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8 Things You Didn't Know About Batman


The Dark Knight has been around for a whopping 76 years, meaning there’s a lot to know about the guy. It’s kind of impossible to know absolutely everything, but as someone who has consistently made best in my state in Batman trivia on QuizUp (a prestigious honor, to be sure), I like to think I know a few things the general public might not necessarily be familiar with.  So let’s kick back and I’ll tell you some things you might not know about the old Batsy!

  1. Bill Finger was the real brainchild behind Batman, not Bob Kane

    This fact isn’t exactly obscure to superfans, but it’s one the general public really should know, so I think it should be repeated as often as possible. The guy you’ll see credited in all the Batman comics and movies as creating the guy, Bob Kane? He actually did very little in creating the guy. In fact it could be said literally all he created was the name- “Bat-Man”. And he might not have even done that- some sources say that the guy he originally designed was called “Bird-Man.” Which would make sense, since the blonde, red-clad dude in his designs looks a lot more like a cardinal than a bat:

    Bob Kane's original concept

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    That’s when he bought on Bill Finger who came up with the bright idea that a guy called Batman should actually, y’know, look like a bat. But that’s not all- it was Bill who came up with Robin, Bruce Wayne, Gotham City, the Batmobile, Commissioner Gordon, all of the famous villians (including Catwoman and the Joker) and the idea that Batman should just be a regular guy without superpowers. So basically, literally every core aspect of the character. He also came up with the whole “my parents were shot in Crime Alley and I swore eternal vengeance on criminals who are a superstitious cowardly lot” deal. He wrote the first Batman story!

    Bob Kane, meanwhile, contributed by…tracing art.  Very blatantly.

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    The story ends really tragically- Bill Finger died in poverty without ever getting credit for creating Batman or any of the stories he wrote. There is a bright spot though- this year, for the first time, Bill Finger is finally being credited as one of the creators of Batman in both print comics and on TV. He’s still (undeservingly) under Bob Kane’s name in the credits, but it’s a start. Bill Finger has been credited alongside Bob Kane as the creator of Batman since Season 2, episode 5 of the Gotham TV series.

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    He’s also going to be credited in Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice.  And he’s finally been credited in comics like Batman and Robin Eternal too. It’s a lot later than it should have been, but at least it’s finally happening.

    You can check out this book, Bill the Boy Wonder, to learn more about Batman's overlooked creator.

  2. Batman seems to be a Sailor Moon fan

    No, I’m not kidding around here. In a 1999 issue of Justice League, Martian Manhunter, resident alien shapeshifter and last survivor of Mars, disguised himself as a Japanese woman named “Hino Rei”. Hino Rei happens to be the alias of Sailor Mars, the fiery warrior of passion from the manga and anime Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon. So, Martian Manhunter confirmed for anime trash.

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    From Justice League

    But who else is anime trash? Bruce Wayne apparently. He instantly recognized that “Hino Rei” had to be his friend from Mars, informing him smugly that his name was a dead giveaway. So, unless there were some Sailor Moon based murders in Gotham Bruce had to investigate (admittedly not an impossibility), Batman is a fan of magical girls (and the way he postured about how the name was soooo obvious definitely seems like something an anime addict would do. From experience).

    Not only did he watch Sailor Moon, he watched it subbed. No censored English version for our dark avenger!  I like to think it was Robin who introduced him, and they would kick back and watch the show together after a long night of crime fighting. Speaking of Robin….

  3. Frederic Wertham thought Batman and Robin had to be in a gay, pedophilic relationship because they had a nice house with flowers.

    Many people know about the whole deal with Frederic Wertham and the Comics Code. If you don’t, you should definitely read up on it. Wertham was a cool dude in many ways- he was a real critic of Jim Crow laws ( an attitude that was unpopular at the time) and spoke out for people who were unfairly imprisoned on the basis of race, including Ethel Rosenberg. He opened a clinic in Harlem that specialized in helping poor black youth.

    Unfortunately, while he was better than the average white dude at the time when it came to race, he was pretty bad when it came to sexuality.  As you may know, he became convinced that Batman and Robin were a deviant fantasy that was turning innocent hetero children gay.  But I always found his specific reasoning for why Batman and Robin waved a rainbow flag to be hilarious. It wasn’t unintentionally suggestive stuff like this.

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    No, it was the fact “They live in sumptuous quarters, with beautiful flowers in large vases, and have a butler, Alfred. Batman is sometimes shown in a dressing gown...”

    Yep, Batman is gay because he is rich, has flowers in vases and owns a bathrobe. Any of you straights who got any of that going on, I’ve got news. You’re one of us now.  Wertham called all of this (along with the fact that Robin shows like, basic human concern when Batman, his father figure, is injured or sad) a “homosexual fantasy”. Only us gays want to be rich and have nice things.

    Wertham's ironclad logic successfully convinced DC Comics that they had to introduce wholesome female love interests for Bruce and Dick, stat. And so Batwoman and Bat-girl were introduce in 1956.

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    Honestly, though, this didn’t really make Batman look any more hetero. He and Robin both constantly rejected the advances of these “silly girls”, claiming that their true love was justice. That…just sort of hammers in the duo’s disinterest in women more than anything

  4. In the current rebooted DC Universe, Bruce Wayne is Jewish

    Speaking of Batwoman, probably one of the most satisfying ironies in all of comics is that the woman created to enforce heterosexuality has now been reinvented as a lesbian. In fact, in the current comics, Batwoman, who’s real name is Katherine Kane, is Bruce’s first cousin.

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    From Batwoman

     The maiden name of Bruce’s  mother, Martha, was Kane. This means that Bruce’s Mom is Kate’s paternal aunt. Kate has mentioned her father is Jewish and that she also is. Which means Martha Kane was also Jewish. Which makes Bruce ethnically Jewish as well.

    I have no idea if DC realized they were doing this when they officially made Bruce and Kate cousins, but it’s pretty cool, since Bruce’s creator was a Jewish man. 

  5. Alfred Was Crushed to Death Once

    Yep, back in 1964, Batman’s beloved butler kicked the bucket. He did it in a pretty metal way too, roaring up on a motorcycle, getting Bruce and Dick out of the way of a falling boulder and then being…crushed by said boulder. It was literally “rocks fall, Alfred dies”. And he stayed dead six months. Since Bruce and Dick couldn’t possibly survive without someone to do their laundry, they hired Dick’s aunt Harriet to be their servant instead. (Which begs the question, if Robin has a suriviving aunt, why didn’t she adopt him when his parents died?)

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    But you can’t keep a good butler down! Alfred came back in the weirdest way possible. Apparently, Batman didn’t check if Alfred was dead before throwing him in a mauseleoum. That’s right, he buried his butler alive. Apparently Alfred is so cool he survived being crushed by a boulder just through sheer willpower and desire to save his hapless charges. The comic claims this is totally logical because drowning people come back to life all the time. Uh…sure.

    So a “radical individualist” who is just strolling around the Wayne graveyeard, presumably enjoying listening to the tortured vows of vengeance that echo around that place, runs across the body and decided to test his regeneration ray out on this English chap. You know. As you do.

    You can guess what happens next, right?  If your first thought was “the machine somehow turned Alfred into a white lumpy monster whose only desire was to kill Batman and Robin”, you’d be correct!

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    Alfred attacked our dynamic duo and turned Robin into a coffin (Alfred, that’s not very gentlemanly). He was finally foiled when Bruce hit him again with the machine, which successfully demonster-ified them. So Alfred went home happy and alive and Aunt Harriet was eventually out of a job. THAT’S WHAT YOU GET FOR NOT OFFERING TO TAKE IN YOUR ORPHANED NEPHEW, HARRIET!

  6. Batman Had a Live-in Mechanic in the Batcave Once

    The story of Harold Allnut, Batman’s temporary mechanic is a weird and slightly uncomfortably one. Harold was a mute man who suffered kyphosis (more commonly known as “hunchback”). Due to his appearance and disability, the people of Gotham automatically assumed he was a child molestor. Uh. What the hell?

     Anyway, Batman rescued him, and offered him a great opportunity to live in a dark cave and make gadgets for a war on crime. I guess Harold thought this was somewhat better than living in an dilapidated building and being hunted down by ridiculously ableist lynch mobs, as he happily agreed. He even built Bruce a mega-rad wheelchair when Bane broke his back.

    Like most of the people who come into contact with Bruce Wayne, Herald was brutally murdered by a villain. Batman honored this occasion by finally figuring out his last name so he could put it on his gravestone.

  7. Batman's killed quite a few times

    More than few people know that the original, purple gloved version of Batman wasn’t as anti-killing as our current hero. He only really gained his code against killing around the time Robin came along, but even back in the 40’s he was a little less hardline about it than he is now.

    While the current version of Batman refuses to kill the Joker even though he beat Robin to death with a crowbar, 1940’s Batman sees death of his sidekick as a good enough reason to break his code. He once told a doctor that if he refused to save Robin’s life, he would kill him “with his bare hands”. Don’t mess with this papa bear!

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    But even our super-hardcore anti-killing modern version of Batman has a body count. In Batman #572, he throws a thug in front of some bullets to save himself.

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    And in another issue, he blew up Ra’s Al Ghul in space. Robin points out “Bruce…you totally just killed a dude” and Batsy’s response is “DID I, ROBIN? DID I?” which is just needlessly sarcastic.

    And of course, there’s the time Batman killed Darkseid (using a GUN) before dying himself.

  8. The Riddler, Jim Gordon and The Joker all knew Bruce’s secret identity at one point.

    In the comic Hush, The Riddler deduced that Batman was Bruce Wayne and told the another villain of his discovery. However, the Riddler loses his memories as result of a coma later on, and thus the information is lost to him.

    It’s been heavily implied several times Jim Gordon knows who Batman really is. In fact, once Bruce tried to dramatically reveal it to him and Jim basically said “Dude, I could have guessed if I wanted, but I need to maintain deniability here”.  In the Arkham games, Jim already knows, and in the Injustice: Gods Among Us spinoff comic, he admits he always knew and just kept quiet about it.

    The comics also heavily imply that the Joker knows who Batman is, but just doesn’t care. The first clue is the fact he knows the Robin he beat to death with a crowbar was Jason Todd (presumably because of Bruce’s tendency to scream Jason’s name while punching him).

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    Not really keeping that one close to the chest, Bruce.

     it’s common knowledge Jason was adopted by Bruce Wayne. Wouldn’t be that hard to make the connection.  In Batman RIP he calls Bruce an “orphaned boy” and drops a bunch of other hints.

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    While the Joker’s knowledge is only implied in the original DC Universe, it’s confirmed after the reboot. In the recent “Endgame” storyline, the Joker reveals that he knows Batman is Bruce Wayne and even recreates the night his parents died. The storyline ends with the both Bruce and the villain apparently dying, though Bruce has been revealed to be alive and amnesiac.

     

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