Batman

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I am vengeance. I am the night. I am Batman!

Batman is a comic-book superhero with a chiropteran theme from DC Comics. He was once Bruce Wayne, child of wealthy philanthropists, but while his family were out and about (in the crime-ridden city of Gotham, which is totally not New York City), his parents were killed by a mugger. Heartbroken, he traveled the world, studying criminology and martial arts; when he returned to Gotham, he used his inherited fortune (and/or company, depending on the era) to develop tools to become a ninja-esque crime-fighter. Knowing from his studies that criminals are generally a superstitious and cowardly lot, he developed the costume and persona of the Batman, a creature of the night who brings terror to the wicked. Among his many other titles are "The Dark Knight" and "The World's Greatest Detective," as his hand-to-hand combat skills are equaled by his polymath intellect, making him one of the best street-level heroes (and somehow able to hold his own among actual supers, as well).

In addition to the usual ne'er-do-wells, organized criminals and low-level criminals of a major city, Batman regularly fights with a "Rogues Gallery" of equally costumed villains -- the Joker (the insane and self-styled "Clown Prince of Crime"), Catwoman (a cat-burglar who flirts with Batman as frequently as she fights with him), and Mr. Freeze (a scientist-turned-criminal from an accident caused by an amoral business rival) are among the most widely-known. The supervillains are sometimes depicted as rising to replace the traditional Mafioso that had Gotham in their grip until Batman comes around; these villains are oftentimes also criminally insane and get locked up in Arkham Asylumn, from which they break out of on a regular basis.

Allies

Despite usually being portrayed as a socially awkward and bitter loner, Batman ironically has the largest "family" of trainees and spin-off heroes in DC comics, if not in comics as a whole:

• Alfred Pennyworth: Bruce Wayne's butler, ala Zorro's Bernardo but capable of hearing and speech. At first just a butler who raised Bruce after Thomas and Martha's death that was in on the secret identity, his past has gradually been expanded to the point he might as well be a retired James Bond. Occasionally plays Batman when Bruce needs to in two places at once, and often the voice of reason due to not being motivated by childhood trauma.
  • One interesting factor to notice: If Robin is not in the story, Alfred is usually a much more prominent character; this is because they effectively split the much needed "Watson" role: Somebody for the Detective (in this case Batman) to explain things to, so the audience (a) knows what's happening, and (b) is not being monologued at by said detective.

• Robin: The original Kid Sidekick, a brightly colored and cheerful youth who was introduced to add some contrast to the dark and brooding Batman. There have been at least five official Robins in mainstream continuity. While child sidekicks that aren't a character's biological child have largely gone away, Batman gets to keep his due how ancient and iconic Robin is.
  • Dick Grayson: The original and for most people the most iconic Robin. Orphaned son of a circus acrobat family called the Flying Graysons, adopted by Batman and then became the first Robin. Eventually split to become an adult superhero named Nightwing. Founder of the Teen Titans. The greatest acrobat in the "Batfamily", fan-favorite and bigger ladies' man than Batman proving "charm > money".
  • Jason Todd: The second Robin, a former teen delinquent with a vicious streak (after initially being a carbon clone of Dick Grayson). Fans resented him for not being Dick Grayson, so he was infamously killed off by the Joker. Then he was brought back from the dead as a vengeful vigilante called the Red Hood, who is kind of like DC's Punisher, except he doesn't have anybody on the staff who's rooting for him or famous writers trying to push him as a Humanity Fuck Yeah style badass like Punisher does.
  • Tim Drake: The third Robin, who originally was not an orphan and instead saw his Robin-ing as a part-time thing to snap Batman out of his funk after Jason Todd was killed. Then his parents were killed and he became Batman's ward and permanent Robin. Founder of the Young Justice team. Was rebooted slightly in the New 52, where the biggest change was that he always called himself by the seperate identity of Red Robin (Yes, like the burger franchise) whilst sidekicking for Batman before going independent to Drake. The strongest contender to inherit the role of "World's Greatest Detective", able to deduce Batman's secret identity from his introduction.
  • Stephanie Brown: Notable as the only female teen sidekick of Batman to go by Robin instead of Batgirl. Highly controversial becase she was treated with incredible unfairness by Batman, including literally only being recruited in an attempt to make Tim Drake jealous and return to being Robin, and then seemingly killed off.
  • Damian Wayne: The most recent Robin, and actually Batman's biological son conceived with long time antagonist/love interest Talia al'Ghul, causing him to be raised by the murderous League of Assassins. Has a much more brutal attitude as a result, and is basically Jason 2.0. You either love or hate the little shit. (Even many who love him consider him an asshole, just one who is very much a product of his peculiar upbringing.)

• Batwoman: A female counterpart to Batman introduced in the Silver Age after some schmuck famously accused Batman and Robin of promoting homosexuality and pedophilia (though the way "ambiguously gay duo" has been memed up in more recent years suggests it was closer than some of his other crackpot claims). Katherine "Kathy" Kane was introduced as a woman so in love with Bruce Wayne that, having figured out he was Batman, she created her own female counterpart persona to his to try and woo him. Got killed off in the Bronze Age. Was brought back in 2006, reinvented as a lesbian ex-soldier who was dishonorably discharged for her sexuality (which works horribly with the sliding timescale ) and who took up vigilanteism.

• Batgirl: Almost as long-running as the Robins have been the Batgirls, which are teenage female sidekicks of the Bat-family.
  • Betty Kane: The original Batgirl (or "Bat-Girl", as she was called), she was the niece of Kathy Kane, aka Batwoman, and was introduced as DicK Grayson's would-be love interest. Dropped in the Bronze Age alongside her aunt, and hasn't really come back since.
  • Barbara Gordon: The second Batgirl, the first to use the name without the hyphen, and the one everybody actually remembers. Daughter (sometimes niece) of Batman's ally, Police Commissioner James Gordon; created her own parody of Batman's costume as a costume for a masquerade ball, ended up using it and her acrobatic & judo training to take down a bunch of crooks who had attacked it. Thrilled by it all, she took up vigilantism herself. Had the longest run of any Batgirl, but was crippled by being shot in the back by the Joker in the 80s. Then was brought back as the heroic hacker and information broker "Oracle". Then was healed and restored to the Batgirl roll in 2011... which was controversial, but frankly makes sense given the stupidly powerful hyper-science in the DC universe.
  • Helena Bertinelli: A mobster's daughter turned Punisher-style vigilante known as the Huntress. She briefly took up the Batgirl mantle during the "No Man's Land" event, before Batman forced her to go back to being Huntress because he couldn't stomach her willingness to use lethal force. Also had a fling with Dick Grayson and then an on-again-off-again thing. The Huntress identity was originally used for the daughter of Batman and Catwoman, but she was first moved to another dimension and then removed from continuity entirely around the 2000s.
  • Cassandra Cain: Generally considered the second "real" Batgirl after Barbara Gordon. A mute assassin's daughter whose father brought her up to read body language with unparalleled skill, only for this to cause her first kill to so traumatize her that she foreswore killing ever again. Batman took her under his wing out of sympathy, making her the most Robin-like of the Batgirls. Currently orphaned by the writers, she took up the identity of Black Bat.
  • Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe: A teenage girl with superpowers, notably teleportation, who took up Batgirl's mantle of her own initiative. Barbara Gordon tried to talk her out of it, but the best she could do was persuaded her to pursue her own identity as Misfit.
  • Stephanie Brown: That's right, the fourth Robin was ultimately brought back in modern reboots as a rookie Batgirl training under Cassandra Cain, who had grown into her own identity as Orphan. Ultimately gave up the Batgirl name and renamed herself Spoiler (which was her original nom de poing).

• Commissioner Gordon: Gotham Police Chief, and one of the few people from the general public that Batman regularly interacts with (as Batman, anyway). Gordon's one of the few competent and noncorrupt detectives in the city, though his actual abilities tend to vary; in some cases guessing Batman's true identity but keeping it to himself since he knows how much the city needs him. Usually he's unaware that Barbara is Batgirl.

• Lucius Fox: CEO of Wayne Enterprises, who takes care of the day-to-day business dealings to free up Bruce for his caped crusades. Depending on the story, Lucius is also actively involved in the Batman side of things, usually acting as Batman's version of Q and providing him with many of his gadgets.

Their relationship summed up...

• Superman/Clark Kent: Even in pre-JLA stories, Batman and Superman would collaborate (and sometimes fought each other) several times, representing the two extremes of superhero; one who's an all-powerful superhuman, the other who's just an ordinary human but highly skilled with incredible intellect. And despite their drastically different personalities, they can still be somewhat chummy. Batman and Superman usually figure out each other's identities pretty quickly on their first meeting, and tackle problems that neither can handle on their own. Superman and Batman usually already know each other prior to the founding of the JLA and are considered core members. In stories where the two share spotlight, Superman's turf is Metropolis, a stand-in for Lower Manhattan with shiny, well maintained Art Deco skyscrapers, whereas Batman's Gotham is more 80's Midtown, with Gothic Revival buildings and a lot of crime.

• Azrael: An escapee from a psychotic cult of religious fundamentalist assassins. Briefly took up Batman's mantle after Bane broke Batman's spine, but went completely off the walls due to long-buried trauma, forcing Bruce Wayne to beat him senseless and take back the role. Has sometimes been brought back as trying to get his act together and act more in line with Batman's morals.

• Catwoman: A catburgler who regularly both goes against Batman (when stealing) and works with him (usually when either he needs saving, or some criminal has pissed her off); along with Talia al'Ghul (Damian's mother, and daughter of major baddie Ra's al'Ghul) and Vicky Vale (a reporter), one of Batman's most common Love Interests - in fact, one could argue she's the closest thing Bats has ever had to an official love interest, since she married him, became his crimefighting partner, and had a daughter who grew up to become the costumed superheroine Huntress in a parallel universe back before the 2000s, and in the 2010s he and she almost got married in a big comic event before fan backlash forced DC to actually let them tie the knot... in yet another spinoff multiverse because it's not allowed to happen in the mainline one. Usually counted among Batman's allies, particularly when city-threatening situations come up.

• Harley Quinn: Invented by the 1990s Batman: The Animated Series as the Joker's henchwench, she struck such a chord with the fans that she was ported over into the comics. A former psychiatrist who made the mistake of trying to psycho-analyze the Joker, he twisted her around his little finger and turned her into his lovestruck slave. And for a doctor, she's surprisingly acrobatic and tough in a fight. Their relationship was always played as disturbing, since it's blatantly abusive, and around the 2010s, fans grew so creeped out by it that DC formally had Harley abandon the Joker and go her own way. While she's been more recently portrayed as something of an Anti-Hero when she's not under Joker's thumb, even before then, Harley was portrayed in a more sympathetic light and even cooperated with Batman a number of times. She's now more or less DC's equivalent to Deadpool. Depending on the continuity, she's either implicitly bisexual, very explicitly bisexual, or an out-and-out lesbian; Poison Ivy has basically replaced the Joker as her official squeeze and love-master.

• Penguin: AKA Oswald Copplepot, owner of the Iceberg Lounge. Less an ally, more a highly pragmatic enemy who's willing to work with Batman against a common foe, the current most popular version of Penguin is a crime boss who emerged after the fall of the pre-Batman Gotham crime families. Depending on the continuity, Batman tolerates his presence because while he's a vicious monster, he's a rational vicious monster, who is more than happy to snitch on his enemies, and either isn't that important in the grand scheme of things, or tries to keep a lid on violence in the city. Penguin also has the benefit of being semi-legitimate with his Iceberg Lounge, which happens to attract plenty of criminals for backroom deals; an ideal place for Batman to keep an eye on criminal activity.

Batman Miniatures Game

The Batman Miniature Game, by Knight Models, is a skirmish game in which players create bands based on major characters and factions. They attempt to take objectives, or just knock out everyone on the opposite team.

Appearance in Other RPGs and Board Games

There's been more than one attempt to adapt the "DC Universe" into a tabletop RPG or board game. Guess which hero shows up in just about all of them? And then there's the many, many, many Batman clones in "original" Superhero RPG Settings (Superman has more clones, but only because he's the most iconic Superhero).

Other /tg/ Relevance

Also comes in Lawful Stupid, Stupid Evil and Stupid Good AU flavors!

• There exists a meme that "Batman could take anyone, with enough prep time" (in the comics, among other places, he's defeated a mind-controlled Superman several times). Thus, among other things, the "Batman Wizard" of Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition, who had a spellbook large enough to have a spell for every situation... presuming he had time to prepare spells. That being said, the meme doesn't take into account that, while definitely someone who goes into fights with some preparation, he's also extremely good at improvisation when the situation demands it.
• Responsible, almost single-handedly, for players wanting to play "a guy without superpowers who can fight on par with the guys with powers" in Supers RPGs.
• Notable for having many, many continuities and versions, each with their own interpretation of the character, to the point that a D&D Alignment chart exists, filling in all 9 positions with different versions of Batman. (Pictured right)

See Also

• Superman, Batman's most frequent non-"Bat-family" butt buddy.
• Konrad Curze, Primarch of the Night Lords. The living (for a while, at least) answer to a question what if Batman and Punisher had a lovechild. Very much in favor of terrorizing enemies to soften them up (or even drive them to kill themselves).
• Sentinels of the Multiverse, being a loving tribute to all manner of comics, features the Wraith, a stealthy gadget-based superheroine who is both close friends with the local legacy equivalent and fighting like a ninja. Really, the major difference between the two is that Maia is a hot chick rather than a manly slab of beefcake and that the Wraith is forever in her 20s rather than her 30s and doesn't really experiment with sidekicks.