BATMAN IS DC COMICS’ GREATEST CONQUEROR HAVING BEEN

involved with ordinary women under the identity of Bruce Wayne (Julie Madison, Vicki Valle, Silver St. Cloud, Versper Fairchild), heroines (Wonder Woman, Black Canary, Sasha Bordeaux) and even villains (Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Talia Head). Some of them were romantic (although always tragic) and others were toxic relationships.

Let’s start with the romantic relationships.

Julie Madison

The first girlfriend incorporated into the Batman stories (and officially, Bruce Wayne’s first love) was Julie Madison. She was notably based on the appearance of actress Grace Kelly, doing the “damsel in distress” style of the time, and debuted very early in the hero’s life. She first appeared in Detective Comics

31, from 1939, only the fifth adventure of the man- bat.

In this version of the Golden Age of Comics, Julie was a member of Gotham City’s high society. Although, in the first appearances, she did not have a well-defined occupation.

She broke off her engagement to Bruce Wayne to dedicate herself entirely to her budding acting career. In the plot, Julie changes her name to Portia Storme and becomes a star. She’s disappointed with Bruce Wayne’s “lack of ambition”, lamenting that he didn’t want to work.

It is established in these stories that Batman initially considered his mission to be temporary, and that he really hoped to finish his vigilante activities and marry Julie. Obviously, after some time, the hero realized this would not be possible which caused him a lot of pain. Although, he does not show it or tell anyone about it.

Julie Madison has quickly appeared in Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin (1997), interpreted by Elle Macpherson.

Linda Page first appeared in 1941. In the stories, the young redhead was a somewhat vain socialite which made a good pair with Bruce Wayne. Despite starring in Batman stories for two years, the character completely disappeared after that. The character is best remembered as Batman’s first live-action girlfriend, appearing in the 1943 film series where she was portrayed by Shirley Patterson.

Linda Page Vicki Vale

Photojournalist Vicki Vale is probably the most famous of Batman’s girlfriends. The reporter was portrayed in the comics as a redhead and first in 1948. She remained Bruce Wayne’s main girlfriend for quite some time until 1964. Her period of greatest relevance occurred between 1988 and 1990. In these plots, really in love with Vicki, Bruce Wayne seriously considers telling her that he is the Batman, but after she almost got killed by the Ventriloquist, he gives up and breaks off the relationship. During that same period, she appeared in Tim Burton’s Batman – The Movie in 1989, portrayed by Kim Bassinger.

The character returned in a prominent role in Batman’s universe in 2009. In Grant Morrison’s story sequence in which Batman is presumed dead and Dick Grayson replaces him as Batman, Vicki begins to suspect that the businessman and the vigilant are the same person. In the Battle for the Cowl arc, she manages to connect the pieces together between all of Batman’s allies and deduces their identity.

Willing to reveal this secret to the press, she decides to wait and talk personally to Bruce Wayne to find out why he plays Batman. However, when the villain Ra’s al Ghul discovers that Vicki Vale knows Batman’s secret identity, he decides to kill her, but Bruce Wayne himself, saves her.

ST. CLOUD

In 1977, Batman meets socialite and event planner Silver St. Cloud and get fascinated about her. The two get together and she even discovers his secret identity. However, the fact that Bruce Wayne lives his life very dangerously is impossible to bear. After witnessing Batman in action, she asks for an end to the relationship and leaves Gotham.

She would later return to Gotham City amid her fiancé’s senatorial campaign. She considers dropping everything and staying by Bruce’s side, but again Batman stays between them.

Vesper Fairchild

Radio Show host Vesper Fairchild appeared in 1997. Intelligent and strong-willed, Vesper captivated Bruce Wayne when they met in an interview. The fact that she worked during the night made her perfect, so the hero didn’t have to keep creating lame excuses for his “disappearances”.

However, amidst the series of tragedies that hit Gotham City in a row, an Ebola virus epidemic in Contagion and a major earthquake, their romance ended up interrupted. After things got back to normal, Vesper returned to town and looked for Bruce who was now involved with Sasha Bordeaux.

At the same time, Vesper had an ongoing investigation to discover Batman’s identity, although there are no indications that she suspected Bruce Wayne. Unfortunately, Vesper ended up murdered by David Cain in 2002.

Sasha Bordeaux

Bodyguard Sasha Bordeaux crossed Bruce Wayne’s path in 2000 after he suffered a kidnapping attempt leading the Board of Wayne Enterprises to impose armed security on him. Initially, Wayne treats her with distance because he thinks she gets in the way of his moves as Batman. Over time, however, the two created a certain complicity, and the fact that Batman disappeared became a problem. Finally, the hero left a clue for her to follow and discover that he is Batman. Surprisingly, Sasha thought she should continue serving as a bodyguard even for Batman, so she started wearing a uniform with a mask and following him on his missions.

After returning from a mission, Bruce Wayne was arrested, accused of killing Vesper Fairchild. Sasha Bordeaux was also arrested as an accomplice. Wayne escaped from jail to prove his innocence. Sasha remained imprisoned for refusing to hand over Bruce’s big secret. In jail, however, she apparently suffered an assault and died. In fact, it was a plan by the secret organization Checkmate to summon her as a secret agent. The world’s greatest detective, Batman couldn’t believe she died and soon discovered Checkmate’s plans. However, Sasha accepted the proposal, underwent plastic surgery and was trained as an agent.

Batman then began an aggressive campaign against Checkmate to take her out of it. As they couldn’t stop him, the organization gave up and allowed Sasha to meet with Batman and the two talked. In the conversation, each one confesses their love for each other but go their separate ways. Next, Sasha became Black King’s Knight of Checkmate and right-hand man to the organization’s leader, Maxwell Lord. However, when Lord revealed himself to be a villain, Sasha helped Batman take him down. With the fall, she became herself the leader of the organization.

Wonder Woman

During a short period in the mid2000s, amid the adventures of the Justice League, there was a love affair between Batman and Wonder Woman. It didn’t go any further, but some sort of feeling remains between them.

Rachel Dawes

Rachel Dowes was created by filmmaker Christopher Nolan and writer David S. Goyer exclusively for their Batman series, never existing in the comics. In 2005’s Batman Begins, Rachel Dowes is portrayed by Katie Holmes as a childhood friend of Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale). Her mother was one of the Wayne’s servants, alongside Alfred Pennyworth. Bruce and Rachel grew up as sweethearts but grew apart after the young man returns to Gotham City and decides to kill his parents’ murders (which he fails to do). From there, Bruce travels the world, training to become Batman and only returns seven years later.

Rachel becomes a lawyer and assistant prosecutor and ends up getting involved in the mafia plots of Carmine Falcone and Dr. Jonathan Crane. At a certain point, Batman reveals to her that he is Bruce Wayne, but this ends up alienating them because she cannot live with that.

In The Dark Knight, 2008, the character was played by Maggie Gyllenhaal. Here, she’s dating new district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) and, despite Bruce’s hopes of having her as a partner soon, Rachel chooses to stay with Dent before she is killed by the Joker, and Dent is deformed, goes crazy and becomes the Two-Face. Batman’s Toxic Relationships

Catwoman

The tension between Batman and Catwoman dates to their first encounter in 1940s Batman #1 story by Bob Kane and Bill Finger. The villain’s uniform was “assembled” little by little: first wearing a dress; then, a hood with a cape; then, a hideous mask mimicking the head of a cat; and finally, the classic uniform of the Golden Age with a Batman-like mask, neckline and cape.

Eventually, the character would be off the magazines for 12 years. In the 1970s stories, some writers began to treat Catwoman as a psychopath. This was changed in the 1980s. The Batman Story: Year One from 1987 shows a hardcore version of the character. Selina Kyle is a prostitute who abandons that life to become a thief and decides to wear a uniform after seeing Batman in action. She is shown smoking, taking drugs and saying that she hates men because she “never met one”. The plot shows an orphan who is sent to an orphanage where she suffers mistreatment and, at the end of her adolescence, runs away to live on the streets of Gotham City. This period of her life is portrayed in the TV series Gotham.

The maxiseries Batman: The Long Halloween (1996-1997) shows the beginning of the involvement between Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle. The two meet at Gotham’s high society, where she nurtures friendships with the Falcone mafia family. There is a romance between the two at the same time that Batman and Catwoman also have their encounters. As the story progresses, there are indications that Selina is the unassumed daughter of Carmine Falcone, the biggest boss in the city. This plot is shown in The Batman (2022). The screenwriters of the 1990s opted for an anti-hero version of the (now) former villain. Selina isn’t evil, just misguided, and perhaps a kleptomaniac. Her crimes never involve violence. She is not a murderer and only steals from the rich. This plot is shown in Batman: The Dark Knight Rises.

In stories from 2002-2003 Batman decides to have a “for real” relationship with Catwoman, which involves telling her that he is Bruce Wayne. The two stay together for a while, but The Dark Knight’s paranoia leads to a breakup. Still, the two remain allies.

In the newer stories, Batman and Catwoman are occasional lovers who become full-time partners, culminating in Bruce Wayne asking Selina Kyle to marry him. The ceremony is even planned but does not occur when Selina realizes that the engagement will hinder Batman’s mission.

Catwoman has had several live action portrayals. First, in the 1960s TV series played by three actresses: Julie Newmar (in the first and second seasons), Lee Meriwether (in the movie) and Eartha Kitt (in the third season). In 1992’s Batman Returns by Tim Burton, Catwoman is played masterfully by Michelle Pfeiffer. In 2004, the film Catwoman, starring Halle Barry, was released. Batman: The Dark Knight Rises brought a version of Catwoman in the skin of Anne Hathaway; and The Batman stars Zoe Kravitz in the role.

Talia Head

In the 70’s, on a mission chasing the League of Assassins, Batman met the mercenary Talia Head whom he fell in love with. Too bad he soon discovered that her father, Ra’s Al Ghul, was the leader of the terrorist group.

Despite The Dark Knight considering Ra’s as one of his worst enemies, the passion for Talia was so strong that she began to experience a conflict of interests between her lover and her father, gravitating around the two as the stories emerged. After his father recruits the detective for a mission against a terrible common enemy, the two lovers spend a little more time together and Talia becomes pregnant.

who becomes the new Robin. Over time, Talia began to have a milder behavior, showing herself almost as a reluctant ally, while Damian had his impulsive behavior softened by his father and he assumed the role of Robin with honors.

In the film Batman: The Dark Knight Rises, the character Miranda Tate, played by Marion Cotillard, is presented as an executive at Wayne Enterprises who will help Bruce Wayne develop his philanthropy, but in fact, it is revealed at the end to be Talia, daughter of the character Henri Ducard, Ra’s Al Ghul from Batman Begins, played by Liam Neeson.

DR. SHONDRA KINSOLVING

Poison Ivy

Poison Ivy appeared in 1966, and her first stories explored a great tension between the villain and Batman. However, later, a situation prevailed in which Pamela Isley is in love with Batman, more than he is with her. However, in recent years, Poison Ivy has shown little interest and tries to kill the hero without mercy.

However, when she realizes that the pregnancy affects The Dark Knight emotionally and compromises the mission, Ra’s and Talia create a cunning plan in which they simulate a miscarriage. An angry Batman carries out his mission but is painfully dismissed by Talia. Batman leaves, ignoring the farce, and the end of the story shows the child alive and given up for adoption. Talia takes control of LexCorp as part of a plan by the hero against Lex Luthor. After the “death” of Ra’s Al Ghul, another of his daughters, Nyssa Raatko, brainwashed Talia and made her a real villain. She appeared sometime later to show Batman their son, Damian Wayne,

Bruce Wayne met Dr. Shondra Kinsolving when she was responsible for the recovery of Tim Drake’s father, Robin III, who had been paralyzed in a tragedy. She was introduced in Batman 486, in 1993. Later, when Batman is defeated and has his backbone broken by Bane, Bruce is treated by Shondra, and this brings them closer. In fact, they start a romance. Before Bruce is fully recovered, Shondra is kidnapped by her adoptive brother, who is a criminal. Even in a wheelchair,

Wayne organizes a rescue mission to save her, but the doctor is forced to carry out a series of atrocities for her brother, and she enters a catatonic state.

She appeared again, years later, when Batman is again badly hurt in 2002. She participates in Bruce’s surgery as an assistant to Dr. Tommy Elliot who was secretly the villain himself.

Jezebel Jet

In Grant Morrison’s long run as a Batman writer, Jezebel Jet was Bruce Wayne’s main love interest, first appearing in Batman 656 in 2006. Introduced as a former model who runs a small African country, Jezebel turns out to be an agent of a terrorist organization whose mission is to destroy Batman. Thus, she helped in the plan of the villainous Dr. Hurt to kill Bruce Wayne but was unsuccessful, of course.

BY TYSON D. YURAI

1. He Can Sing!

As seen in Justice League Unlimited episode, “This Little Piggy,” when Kevin Conroy sang “Am I Blue” in his most soothing croon as Batman.

2. Was Almost Bane’s Brother

A story told in Gotham Knights #33-36, where the two put aside their hatred for each other with the possibility of brotherhood and friendship. Bane joined the Bat family before it was revealed that Thomas Wayne was not his father.

3. Father of Helena Wayne

Debuting in DC Super Stars #17 as part of the Earth-2 Universe, Helena Wayne is the daughter of Bruce Wayne and Selena Kyle and has made sporadic appearances over the years. She is a separate character from the Helena Bertinelli of EarthPrime that isn’t related to Batman.

4. Has Studied Magic

On two separate occasions in World’s Finest #14-18 and Justice League Dark: Witching Hour, Batman has been known to dabble in magic but found it too difficult and abstract to utilize in his regular repertoire.

5. Likes His Steak Well Done

Towards the end of Kingdom

Come, when all of the fighting has subsided, he, Superman and Wonder Woman enjoy a friendly meal. While Clark and Diana order sensible things, Bruce orders his steak crisp.

6. Was Once Kirk Langstrom

In the Justice League: Gods and Monsters universe, it’s unknown what happened to Bruce Wayne, but in his place, Kirk Langstrom, Man-Bat on Earth Prime, is the deadly and vampiric Batman.

Convinced Alfred to Stay the Family Butler

7.

In The Batman Chronicles #5, it’s shown that a child Bruce Wayne convinced Alfred to stay when he wished to return to England, right before his parents passed.

8. Had the Batboat stolen by Deadpool

In an unofficial cameo in Marvel Comics #1000, Deadpool is seen driving away in a familiar boat as a very familiar superhero angrily yells at him while stuck in the water.

9. Had a Physical Education Course at the University of Victoria in Canada

Because Batman is the peak of human ability, of course there’s a class dedicated to the science of how he works and how to get into the same relative shape that he’s in.

10. Has Been A Patient at Arkham

Shadow of the Bat #1 shows us one of the first instances of Batman being held in the infamous asylum and could serve as partial inspiration for 2019’s Last Knight on Earth.

11. His Ears Are Projectiles

In Batman and Robin #22 and Detective Comics #1029, Batman uses his ears in quite the creative fashion, ejecting them into the face and eyes of the villains he’s fighting.

12. Learned How to Throw boomerangs from an Australian Circus Performer

In the early days of Detective Comics (#244, 1957), some aspects of Batman’s training needed explanation and this was what we got for how he can throw batarangs so well.

13. The Batcave Originated in a Batman TV Show

At least a year before it made its way to the comics, the 1943 Batman serial introduced The Bat’s Cave as the hideout for Batman and Robin as they primarily just utilized Wayne Manor as a base of operations in the comics.

14. Has Bombs on the Moon

Because Batman always has a plan for everything, Justice League #1 referenced one of Batman’s contingencies for space-based attacks and foreshadowing that he might have other weapons there, too. We’ve already seen that he keeps spare Bat-Armor there (Superman #5, 2016).

15. Was 25 When He Became Batman

While Bruce is known to be young when he becomes Batman, the Year One stories place a definite age at which he donned the cowl - one year older than Mr. Beast!

16. He Sometimes Operates Under the Criminal Alias of Matches Malone

Introduced in Batman #242 from 1972, Bruce has taken on the identity of Matches Malone many times to collect information on the criminal underworld and will sometimes commit arson to gain trust, hence the name.

17. Gotham City is Literally Cursed

Batman: Dark City established that a demon summoning ritual conducted by Thomas Jefferson and other founding fathers of Gotham left the city eternally cursed to experience crime and depravity.

18. He’s Terry McGinnis’ Actual Father

The Justice League Unlimited finale, “Epilogue,” expands on the situation that led to Terry becoming Batman and reveals it to be a plot by Cadmus to keep the Batman lineage going if Bruce were to ever pass. Though, Terry isn’t the only child Bruce had in that universe if one acknowledges Batman Beyond 2.0 #28. If you know, you know!

19. He Used to Time Travel with the Help of Hypnosis

Batman’s early years were a weird time, especially in Batman #24 from 1944 where Dr. Carter Nichols was introduced and used hypnosis to send the Dynamic Duo on adventures through time.

20. Has Defeated Darkseid Twice Batman can beat anyone with prep time and in Final Crisis #7 and Batman and Robin #33, he did just that with a God killing bullet and a suit of armor forged by the Justice League itself.

BY MATTHEW McLACHLAN