Heroes, Villains & Mavericks

Character guide

Batman

Bruce Wayne is Gotham City’s masked detective. Armed with training, technology, and an obsession with justice, he hunts the criminals who prey on the city that took his parents.

Find your first read
Batman in the red-lit rain

The Batman promotional still via TMDB ↗

About Batman

Bruce Wayne was a child when he saw his parents murdered in Gotham. He spent years studying combat, detection, and forensic science before coming home to fight the kind of crime that had shattered his family.

Batman’s partnership with James Gordon gives him an ally inside a deeply compromised police department. The Robins and the wider Bat-Family complicate his reputation as a loner: many of his most consequential stories ask what happens when he trusts someone else with the work, or when someone else has to wear the cowl.

Alter ego
Bruce Wayne
First appearance
Detective Comics #27 (1939)
Created by
Bob Kane & Bill Finger
Home
Gotham City
Opposite
Clayface, among many others
On screen
Robert Pattinson in The Batman (2022)

Batman Across the Multiverse

1 of 7

Required reading

8 stories from the guide

Cover for Batman Beyond #1

05 / 1999

Batman Beyond #1

Hilary J. Bader, Rick Burchett, Joe Staton & Terry Beatty

Terry McGinnis puts on the future batsuit for the first time in the comics.

Collects Batman Beyond #1

Before you read None

Cover for Batman: Knightquest: The Crusade Vol. 1

06 / 1993–94

Batman: Knightquest: The Crusade Vol. 1

Doug Moench, Chuck Dixon, Kelley Jones & Graham Nolan

Jean-Paul Valley wears the armor and calls himself Batman while Bruce is gone.

Collects Detective Comics #667–675, Batman #501–508, and related issues

Before you read None

Cover for Batman #1,000,000

07 / 1998

Batman #1,000,000

Grant Morrison & Val Semeiks

The Batman of the 853rd century, published as part of DC One Million.

Collects Batman #1,000,000

Before you read None

Cover for Batman: In Darkest Knight

08 / 1994

Batman: In Darkest Knight

Mike W. Barr & Jerry Bingham

Bruce Wayne receives Abin Sur's ring and becomes a Green Lantern.

Collects Batman: In Darkest Knight

Before you read None

Collectibles & apparel

Film & TV

Poster artwork courtesy of TMDB.