# Has Batman ever successfully reproduced? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 2, 2004, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-batman-ever-successfully-reproduced/253292 "2004-07-02T23:40:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Asbestos_Mango)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-batman-ever-successfully-reproduced/253292/1 "2004-07-02T23:40:28Z")
I mean, yeah, I know there was a Crisis storyline where Bruce Wayne was married to and had a kid with Selina Kyle (Helena Wayne, a/k/a the Huntress), but what about in the canon DC storylines? I mean, let’s face it, Bruce is getting laid on a pretty regular basis… Selina Kyle, Vicki Vale, Selina Kyle, Talia, Selina Kyle… and what about during the “lost years” while he was away from Gotham, getting an edumacation and lots and lots of martial arts training? Surely a red-blooded young aspiring crime fighter would have met _somebody_ he liked enough to get into bed with, wouldn’t he? So, are there any Batkids running around out there that I should know about? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-batman-ever-successfully-reproduced/253292/2 "2004-07-02T23:41:34Z")
No known offspring. ---
**Author:** ![Omphaloskeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bcef8e/32.png) [@Omphaloskeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omphaloskeptic)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-batman-ever-successfully-reproduced/253292/3 "2004-07-02T23:56:33Z")
> [@](#): > > _When Bat’s looking for adventures of a new and different kind > And he comes across a Bat-girl who is similarly inclined > He’s not nervous – he’s not flustered – he’s not scared… > He’s **prepared!** _ [/T.Lehrer] ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-batman-ever-successfully-reproduced/253292/4 "2004-07-02T23:57:30Z")
> [@The Asbestos Mango](#): > > I mean, yeah, I know there was a Crisis storyline where Bruce Wayne was married to and had a kid with Selina Kyle (Helena Wayne, a/k/a the Huntress), but what about in the canon DC storylines? Actually, the Huntress’s first appearance was in the midseventies and her father was the Golden Age Batman (i.e. the Earth-2 version). Right up until the Crisis mass-retcon, she was about as canon as you can get. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Asbestos_Mango)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2004, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-batman-ever-successfully-reproduced/253292/5 "2004-07-03T00:12:55Z")
Thanks for clearing that up, **Bryan**. The Batman sites I’ve run into seem to gloss over the issue of the Huntress’s paternity- they seem to have the attitude that “DC retconned it, I believe it, that settles it”, and don’t go into any real details about Helena Wayne/Bertinelli’s background. I was tooling around a couple of sites that touched on the issue briefly, and was left with the impression that Helena Wayne was the product of a Crisis intervention. Or something. And really, what was the point of retconning the origins of a fairly long-standing character? I mean, retconning Jason Todd, I can see, since he seems to have started out as Dick Grayson _redux_, which is kind of lame, really, but why Helena? ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2004, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-batman-ever-successfully-reproduced/253292/6 "2004-07-03T01:22:10Z")
The current DCU Huntress, Helena Bertinelli, is not related to the Earth 2 Huntress (the Batman/Catwoman daughter) at all. Helena Bertinelli was related to some Italian mobster-types in Gotham City. Other than their names and black/purple color schemes, they’re completely different characters. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2004, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-batman-ever-successfully-reproduced/253292/7 "2004-07-03T01:37:34Z")
In the GN _Batman: Son of the Bat_, he fathered a son by Talia, who promptly parked him with a foster family. When Denny O’Neil became the editor of the line, he decided the story never happened, because Batman is too responsible to ever father a child out of wedlock. But the kid turned up in _Kingdom Come_ and, thanks to the magic of Hypertime!, actually came into our pristine canon universe for a little while. His name is Xuffrich, he’s a crime lord in training and a fairly decent detective in his own right, and had a _Kingdom_ one-shot called _Son of the Bat_. But in current continuity, no. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2004, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-batman-ever-successfully-reproduced/253292/8 "2004-07-03T01:39:33Z")
[Yes](http://www.hillcity-comics.com/graphic_novels/bat/son_of_the_demon.htm) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Asbestos_Mango)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2004, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-batman-ever-successfully-reproduced/253292/9 "2004-07-03T01:40:47Z")
So, basically, Bruce Wayne has fathered two children, both of whom have been retconned out of his gene pool. That’s not a very good Bat-ting average. :ducks and flees: ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2004, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-batman-ever-successfully-reproduced/253292/10 "2004-07-03T02:22:37Z")
[Let us not forget the saga of the super-sons](http://superman.ws/super-sons/saga/), non-canon though it was. Dig those freaky sideburns, man. Groovy. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2004, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-batman-ever-successfully-reproduced/253292/11 "2004-07-03T14:04:50Z")
[Dick Grayson is Bruce Wayne’s son: The cover-up revealed.](http://www.sff.net/people/adam-troy/random/conspiracy.html) ---
**Author:** ![RandomLetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8edcca/32.png) [@RandomLetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandomLetters)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2004, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-batman-ever-successfully-reproduced/253292/12 "2004-07-03T15:07:38Z")
Batman, if he was prepared, could have simply used a condom when he got some. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2004, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-batman-ever-successfully-reproduced/253292/13 "2004-07-03T16:31:58Z")
I’ve always thought a storyline based on the psychological strain of sexual repression could be fun for Batman. I mean, we have here a guy who dresses in tights and hunts for bad guys, whom he promptly beats savagely. Is anyone ELSE seeing a subtext here? ---
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2004, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-batman-ever-successfully-reproduced/253292/14 "2004-07-03T17:15:06Z")
> [@RandomLetters](#): > > Batman, if he was prepared, could have simply used a condom when he got some. He keeps that in his utility belt, along with some Bat-lube. ---
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2004, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-batman-ever-successfully-reproduced/253292/15 "2004-07-03T17:21:21Z")
Btw, check out [Catwoman #32.](http://www.dccomics.com/comics/dc_display.html?cm_dc_itemCode=catw32&month=June) It really happens. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2004, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-batman-ever-successfully-reproduced/253292/16 "2004-07-04T01:57:49Z")
Well, in the Superman and Batman: Generations AU series, I’m pretty sure that Batman ends up with kids. (And Grandkids, and so forth.) Don’t know who the mother is. I’d guess Selina Kyle, but I haven’t read them myself. You know, to be _really_ prepared, you’d think that Bruce would just have a vasectomy. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Asbestos_Mango)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2004, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-batman-ever-successfully-reproduced/253292/17 "2004-07-04T06:51:49Z")
Oh, yeah, right, let’s _sterilize_ the Batman. That way, if some enterprising young DC writer in the future decides it would be a cool idea for Batman to feel that biologically-driven urge to contribute to the gene pool, has a woman in his life who’s willing to help him with that (let’s face it, Bruce looks hot in Spandex, and there are women whose reaction to a really hot man in tights is “I want to have his baby!!” ) there would have to be a storyline where is sidelined while Bruce Wayne develops a close relationship with a bag of frozen peas after the surgery to reconnect his plumbing. Of course, first we have to have a storyline where Batman is sidelined while Bruce Wayne develops a close relationship with a bag of frozen peas after the surgery that disconnected his plumbing in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2004, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-batman-ever-successfully-reproduced/253292/18 "2004-07-05T00:03:15Z")
[Indeed he has, and his son is faaaaaabulous!](http://www.bcaonline.org/feature_batboy.htm) ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2004, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-batman-ever-successfully-reproduced/253292/19 "2004-07-05T07:41:11Z")
No, Robin won’t cooperate. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![MonkeyMule](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc348/32.png) [@MonkeyMule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMule)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2004, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-batman-ever-successfully-reproduced/253292/20 "2004-07-05T16:23:01Z")
> [@ouryL](#): > > No, Robin won’t cooperate. :eek: See that works on two levels, since the current robin is a Girl 😉