Batman is my favorite superhero ("What? No way! I had no idea, Captain Obvious"), which would make it safe to assume that he's my favorite person in the entire the Bat-Family.
For anyone not as familiar, the Bat-Family consists of Batman-related superheroes or otherwise who assist in Batman's crimefighting crusade. This includes all Robins and their adult personas, all Batgirls and their other personas, Batwoman, Huntress. The Bat-Family can also extend beyond "sidekicks" to include Commissioner Gordon, Catwoman, Alfred Pennyworth, Batman-equivalent characters from different regions (Batman Incorporated)/time periods/universes, and more. Check out some Bat-Family fan art by Phil Cho on Deviant Art below. This is not necessarily all-inclusive, but a good example of who might be included when referencing the Bat-Family.
With that said, I wanted to take this particular blog post to walk through my favorite Bat-Family characters OTHER THAN Batman. My love for Batman extends far beyond just his character so I want to share how amazing all the other characters in the Batman-universe are. Favorites
Richard "Dick" Grayson/Robin/Nightwing
Art by Jim Lee
First of all, he's the first and the original Robin. He's also, in my opinion, the sexiest guy in all of comic book history. I appreciate that, with all the sexualized female comic book characters out there, we also get Dick Grayson. He's had quite the string of lovers and for good reason. Meow. For me, Barbara Gordon/Batgirl will forever be the one true person for Grayson, though. In terms of characteristics and skills, I love that he's known for his acrobatic skills acquired from his past as a circus performer. It's a unique backstory and is so fitting for his life as Robin. He's a natural leader as seen from his run with the Teen Titans, his donning of the Batman persona while Bruce was MIA, and his setting up shop in Bludhaven, often referred to as Gotham's sister city and Nightwing's territory. I also love that Nightwing is multi-faceted in the sense that he can be used for comic relief, often cracking jokes and providing a balance for Batman's seriousness. At the same time, he's still Nightwing, some one who was trained by Batman and thus takes his job very seriously. I adore that he plays an older brother figure, mentor, and maybe even role model to the other Robins. To me, Grayson will always be Batman's right-hand man. My love for Grayson also greatly stems from how long he's been around in Batman history. As some one who grew up with Batman: The Animated Series, Dick Grayson was always my Robin and when he became Nightwing, he just got sexier (minus the mullet that he had in New Batman Adventures), which didn't hurt. Fun fact, did you know Neil Patrick Harris has voiced Nightwing before?
Cassandra Cain/Batgirl/Black Bat
Art by Damion Scott
To be quite honest, I haven't read many comic books that revolve around Cass' run as Batgirl and she doesn't get enough, if any, screen time in animated movies. She actually kind of disappeared since DC Comics dropped the New 52 in 2011, rewriting a lot of DC Comics history. When she was around, though, what really drew me to her was her background... and her dope costume! I love the masked look shown above because it looks so awesome, all black with the full mask, which is also a symbolic of her muteness. She was born to 2 assassins, David Cain (don't know too much about his character) and Lady Shiva (who's another crazy character you should look up). Cass was trained to be the ultimate weapon from birth, but her father never taught her to speak. Instead, he used that part of her brain to hone her ability to read body language and precisely predict people's next moves. After her first assassination at a very young age, she ran away from her father realizing that what she was trained to do was wrong. Years later, she runs into Batman and Oracle (original Batgirl) who take her under their wing, train her, and eventually incorporate her into the Bat-Family. Even though she doesn't speak, her ability to read body language and predict movements is (nearly?) unmatched and proves extremely useful in the fight against crime. In summary, she was trained to be an assassin and her super power is super body language reading. If THAT whole back story doesn't SCREAM "badass" and make you admire this character, I don't know what will. Edit: Turns out Cassandra Cain is sort of still around and goes by Orphan in the latest stories.
Damian Wayne/Robin
Art by Jim Lee, Scott Williams, and Lex Sinclair
Potentially an unpopular opinion, but I do love the dickhead, brat of a son that is Damian Wayne, the 4th Robin. Damian's place in my top 3 Bat-Family list seems counter-intuitive based on my inclusion of Nightwing. HOWEVER, it IS somewhat in line with my inclusion of Cassandra Cain. Born to Talia al Ghul and Batman, Damian Wayne, who was initially kept a secret from Batman, was raised to be an assassin (similar to Cassandra Cain). That's not that surprising with a grandfather like evil mastermind Ra's al Ghul, a mother like Talia al Ghul, and a family like the League of Assassins. Eventually, Talia just drops Damian off at Batman's doorstep for him to raise for the time being. (Damn, Talia is just all around super inconsiderate in this son situation.) Since Damian was trained to be an assassin, Batman had some heavy-handed parenting to do since, as most know, killing is not Batman's way. You can understand how it was very easy to hate Damian initially. He was extremely rude to his father, not understanding why his father did not kill like Damian was trained to do. He was also EXTREMELY disrespectful to all the Robins before him claiming that he was the one true son. I mean, he was only by blood. No need to be rude, Damian. In the end, I still love Damian because of his need to make his father proud, which I believe eventually drove him in the right direction. He's still stubborn and still has a lot of growing to do, but he's loyal to Batman and he's talented due to his upbringing. On top of that, when Talia saw that Damian's loyalties lied with Batman instead of her, she had Damian killed! That's just messed up. You gotta feel sorry for the kid in that situation. Also, Talia's a crazy b.
When asked who my favorite Batgirl is, I do tend to say Cassandra Cain, but I cannot deny that Babs is the original and probably the best Batgirl of all time. Even after she was crippled by the Joker, her role as computer expert Oracle, providing intelligence to Batman and the rest of the team while they were on their missions, was essential. She wears many hats and fans cannot deny her importance as part of the Bat-Family.
Alfred Pennyworth
Art by Jim Lee
I adore Alfred because of his unconditional love for and loyalty to the Wayne family and also because he's one of the only people who gets away with sassing Batman... all the time. He's pretty witty and hilarious. Alfred also provides emergency medical care for Batman when he comes back extremely beat up from a rough night out, which is pretty vital since Batman can't risk giving away his night job by showing up at hospitals like a regular. Even more, Alfred's been shown to be very resourceful on multiple occasions. He's not one to just sit around in a tough situation, which occur often enough when your Batman's butler. There's no other person on the team quite like Alfred.
Terry McGinnis/Batman
Art by Bruce Timm
Terry as Batman is one of the best future versions of any superhero out there. He's a well-developed character who does the Batman name justice. When you boil it down, Terry is probably getting an honorable mention here because I grew up with the animated series, Batman Beyond, and I love every bit of that show. Future Batman is very cool.
I'm sure other Batman fans have specific Bat-Family favorites as well so please sound off in the comments to let me know what those favorites are and why. I would love to hear the reasoning behind everyone's favorites because the Bat-Family is filled with so many incredible characters who have been developed over decades of stories. If you don't have any Bat-Family favorites, did anything stand out for you after reading my list above?
In related news, we saw the Lego Batman Movie this past Friday and thought it was so much fun! I highly recommend checking it out if you're just looking for something silly. I'm a total kid at heart (read: immature). I love animated films and childish jokes so it was right up my alley. Batman is such a serious character that it was just refreshing and hilarious to see a sort of parody on his character and the other characters in the Bat-Family. Robin was my favorite! He was so dorky and lovable. The voice acting worked really well given the feel of the movie. The movie also had fantastic references to the nearly 8 decades of Batman history, which can be very much appreciated by long-time Batman fans. Check it out if you haven't already. If you have, let me know what you thought!
