Crazy Quilt is called "the evilest villain ever" and actually kills Robin (thus leading to Alfred, of all people, taking up the mantle). Many other characters also appear, such as Wolverine (who even says that he appears in everything), a few of the other X-Men, Darkseid (spelled as Darkseed), Superman, General Zod, and Master Chief (spelled as Mastar Chief). Also, there's tons of bad grammar. Here's some quotes from the story:
"STOP KILLER CROC YOU NOT GET WAY WITH MONEY!" Batman yell.
"TOXIC PAINT WILL KILL YOU BECAUSE ITS TOXIC! TOXIC PAINT IS DEADLY!" Crazy Quilt yell.
"STOP ZOMMBIES!" Batman say, "YOU DIE!" Batman then use anti-zommbie spray against zommbies.
"YOU HERO IS FAIL YOU! YOU IS SURENDER ALL JUNK FOOD OR ALIENS IS DESTORY EARTH!" say Alien leader to human race.
- There's also a Dramatic Reading in two parts.
A True Hero: Batman is sometimes argued to be the "real" hero in the DC Universe, because he lacks the superpowers almost all of his peers have. Batman gets by on his wits, genius and skill rather than superhuman abilities. In addition, most portrayals of the character portray him as somewhere between an Unscrupulous Hero or Pragmatic Hero, who is willing and able to get his hands dirty when it comes to saving people and stopping crime. To many, this resonates as being more of a "True Hero" than those who don't need to sacrifice half as much as he does and never had to work to achieve their abilities.
True Love Is Boring: One of the major reasons why Bruce will probably never settle down.
Tsundere: Damian Wayne is one of the rare male examples, and is type A towards... everyone. Dick Grayson, Stephanie Brown, Alfred...
Two-Headed Coin: A characteristic attribute of Harvey Dent/Two-Face. Played straight as Dent and then subverted by Two-Face.
Underestimating Badassery: Done constantly by superpowered villains who have never faced him before. After they do fight him, they figure out why he's one of the most feared heroes of them all.
- Similarly, The Joker also gets dismissed by heroes and villains who are less familiar with him. As for later...well, there's a reason that when super villains (people far more powerful than the Joker) want to terrify each other, they tell Joker stories.
Underhanded Hero: Batman is the archetypal powerless superhero, and as such, his fighting style relies heavily on misdirection and agility. His other skills include stealth, spying, and hacking, all done in the name of protecting Gotham City.
- The rest of the Bat Family also fit this trope, even wheelchair-bound Oracle.
Underwear of Power: Batman is one of the older examples, though nowadays (Post-Knight Saga and then Post-Return) his Underwear on the outside is usually either absent, not shown, or the same color as the rest of him (and thus hard to see). Also, the Robins wore this until Tim Drake came along.
The Unsmile: This applies to Batman, but not Bruce Wayne. Which may imply a bit of insight regarding his psyche.
Uptown Guy: In regards to Batman's romance with Delina Selina Kyle aka Catwoman. He's Gotham's richest man, she's a poor orphan street kid turned criminal. In the original comics, she was a Classy Cat-Burglar who stole for the thrill and had the identity of a prominent socialite in her civilian life. In modern comics, she was made poor to give her a Just Like Robin Hood motivation, to add spice in her dynamic with Bats. She's the only major Love Interest for Bruce who comes from a poor background (most of his Girl of the Week being rich heiresses, models, and so on, while Talia Al Ghul is basically a Princess) and their dynamic often invites Batman realizing how privileged he really is from his more street-smart and grounded girlfriend. In The Dark Knight Rises, the class differences become part of their Slap-Slap-Kiss dynamic while in the Batman: Arkham Series, Selina often expresses angst that Batman and Bruce are out of her league (and not just because he's a hero and she's a thief).
Urban Hellscape: Modern versions often portray Gotham in this light. Filled with incompetent or corrupt cops, gangs controlling the streets, with the neighboring city of Metropolis being the "pristine" Mega-Corp-run sister city. The ultimate example of this in the franchise is the (at the time) future-set Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.
Useless Spleen: Tim Drake loses his spleen to a sword-strike in Red Robin #4.
The Vamp: Poison Ivy, Nocturna, Catwoman at times (Depending on the Writer), and others.
Villain of Another Story: This is the usual role of Henri Ducard. He knows Batman's secret identity, and even occasionally helps the hero for his own purposes, but it's also always clear that Ducard is an amoral Professional Killer involved in a variety of shady things in his native Europe. (unlike the films, Ducard is not an alias of Ra's al Ghul in the comics.)
Villainous Harlequin: Harley Quinn.
Vitriolic Best Buds: Batman and Superman are sometimes depicted this way, as both Type 1 and Type 2 - while they respect each other and acknowledge there is a need for both of them, they would rather have as little to do with each other as possible.
Water Source Tampering: Deconstructed in one comic, where Bruce deduces the Villain of the Week won't put his hallucinogen into the water supply, because it's too easy to shut off. Instead, he plots to put it in the milk supply.
"Well Done, Son" Guy:
- Bruce is motivated by the standards of his father and sometimes wonders if he's living up to him and if being Batman is an appropriate way to carry on the Wayne legacy. Since his father isn't there to acknowledge him, this creates moments of doubt and insecurity that Bruce usually has to overcome.
- Silas Wayne, who, in his last moments of life, becomes proud of Bruce when he reveals himself as Batman, and happier that the rest of the family wasn't in the room to learn the secret identity, so he'll die proudly with the knowledge that a Wayne is Batman.
- While he's gotten better about it, this was Damian's whole motivating factor for much of his existence. It's still there but Damian now knows that his dad loves him and is proud of him no matter what.
Well-Intentioned Extremist:
- Ra's Al Ghul.
- The Order of St. Dumas, who created Azrael, who was also one.
When He Smiles: Whenever Batman (Not Bruce Wayne), starts smiling. It can range from very touching or crap-your-pants terrifying.
Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: The Tim Burton movie is the Trope Namer.
Where the Hell Is Gotham?: Apparently, New Jersey. Many people from the greater Trenton area dispute this, as Gotham is shown to be a grungy, filth-ridden, dated city, and nothing in New Jersey could be that nice.
- Young Justice (2010) places it in Connecticut... Lovecraft Country.
- The DCAU places it in Long Island.
Who Even Needs a Brain?: Rare dramatic example - new villainess "The Absence" has an enormous hole in her forehead and extending all the way through, with no visible brain, yet functions just fine, and may be smarter than before the hole happened. It appears to be a combination of a freak medical condition and Gotham City's water supply being seriously tainted.
- ... So anyone with half a brain can see that humankind has gone insane, to the point where I don't know if I'll upset the status quo if I throw poison in the water main?
Wolverine Publicity: This is beginning to become a bit of a problem for not just Bats but his wider crew. In the New 52 line-up of titles, not only does Bats and his "family" have more individual titles than the any other superhero (only the combined Justice League matches), but counting characters with major recurring roles in other titles, the Bat-family shows up in twenty of the 52 current titles put out by DC. By comparison, Superman and Green Lantern, and related characters, only show up in six or so books each, total. Most people suspect this is due to Batman's constant financial success, especially in the past two decades (as noted above), and especially in the past half-decade or so, between the Arkham games and TDK.
World's Best Warrior: The reason Batman is The Dreaded is because winning is never an impossibility for him. Even if he's outclassed or outfought, he always has the means to win.
Wrongfully Committed: One comic story involves a young man who is committed to Arkham Asylum after being wrongfully convicted of murder. His constant protests of innocence are dismissed as the rants of a crazy person and he is subjected to increasingly brutal treatments in attempts to "cure" him; instead, they end up making him incurably insane.
Your Worst Memory: The murder of Bruce Wayne's parents continues to haunt him, and if there's a dream sequence or hallucination in a particular plot, chances are that Batman will relive their deaths over the course of it.

The streets of Gotham are cold at night,
sprayed with shapes and sounds and unexpected sounds,
but those who walk these means streets by twilight do so unafraid,
for they can sense the protective presence that watches over them, and they know they are not alone…

Every night, without cease, the Batman prowls the streets of the city he loves, the dark avenger, the eternal champion,

For the Batman is a legend… and legends never die.

End.

Comic Book / Batman

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I'll Never Come Back

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I'll Never Come Back

Comic Book / Batman

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Tropes among all versions:

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I'll Never Come Back

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I'll Never Come Back