Batman: The Brave and the Bold

"Batman's rich history allows him to be interpreted in a multitude of ways. To be sure, this is a lighter incarnation, but it's certainly no less valid and true to the character's roots than the tortured avenger crying out for mommy and daddy."

—Bat-Mite defends this incarnation of Batman. During the show.

The other non-DCAU Animated Adaptation of Batman by Warner Bros, announced after The Batman ended.

Taking its name from DC's traditional Team-Up Series, Batman: The Brave and the Bold has Batman partnering with a different superhero or superheroes every week. With a focus on rarely used (but classic) characters such as Red Tornado, Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man and Detective Chimp, the show deliberately picks a lot of its plotlines from old Silver Age stories, many of which have already been widely mocked by the fandom for years. Very much aware of this, Batman: The Brave and the Bold actually succeeds in making these old So Bad It's Good stories So Cool Its Awesome, and almost every episode has an Ascended Meme or two. The show's creators aim to spotlight every possible underrated aspect of the DC universe. In order to introduce and showcase as many heroes and villains as possible, the Cold Opening is often a standalone mini-adventure in itself, giving every character a chance to shine — and if the audience likes them, they'll be used again in the main plotline.

It's a light-hearted take on the DC Comics mythos, with a high gag-per-minute level, very little secret-identity drama, and mainly goofy villains like Clock King and Gorilla Grodd. In general, it's not that far from the style of the '60s Batman show. The show is way over on the silly side of the Sliding Scale of Silliness Versus Seriousness, but it also has a number of Wham! Episodes: the show provides its own versions of The Rainbow Batman and Bat-Manga! just as happily as it references The Killing Joke and The Dark Knight Returns.

The show is notable for having the first animated appearance of the Blue Beetle, specifically the third Blue Beetle Jaime Reyes (though Dan Garrett and Ted Kord also make posthumous appearances). It's also the animation debut of the Outsiders (as a team, anyway; Metamorpho had a supporting role on Justice League). One of them is Black Lightning, finally making it to animation. It also marks the first television appearance of the original Flash, Jay Garrick, as well as the Jack Kirby creations Kamandi, The Last Boy On Earth and OMAC: One Man Army Corps. And when A-lister Superman finally appears in season three, his character-centric episode consists of half an hour of nods to Superdickery.com.

The show's first season was originally supposed to run for 13 episodes before a break, but it was so well received that the break until the next episode aired was shortened to a single week, extending the first season well past its original run. After three excellent seasons, the creators decided to wrap up the show, instead of risking Seasonal Rot if they'd continue. A darker CGI series dubbed Beware The Batman is set to replace the show in 2013.

Considering there are several, more serious Batman cartoons still in recent memory, this series can be considered fairly polarizing. Many fans feel that it's a wonderful, tongue-in-cheek throwback to The Silver Age of Comic Books and animated adaptations thereof as well as a way to showcase otherwise less marketable characters. Others think think it's a step backwards from the writing, voice acting, and animation style of the DCAU shows, and feel that it's dumbing things down a little.[1] In either case, the massive number of obscure cameos and canon throwback jokes make the whole series into a big, campy collection of Continuity Porn.

This series has Batman: The Brave and the Bold - The Videogame as a side-scrolling video game adaption released in 2010. While the gameplay received positive to mixed reactions, its presentation is agreed to staying true to the series.

There's a Musical Episode starring Neil Patrick Harris. And there is a crossover with Scooby Doo. Which also animates an old Mad Magazine parody. And stars "Weird Al" Yankovic. And there's also a crossover with Space Ghost.

Tropes used in Batman: The Brave and the Bold include:

Red Tornado: "Felony robbery. Parole violation. Felony assault. Jaywalking."

    • Also qualifies: "This show's closing early, Music Meister, due to criminal intent! And bad reviews."
  • Art Shift: Throughout most of "Chill of the Night!", Batman's costume is a good deal darker than usual, reflecting the mood of the episode.
  • Ascended Extra: Joker gets a lot more focus in season 3.
  • Ascended Fanboy: Jaime Reyes, the Blue Beetle, was apparently a superhero fanboy even prior to gaining the scarab; specifically, it seems, a Batman fanboy. You can imagine his glee when he actually gets to save the world with his hero.

(after blocking lasers that would have otherwise hit Batman)
Blue Beetle: Whoa, I just saved Batman. (super hyped/pumped up) I JUST SAVED BATMAN!!

    • Blue Beetle also seems to be the only one excited to work with AQUAMAN.
    • Bat-Mite is a fifth-dimensional imp who can do just about anything... and his hero is the ever-three-dimensional Batman.
  • Ascended Meme: The first episode features a justified invocation of "What Would Batman Do?"
    • Bat-Mite also describes him "being Batman" as "AWESOME-SAUCE!!".
    • Batman uses an autotuning device to be able to sing as high as Black Canary in "Mayhem of the Music Meister!"
      • Earlier in this episode, there's a shot of dancing prisoners.
    • "Darkseid Descending!" has Booster Gold stealing Green Lantern's bedroom on the Watchtower.
    • The Season 3 premier, "The Battle of the Superheroes!" contained many of the examples of Super Dickery.
  • As Himself/Ink Suit Actor: "Weird Al" Yankovic and Jeffrey "Roastmaster General" Ross.
  • Asteroids Monster: The infection in "Journey to the Center of the Bat!"
  • Attack Its Weak Point: See Colossus Climb below - apparently ogres are weak in the nose.
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: "Tiny" the Enormous Ape in "Last Bat On Earth!"
    • "The Fate of Equinox!" features a 50-Foot Equinox that can only be defeated by a 50-foot Batman with every hero's powers, wearing the Blue Beetle's armor and a Green Lantern Ring.
    • Starro vs. Alloy
  • Attack Pattern Alpha: Evasive Subroutine Niner.
  • Auction of Evil: Catman's bidding war in "Legends of the Dark Mite!".
    • Joe Chill also holds one in "Chill of the Night!".
  • Audible Gleam: Plastic Man fails his willpower roll vs. temptation when a diamond goes "ting!" at him in a room full of money. It audibly gleams again when Plastic Man forces himself to give it back at the end of the same episode.
  • Author Appeal: Of course Zatanna would be Batman's partner for the Batman Cold Open in an episode written by Paul Dini.
  • Author Filibuster: Bat-Mite does this on behalf of Paul Dini in one episode, in the middle of a fight no less. See the page quote.
  • Awesome McCoolname: One of the show's writers is named "Joseph Kuhr". Appropriately enough, he wrote "Game Over for Owlman!".
  • Badass Abnormal: A good number of episodes involve a hero using their abilities to temporarily give Batman superpowers. Like the time where he gets a suit of Green Lantern Ring based armor, or a suit of armor made from the Metal Men, or the combined powers of all the heroes seen so far.
    • Also, when Batman goes to Zur-En-Arrh, he gets the powers of Superman... well, mostly.
  • Badass Family: In "Aquaman's OUTRAGEOUS Adventure!", Mera and Arthur Jr. join AQUAMAN in fighting against the mooks in the end and they kick ass.
    • Also in "Chill of The Night!" when Batman is briefly transported back to a period of time when his parents were still alive, Martha Wayne is taken hostage and he teams up with his father to save her. This scene is made even more awesome by the fact that Thomas Wayne is voiced by Adam West.
    • The Future-Waynes and the entire Batman legacy in "The Knights of Tomorrow!".
  • Badass Grandpa: Wildcat. He battles against a giant blob man with his bare hands, and still fights crime despite an ailing heart, and being at least 60.
    • All the Justice Society, really.
  • Badass in a Nice Suit: Red Hood, with the suave voice to match.
  • Badass Normal: Not Batman for once; he's badass, but a lot more reliant on his gadgets. No, in this show, it's Wildcat.
    • In "Trials of the Demon", Sherlock Holmes proves himself as one too, managing to keep up with Batman and his partner for the week against demons and sorcerers for quite some time.
    • Jonah Hex. There hasn't been a cooler badass cowboy since Vigilante ala Justice League Unlimited.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: Done with an odd inversion in "Joker: The Vile and The Villainous" where since Joker is the hero of the story, naturally the villain (Batman) would beat the hero.
  • Bad Santa: Fun Haus uses evil robot Santas—which are swiftly becoming their own subtrope—as Mecha-Mooks.
    • Not to mention the evil Biker Santas (a Shout-Out to The Badger?) in "Legends of the Dark Mite!"
  • Balloon Belly: Because of his rubbery body, Plastic Man is very prone to it. In "Terror on Dinosaur Island!", he stuffed himself with Grodd's loot when he was tempted by one of his kleptomania fits. Again, in "The Long Arm of the Law!", he intentionally gorged on water as a tactic to stop Rubberneck.
  • Banana Peel
  • "BANG!" Flag Gun: One of the Joker's weapons in "Game Over for Owlman!"
  • Basement Dweller: The Calculator in "Night of the Huntress!", who oddly has his original design, but his modern age job.
  • Batman Can Breathe in Space: In "The Super-Batman of Planet X!" he can, and does so to knock a meteor away from Zur-En-Arrh.
  • Batman Cold Open: Each episode begins with one, appropriately enough—the only exceptions to date being "Mayhem of the Music Meister!", "Deep Cover For Batman!" and "Game Over For Owlman!" (which is the sequel to "Deep Cover")
    • Both parts of "Siege of Starro!" counts as well.
  • Bat Signal: As well as an Owl Signal. And a Nightwing Robin signal!
  • Battle Couple: B'wana Beast and Vixen are adorable.
    • Batman and Catwoman in "The Knights of Tomorrow." Hell, Batman proposed to her after they just beat up a couple of bad guys.
    • Adam Strange and Alanna.
  • Battle Royale With Cheese: the climax of both Owlman episodes.
  • Beard of Evil: Jarvis Kord.
  • Beam-O-War: Between Red Tornado and Tornado Tyrant.
  • Becoming the Mask: In "The Mask of Matches Malone", Batman goes undercover as Matches, gets Easy Amnesia and begins to think of himself as Matches. In this persona he fights superheroes and practically takes over Gotham's underworld. He becomes the mask so strongly that the Applied Phlebotinum du jour, which grants nine extras lives to each person who wears it, apparently counts Batman as a separate person from Malone for that purpose.
  • Bedlam House: Even in this adaptation, Arkham is positively brutal.
  • Berserk Button: " PLATELET!" You Bastard!
    • As well as Gorilla Grodd. As of "The Last Bat on Earth!" he doesn't take kindly to being referred to as any kind of lesser primate.

"MONKEYS?!"

    • Black Lightning has too many to count.
    • Don't mess with Martian Manhunter's cookies.
  • Beware My Stinger Tail: In "Cry Freedom Fighters!", the Supreme Chairman's battle suit includes a stinger tail.
  • Big Damn Hero: The Question in "Darkseid Descending!"
  • Big Red Button: There's a really big one of these in the Batmobile. You really don't want to touch it. It knocks the person who pressed it out.
    • So does the Joker's car except that it deploys jack-in-the-boxes. It even honks when it's pressed!
    • When Joker goes to Kamandi's future, there's a big red button on the altar to "Icbm" (an ICBM): "Oooooh, what does this button do?" BOOM!!!
  • Biker Babe: Huntress.
  • Biological Mashup: B'wana Beast's power is to take two animals, fuse them together, and fight using the resulting creature. In his first appearance he makes a spider-horse and a pelican-shark.
    • In "Gorillas In Our Midst!" he proves to be capable of merging more than two animals with Batman.
  • Bittersweet Ending: While "Mitefall!" ends with the show being cancelled, Ambush Bug made sure Batman stayed true to his character, and gave at least a dignifying ending for the episode and show.
  • Bizarrchitecture: The Library of Infinity.
  • Non Sequitur Episode: "Bat-Mite Presents: Batman's Strangest Cases!" It features Scooby Doo dancing the polka... and that's one of the more sane moments.
  • The Blank: The heads of the GPA in "When OMAC Attacks!"
    • Also Yor, the Faceless Hunter from Saturn.
  • Blatant Lies: In the opening proper of "Hail the Tornado Tyrant!", Red Tornado startles Batman.

Red: I'm sorry if I startled you.
Batman: I wasn't startled.

  • Blessed Are the Cheesemakers: The Spectre infuses this with Nightmare Fuel.
  • Body Count Competition: Between Green Arrow and Bats in "Day of the Dark Knight!"
    • In the flashback opening of "Sidekicks, Assemble!" Robin, Aqualad, and Speedy hold one in a fight-simulator to decide who will lead the group.
  • Bodyguard Babes: In "The Mask of Matches Malones!", Batman poses as mobster Matches Malone and has Black Canary, Huntress and Catwoman pose as his bodyguards.
  • Body Horror: Being infected by Chemo's parasites creates several large painful looking bumps over Batman's body.
  • Boisterous Bruiser: AQUAMAN. When announcing the name of Black Manta, his voice spontaneously echoes. It's almost as if they were trying to be as distant from every other depiction of him (especially the one in Justice League, where he was a barely containable rage case and loose cannon) as possible. AQUAMAN's voice also spontaneously echoes when he names the "Mystery In Space!" adventure "The Strange Encounter of the Reptile Men!"
  • Bond Villain Stupidity: The very first scene of the very first episode features Batman and Green Arrow being locked in a slow-moving Death Trap by a villain (Clock King) who promptly goes to commit his next crime and leaves both of their gear in the same room.
  • Bottomless Magazines: Not bullets: In "Day of the Dark Knight!", Green Arrow and Bats never seem to run out of ammo.
  • Bound and Gagged: Happens at a number of points. Batman himself is bound and gagged in the teaser segments for "Evil Under The Sea!" and "A Bat Divided!"
    • Billy Batson gets gagged by Dr. Sivana's children in "The Power of Shazam!" to prevent him from sayng "Shazam".
    • Zatanna has her mouth magically sealed shut by Abra Kadabra in "Chill of the Night!" to stop her from casting spells.
    • Black Canary is tied up and gagged by Malone's henchwomen in "The Mask of Matches Malone!" in order to neutralize her trademark "Canary Cry".
    • A group of scientists are tied up and gagged by Crazy Quilt's henchmen in "The Color of Revenge!"
  • Brains and Brawn: Both the Atom/AQUAMAN pair and the Brain/Chemo, in the same episode.
    • As well as Dr. X/Double X, keeping in with the original version of the character with the names but making Dr. X more physically feeble to highlight the duality.
  • Breaking the Bonds: An attacking shark in "Evil Under the Sea!", after Batman tied its mouth shut with the cable of his grappling hook.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: Bat-Mite does so regularly, but the Joker also gets in on the action with his commentary in "Death Race To Oblivion!"
    • Bat-Mite downright obliterates the wall in the series finale.
  • Bridge Logic: Kamandi. Using a billboard.
  • Bring It: In "Return of the Fearsome Fangs!", Wong Fei does the "come and get it" hand gesture.
  • Brown Note: The Music Meister can hit a pitch that hypnotically controls anyone who hears it.
    • The fiend!
  • Bullet Seed: Plastic Man, in "Terror on Dinosaur Island!", with the portion of Grodd's loot which he swallowed after liberating it in the hope of keeping some for himself.
  • Busby Berkeley Number: More of an Esther Williams number, actually, with the Atlanteans in "Mayhem of the Music Meister!"
  • Busman's Holiday: "Aquaman's Outrageous Adventure!", a little different in that AQUAMAN willingly goes looking for adventure while on his family vacation.
  • Busman's Vocabulary: Football coach Ronnie Raymond. "Look, kid, it's almost the end of the season-" "Semester." "Whatever."
    • It gets worse. Apparently, he's also a chemistry teacher.

Raymond: And they pass for a touchdown!... Thus forming a covalent bond, any questions?

  • Butt Monkey: Plastic Man.
    • Speedy in his debut does little apart from getting possessed twice in succession.
  • Cain and Abel: Orm's one-sided hatred of his brother AQUAMAN.
  • The Cameo: During Bruce and Selina's wedding in Alfred's story Clark Kent AKA Superman can be seen in the front row, in his usual Clark Kent disguise.
  • Cane Fu: The Riddler displays some mad Cane Fu skills in "The Criss-Cross Conspiracy!", using his cane to deflect a barrage of batarangs.
  • Canis Latinicus: In the Batman Cold Open for "Requiem for a Scarlet Speedster!", Cobra chants a ritual in Latin; what's he saying? "Latin language catch-all" (Lingua Latino Catchnibus Omnibus).
  • Captain Ersatz: Batman's form at the end of "The Fate of Equinox!" (combining the powers of various heroes) resembles that of the Marvel Comics villain, the Super-Adaptoid, the first time he duplicated the powers of the Avengers (except the Adaptoid was green, not blue.)
    • The Faceless Hunter is an obvious Captain Ersatz of the Silver Surfer, with an almost completely identical backstory. Played for laughs at first, then subverted when his master is killed, when it turns out that the Faceless Hunter isn't trying to save his home planet. He just genuinely likes destroying things. And then B'wana Beast dies.
      • It's even worse than that. He came from a completely peaceful planet, and as a hunter, he was a societal outcast. So he arranged for Starro to destroy his planet in exchange for letting him (the Hunter) work for him. That reveal served as a retroactive Moral Event Horizon for him.
  • Car Cushion: In "The Mask of Matches Malone!", Catwoman throws 'Matches' Malone (a.k.a. Batman) of the roof of a building and he smashes through the roof a car. Mind you, the fall technically did kill him.
  • Cartoon Bomb: One of the Joker's weapons in "Game Over for Owlman!"
  • Casual Danger Dialog: Batman with a number of his team ups. His conversation with Mr. Miracle on the Rollercoaster of Death could be the best example yet.
  • Cassandra Truth:

Batman: The criminal you're looking for isn't me. He's my evil double from a parallel world.
Green Arrow: ...Riiiiiight.

  • Casting Gag: Adam West and Julie Newmar as Batman's parents. Kevin Conroy as the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh.
    • Zur-En-Arrh also has pastiches of Lois Lane and Lex Luthor, played by Dana Delany and Clancy Brown.
    • Tom Everett Scott and Billy West reprise their roles as Booster Gold and Skeets from Justice League Unlimited.
    • Jennifer Hale also reprises the role of Zatanna from Justice League. Kevin Conroy's also Phantom Stranger and Mark Hamill's the Spectre.
    • Bill Fagerbakke plays Ronnie Raymond, a former athlete who now works as a high school gym teacher. In the 80's, he played the assistant coach on the television series, Coach.
    • John Welsey Shipp played Barry Allen on the short-lived Flash live-action series in the 90s. In "Requiem for a Scarlet Speedster!", he voiced the Evil Counterpart, the Reverse-Flash/Professor Zoom.
    • Then there's Henry Winkler (the original shark-jumper) and Ted McGinley (the original patron saint of Jump the Shark) appearing on the final episode, where Bat-Mite tries to get the show cancelled by invoking as many "jump the shark" moments as possible.
  • The Cast Showoff: In Mayhem of the Music Meister most of the cast does all their own singing, it's quite good too.
    • This isn't so surprising for Grey DeLisle (Black Canary), as she's also a professional singer.
    • Kevin Michael Richardson is also a trained singer, in fact a suprising number of voice actors are.
    • John DiMaggio has the sense not to try, since his Gorilla Grodd voice is completely incompatible with actual singing. He does get to sing as both AQUAMAN and Vigilante in later episodes, though.
  • Catch Phrase:
    • Deadman: "Are we gonna stand here and twiddle?"
    • AQUAMAN: "Outrageous!"
      • "Old chum!"
  • Cell Phone: Booster Gold has his on at all times to text his publicist, and texts during missions.
  • Cephalothorax: The alien criminal in the cold open of "Day of the Dark Knight!", as well as one of the Green Lanterns battling it.
  • Cerebus Syndrome: Season two gets a little dark in places. B'wana Beast, we hardly knew ye. Also, how many of you, at the beginning of The Last Patrol, you wished Beast Boy had been there too... and were so very glad he wasn't by the end?
  • Chained to a Railway: Happens to Batman in "Emperor Joker!".
  • Charity Ball: The Phantom Stranger takes Batman back in time to witness Bruce Wayne's parents attending one.
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: Things Batman has successfully beaten up include, in ascending order of ridiculousness: Gorillas, sharks, bowling balls (which shattered!), giant man-eating snapping turtles, gods and an extinction-level meteor (off-screen).
    • His training also allows him to block mind control and astral project (both described as techniques from Tibet).
    • There's also Wong Fei, the martial arts master he studied under, and his other students, the first of which can knock people around by poking them.
  • Christmas Episode: "Invasion of the Secret Santas!"
  • Chromatic Arrangement: Crazy Quilt's Color Guard and Color Cannon. Appropriately Lampshaded.
  • Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Uncle Sam can always be revived by patriotic spirit (And not necessarily American spirit, either).
  • Clear My Name: "Game Over For Owlman!"
  • Clock King: Complete with one amazingly cheesy getup and posse.
  • Clothes Make the Superman: Doctor Fate's helmet. Though Batman's been teaching him how to box.
    • Similarly, Booster Gold's gadgets; A force field generator, wrist-mounted lasers and a Legion Flight Ring give him all the powers he has.
  • Clothing Switch: Batman and Superman do this when facing Lex Luthor to prevent Superman being affected by Lex's Kryptonite ring.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Woozy Winks
    • Ice could also count.
  • Colossus Climb: Batman in "Day of the Dark Knight" pulls this on an ogre, then seals the deal with grenades into its nostrils. A similar case happens in "Trials of the Demon" (and both are incidentally Etrigan episodes).
  • Color Character: Blue Beetle, Green Arrow, Red Tornado, Bronze Tiger, Black Canary, etc.
    • Their Mirror Universe counterparts use different colors, but with Alliteration: the three we meet are Blue Bowman, Scarlet Scarab, and Silver Cyclone. There's also Red Hood, counterpart to the Joker.
  • Combining Mecha: Fun Haus has one in "Invasion of the Secret Santas!"
    • The Metal Men also display the ability to merge into a giant Metal Man by the name of Alloy in "The Siege of Starro!"
  • The Comically Serious: The Atom is this next to AQUAMAN, until he decides to just give up on trying to think logically.
  • Composite Character: Kru'll the Eternal combines elements of King Kull (brutish savage with the mind of a genius, the last of his ancient race, overall design including distinctive helmet) and Kalibak (voiced by Michael Dorn, who was Kalibak in Justice League and Superman: The Animated Series, distinctive laser-shooting warclub), with Vandal Savage's origin tossed in for good measure.
    • General Kafka and Shrapnel are combined into one character as well.
    • Owlman's design seems to be a mix between the Justice Lord Batman from the Justice League animated series as well as his own from the comics.
    • Firestorm is one, no pun intended given his nature. The show uses Jason Rusch as the main body, but the show's version of Rusch also made him similar to Martin Stein in that he's interested in science. And filling Stein's role as a mentor? An older version of Ronnie Raymond, who in the comics was the original Firestorm. Note how this kind of twists around the original Firestorm's dynamic twice.
    • Black Mask's design mixes the fedora and brown suit of the original Bronze Age version with the skull-like mask of the Modern Age version.
  • Cool and Unusual Punishment: Orm's punishment for his actions is to listen to AQUAMAN read from his memoirs.
    • Another example would be Spectre dealing with Prof. Milo by transmuting him into cheese and releasing cyborg rats on him.
  • Cool Car: The Batmobile, as always; the red highlights just make it even cooler. (It can transform into a motorcycle, a plane, a submarine, and mecha.)
    • To a lesser degree, the Arrowcar/plane/Other Shapes To Come.
  • Cool Old Guy: Wildcat, The Obi-Wan and Grumpy Old Man; and The Flash, Jay Garrick version.
  • Conspicuous CG: Most, if not all, the vehicles in the series seem to be CG of varying degrees of conspicuousness. Ex., Black Manta's tripod in "Enter the Outsiders!" and Batman's bike in the same scene.
  • Continuity Cameo: The episode "Day of the Dark Knight!" begins with a prison breakout; among the prisoners are Adam West series villains including the Bookworm, King Tut, Louis the Lilac, Egghead and the Siren. And most notably, the face of the Clock King under his mask resembles the actor who played him in the 1960s show (Walter Slezak).
  • Continuity Nod: Even Sherlock Holmes gets one, as one of his first lines in his episode references the events of Arthur Conan Doyle's story The Adventure of the Empty House.
  • Costume Copycat: Both Batman and Owlman employ this tactic.
    • The Batman of Zur-En-Arrh, though completely by random chance.
  • Crazy Prepared: Lampshaded in a conversation between Jaime and Paco about if Batman could take on a mind-controlled Superman if he didn't have any Kryptonite. Jaime says he could. Using kryptonite. Because Batman always has Kryptonite.
    • And in "Terror on Dinosaur Island!":

Plastic Man: You got a plan, Bat...ape?
Batman: I always have a plan.

    • In "Game Over for Owlman!", as in the comics, it turns out Batman has contingency plans to take down his fellow heroes should they ever turn rogue. Too bad Owlman had access to those too.
    • Not to mention the aforementioned Big Red Button in the same episode, which apparently is only there just in case Batman is stuck riding in the Batmobile with somebody who can't resist pushing big red buttons.
    • Batman even had iron batarangs with him in "Trials of the Demon!"
    • Batman has an auxiliary batcave hidden in the Lincoln Memorial.
    • Green Arrow, like always, seems to have just the ridiculous arrow for any occasion. Including multitargeting electric arrows and Nth metal arrowheads.
    • Joker himself shows tendencies of this. When Batman put him in handcuffs, he revealed that he was wearing fake, detachable hands (as well as having a number of other objects up his sleeve).
    • Faceless Hunter has this as well, coming prepared with a counter for anything Batman could throw at him. The fights between them pretty much boiled down to just who was more Crazy Prepared. Batman was, by grabbing one of Faceless Hunter's own weapons to beat him.
  • Crush! Kill! Destroy!: The Bat-Bots, once reprogrammed by Black Mask's man Taboo.
  • Curb Stomp Battle: Batman is unable to do ANYTHING to Lex Luthor when they fight in "The Triumvirate of Terror".
    • Oh, that entire sequence was a curbstomp battle for each of the heroes... Lex Luthor teleported to the Batcave with a epic suit of armor and beat down Batman with barely two minutes worth of effort. Wonder Woman had to take on The Joker who beat her in his boxers with several prank props from Hammerspace and a squirting flower of gas. It was particular frightening/awesome how the Cheetah beat Superman. A magic amulet gave her a power and speed boost and the deciding factor was kryptonite-laced nail polish.
    • In Darkside Descending, Darkseid shows up. He deflects the League's attack and blows them away with a single strike. Then Batman challenges him to single unarmed combat. Batman hits him once. Just...once.
      • Zoom was amused that Batman belived he could beat him
  • Curse Cut Short: In Battle of the Superheroes after red Kryptonite changes Superman's personality to a Jerkass.

Jimmy Olsen: "Superman's turned into a real d-"
Lois: "Different person!"

AQUAMAN: You're so cute. I could just put you in my pocket and keep you there forever.
The Atom: Focus!
AQUAMAN: Yes. Focus, right.

Green Arrow: "You're flirting, aren't you? You are flirting! FLIRTERERS!"

    • The episode "The Knights of Tomorrow!" takes it further, exploring the possibilities that arise from marrying Catwoman.
  • Deadly Dodging: Slacker Batman's mode of fighting.
  • Deadpan Snarker: AQUAMAN brushes briefly with this in the Ra's al Ghul episode.

AQUAMAN: I think I'll call this adventure: The Time Batman Sent Us To The Wrong Island!

    • Catwoman serves this role throughout "The Mask of Matches Malone!", even while in the face of death:

Catwoman (in reference to the bandages around Black Canary's mouth): On the bright side, at least we don't have to hear Canary sing!
Black Canary (glares angrily at Catwoman): Uh hate uw!
Catwoman: I love you too, dear.

  • Deal with the Devil (or rather, a devil): This, apparently, the Gentleman Ghost's origin.
  • Death by Secret Identity: Joe Chill.
  • Death Trap: Lampshaded in an entire song in "Mayhem of the Music Meister!"
  • Deceptive Disciple: Fox, Vulture, and Shark.
  • Defiant to the End: Wildcat, when captured by Slug in "Enter the Outsiders!"
  • Dies Wide Open: Boston Brand's death.
  • Dem Bones: Gentleman Ghost raises an army of skeletons in "Dawn of the Dead Man!".
  • Demonic Possession: Deadman's powers.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Happens every now and then (Batman OHKO'ing Mongul with a punch from the Batmobile's mech form), but subverted with Darkseid. He is absolutely barraged by all of the assembled heroes, only to deflect everything with a telekinetic bubble before blowing everyone back. Batman manages to avoid the Omega Force beams and actually manages to slightly faze him with a pair of super-knuckledusters, only to be sent flying back. From there on out, Batman doesn't even manage to scratch Darkseid, and when The Question shows up and reopens the Boom Tubes, it is made very clear that Batman would have been annihilated on the spot had that intervention not occurred.
  • Damsel in Distress: Black Canary had about a minute and a half of it during "Death Trap" in "Mayhem of the Music Meister!". Justified, though -- It is probably quite difficult to sing and escape at the same time, and really, Batman's had more practice escaping those nasty things anyway.
    • Subverted in the teaser segment of "Chill of the Night". Zatanna is silenced and therefore rendered helpless by the villain, but ultimately frees herself and even gets in her crowning moment of awesome by not only defeating said villain, but rescuing Batman as well.
    • Subverted again in "The Mask of Matches Malone", which has Black Canary, Catwoman and Huntress tied up (and in Canary's case gagged) over a death trap, only for them to pull off an awesome last minute escape. Unsurprisingly, the episode was scripted by longtime "Birds of Prey" writer Gail Simone, who has more than once stated in interviews that she detests the perception of Black Canary as a damsel in distress.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: In the prologue before "Chill of the Night!" featuring Bats teaming with Zatanna, they take on the evil master magician Abra Cadabra. He battles Zatanna, and in order to keep her from verbalizing her spells, gags her, and then promptly does the old scarves-down-the-throat gag...which lasts curiously long and looks, well...
  • Double Entendre: "Birds of Prey" is some sort of glorious tribute to Double Entendres and censors that are asleep at the wheel.
    • Sadly, the attention the internet paid to this number has resulted in Cartoon Network failing to air the episode at all in the US.
  • Dumb Muscle: Boy genius Roland Desmond thought he would be able to amplify his muscles to match his brains, but that didn't pan out the way he'd planned after he turned into Blockbuster. Also Lead of the Metal Men (though the entire team is pretty childlike here, Lead is the standout and the most obviously lacking in intelligence). And arguably AQUAMAN. Also Rubberneck.
    • And Proto.
  • Dungeon Bypass: The Haunted Tank does it exactly like the trope picture through a shipping yard.
  • Earthshattering Kaboom: The teaser for "Joker: The Vile and the Villainous!" ends with Joker pressing the button on the Omega warhead. Which blows up the Earth.
  • Easily Forgiven: AQUAMAN's completely unwilling to give up on his brother again no matter what he does or how Obviously Evil he is.
  • The Eeyore: AQUAMAN (of all people) comes close to becoming this in "Mystery in Space!". Happily, he gets better.
    • Also villain-protagonist The Weeper is one in "Joker: The Vile and the Villainous"
  • Ejection Seat: Appearing in the second episode, as Batman ponders ejecting an annoying, talkative Plastic Man.
  • Elaborate Underground Base: The Bat Cave.
  • Electric Torture
  • Emotion Eater: Psycho Pirate
  • Enlightenment Superpowers
  • Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Bats gains a few vital seconds asking a power hungry Superman what his parents would think of his actions.
  • Everything's Better with Monkeys Riding Dinosaurs With Harpoon Guns Stealing A Boat: Gorilla Grodd and Dinosaur Island; In the Same Episode!
  • Even Evil Has Standards: In "Chill of the Night" Lewis Moxton on his death bed feels that, despite acting on orders, Joe Chill went too far in shooting Martha Wayne, feeling that it was wrong leave young Bruce without a mother.
  • "Everybody Laughs" Ending: Made fun of in "Long Arm of the Law!". After beating Kite-Man, Plastic Man makes a lame pun and both he and Woozy start laughing, with Batman just standing there for a full minute before he just walks offscreen.
  • Evil Albino: The Slug.
  • Evil Brit: Gentleman Ghost.
  • Evil Costume Switch: Tornado Champion becomes Tornado Tyrant after adding a lot of black and purple armor to make him much bigger as well as a few other pointy attachments.
  • Evil Laughter: Fairly commonplace for the series itself, but The Music Meister has it down to an art. Maybe he saw a voice coach.
  • Eviler Than Thou: Silver Cyclone in "Deep Cover for Batman!".
  • Excalibur in the Stone: The episode "Day of the Dark Knight!".
  • Exactly What I Aimed At: From "The Super-Batman of Planet X!":

Rothul: Your aim is terrible!
Batman: Is it, Rothul?
(Cue Oh Crap moment as the robot Rothul is standing on explodes)

  • Excited Episode Title/Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: There must always be an exclamation point!
  • Exiled From Continuity: Corporate mandates meant that the writers couldn't use Wonder Woman on the show, until the Cold Opening of "Scorn of the Star Sapphire!" (episode 57 out of 65) (she even brought her old theme song with her!). The full Trinity showed up in episode #60, "Triumvirate of Terror!" (which pits them against Lex Luthor, the Joker, and a very DCAU-ish Cheetah).
    • Played with in "Mayhem of the Music Meister!" where a picture of Wonder Woman is seen in Music Meister's Death Trap room, only to have her face obscured by other concert stickers so that you could only see her hair and trademark tiara.
    • She and fellow former exile Superman were seen from behind in the Cold Open to "Sidekicks Assemble!". Superman got his first appeareance in the episode "Battle of the Superheroes!".
  • Expospeak Gag: In "The Rise of the Blue Beetle!":

Blue Beetle: It's like no time's passed since we left!
Batman: Due to the quantum anomalies of wormholes, none has.
Batman voiceover: Of course, that's just a fancy way of saying "...that's weird."

  • Expy: Fun Haus substitutes for Toyman and/or Prankster with some Joker tendencies, but no one's really sure.
  • Eye Beams: Black Manta
  • Eye Scream/Fingore: In one episode Bats throws a cactus at the Ten-Eyed Man, who has ten eyes, one on each finger. He catches it automatically, then drops it screaming in pain. "My eyes! My eyes!"
  • Eyes Do Not Belong There: The aforementioned Ten-Eyed Man, and also Mutant Master from the episode featuring the Doom Patrol.
  • Eye Lights Out: How we know Tornado Tyrant is "dead". Similarly, how we know Red Tornado is "dead" when the Faceless Hunter is shown dispatching the heroes that Starro couldn't control.
  • The Faceless: The Question... and Batman himself. This extends to Robin's flashbacks and even covering Owlman's unmasked face in shadow. Similarly, the camera only ever shows Red Hood's real face in shadow, but it's still quite easy to tell that he's really Mirror Universe's Joker, even if you don't get the Mythology Gag.
    • We see Bruce Wayne's face in "Chill of the Night!" Oddly enough, he looks almost identical to Bruce Wayne as he appeared in Batman the Animated Series.
  • Face Heel Turn: Batman under the vampire curse, in "Shadow of the Bat!" It seems to suit him, too. He's using every vampire power ever listed to great effect, and have you ever seen him smile that much?
  • Face Palm: Batman after Plastic Man fails to recognize the president.
  • Failsafe Failure: Tornado Champion's, naturally.
  • Fainting: In the cold open of "Enter the Outsiders!", a bystander faints at the sight of Bwana Beast's Biological Mashup powers in action.
  • Falling Chandelier of Doom: Batwoman attempts to use one to stop the Riddler in "The Criss-Cross Conspiracy!". She misses.
  • Fangs Are Evil: Kru'll the Eternal.
    • And averted with Wildcat and B'wana Beast, who are definitely good guys and don't exactly have Cute Little Fangs.
  • Fantastic Voyage: The Atom and AQUAMAN journey inside Batman in "Journey to the Center of the Bat!".
  • Fastball Special: Etrigan does this with Batman in "Trials of the Demon!", to Bats' surprise.
  • Fat Bastard: Slug from "Enter The Outsiders!"
  • Fiery Redhead: Guy Gardner.
  • Finger-Poke of Doom: Wong Fei in "Return of the Fearsome Fangs!"
  • Five-Bad Band: General Zahl's team of Doom Patrol villains in "The Last Patrol" can count as one:
    • Big Bad: General Zahl
    • The Dragon: Arsenal (could also count as The Brute)
    • The Evil Genius: The Brain (Even though he is usually the Big Bad to the Doom Patrol. He's probably the smartest one on the team, but apparently not smart enough to lead it.)
    • The Brute: Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man, the Mutant Master, and Monsieur Mallah
  • Flashback Twist: In episode 1, after Blue Beetle's suit starts acting of its own accord:

Batman: This kind of thing happen often?
Cut to a cat stuck in a tree. Blue Beetle reaches to help it down, but his suit's arm turns into a whirling blade that defoliates the entire tree. The traumatized cat leaps down to attack him. Cut back to present.
Blue Beetle: Uh... no...

    • In episode 2, "Terror on Dinosaur Island!", we see Plastic Man's origin story, as Plas points out that Batman only helps him try to be a hero because he feels guilty. A scene later, we see the rest of it, as an indication Plas feels guilty for not living up to Batman's trust and faith.
    • In "Invasion of the Secret Santas!", we see a sad Flashback Twist explaining why Batman crimefights even on Christmas. He misses his mom and dad, who were gunned down in Crime Alley. Then we see a further Flash Back, and realize young Bruce was in the middle of a bratty sulk over not getting a toy even though his parents had tried to make it up to him. A moment later, his parents were killed. On Christmas Day.
    • Anything Booster Gold says about himself in "Menace of the Conqueror Caveman!"
    • In "Sidekicks Assemble!":

Green Arrow: I've always treated Speedy well. (flashback) Quick, retrieve my bow from that crocodile pit!

  • Floating Continent: Ra's al Ghul uses a flying island as his base of operations in "Sidekicks Assemble!".
  • Flung Clothing: How the Music Meister changes from one costume to another: from Liberace to Mozart, to Prof. Harold Hill to Kiss, to Hendrix to Elvis.
  • Follow the Bouncing Ball: Used in Plastic Man's sing-a-long improvised version of "Yankee Doodle".
  • Foreshadowing: During the opening number in "Mayhem of the Music Meister", Batman handcuffs Black Canary and Green Arrow together. By the end of the episode they're together, and don't need handcuffs for it.
  • Forgotten Superweapon: The Batmobile's Humongous Mecha form, which Batman has only used twice so far.
  • Freudian Excuse: Played straight in "Inside the Outsiders!" with Katana, but then utterly demolished in the next scene: instead of a deep core of emotional trauma, Black Lightning is mostly just annoyed at yuppies, people who don't clean up after their pets, things that Taste Like Diabetes, etc.
  • Friendly Playful Dolphin: Aquaman's dolphin.
  • Funny Foreigner: The Brain is an evil Brain In a Jar that talks with an over-the-top French accent. Of course, this is straight out of the comics.
  • Fun Personified: The entire series is pretty much the DCU distilled into its purest, fun personified form.
    • If it had to be narrowed down to one character, though, IT'D BE AQUAMAN, CHUM!
  • Gag Boobs: When Batman is body-swapped with Katrina Moldoff, he is tied to a chair and attempts escaping, only to fall to the ground, whereupon he realises that, in Katrina's body, his centre of gravity is much... higher than usual.
  • Gainaxing: Zatanna in "Chill of the Night!"
  • Galactic Conqueror: Kanjar Ro, Despero, Starro
  • GASP: Served as some strange Running Gag in the Christmas episode.
  • Gatling Good: In "Mitefall!" the steam-powered cyborg assassin John Wilkes Booth has twin gatling guns.
  • Gaussian Girl: Huntress
  • Genius Bruiser: Grodd, as ever. However, he has a lot more typically simian characteristics than usual: sometimes he just goes nuts with howling and pounding his chest. Also Kru'll, who, as King Kull in Captain Marvel comics, was one of if not the original portrayal of this archetype in comics.
  • Genius Cripple: The future Joker in "The Knights of Tomorrow!"
  • Genius Loci: Mogo the living planet.
  • Genre Savvy: Joker in Alfred's Fanfic. Joker invokes Joker Immunity for the reason he returns from his Disney Villain Death. Joker also shows some Medium Awareness by stating that killing Batman would end the tv show.
  • Gilligan Cut: In "Darkseid Descending", Martian Manhunter tries to rally the new League with a Rousing Speech that ends with him asking if people will remember the League as a bunch of individuals who couldn't get the job done, or the greatest hero team ever that saved Earth in its darkest hour. Everyone cheers triumphantly...and then we see the entire team defeated and captured by Parademons.

Jaime: That so did not go how I was expecting.

  • The Gimmick: The Weeper is the Trope Maker in this continuity.
  • Go Into the Light: In "Dawn of the Dead Man!", Batman encounters the Light while astral travelling, and his parents come out of it to encourage him to join them; he considers it, but decides he still has work to do on Earth. In the same episode, the ghost of Boston Brand is bitter that he hasn't encountered the Light even though he's been dead for a while; it comes for him at the end of the episode, but by then he's come to terms with the idea that he, too, still has work to do on Earth.
  • Good Angel, Bad Angel: Spectre and Phantom Stranger for Batman.
  • Good Thing You Can Heal: Red Tornado gets blown to pieces in the Christmas episode. Of course, he's a robot, so Star Labs just puts him back together.
    • When Batman (thinking he's a mob boss due to Easy Amnesia) obtains the Cloak of Nefertiti that grants him nine lives, he goes through them in a matter of days. Of course, once it runs out and he's Batman again, he goes back to just not dying.
  • Gory Discretion Shot: In "Enter the Outsiders!", just after Batman says "but very useful in the fight against crime", the shark-pelican lunges at the horse-spider. Suffice to say, the policeman probably didn't get his horse back.
    • In "Mystery in Space!": AQUAMAN reacts to seeing a Beluga Whale being hunted down.
    • The hostage in The Last Patrol.
    • Several in "Emperor Joker!"
  • Grand Theft Me: Katrina Moldoff does this to Batman in "The Criss-Cross Conspiracy!".
  • Gratuitous Animal Sidekick: Ace The Bat-Hound
  • Great Gazoo: Bat-Mite
  • Green Eyes: Catwoman has those, as in her comic's version. Her son Damian Wayne also gets them.
  • Green Lantern Ring: The sheer variety of these is just hilarious. Of course we have the Trope Namer, but also the Blue Beetle's armor, Firestorm, most shapeshifters (apparently, Plastic Man can transform his body into fuel for his own car form), even Batman's utility belt verges on this sometimes.
  • The Guards Must Be Crazy: "Night of the Huntress!"

Guard: "That's a pretty big carriage for such a small kid..."

Batman: I've trained for years to fight crime. You just say words backwards.

  • Having a Heart: Blue Beetle's Mirror Universe counterpart has the true heart of a hero. He keeps it in a big jar at the back of his closet.
  • Hello, Nurse!: This is pretty much what Huntress is to Blue Beetle.
    • In "Night of the Batmen", Plastic Man (in his own Batman outfit) has this reaction when he comes across Catwoman in her new 70's-era outfit. Catwoman herself is not too happy about this, since she was hoping to get this reaction from the real Batman.
  • Heroic BSOD: AQUAMAN is in the middle of one in "Mystery in Space!", which started when he failed to save a Beluga from whalers.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Ted Kord.
    • B'wana Beast at the end of the Siege of Starro.
    • The original Black Canary in "The Golden Age of Justice!".
    • The Doom Patrol
    • Played straight with G.I. Robot and subverted with Proto in "Plague of the Prototypes!"
  • Heroic Willpower: Batman and the Green Lantern Corps. Doubly so when Bats gets a Green Lantern augmented power suit which grows more powerful with willpower alone, used to bring back the entire Corps back from the brink of destruction.
  • "Hey You!" Haymaker: At the beginning of "The Fate of Equinox!". Super-sized at the end.
  • Historical Domain Character/Recognition Failure: Barack Obama appears at the end of "Cry Freedom Fighters!" to congratulate Plastic Man on his patriotism. Plas has no idea who he is.
    • J.E.B. Stuart, the ghost who inhabits the Haunted Tank, was a real Confederate general in the U.S. Civil War
  • Historical In-Joke: In the Cold Opening of "Mitefall!", Steampunk John Wilkes Booth shouts "Sic semper tyrannis!"[2] as he battles Batman and Abraham Lincoln. In Real Life, Booth said this after he fatally shot Lincoln.
  • Hit Flash: Many times. The first seen was about 25 seconds into the series trailer.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: After he stole the Blue Beetle armor using his Gamma Gong, Kanjar Ro was defeated... with the Gamma Gong.
    • Gentleman Ghost, like most defeated necromancers, was dragged kicking and screaming down to the underworld by his own freed slaves.
    • Batman outright said the trope by name when he was left near helpless due to Quartz poisoning (works like kryptonite on Zur-En-Arrh, except for humans) thanks to not being Genre Savvy enough to test for any weaknesses in his new found powers.
    • The Faceless Hunter was ultimately prepared for everything that Batman had. So Batman stole the Hunter's own force field generating devices and beat him with it.
    • Bat-Mite, in the final episode, tries to get the show cancelled to make way for a new darker animated Batman show. He gets his wish but, as Ambush Bug explains, as there's no room for a silly character like him in a darker Batman show he fades from existance.
  • Hollywood Acid: Acid seen in this series is greenish-yellow.
  • Hollywood Atlas: You know it's Britain because of the shop sign that says "Fish and Chips".
  • Hollywood Dress Code: Red Tornado's alter-ego, Professor Ulthoon, in bow tie and tweed jacket with elbow patches.
  • Homage: The entrance to the Batcave is identical to its entrance in the 60s TV series.
    • Master Wong Fei ("Return of the Fearsome Fangs") is not only named after Wong-Fei Hong, the legendary fighter-doctor, but uses a Finishing Move straight out of the Once Upon A Time In China movies. Oh, and he's modelled after Pai Mei.
  • Hot Amazon: Huntress—at least as far as Jaime's.
  • Hot for Teacher: Jaime and Huntress again. Of course, he doesnt realise she's his teacher.
  • Hot Mom: Selina Kyle Wayne in "The Knights of Tomorrow!".
  • How Do I Shot Web?: Jaime really has no idea what he's doing in the Blue Beetle suit in early episodes.
  • Huge Holographic Head: Black Manta uses this (in his case, including a Huge Holographic Body) to announce to the inhabitants of Atlantis that he's about to crush them.
  • Human Notepad: G'Nort has the Green Lantern Oath written out on his forearm, because he keeps forgetting how it goes. (Now his only problem is remembering that he's got it written out on his forearm...)
  • Humans Are Special: Red Tornado's observation, opposite of Tornado Tyrant's Humans Are the Real Monsters perspective.
  • Humongous Mecha: In "Night of the Huntress!", several are stolen by Baby-Face's gang at a Government Warehouse. Also, the freaking Batmobile turns into a robot, complete with a Transformation Sequence with an elaborate colored background.
  • Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: Referenced in the Cold Open of "Shadow of the Bat!", with Batman and Robin taking on Catwoman in the jungle.
  • Hurricane of Puns: Just about every single episode.
  • Hyperspace Arsenal: Batman's utility belt. At bare minimum, it contains at least a jet pack, something much like a lightsaber (and a more normal sword) and a hang glider in there. Though to be perfectly fair, in the comics during the era of the original The Brave and the Bold series, Batman's utility belt included mini hand grenades and a cutting laser, among other things.
    • The Atom produces several weapons and a microscope out of nowhere, presumably explained by his use of his shrinking technology for storage.
    • Bat-Mite's Utility Belt, though possibly justified as he's an extra-dimensional being, and probably just pulls it from home.
    • Joker's jacket and pants.
  • I Am Not Shazam: Hans von Hammer was never actually called Enemy Ace; that was just the title of the feature. His In-Universe Red Baron nickname was "The Hammer of Hell."[3]
  • I Am Spartacus: We are the Doom Patrol.
  • I Just Want to Be Special: Revealed to to be the Joker's primary motivation.
  • I Know Madden Kombat: The Sportsmaster and his goons.
  • I Need a Freaking Drink: Martian Manhunter's cookie addiction is played for this in "Crisis 22,300 Miles Above Earth!"
  • I Want You to Meet An Old Friend of Mine: Will Friedle playing Blue Beetle and Jason Marsden playing his best friend Paco are best friends in real life. Consequently the two also worked together on a number of other shows.
  • Idea Bulb: Bat-Mite literally has one.
    • Plastic Man makes one out of his head in "The Long Arm of the Law!".
  • Idiot Hero: G'Nort.
  • Impairment Shot: Oddly, Batman's mask does not wink out when he goes unconscious. But the blurry out of focus shot indicates he's conscious again.
  • Indy Ploy: "Last Bat On Earth!"

Tuftan: Did you say you had a plan to deal with this monster?
Kamandi: More of an idea than a plan.

  • Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: A lot of the more minor villains like the Top and Calendar Man seem like guys who just can't catch a break.
    • The Weeper. Joker snaps him out of it, however.
  • Instant Costume Change: The Music Meister can somehow switch into a variety of costumes even while running away.
  • Instant Death Bullet: Assumed to be the weapons of Gentleman Ghost.
  • Instant Expert: When Dr. Sivana gets his hands on Captain Marvel's powers, he's immediately whaling on a hero who had identical powers for a good while longer.
  • Institutional Apparel: The striped cap, shirt and pants combo appears on human!Grodd at the end of "Terror on Dinosaur Island!".
    • And again on the prisoners in "Day of the Dark Knight!".
    • And we see there are straitjackets in Arkham as well as the striped outfit for prisoners in "Mayhem of the Music Meister!" Gotham only puts the worst offenders in Arkham. The rest get jail. Figure it'll show up a lot given Batman and company constantly kicking badguy butt.
  • Instrument of Murder: The Music Meister had a smoke-spewing pipe organ he used to cover his escape and laser firing microphones that formed part of his Death Trap.
    • And in "Night of the Batmen!", the Vigilante has a rifle inside his guitar.
  • Insufferable Genius: Sherlock Holmes.
  • Intercontinuity Crossover: One with Scooby Doo occurs in Season 3, as a homage to the New Scooby Doo Movies. One cold open is basically an episode of Hanna-Barberra's Space Ghost, with Batman helping him fight the Creature King.
  • Intro Dump: For the Injustice Syndicate in "Deep Cover for Batman!"
  • Invincible Hero: Batman is much like his Silver Age counterpart in this respect, but see below:
    • Subverted in "Drives us Bats!", a musical number wherein the Music Meister snarks on Batman's perfection, WHILE CONTINUALLY ELUDING HIM. By the end of the song, every character that had ever appeared on the show, hero and villain, is joining in the complaints about Batman's omnipotence.
    • Averted in "The Power of Shazam!" Black Adam just steamrolls Batman.
    • Also averted in "The Siege of Starro" as the Faceless Hunter From Saturn proves to be more than a match for Batman, in skill, strength AND technology.
    • Doubly Subverted in "Emperor Joker": somehow Joker and his gang have him on the ropes long enough for Bat-Mite to decide to help (which triggers the plot); later Batman defeats the now-Reality Warper Joker with his mind. Throw in a bit of Fridge Brilliance and stir. The Joker is completely defined by Batman in everyway. His act requires a straightman, and without Batman he's nothing. It's also more or less how Superman beat him in the actual Emperor Joker storyline.
    • Averted in "Darkseid Descending" when Batman fights against Darkseid himself. Bats gets his ass kicked handily, and Darkseid is only beaten by reversing the Boomtubes to take him back to Apokolips.
    • Also averted when Batman fights Superman under the influence of Red Kryptonite. He dons a new armor and is able to hold his ground for a time, but is almost killed. luckily Red Kryptonite has a time limit
  • Irony as She Is Cast: The episode "The Mask of Matches Malone!" features a scene where Catwoman jokingly suggests that Black Canary being gagged by the bad guys is a good thing because she apparently has a terrible singing voice. In real life, Black Canary's voice actress, Grey DeLisle, is a Grammy-winning professional singer.
  • Iris Out: "Long Arm of the Law!" ends with Plas and Woozy laughing, and Batman standing there. The iris closes, opens one more time to show the Caped Crusader simply walking away.
  • I Shall Taunt You: Wildcat against just about anyone.
  • Island Base: Science Island
  • It's What I Do: Gets lampshaded in due course, though one example (Deadman's entry into a fight against Gentleman Ghost) is lampshaded by both Batman and Deadman.

Batman: Nice entrance.
Deadman: I was in the circus.

    • AQUAMAN actually says "It's what I do" in "Evil Under the Sea!", after the villain expresses surprise that he risked his life to save him.
  • Jaw Drop: Including the obligatory exaggerated jaw drop from Plastic Man.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Guy Gardner, playing up the jerk angle hard, until the chips are down.

Sinestro: Are you so eager to prove you're a hero?
Guy Gardner: It ain't about me. It's about Mogo! And G'nort! AND EARTH!

  • Jet Pack: Seems to be part of Batman's standard operating kit. When he's not using it, it goes limp and turns into his cape. (He can be seen activating it near the beginning of "Rise of the Blue Beetle!", and deactivating it during "Invasion of the Secret Santas!")
  • Joke Character: Kite Man.
  • Joker Immunity: Lampshaded by the man himself.

Joker: Oh who cares? I've been blown up, thrown down smokestacks, fed to sharks; I'm the Joker! I always survive!

  • Journey to the Center of the Mind: "Inside The Outsiders!"
  • Jumping the Shark: Parodied, Discussed, and Invoked in-universe in "Mitefall!", as Bat-Mite decides that the show's formula is repetitive, and decides to cancel the show by adding in horrible changes intentionally.
  • Jumping on a Grenade: In "Plague of the Prototypes", G.I. Robot saves Batman and Easy Company by jumping on top of a landmine while storming the beaches on D-Day.
  • Karmic Death: Lampshaded and justified with Joe Chill.
  • Keystone Army: In "Journey to the Center of the Bat!", after AQUAMAN and the Atom establish experimentally that the infection is too numerous and virulent to defeat by attacking individual microbes, it conveniently turns out there's a "seed cell" that if they destroy it the rest of the microbes will die too.
  • Kick the Dog: Kanjar Ro pretty much embodies this trope. Highlights include slamming Jaime face first into a gong. Not the Beetle, Jaime.
    • A closer-to-literal version occurs in the episode "Revenge of the Reach!" when the Reach-possessed Jaime blasts good ol' G'Nort.
  • Kirby Dots
  • Killed Off for Real: Ted Kord.
    • And B'wana Beast in The Siege of Starro.
    • The original Black Canary.
    • "PLATELET!" (cue Roaring Rampage of Revenge)
    • The Doom Patrol (Elasti-Girl, Negative Man, Robotman and the Chief) in "The Last Patrol!".
  • Knight of Cerebus: Inverted to a point with The Spectre. In the two episodes where he is featured prominently ("Chill of the Night!" and "Gorillas in our Midst!") where he kills Joe Chill and Professor Milo, respectively. This is played straight with General Zahl, the man who unites the Doom Patrol's rouges gallery and kills the DP and Faceless Hunter, minion of Starro who kills B'Wanna Beast.
  • Knight Templar: Sinestro.
  • Lampshaded the Obscure Reference: The series finale had a character from The DCU appear for the first time.

"Ambush Bug? You're a pretty obscure hero, even for this show"

  • Lampshade Hanging: In spades, some instances of which are also Mythology Gags (see, for example, the comment about Batman's utility belt in the first episode).
    • In "The Last Patrol!", Negative Man gives a heavy sigh before identifying his attacker as Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man, lampshading the silly name.
  • Land Mine Goes Click: Happens to a member of Easy Company in "The Plague of the Prototypes!".
  • Lantern Jaw of Justice: Every. Single. Male. Character. (Except Jaime, but he's young yet. And Plastic Man, but he's a little amoral. And Riddler.)
  • Larynx Dissonance: Both Mongul and his sister Mongal are voiced by Gary Anthony Williams.
  • Large Ham: AQUAMAN. Good lord, AQUAMAN!
    • The Music Meister first announces himself by triumphantly singing his own name, and never looks back. Heck, his entire episode might be considered a Large Ham. Bonus points for being voiced by special guest star Neil Patrick Harris.
    • Gentleman Ghost has his moments. "Riiiiise, my criminal brethren! RIIIIIIISE AND DOOOO MY BIDDIIIING!!!"
    • Wherever The Joker is involved, expect hamminess and Evil Laughter galore.
  • Laser Blade: The first episode has Batman storing one of these in his utility belt. Where did it come from? Doesn't it violate his technical pacifism? Who cares? It's Batman with a lightsaber!
  • Laser Hallway: One of the actively-hazardous variety, guarding the villain's air ducts in "Fall of the Blue Beetle!". (He could have just made the ducts too small for a superhero to fit through—but this isn't that kind of show.)
  • Latex Perfection: At one point Batman disguises himself as Superman by wearing a latex face mask over his regular pointy-eared mask.
  • Layman's Terms: The Atom explaining his device to AQUAMAN.

The Atom: This... doohickey... beeps... when the cooties are near.

Stargirl: Great. I send for the world's greatest hero and I get the knockoff Blue Beetle.
Jaime: Knockoff? I prefer to think of myself as a reimagined hero for a new generation.

    • Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, and Wally West are all active Flashes, the third being Kid Flash.
    • Inverted with Firestorm. In the comics, Firestorm was a teenager named Ronnie Raymond who got his powers in a nuclear accident. In 2004, Ronnie was killed off and replaced by a new character named Jason Rusch. The cartoon uses the best of both worlds by having both Ron and Jason present at the same accident, which causes them to BOTH act as Firestorm.
    • Black Canary inherited her title (and, unlike in the comics, power) from her deceased mother.
  • Legion of Doom: Used and (arguably) inverted throughout the span of just two episodes.
    • Inverted: the Justice Underground of Owlman's world, which comprises the mirror-universe counterparts of normal villains.
    • Used: to mirror the above event, Owlman gathering the main universe villains for Part II.
  • Lethal Chef: Wildcat's trademark drink, "Tiger Tonic", is a shake made from tuna, hot sauce, raw eggs, and bananas, which audibly fizzles and kills plants when you put it in their pots.
  • Lighter and Softer: This series is lighter and softer than the DCAU. It's lighter and softer than The Batman. Heck, it far overshoots Teen Titans but still has a much higher Mohs number than Superfriends.
    • Lampshaded in "Legends of The Dark Mite!"

Bat-Mite: "To be sure this is a lighter incarnation, but is no less valid or true to the character's roots as the tortured avenger crying out for Mommy and Daddy."

    • The Brave and the Bold comic was also way Lighter and Softer than its contemporaries by the time it was discontinued. It was sharing newsstands with the O'Neil/Adams Batman stories, as well as the "relevant", social-issues-focused incarnations of the other Bronze Age DCU series.
    • The video game has a scene in which Bane picks up Batman, as if to break his back... when suddenly, Green Arrow shows up and defeats Bane with a single arrow, then proceeds to comically tease Batman about always having to save him.
    • Tempered by dramatic Mood Whiplash. This show has the darkest retelling of the death of Batman's parents ever, the meeting with Bruce's parents in "Dawn of the Deadman!," and just about the entire plot of "Hail the Tornado Tyrant!"
      • And the entire plot of "Chill of the Night!"
      • It also featured onscreen deaths for Black Canary Sr., B'wana Beast and the original Blue Beetle, with an offscreen but still explicit demise for Ted Kord. The entire Doom Patrol, a la their original comic's ending, followed. Even Justice League Unlimited usually steered clear of "Cape-Killing".
      • This is also the only adaptation of the comic book that has actually killed Batman on-screen, SEVERAL GRUESOME TIMES.
  • Lighthearted Rematch: Batman only accepts Bronze Tiger's invitation to fight to force him to help against Fox, Vulture and Shark. But at the end, after the Tiger learns his Aesop, the pair of them fight again as a friendlier match.
  • Lightning Can Do Anything: Even when flung by Major Disaster. This lightning brings Tornado Champion down and activates his emotional subroutine.
  • Likes Older Women: Blue Beetle in "Night of the Huntress!"
  • Limelight Series: The Joker has appeared in one 2-part episode while characters like Red Tornado, Blue Beetle, Green Arrow and AQUAMAN are the series regulars.
    • He gets more.
  • Lipstick and Load Montage: The Joker gets this in one episode. Course he's fueled by Rule of Funny.
  • Literal Genie: Jim Craddock's undoing.

Astaroth: Very well. Your soul shall never pass from the earth.

  • The Load: G'Nort. Just G'Nort. The guy makes Jar Jar Binks seem legitimately useful.
  • Loads and Loads of Characters: Aside from having a few principal characters being recurring (Especially Ensemble Darkhorse AQUAMAN), there's a new batch each episode!
  • Loony Fan: Bat-Mite
  • The Long List: In "Legends of the Dark Mite!", Bat-Mite is a speaker at the Fifth Dimensional 267th Annual Comic Book, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Animation, Anime, Gaming, Action Figure, Role-playing, Vintage Toy, Collectible Card Game, Pop-Culture, & Tiddlywinks Convention.
  • Lost World: Dinosaur Island.
  • Love Triangle: We see in "Mayhem of the Music Meister!" that Green Arrow has the dig on for Black Canary who has the dig on for Batman (who only has the dig on for Justice).
    • And Catwoman.
    • Throw in Music Meister's crush on Canary and we have a Love... Parallelogram?
      • More like a triangle on a stick, since neither Arrow nor Batman show any attraction towards the Meister.
      • Try telling that to the fans.
  • Lyrical Dissonance: The Music Meister' sings "let's not fight, let's get along" while either sending heroes to their doom with the villains, or with the whole populace stealing and about to attack Batman.
  • Mad Artist: Crazy Quilt.
  • Made of Explodium: The Gordanian Battle Tripod, and robots shown in the cartoon in general.
  • Made of Iron
  • Magical Database: Red Tornado keeps a record of absolutely everything in his head.
  • Magical Defibrillator: Black Lightning uses his powers to act as one in "Enter the Outsiders!".
  • Make It Look Like an Accident: Moxon's orders to Chill regarding his hit on the Waynes in "Chill of the Night!"
  • Make Me Wanna Shout: Scream Queen. Also Black Canary.
  • Man-Eating Plant: Man-eating plants form part of Ra's al Ghul's plan for world domination in "Sidekicks Assemble!".
    • And Poison Ivy attempts to feed Batman to one in "The Mask of Matches Malone!".
  • Married to the Job: Black Canary's repeated attempts to date Batman all end in failure, with the explanation "Crime doesn't take dinner breaks, and neither do I." She eventually moves on to Green Arrow.
    • Ice thinks Fire means this when she tells her AQUAMAN is married.
  • Meaningful Echo: In "Sidekicks Assemble!", Robin, Aqualad, and Speedy get the formation wrong, later, Batman, AQUAMAN, and Green Arrow do the exact same thing.
  • Mecha-Mooks: Degaton's robotic army in "The Golden Age of Justice!"
  • Medium Awareness: Bat-Mite, Bat-Mite, Bat-Mite. Taken to extremes in "Bat-Mite Presents: Batman's Strangest Cases!", where he points out animation errors or differences between the dub and the original script.
  • Memetic Badass: Batman seems to be this in-universe, as evidenced by AQUAMAN's response to The Atom suggesting they get out from inside his body through his tear ducts.

AQUAMAN: Tear ducts? But surely, the Batman never cries!

  • Meta Guy: Batman, though never out loud (except on one occasion where he points out how ridiculous his costume is).
  • Mirror Universe: "Deep Cover for Batman!" has a world where the heroes of Batman's earth form the evil Injustice Syndicate. Batman, Blue Beetle, Green Arrow, and Red Tornado are replaced by Owlman, Scarlet Scarab, Blue Bowman, and Silver Cyclone. The Atom, AQUAMAN, Plastic Man, and Fire's doubles are also seen, but not named.
  • Mood Motif
  • Mood Whiplash: In a meta sense, considering this started airing in the same year that the bleakest Batman movie yet was in theaters.
    • A more straight example would be "Invasion of the Secret Santas!" suddenly shifting from fighting evil toy robots to a flashback of Batman's parents getting murdered.
    • By a freak of scheduling, the totally wacky and meta "Legends of the Dark Mite!" was followed by the very somber "Hail the Tornado Tyrant!"
    • "Chill of the Night!" features a standard whimsical cold open, then gives us a Dini-written tale that's on par with the darkest moments in Batman the Animated Series. Hell, this could easily have been an episode of Batman the Animated Series.
    • The opener for "Gorillas in our Midst!" featured Batman teaming up with the Spectre to take down Dr. Milo. Batman leaves Milo for the police, but Spectre has a much more sinister idea of justice in mind for him...
      • The episode itself was incredibly campy and lighthearted.
    • The already dour "The Last Patrol!" episode became depressing in the second half when first, General Zahl kills his hostage offscreen and then the group get killed off to save 14 people and their fishing village.
    • "Mitefall!" starts off as a hilarious lampshade hanging on the entire premise of the show, becomes an equally hilarious lampshade hanging on jumping the shark and ends with almost every character to ever appear on the show, forced to accept that they're fictional characters and facing their end due to their show's impending cancellation, having one last party as the Batcave is dismantled around them.
  • Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate: Dr. Polaris
  • The Morlocks: The Outsiders
  • Multishot: Green Arrow does one in "Game Over for Owlman!" firing two arrows at once to take out two tyres on a fleeing vehicle.
  • Musical Assassin: Kanjar Ro with the Gamma Gong.
    • The Music Meister sings the song that the world wants to hear.
  • Musical Episode: "Mayhem of the Music Meister!", where the titular villain uses his singing voice to hypnotize villains, heroes and even innocent bystanders into doing his evil bidding...while simultaneously performing big musical numbers with him as vocal lead. Musical heavyweight Neil Patrick Harris was hired specifically for this role.
    • The "Birds of Prey" episode has a musical number in it.
    • So does the "Emperor Joker" epsiode.
  • The Music Meister: The Trope Namer
  • My Brain Is Big: Alternate-universe psychic Batman.
  • My Friends and Zoidberg: Hal Jordan's monologue in "Scorn of the Star Sapphire!" shows him battling Evil Star, Dr. Polaris and...Sportsmaster.
  • Myth Arc: Or something like it. A story told entirely in Batman Cold Opens. Look for seastars with eyes.
  • Mythology Gag: All over the place—but now in their own page for ease of reading.
  • Negate Your Own Sacrifice: Batman sends an alternate-Earth-destroying bomb as the timer ticks down to the Zombie Earth, after The Reveal that said bomb would only kill instead of causing an Earthshattering Kaboom. "Can't be killed."
  • Never Say "Die": Death occurs relatively often for childrens' animation, but the characters can never quite bring themselves to say its name when it happens. "Return of the Fearsome Fangs!" is an interesting case example: in the cold open, Jonah Hex is "sentenced to death" by the villains, but survives; in the episode proper, a character actually dies, but it is only said that his "journey is complete" and he is "gone". Apparently you can say it or do it, but not both together. Mentioning of death and actual deaths have been combined more in recent episodes.
  • Newspaper Dating: In "Game Over for Owlman!", this is how Batman discovers that travel to alternate universes can also result in displacement in time.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Guy Gardner pouring coffee on a miniscule convict of a species that gets really, really big when exposed to any kind of liquid.
    • Booster Gold texting his publicist allows Darkseid's army to track down the auxillary Batcave under the Lincoln Memorial.
  • Ninja: The Shadow Clan.
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: See Everything Is Better With...
    • The Elseworld Batmen could fill out this trope on their own, including among their number a Pirate Batman, a Vampire Batman and an Iron Batman (the normal Brave and the Bold Batman is already a ninja). There are also a cowboy Batman and a gorilla Batman, because apparently that wasn't awesome enough.
    • "Time Out For Vengeance!" gives us a robot Batman, a caveman Batman, another pirate Batman, and a gladiator (well, Roman) Batman.
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: The Music Meister appears to be based on Elton John, if his hair, flamboyant fashion sense, interesting eyewear, and tooth gap are any indication. Then again, he is attracted to the Black Canary, so maybe not so much in personality.
  • No Waterproofing in the Future: Jaime is able to release his electronically controlled restraints by spitting on the console.
  • Nobody Can Die: Parodied in "Bat-Mite Presents: Batman's Strangest Cases!" At the end of the "Bat-Manga" segment, Lord Deathman's helicopter crashes into power-lines and explodes. We see his mask fly out and break apart. And then Robin very quickly adds that he's sure Lord Deathman parachuted away. And then Bat-Mite comments how much he loves obviously censored dubs.
  • Non-Singing Voice: "Mayhem of the Music Meister!"

Batman: I'm actually more of a baritone. I was only able to match you using this Bat autotuning device."

  • Noodle Incident: There was a Justice League in-between the Justice Society and the Justice League International formed in Darkseid Descending, and it ended badly, but not in a way that killed any of the heroes mentioned to have been members. Just what happened never came up during the show's run.
  • Not Even Bothering with the Accent: The white guys voicing both Paco and Jaime, who are supposed to be bilingual Mexican Americans raised in El Paso.
  • Nothing Can Stop Us Now: In the cold open of "Enter the Outsiders!", Black Manta says "Nothing can stop me now!". Then Batman and Bwana Beast stop him.
  • Nothing Up My Sleeve: The Joker pulls bombs, a gas gun, knives, and a pie out of his shirt sleeves... and a bazooka out of his pants.

"Now let's see here..."
(pulls out gas gun from coat) "Too toxic."
(pulls out knife from coat) "Too stabby."
(pulls out a pie from coat) "Too fruity. Now where is...?"
(pulls out bazooka from pants)

    • Possibly a parody of the Joker's scene in the 1989 film in which he pulls a .357 magnum with an extended barrel from his pants.
  • Not So Above It All: In "Mayhem of the Music Meister!", Batman refuses to join in any of the musical numbers and criticizes Black Canary for doing one -- "Was the singing really necessary?" Until the end, when he defeats the Music Meister by starting in a singing contest with Black Canary...
    • Though it was really a recording, so this might not count.
  • Offhand Backhand: Done underwater, even!
    • Green Arrow pulls between firing arrows. And does it so nonchalantly that it almost seems like an accident.
    • Black Canary pulls one off during her romantic ballad in "Mayhem of the Music Meister!".
  • Oblivious to Love: Batman to Black Canary and Black Canary to Green Arrow.
  • Obviously Evil: Batman, post vampirism. It doesn't stop Ice from being overjoyed at the prospect of a 'sleepover' in the Watchtower.
  • Off-Model: A relatively minor example, but Baron von Gunther's dimple/mole vanishes when she smiles in the opening of "Scorn of the Star Sapphire!"
    • Catwoman has far too square a chin in "Legends of the Dark Mite!"
  • Ominous Pipe Organ: The Music Meister is shown playing one to a cardboard audience, an indication that he isn't quite right in the head.
  • The One With... Batman teaming up with that other guy!
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: While the other superheroes are seen with their secret identity and called by their real names, Batman is only seen, referred to, and credited as Batman (except for his parents).
    • In the "Chill of the Night!" episode, we finally see Batman unmasked.
  • The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Joker's attitude to Batman, and one of the reasons he helps Batman against Owlman in "Game Over for Owlman!".

Joker: Nobody kills my wingman but me.

  • Only the Chosen May Wield: Katana's um... Katana.
    • And Excalibur.
  • Orbital Shot: Black Canary and Green Arrow get one during their duet at the end of "Mayhem of the Music Meister!" in addition to an animated Facecam.
  • The Other Darrin: Kim Mai Guest replaced Vyvam Pham as Katana. Adam West and Julie Newmar replaced Corey Burton and Pat Musick as the voice of Thomas and Martha Wayne. Two-Face's one line in "Chill of the Night!" had Richard Moll reprise the role, filling in for James Remar.
    • Invoked in "Mitefall" when Bat-Mite replaces John Dimaggio with Ted McGinley as the voice of AQUAMAN to get the show cancelled. Towards the end, Ambush Bug tricks AQUAMAN into breaking character, resulting in him getting Dimaggio's voice back.
  • Our Vampires Are Different
  • Owl Be Damned: Owlman, Batman's Mirror Universe Evil Twin.
  • Palette Swap: Aside from Owlman and Red Hood, all of the designs of the Mirror Universe counterparts of the various heroes and villains were mainly this, including Blue Bowman (aside from the "G" being switched to a "B" on his belt buckle) and Silver Cyclone (whose torso is black, probably to cover up the "T" on Red Tornado).
  • Papa Wolf: The Atom throws his reserved rationality to the wind bloodstream and becomes a raging machine of fury when Brain's microorganisms kill the makeshift steed Platelet.
  • Parental Bonus: Huntress is full of this...
  • Petting Zoo People: The empires of Kamandi's After the End time.
  • Phoney Call: In "Menace of the Conquerer Caveman!", Booster Gold pretends to take a call from Batman during a meeting with a toy company. No one buys it.
  • Pigeonholed Voice Actor: Featuring Tom Kenny as a goofball, Will Friedle as a well-meaning everyguy, and Corey Burton as a robot. While Diedrich Bader's live action roles make him as Batman Playing Against Type (See below), he's a super tough guy here as always when it comes to him voice acting.
  • Pin-Pulling Teeth: Batman does with (with two grenades at once!) during the Cold Opening to "The Eyes of Despero!".
  • Playing with Fire: Fire
  • Pluto Is Expendable: When Blue Beetle is fighting Planetmaster, a villain with a power for each of the planets of the solar system, he tells him that his "cold of Pluto" power doesn't make sense since Pluto isn't a planet anymore.

"INSOLENCE!"

  • Poster Gallery Bedroom: Blue Beetle's bedroom, unsurprisingly full of Batman memorabilia.
    • Also Booster Gold puts up pictures of himself in his room in the JLI satelite.
  • Power Creep, Power Seep: Batman's competency level seems to fluctuate wildly depending on the guest characters and the villains. Compare him in "Night of the Huntress!" and in "Duel of the Double Crossers!".
    • In a straighter example, Mongul's physical abilities were reduced from Superman-level to slightly more than a strong human so Batman would be able to fight him personally.
    • Another whopper was Batman having to fight a group of five Shaggy Men. In the comics, Shaggy Man is utterly indestructible, even more so than Doomsday. Nothing hurts him, nothing can even slow him down, and the heroes always have to defeat him by sealing him in another dimension, marooning him in space, or some other such method. Here, Batman defeats five of them with once punch each.
      • This show has no problem reshaping character origins as needed; apparently they wanted their Shaggy Men to simply be extra-tough sasquatch.
    • The Joker and three thugs (four counting Harley) beat up Batman so bad Bat-Mite decides he has to break his promise and help. Joker actually trades blows with Batman!
  • The Power of Love: Green Arrow's feelings for Black Canary are so strong they allow him to shake off Music Meister's Mind Control long enough to punch AQUAMAN so she can break free.
  • Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner: "You broke my buddy. I'm gonna break you.", courtesy of Booster Gold.
  • Preemptive Apology: Batman to Red Hood.
  • Private Eye Monologue: a first for an animated Batman, and quite appropriate.
  • Production Foreshadowing: In "Fall of the Blue Beetle!", a guard is seen reading a Mystery in Space comic book. Later in the season, the characters from that comic guest star in the episode "Mystery in Space!".
  • Product Placement: In "Emperor Joker!" Bat-Mite reads Ten-Eyed Man's origin from an issue of "Who's Who In The DC Universe." The cover is even shown! Also an example of Meta Fiction.
  • Psychic-Assisted Suicide: The Music Meister uses this on his brainwashed servants, forcing Batman to save them and let him make his getaway.
  • Psycho for Hire: Black Manta, by a large degree: his greatest desire is to completely annihilate Atlantis and everyone in it. AQUAMAN points this out several times, at first expressing doubt that his brother would ever work with someone so batshit insane, then, upon discovering he was wrong about his brother, actually warning him that Manta's insane and will likely betray him, which he immediately does. Being voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson doesn't hurt things either.
  • Public Domain Artifact: Excalibur.
  • Public Domain Character: Sherlock Holmes; Merlin and Morgan Le Fay.
  • Pull a Rabbit Out of My Hat: Invoked by Batman, taunting the sorcerer Felix Faust. "Nice trick, but can you pull a rabbit out of a hat?"
  • Punched Across the Room: Often. Joker was even punched through a window on the top floor of a building and landed in a dumpster across the street.
  • The Queen's Latin: The Roman-esque Tiger Empire of Kamandi's future has members who speak with British accents, particularly Caesar (the leader) and his son Tuftan.
  • The Quiet One: Katana
  • Railing Kill: Or at least Western-style collapsing-balcony-incapacitation, thanks to a timely shot from Vigilante as a mob sniper puts Batman in his sights.
  • Rain of Arrows: In "Return of the Fearsome Fangs!"
  • Reality Warping Is Not a Toy: Bat-mite.
  • Reconstruction: Of The Silver Age of Comic Books.
  • Recursive Adaptation: Night of the Batmen! is based on an issue of the series' own tie in comic. Let that sink in.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Inverted in the episode "Revenge of the Reach!", where red eyes mean Jaime is in control and not the sinister Reach.
  • Redheaded Hero: Green Lantern Guy Gardner.
  • Red Sky, Take Warning: "Chill of the Night!", in homage to the 90s series.
  • Reference Overdosed: Even for this series, the episode "Clash of the Superheroes" was chock-full of references to the Silver Age Superman comics. Blink and you'll miss one.
  • Refuge in Audacity: Take the Adam West Batman and ratchet up the action in ways they could only dream of. Add salt and bake for one hour at 350 (or half an hour at 700) and you get this show's main creed.
  • Reptiles Are Abhorrent: "Enter the Outsiders!" has snapping turtles. Giant mutated snapping turtles. Giant mutant turtles in the urban sewers.
    • The Gordanians also have reptilian attributes.
  • Resistance Is Futile: Faceless Hunter channels his inner Borg in "The Siege of Starro: Part Two".
  • The Reveal: Lampshaded in the Mirror Universe episode via Robo Speak; the villain prefaces his statement with "Revelation!"
    • It's Red Tornado's evil Expy if you haven't figured it out.
    • We never see Bruce Wayne's face until the emotional climax of "Chill of the Night!"
      • The fact that we never see his face even if we know that it's Bruce Wayne makes the reveal so powerful. This happens when he confronts Joe Chill, the man who killed his parents.
  • Retraux: A lot of the show, but special note has to be the Scooby Doo Crossover.
  • Rhymes on a Dime: Etrigan
  • The Rival: Green Arrow and Batman. Both are perfectly aware of how childish they're being, but they have too much fun to stop.
    • Robin and Aqualad share a similar relationship.
    • Plastic Man and Elongated Man
  • The Roast: While Batman is rotating on a spit over flames, Joker tells Batman, "While you roast, we 'roast' you." And proceeds to get the others in Batman's Rogues Gallery, as well as Jeffrey Ross, the "Roastmaster General," to do just that.
  • Robo Cam: When Red Tornado is searching for the bomb in "Invasion of the Secret Santas!".
  • Robo Speak: Red Tornado has a tendency to begin his sentences with prefixes like "Observation:" and "Query:"—although it doesn't seem to be an obligatory tic, because his faux-human alter-ego doesn't do it.
  • Robot Buddy: Skeets to Booster Gold. He's a security droid that Booster stole from the very museum he stole all his other gadgets from.
  • Rogues Gallery Showcase: "Death Race to Oblivion!"
  • Rousing Speech: AQUAMAN snaps out of his funk to give one in "Mystery In Space!".
  • Rubber Man: While it's to be expected since both Plastic Man and Elongated Man are in this show, special mention should go to Rubberneck, who is actually a man made of rubber but lacks the ability to stretch and shape himself.
  • Rube Goldberg Device: The Joker puts Bats in a Death Trap version in the Emperor Joker episode. Unexpectedly, it works, but not after a Hope Spot where Batman seems to escape.
  • Rule of Cool: Wait... is Batman going to punch that meteor?
    • Are those Gorillas riding Pterodactyls with harpoon guns stealing a boat?
    • Batman has what amounts to a lightsaber in his utility belt. Why? Because it's awesome.
    • Similarly, AQUAMAN's water swords. Swords made of water, underwater. Also, water Hadokens.
    • Wow, AQUAMAN can communicate with white blood cells!
      • And silverfish!
    • Not to mention the Bat-Axe and Bat-Shield.
    • Forget them! It's all about the Dark Knight Armour (complete with Evil Bat-Blade). Badass.
    • Did Green Arrow just shoot Excalibur like an arrow?!
    • The Batmobile's Ejection Seat like in the movie turns into a motorcycle. No, wait, it's a Bat-cycle-copter!
    • Hey... did Batman just bat around a giant turtle with a bone?
    • Come on, the Arrowcar can fly!
      • But can it turn corners?
    • The Despero episode takes the cake. Not only does Batman Dual Wield a lightsaber and a demon sword, but later, dons Green Lantern Corps armor. He even says "Cool" when it's equipped on him.
    • The thirteenth episode sets a bar that blows everything else out of the water. Batman teamed up with the Goddamn Joker.
    • Batman proves to be a better detective than Sherlock Holmes himself.
      • Speaking of Sherlock Holmes, did I mention he has a Sword Cane? Just like in the original!
    • The Batmobile turns into a mech. The Batmobile turns into a mech!
    • Biker Santas!
    • And now AQUAMAN is punching meteors.
    • Did that tank being driven by the ghost of General J.E.B. Stuart just jump a boat!? With the horn playing "Dixie"!?
    • The Grand Finale opens with Batman teaming up with Abraham Lincoln to fight a Steampunk Cyborg John Wilkes Booth.
  • Rule of Funny: The Enemy Mine with the Joker works entirely because it's funny. The Joker himself seems to run on this rule in this continuity, considering his Hyperspace Arsenal.
  • Ruthless Modern Pirates: Batman and AQUAMAN clash with modern day pirates during The Teaser of "Clash of the Metal Men".
  • Sand in My Eyes: Red Tornado does this in the heartfelt depressing conclusion of "Hail the Tornado Tyrant!".
  • The Scrappy: Invoked in the Grand Finale. Bat-Mite creates Ace the Bathound's nephew, who is quite essentially Scrappy-Doo with a mask, as part of his plan to get the show canceled.
  • Screaming Woman: In the episode "Invasion of the Secret Santas!", there is a redheaded woman who stops in front of the camera, screams for a good two and a half seconds, then runs off again. Twice.
  • Sexophone: A subtle version occurs almost every time Catwoman is on screen.
  • Sharing a Body: Ron and Jason, as Firestorm.
  • Shark Pool: In "The Mask of Matches Malone!", 'Matches' (actually an amnesiac Batman) attempts to lower the Birds of Prey into a shark tank.
  • Sheathe Your Sword: How OMAC beats Shrapnel
  • Sherlock Scan: Performed by Holmes himself on Batman.
  • Serial Escalation: "Game Over For Owlman" starts with Batman against Batman. Then it ramps up to Batman, Batman, Batman, Batman, and Batman against Batman.
    • The video game has Gorilla Grodd turning Batman into an ape. After which AQUAMAN rides on Bat-Ape's back. And Bat-Ape swings AQUAMAN around as a weapon. Their special attack consists of AQUAMAN, riding Bat-Ape, riding a whale. ... Fighting armored sharks.
  • Shipped in Shackles: The Joker in "Game Over for Owlman!"
  • Shipper on Deck: Just like everybody else on the planet, Alfred ships Batman/Catwoman. He goes so far as to write a fanfic about the two being married.
  • Schmuck Bait:the Blue Beetle armor
  • Shout-Out: Enough for its own page.
  • Showdown At High Noon: "Night of the Batmen!" opens with one.
  • Shut UP, Hannibal: Jaime Reyes punches Jarvis Kord out cold.
  • Sidekick: Green Arrow brought his sidekick, Speedy, along for "Dawn of the Dead Man!". A grown-up Robin appears in "The Color of Revenge!"
  • The Silver Age of Comic Books: This could very well be what the '60s show would have been like if it had hewn more closely to the spirit of the comics. And had a budget to speak of.
    • The first episode has Batman's cowl grow an oxygen mask, and then he and the Blue Beetle ride their jetpacks into space and reach it in less than ten seconds. Sounds pretty Silver Age to me.
    • It's also Author Appeal as producer James Tucker is an admitted Silver Age fan, as noted by interviews and the commentaries tracks for the Batman: The Animated Series episode, Legends of the Dark Knight (where he storyboards and helped design the characters used in the Dick Sprang segment...not surprisingly, the Joker design from that short was pretty much used line for line in Brave and the Bold) and the Justice League episode, Legends (where he helped write the story and again, designs characters like the Justice Guild).
  • Single Tear: Red Tornado sheds one at the death of his "son".
  • Sinister Scythe: Scarecrow
  • Skintone Sclerae: Part of the retro art style.
  • Slippery Skid: Batman uses ball bearings to cause Bronze Tiger to lose his balance.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: A bit of a Genius Bonus- in "Crisis 22,300 Miles Above Earth!", JSA member Starman is voiced like actor Ted Knight, in addition to being a Ted Baxter. The original Starman's real name was Ted Knight, although he predates actor Ted Knight's career by at least 15 years.
  • Smoke Out: In "Game Over for Owlman!", the smoke lifts to reveal that not only has Batman disappeared, he's disabled all his assailants along the way.
  • Smoke Shield:
    • In "Day of the Dark Knight!", when Batman and Green Arrow attack Etrigan, and again when Morgan Le Fay attacks Batman and Green Arrow.
    • In "Journey to the Center of the Bat!", when the navy attacks Chemo.
  • Smug Super: Captain Atom. Superman too, when under the effects of Red Kryptonite.
  • The Smurfette Principle
  • Space Pirates: Kanjar Ro and his crew.
  • Spared by the Adaptation: Aquaman's son, Arthur Jr., is depicted here as a moody adolescent. In the main comic continuity he was killed by Black Manta as a baby.
  • Spoof Aesop: Captain Atom loses his powers and has to save the day with his wits and courage. The lesson he learned? "Non-powered humans are the most fragile and pathetic beings on Earth. Believe me, I know."
  • Squee: Captain Marvel's reaction to B'wana Beast's power.

"That was awesome! Do it again!"

  • Stealth Hi Bye: Not used that much, yet it still gets a Lampshade Hanging in "Game Over for Owlman!": Plastic Man repeatedly asks "How does he do that?" as Bats gives him the slip, including the first time where he was wrapped up by Plastic Man. "Wormholes? Wormholes! So that's how he does it!"
    • And in a subsequent episode, he manages to impress Flash with his departure speed.
    • Lampshaded again in the Cold Open for "The Masks of Matches Malone", Black Orchid does this to Batman and he comments that now he knows how Commissioner Gordon feels.
  • Stealth Pun: Plastic Man gives an entirely new meaning to the phrase "money shot" in "Terror on Dinosaur Island!".
    • Green Arrow is jealous that Merlin thinks Batman is The Chosen One.
    • Scarlet Scarab serves as a Red Herring.
    • Batman asks his co-crimefighter if it was really necessary to sing along with Music Meister after "Deathtrap!". The heroine's name is Black Canary.
    • The Metal Men episode gets two thanks to Tin. He's smaller than the other Metal Men, which must make him tiny Tin. Then he loses his body and ends up borrowing Gold's to save the day. Somebody points out that Tin has a great heart, but is using Gold's body. Nobody says that he has a heart of Gold.
  • Steven Ulysses Perhero: Skellington J. "Skeleton Keys" Keyes of Babyface's gang.
  • Stock Dinosaurs: Dinosaur Island is stocked with triceratops, pterosaurs, and—of course -- Tyrannosaurus Rex.
  • Stock Scream: In the "Dawn of the Dead Man!" teaser, one of the falling rat-men utters a Wilhelm scream when falling into the water.
  • "Stop Having Fun!" Guys: Sportsmaster tries to kill the competitors in an international bowling tournament because it's not a 'real sport' in one cold open.
  • Story-Breaker Team-Up: Poor, poor Sherlock Holmes.
  • Strange Bedfellows: Batman and Joker.
  • Strong as They Need to Be: OMAC's (One Man Army Corp) "power". He requests more strength from the orbiting satellite Brother Eye, who zaps it down and then OMAC can jump over a mile, punch through a wall and several mooks, etc.
  • Stylistic Suck: The teaser featuring the "Challengers of the Unknown" features a opening in grainy limited-animation typical of 70s Superhero cartoons.
    • Comes into play with "Bat-Mite Presents: Batman's Strangest Cases". The old-style anime uses blatantly looped footage, and the Hanna-Barbera Scooby-Doo crossover has some cels with Batman's neck miscolored (as well as a bunch of reused animation). Bat-Mite actually stops the cartoon to point this out.
    • The dialogue in the cold opener with Space Ghost reflects the Expospeak style of the original Space Ghost cartoons.
  • Super Dickery: All of "Death Race To Oblivion" was Batman playing "ruthless" in order to maneuver his allies onto War Moon in a position to take it down. To the savvy viewer, what gives away the act is the fact that he was assured all his allies would be teleported before being hurt.
    • The Season 3 premier pays homage and parodies the various classic Golden Age "Super Dickery" covers after Superman gets affected by Red Kryptonite and becomes a dick.
  • Super-Hero Speciation: Played for laughs during Plastic Man and Elongated Man's team-up.
  • Super Prototype: Proto
  • Super Wheelchair: The future Joker's combination wheelchair/dodgem car in "The Knights of Tomorrow!".
  • Survivor Guilt: Oh! You better watch out, / You better not cry, / You better not pout, I'm telling you why: YOUR PARENTS WILL GET GUNNED DOWN.
  • Take Care of the Kids: The original Black Canary's Final Speech exhorts Wildcat and the Justice Society to take care of her "little angel"... who then grows up to be the next Black Canary.
  • Taken for Granite: The kingdom of Camelot in "Day of the Dark Knight!"
  • Take That: And how! "Legends of the Dark Mite!" takes a hilarious swipe at viewers who complain about the Lighter and Softer feel of the series.

Fanboy dressed as Batman: I always felt Batman was best suited in the role of gritty urban crime detective? But now you guys have him up against Santas? And Easter Bunnies? I'm sorry, but that's not my Batman!
The Creators: [whispering among themselves, eventually handing a note to Bat-Mite] Here, read this.
Bat-Mite: Batman's rich history allows him to be interpreted in a multitude of ways. To be sure, this is a lighter incarnation, but it's certainly no less valid and true to the character's roots as the tortured avenger crying out for Mommy and Daddy. [makes the paper disappear] And besides, those Easter Bunnies looked really scary, right?!
Bruce Timm (dressed as Mark Hamill's Joker): Meh.

    • Plus a little Shout-Out to Watchmen if you look closely at the fanboy's shopping bag.
    • And the Schumacher movies. Bat-Mite gives Batman several new costumes, one of which is completely made of black rubber complete with Bat-nipples. Bat-Mite dismisses it as "too icky."
    • And Frank Miller: Bat-Mite turns Bats into the hulking Dark Knight Returns model, then declares, "Too psycho!" A further shot is taken in "A Bat Divided!" where Angry!Batman is very much the Goddamned Batman.
    • The Phantom Stranger and The Spectre fight over whether or not Batman should be Silver Age or Dark Age.
    • The finale uses Bat-Mite to parody viewers begging for a darker take on Batman.
  • Take the Wheel: In "Game Over for Owlman!", Batman and the Joker pursue Owlman in the Batmobile; Batman starts out driving, but hands over so that he's free to react to Owlman's attacks.

Batman: [pointing] Brake. Choke. Throttle. [climbs out window onto roof of Batmobile]

Batman: I know what you're thinking. "Belly of the Whale. Can't get much worse." (tentacles appear) You'd be wrong.

  • Thanking the Viewer: The final episode does this as a last bit of fourth wall breaking for watching the show.
  • That Man Is Dead: "There is no Jaime. There is only The Reach."
  • That Poor Plant: Wildcat's Tiger Tonic (which involves tuna, raw eggs and hot sauce) is proven lethal to plants when Batman pours out his cup into the potted plant behind him.
  • Thick Line Animation: Except for Black Canary. Her hair has no lines surrounding it.
  • Third Person Person: Proto in "The Plague of the Prototypes!".
  • This Cannot Be!: Bat-Mite. "It can't end this way! ... I... guess it can. That's all, folks."
  • This Is the Part Where: Orm is warned of Black Manta's betrayal by AQUAMAN. Orm: "This is the part where you try to turn us against each other." Manta immediately shocks him.
  • Throwing Your Sword Always Works: In the cold open of "The Eyes of Despero!"
  • Time for Plan B: In "Deep Cover for Batman!":

Silver Cyclone: Then, since Plan A is not viable, we move on to Plan B.

Red Tornado: (crying) Oily discharge. I must run a diagnostic.

Batman: "You've started something. A brave, bold new era in crimefighting."

    • Again in "The Fate of Equinox!"

Batman: "Justice wins the day thanks to the brave and the bold."

    • "Mayhem of the Music Meister!"

The Establishing Shot immediately before "Deathtrap!" focuses on an awning which reads TB & TB

  • Too Awesome to Use: Meta example. The series doesn't make significant use of A-list DC characters because then the show would become Justice League Part Two.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Yes, Joe Chill, tell the Joker, Penguin, Two-Face, Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, Mad Hatter, and Solomon Grundy you're the reason Batman exists. I'm sure they won't hold the fact you basically created the man who kicks their asses on a regular basis against you.
    • This was based on the Golden Age story where Batman confronted Joe Chill. In that story, Chill ran to his gang and did the same thing; they promptly shot him in their anger. Though to give the gang credit, they did realize that this meant that Chill knew Batman's real name.
  • Took a Level in Badass: See AQUAMAN in Superfriends... Now see him in this series. Do I even have to spell it out? There's also the flashback teaser of "Sidekicks Assemble!", where we see a clean-shaven Aquaman say "This is outrageous!" without much emphasis and with a lighter voice. Clearly he wasn't the coolest guy ever quite yet.
    • Calendar Man is given a level of badass by Bat-Mite. It doesn't help much.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: Batman in "Death Race to Oblivion!" and "Joker: Vile and the Villainous!"
    • Bat-Mite in "Mitefall!"
  • To the Bat Noun: Joker yells "TO THE BATMOBILE!"
    • All three Batmen deliver their own variations on "To the Batcave!" in "A Bat Divided!"
    • Parodied by Plastic Man in his line: "Quick! To the PLAS cave!!!"
  • Totem Pole Trench: Scooby Doo and Shaggy do this while posing as the ghost of 'Bulldog' Finney to scare the Joker and the Penguin in "Bat-Mite Presents: Batman's Strangest Cases!".
  • Transformation Sequence: Whenever the Blue Beetle suit activates, complete with abstract background, light-show, and orbiting camera.
  • Transforming Mecha: The freaking Batmobile, complete with Rocket Punch.
  • Tripod Terror: The Black Manta uses one to steal an armored car.
    • Tripods are also used to invade Rann.
  • Troperiffic: ...You got this far down the page, and you need an explanation?
  • Trouser Space: In "Game Over For Owlman!" the Joker pulls several implausibly large items (including a pie and a bazooka) out of his pants and/or jacket pockets.
  • Trying to Catch Me Fighting Dirty: "Return of the Fearsome Fangs!": "When outmatched... cheat."
  • Twisted Christmas
  • Tyrannosaurus Rex: In the second episode, Batman and Plastic Man land on Dinosaur Island. Guess the first species they encounter.
  • The Unexpected: Okay a Scooby Doo and Batman team up had been done before. But who really saw a Batman and Space Ghost teamup? Sure DC made a mini series a while back but...
  • Unexplained Recovery: Grodd isn't stuck in human shape at all anymore.
  • Unhand Them, Villain!: In "Legends of the Dark Mite!", Catman is auctioning off a wild Sumatran tiger. Batman demands that Catman "Release him!". Catman obliges by opening the cage and letting the tiger loose on Batman.
  • Unit Confusion: Intellectual!Batman gives the measurement of nuclear energy Firestorm absorbed in watts, when the unit for energy is joules or volts and a watt is measurement of power.
  • Unobtainium/MacGuffin: Promethium-90 in "Menace of the Conqueror Caveman!"
  • Unusual Euphemism: AQUAMAN's "Aw, crabcakes!"
  • Uranus Is Showing: When Blue Beetle battles the Planet Master.
  • Vaudeville Hook: The Joker's first appearance on the show starts with one of these coming out of nowhere and snagging Batman.
  • Versus Character Splash
  • Victorian London: The setting for "Trials of the Demon!". Never mind the East-End types' inexplicable obsession with witch-burning, or that Merlin and Etrigan sealed Astaroth "300 years ago" (which would have put it during the Elizabethan era)...
    • The witch-burning makes some sense, as the villagers point out that Jason Blood is constantly going on about "Black Magic". Then when they come in to arrest him, he's halfway through becoming Etrigan, thus revealing he's not completely human.
  • Viewer-Friendly Interface: Batman and Red Tornado's computer displays its commands in huge red capital letters, occasionally accompanied by a computer voice repeating what we can clearly read.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Joker when sees what he would be like in a world without Batman.
    • General Zahl gets one when he succeeds in killing the Doom Patrol, but instead of discrediting them to the world as he planned, it has the opposite effect. The entire world chants "We're all the Doom Patrol", leaving the General helpless from shock and letting Batman arrest him.
  • Villainous Harlequin: The Joker is somewhat more this than Monster Clown. (Then again, there's "Emperor Joker!"...)
    • "Menace of the Conqueror Caveman" has a pair, Punch and Julie, near the beginning.
  • Villain Episode: "Joker: The Vile and the Villainous!"
  • Villain Song: The Music Meister's first song in "Mayhem of the Music Meister!"
    • The Joker gets one in "Emperor Joker!".
  • Villains Out Shopping: When AQUAMAN is on vacation and spots the Sportsmaster he's pumped for a fight, until he realizes that Sportsmaster is also on vacation (with his wife and daughter Tigress and Artemis Crock).
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: A type 2 with Joker, Lex Luthor and Cheetah in "Triumvirate of Terror!". The three bicker amongst themselves, but during the battle with their arch enemies high five each other after they each get a good hit in.
  • The Voiceless: Shark.
  • Voices Are Mental: Whoever Deadman possesses speaks with Deadman's voice.
  • Wacky Racing: "Death Race to Oblivion!" in Season 2
  • Walking the Earth: Batman, more so than any of his previous adaptations. Green Arrow as well, even using the phrase "Walking the Earth".
  • We Can Rule Together: Ra's Al Ghul's classic offer to the Detective, except he makes it to Robin instead.
  • We Don't Need Roads: Both the Batmobile and Green Arrow's Arrowcar can transform into planes. The Batmobile can also turn into a Giant Mecha.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Inevitably Robin. And his fellow sidekicks Aqualad and Speedy. To some extent both Batman and Black Canary to their teachers, the JSA. And Damian to Nightwing.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Jarvis Kord.
  • What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Ryan Choi to a blackboard full of calculus equations: "Ha! How do you like that?! I JUST INVERTED YOUR EXPONENTIAL INTEGRAL! Does it hurt?!" *pelvic thrusts*
  • What Does This Button Do?: In "Game Over for Owlman!", Joker pesters Batman with this—until he encounters the Big Red Button that sprays knock-out gas at the person who presses it.
    • Then later, as a callback (a staple of any decent comedian, let alone The Clown Prince of Crime,) he yells "To the Batmobile!" runs to his seat, notices the button again, presses it again, and gets knocked out... again.
    • Joker does it again with the control for an Omega Warhead, let's just say Misfit's Big No is not unjustified. And it was just the teaser.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Despite Batman's well known "no killing" policy, he shows no problem with forever shutting down (aka killing) Red Tornado's robot son. This despite the fact that he can clearly think and feel.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Green Arrow constantly chews out Bats for his ruthless behavior in "Death Race To Oblivion!" Understandable, as Batman goes so far as to attack his fellow heroes in order to win Gotham's safety. Of course, it's all an act, and GA knows as much the whole time.
  • What Would X Do?: X is Batman, for Jaime.
  • Where's the Fun In That?: The Joker's response to being good.
  • We Can Rule Together: In the filler for "The Masks of Matches Malone", Poison Ivy takes over Gotham and becomes its queen. She offers to spare Batman's life twice if he agrees to marry her and become her king. Both times, he refuses.
  • Whole-Plot Reference:
    • The entire episode "Return of the Fearsome Fangs!" is basically an extended reference to Five Deadly Venoms.
    • "Chill of the Night!" strongly resembles the 1980 comic miniseries "The Untold Legend of Batman"; both feature the costume party where Thomas Wayne wore a bat costume, Bruce tracking down his parents' killer and revealing his identity to the man, and the crook begging his fellow crooks for help only to get attacked when they realize he's the reason there's a Batman.
      • And that miniseries, in turn, is based in large part upon the stories "The Origin of Batman" (Batman #47, 1948), where Joe Chill was first given a name and background; and "The First Batman" (Detective Comics #235, 1956), which provided mob boss Lew Moxton, the costume party, and Thomas Wayne's costume.
    • "Fall of the Blue Beetle!", which reveals the fate of the previous Blue Beetle, Ted Kord, borrows heavily from the comics—not from Ted's fate in Countdown to Infinite Crisis (2005) (which wouldn't really have fit the vibe of this series), but from the fate of Ted's predecessor, as revealed in Blue Beetle #2 (1967).
  • Wicked Cultured: Gentleman Ghost.
  • Wimp Fight: Bat-Mite versus Joker-Mite in "Emperor Joker!".
  • Window Pain: Lots and lots of broken windows and skylights.
  • Wingding Eyes: The lenses of Plastic Man's goggles flash dollar signs whenever he's tempted by money.
    • The Spectre has creepy skull pupils for a moment in "Chill of the Night!".
  • World of Ham: Ooooh, yeah!
  • A Worldwide Punomenon: Owlman spews these endlessly in "Game Over for Owlman!" while talking to the imprisoned heroes.

Owlman: After this magnet tears you apart, Red Tornado, Clock King here is going to see what makes you tick.

    • Gorilla Grodd takes control of the Gorilla army and says,

Gorilla Grodd: Under my leadership, we shall show them the true meaning of gorilla warfare!

    • Twoface is prone to this.

"Two-bit punks! Think you can double-cross Twoface?"

    • Music Meister says he's "here to settle the score." He also dedicates an entire song to how Batman drives villains...bats.
  • The Worf Effect: If Batman goes into battle with a new foe in the Batmobile's Mech mode, don't expect a win. For him anyway. He himself isn't safe either, though more often it's his costars taking the brunt of it.
    • The Green Lantern Corps in particular tend to spend most of their appearances getting mind controlled and slapped around.
  • Would Hit a Girl: When he fights Mrs. Manface:

Batman: The hammer of justice is unisex.

    • He also hits Ivy, though they're both offscreen at the time.
    • Per Degaton has no problem using his fists against Black Canary.
    • Matches Malone rather brutally beats Black Canary and Huntress into submission as well.
  • Write Back to the Future: In the cold open of "Dawn of the Dead Man!", Kamandi and Dr. Canus fight a rearguard action to buy Batman time to return from their time to his own. Just before he leaves, he tells them to look in a particular place after he's gone; when they do, they find a weapons cache he left there in his present (their past) for them to find.
  • Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: The Cavalier speaks it. Batman is audibly unimpressed.
  • You Fight Like a Cow: Robin's schtick.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The Music Meister to the mindcontrolled Heroes and Villains, in the song with his name:

Now that Batman's been delayed, your usefulness has passed. A distraction is what I need, so kick into that blast

The video game contains examples of:

Robin: "Was I cute?"

  1. ↑ Particularly, the episodes written by J.M. DeMatteis are significantly weirder than the other ones and have caught some flak for it.
  2. ↑ "Thus always to tyrants", also South Carolina's state motto
  3. ↑ Of course, from the perspective of someone fighting for the Entente, even if it is only to keep the timeline intact, he is an enemy ace, being a German ace pilot.
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