Batman first debuted back in 1939 in Detective Comics issue 27.
The World’s Greatest Detective would soon become a pop culture phenomena, enthralling
millions of readers over his almost century long career in comics and other media, and
continues to endear us to this day.
But, as with any character with a long, complex history, there are a few aspects that have
left us a little befuddled.
So today, we’re breaking down the parts of the bat that have left fans scratching
their heads, with our list of the top 10 things we don’t understand about Batman.
Buckle up friends, this list is a long one.
Let’s get to it!
10 The Batcave Trophies Have you ever wondered why Batman has so many
strange objects in the Batcave?
From a T-Rex statue, to a giant penny, and an oversized Joker card, there’s a lot of
memorabilia decorated his HQ.
These objects are from Batman’s earlier adventures in the comics, many pulled from
the stories penned by Dick Sprang.
The T-Rex itself is from Batman Chronicles issue 8, where the caped crusader duked it
out with a mechanical t-rex in a theme park.
Alfred had suggested that he keep it as a trophy in the batcave to remind the dark knight
of his successes.
That giant penny?
It’s often believed to be a reference to two face, but it’s actually from a comical
villain called the penny plunderer, although the new 52 changed it to be a piece of art
that Lucius Fox used to help Batman take on the Riddler.
And the giant joker card?
It’s from a time that Batman defeated the joker at one of his lairs, when the clown
prince of crime used oversized models of casino games to screw with Bruce.
Batman also took home a pair of giant dice from that encounter in Batman issue 44 from
1947.
9 All of the Robins There’s been a whole lot of Robins over
the years.
Who is who?
Why have there been so many?
And how many of them are actually related to Bruce Wayne?
Let’s break it down.
First off, there’s Dick Grayson, the OG robin.
He first appeared in 1940’s Detective comics issue 38, introduced as a way to make Batman
more accessible to kids and to harvest a younger readership.
It doubled Batman’s sales.
By the time the late 60s and early 70s rolled around, DC was allowing Grayson to age; he
had become a franchise of his own with the Teen Titans, and eventually adopted a new
mantle in 1984, Nightwing.
This left the position of Robin empty.
Enter Jason Todd, who first appeared in 1983, who initially was a complete carbon copy of
Dick Grayson, even straight down to aesthetics minus having red hair (which he would later
dye).
Todd would endure some creative changes after Crisis on Infinite Earths, getting a new origin
that made him a street kid, a rebel who was difficult to work with.
Fans didn’t like this new Robin all that much, which led to the controversial A Death
in the Family story arc, in which fans were given the opportunity to call in to vote on
whether or not Jason Todd would be killed off.
The Joker beat him to death.
Batman was traumatized.
Todd would later return in 2005 as an anti-hero called Red Hood.
Next up is Carrie Kelley, who is a robin from an alternate universe, appearing in Frank
Miller’s Batman The Dark Knight Returns.
She’s most notable for being the female robin, and the series thematically explored
Batman’s trauma and increasingly unhinged nature thanks to his Robin history.
Back into what’s canon though – we got Tim Drake, appearing in 1989 in Batman issue
436, who was a bit of a mix between Dick and Jason’s personality traits.
In 1993 he managed to get his own solo series, the first Robin to ever get one.
He would eventually become the Red Robin.
Stephanie Brown would become Robin for a brief period, but then was retconned during DC’s
reboot with the New 52 in 2011.
And that brings us to our final Robin, Damian Wayne, Batman’s actual son.
He debuted in Batman issue 655 as part of the Batman and Son storyline; his mother is
Talia Al Ghul, who has raised and trained him for years, hiding his existence until
one day she left him in Bruce’s custody.
He was a bit of a problem child, violence, angry.
Eventually though, he would become Batman’s Robin, even into the New 52, and even got
killed off in Batman Incorporated, although was revived in 2014’s Robin Rises.
He’s also the one who is pals with Superman’s son, and the Robin who loved Bat Cow.
8 Batman V Superman Oh, joy, this film.
The most recent cinematic portrayal of Batman (as of this recording) left a lot of fans
scratching their heads.
Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice was not a good film.
It’s true.
Get over it.
If you’re of the same opinion as we are, no, this number is not going to explain why
the film got made, or many of the other perplexing offensive studio based questions.
This number aims to explain the confusing nightmare scene in the film, which is arguably
the most baffling sequence in the entire movie, and that’s saying a lot.
Batman is in the batcave checking out some files he stole from Lex Luthor that he’s
hoping will help him figure out where to get his mitts on Lryptonite.
He discovers files for other super powered individuals in the process.
All of a sudden, there’s a hard cut to Batman wearing a trench coat in the desert.
He starts looking around for Kryptonite, but is set up, and a bomb goes off, and then some
soldiers show up wearing Superman’s insignia, and some weird flying creatures show up, taking
out his allies.
THEN he appears in a dungeon tied up.
Superman appears, murder’s Batman’s allies, and then blames Batman for taking Lois away
from him.
He punches a hole into his chest.
We cut back to Batman at his computer in the Batcave, and then some weird dude surrounded
by light shows up in a portal telling him that he’s too early, bruce is right about
“him” and that bruce needs to save lois lane.
Bruce then wakes up in front of his computer.
This is all a vision present to bruce by the flash, who was the dude in the portal, and
the too early bit is the flash showing up too early thanks to this being him time travelling.
This is supposed to be some sort of vision from an alternate version of the flash warning
him that Superman will go evil if Lois Lane dies.
Moving on.
7 The Plot Armour When it comes to superhero versus debates,
Batman generally manages to come out on top in most cases.
This is thanks to the fact that, if he’s given time to prepare, he can arguably take
down anyone or anything.
Case in point, JLA Tower of Babel; Batman’s files on his justice league counterparts are
stolen by Ra’s Al Ghul, revealing that he had a backup place to take down all of his
super powered peers and allies in a ‘worst case scenario’ situation, which was kind
of seen as a big betrayal on his part.
Anywho, over the years, Batman notoriously defeats characters he really should have no
business in defeating.
This is called plot armour; a term that refers to a character’s unusual or unlikely ability
to survive infinite amounts of damage or terrible circumstances all thanks to their importance
within that story or story universe.
So there you have it people.
Batman has plot armour.
6 Why he didn’t marry Catwoman Recently, there was some major controversy
stirred up by Tom King’s run on Batman.
Batman and Catwoman were set to be married.
Selina decided last minute to not marry Bruce, which pissed off a ton of fans, and Tom King
even got death threats over it.
So why did this happen?
Selina realizes that a Brice Wayne who is happy cannot exist with Batman, and the world
needs Batman.
Selina, in trying to be a hero, decides to sacrifice her needs and her love for Bruce,
because that would rob the world of Batman.
Which is kind of funny, since that was the Joker’s reasoning for trying to kill Selina
an issue earlier in that run.
5 Fredric Wertham and the Bat Family The Golden Age Batman is very different than
the Silver Age Batman.
For context, the golden age is categorized as the boom of American comic books between
1938, starting with the introduction of Superman, to 1956, with the silver age running from
56 to 1970.
While the conclusion of WW2 played a very large role in the shift of the kinds of stories
published and the motivation and context behind the actions of superheroes at the time, there
was another major factor that distinguished a change in DC’s holy trinity; Superman,
Wonder Woman and Batman.
That factor is a fellow named Fredric Wertham, a psychiatrist and author who published a
book called Seduction of the Innocent that specifically targeted comic books, claiming
that they were corrupting young readers.
It attempted to assert that reading comics would encourage similar behavior in children;
something that was based on undocumented anecdotes, with Wertham lacking actual scientific evidence
that comics were responsible for changing the behavior of children.
One of his claims was that there were hidden sexual themes in Batman’s comics, and that
Batman and Robin were gay, and would make kids gay themselves.
According to Wertham, I quote, “they live in sumptuous quarters, with beautiful flowers
in large vases, and have a butler.
It is like a wish dream of two homosexuals living together.”
Because yes, having flowers in large vases makes you gay AF.
A senate hearing occurred in 1953, and led to the Comics Code authority, a mass censorship
of comics that ended some publications altogether like EC comics (who survived only via Mad
Magazine).
This is where the bat family originates from; from a desire to make Batman look more family
friendly and appealing, and to give him straight love interests like Bat Woman in order to
battle against the homosexuality claims.
If only he could see Batwoman now, he’d be rolling in his grave.
4 The Silver Age and all that CAMP That leads us to our next point though, in
at four, Batman of the Silver Age!
One of the biggest confusions about the caped crusader is why he was so darn campy in the
50s and 60s.
The comics code authority had a lot to do with it, but DC also has a history of shifting
his personality and methods to better sell to their audiences.
A year after his initial debut, by the time Detective comics issue 38 rolled around in
1940, the publisher had completely removed the use of extreme violence and firearms,
establishing his ‘code of honour’ in a more rudimentary form; he would never kill
again.
Robin was also introduced, which majorly boosted Batman’s sales.
After the comics code, DC built a whole Batman Family, including the Bat Hound and impish
Bat Mite, and many of his rogues gallery were discarded or were neutered, becoming vanilla
versions of themselves for years.
Eventually, after Julius Schwartz became the editor at DC, some of the more campy, sci
fi silly concepts that plagued Batman’s titles were exorcised, the bat-family minus
Robin were ditched, and Robin was franchised out to become the leader of the Teen Titans.
But, despite his campy nature, this era was incredibly important for comic books and superheroes
becoming integrate parts of pop culture and mass media.
Arguably, the 60’s Adam West Batman tv series introduced brand new audiences to Batman and
superheroes, and thus began a trend that has only increased in fervor in our current times;
when it premiered in 1966, it was a national phenomenon.
It kept Batman a float when his comic sales were dipping into questionable territory,
and allowed for members of his rogues gallery to be re-introduced.
He assumed the spotlight in World’s Finest, the justice league comics, and the brave and
the bold.
He may have lacked the dark personality traits and outlook that we know and love now, but
he was crucial in establishing a future for the dark knight and other comic book heroes.
3 Why Yellow?
Here’s a fun one; why does Batman’s insigna have that yellow oval around it?
Remember how we mentioned in our last number that Julius Schwartz came in and modernized
Batman towards the end of the silver age?
This happened in 1964, and is sometimes referred to as the ‘new look’ era.
Adding the yellow was a way of updating Batman’s appearance, with Carmine Infantino updating
the look.
But it did get an in-world justification, too, years later though in Darwyn Cooke’s
DC The New Frontier.
According to Batman, the change was due to him not wanting to scare children, which is
kind of hilarious when you think about the reasons why Batman underwent all of those
changes between the golden and silver ages.
It also has a practical purpose; it acts as a bulleyes, drawing Batman’s foes to aim
for the center of his chest, the most armoured part of his batsuit.
2 The Paranoia – Identity Crisis One of Batman’s most notable personality
traits these days is his paranoia.
But it wasn’t always that way; sure, he’s always been overly prepared, being a master
strategist and tactician, but his paranoia was something that was introduced more so
after Identity Crisis in 2004.
It was a seven issue limited series that was considered controversial; the story began
with elongated man’s wife, Sue Dibny, being murdered, and the JLA trying to find who is
responsible.
It’s then revealed that villain Doctor Light once raped Sue Dibny in the JLA satellite
headquarters, and that the JLA members at the time voted to allow Zatanna to mind wipe
Doctor Light and alter his personality to that of an ineffectual idiot.
Then, it’s revealed that this mind wipe trick has occurred on multiple occasions.
As the story progresses, Batman finds out, and disapproves, attempting to stop one of
the mind wipes, then being magically restrained and having his own memories of the incident
removed.
By the end of the story, it’s revealed that Batman remembers all of the events, and, growing
increasingly suspicious of his allies, creates the Brother MK 1 satellite to monitor superhumans,
and has grown increasingly paranoid ever since.
1 His Super Friendship Speaking of the justice league, let’s take
a look at Batman and his relationship with DC’s other iconic flagship hero, Superman.
Over the years, the two have been depicted as best pals, yet, they’re constantly finding
themselves fighting against one another.
Why?
The two initially debuted within a year of one another, with Superman arriving in Action
Comics issue 1 in 1938.
The first time the two appeared in the same story together was during a brief cameo in
All Star Comics issue 7, alongside Jay Garrick’s Flash, raising money for a war charity for
orphans.
You could argue that this is the first time they met - one of the biggest question marks
concerning their friendship is when they first met, which has been retconned MULTIPLE times,
thanks to how many times DC has retconned what’s canon.
Anywho!
In 1941, the two of them shared the cover of World’s Finest Comics, but did not interact
in the stories within.
That wouldn’t happen until 1952, in Superman issue 76, and two years later, thanks to World’s
Finest being consolidated, Bruce and Clark started teaming up regularly.
Back to Superman issue 76, which was claimed to be their first official meeting in a story
titled The Mightiest Team on Earth, with the two of them coincidentally being on the same
cruise ship when a diamond thief stirred up some trouble.
They also coincidentally shared a cabin, and secretly tried to change into their costumes
without the other one knowing.
For decades, the two would remain friends, allies, seeing each other as opposites but
with the same good intentions.
Of course, this came to an end, thanks to Frank Miller and the Dark Knight Returns,
which drastically changed the way Batman narratives were written and perceived.
It featured an aged Batman fighting against Superman in a dystopian future, the latter
hero being the only remaining sanctioned metahuman who served President Reagan as a lackey of
sorts.
That would forever alter their dynamic, with DC writers for years pinning the two up against
one another, expanding what their friendship entailed of, and exploring what exactly it
took for DC’s two most powerful forces to turn on one another.
There we have it friends!