Batman/Heartwarming

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • The ending of The Killing Joke is a bizarre combination of this trope and Nightmare Fuel, in which the Batman makes a genuine offer of help, which the Joker almost tearfully refuses. He then explains why he said no in the form of a joke which actually makes the Batman laugh.
    • This troper read that as the only moment ever that these two adversaries truly understood each other.
    • For this troper, it was Gordon's admonition to Batman to take the Joker in by the book, "to show him that our way works."
      • For those who aren't familiar with the plot, Comissioner Gordon said that after the Joker had crippled his daughter, stripped her naked to take photos of her, photos that he then plastered over the walls of a funhouse ride that he sent a (possibly raped) Gordon through trying to break him and drive him insane. Even after all that, when he has as much reason to want the Joker dead as anyone ever has, he still wanted it done by the book. This also definitely counts as a Crowning Moment of Awesome for Jim Gordon as well.
  • An issue of Detective Comics has Batman acting unusually accommodating to the Golden Age Green Lantern, Alan Scott. He never criticizes the help given, makes sure to include him in all his investigations and everything goes great between them. After saying their good-byes after returning to the Batcave, we see Batman placing a new souvenir in his collection alongside a black and white picture of Alan Scott and a young boy shaking hands, signed "To my biggest fan and junior guardsman, little Tommy Wayne".
  • In Gotham Knights, Bruce Wayne at long last legally adopts Dick Grayson. The fact that Batman is nervously stuttering makes it all the more heartwarming. And the last page where we see the paper that finalizes the adoption, with both Bruce and Dick's signatures on it makes this Troper all warm and fuzzy inside.
  • During Infinite Crisis, Kal-L tries to convince Batman that he's playing for the wrong team, that if he helps him, the world will be perfect again, as no one on Earth-1 was as good as their counterpart on Earth-2. It seems like he may succeed, until Batman asks if Dick Grayson is a worse person here than he is there. Kal-L admits that he's a good man on both worlds. Since Bruce has said outright that Dick was the only thing he ever did right, he's convinced that the world is worth saving, if only because Bruce Wayne is a proud daddy.
    • Re: "Bruce has said outright that Dick was the only thing he ever did right". That moment deserves a mention all by itself. In the "Obsidian Age" arc of JLA (which was quite awesome despite the conspicuous lack of Grant Morrison) Nightwing and newbie JLA member Faith are discussing Faith's history with Batman (no, not that kind of history, you pervs!). Faith says Batman told her that he's not proud of anything he's ever done in his life... except when he looks at Nightwing, saying "He's the only thing I ever did right". Nightwing is visibly stunned by the fact that Batman would say such a thing about him and gets a dopey child-like grin on his face. Later when Bats comes back at the end of the arc, Nightwing gives him a big hug. Awwwww.
  • The otherwise ridiculous Batgirl miniseries has a sweet moment. Batman watches his Broken Bird protege fight her abusive and psychotic assassin father until he's hanging by his fingertips from a ledge. Despite all he's done to her and her temptation to leave him to his fate, Batgirl tries to save him from falling at the last minute. Batman stops her father from falling and offers "what he should have offered a long time ago." He offers to adopt her and give her a real family.
  • The epilogue to the Pre-Crisis story "To Kill A Legend", in which The Phantom Stranger has given Batman the opportunity to travel to an Alternate Universe to save his parents.

For as long as he lives Bruce Wayne will remember that night three weeks ago... and the bat-winged creature that swooped down from the sky saving the lives of himself and his parents. That night Bruce learned what death was... and he learned it could be averted... at least temporarily. Years from now he will make a decision... Choose a direction for his life... And when he does, it will not be a decision born of grief, or guilt, or vengeance... but of awe... and mystery... and gratitude.

    • It's worth noting that in this alternate universe, there are no superheroes. Krypton doesn't exist. The legends and myth that inspired other heroes don't exist (no Robin Hood to inspire Green Arrow and so on). Even the constellations of the Greek heroes aren't present. Batman, Badass Normal that he is, may be the only chance for Earth to have superheroes and so Batman must choose between his alternate self's happiness or the good of the world. And the context of the ending quote is that he chose his alternate self's happiness... and he got the good of the world thrown into the bargain. His alternate self is inspired by Batman's rescue of his parents to become a hero, and the Sadistic Choice turns out to have not been so sadistic after all.
  • This, where Batman takes care of a baby. Knowing everyone wants the child and there isn't anyplace or anyone safe enough to leave the baby with, Batman takes the baby with him on his outings, leading to a few funny moments. In order to protect the baby, Batman used his blood, tricking the FBI into thinking that it was the baby's blood. Batgirl asks him why risk his identity.

Batman: "If I had to choose between my identity becoming known or [the baby] having a normal life with his parents... that's no choice at all."

    • And cue the very last panel, as Batman returns the baby to his parents and the baby's mother cries in relief and joy.
  • In this comic (I can't recall the issue), as Batman and a retired Jim Gordon were talking, the Bat signal goes on and they both rush to the roof, only to see that there was a man that Batman and Gordon had saved years ago. He had tried everything he could think of to try to communicate with them and had finally resorted to using the Bat signal. But it was the conversation with Batman and his young daughter that truly sealed the scene.

Daughter: (with a child-like wonder) " You're not too scary. Not at all."
Batman: (with a genuine smile) " No, I guess not."

      • The series is called Turning Points. It's about Batman's and Gordon's friendship.
  • During Tim's first Father's Day as Bruce's adopted son, he was buying a watch for him. Then, there was trouble and Tim goes off, making him late for dinner. Bruce claims he isn't worried, though as the night progresses, he tells Alfred that he is going off on patrol and if he runs into Tim, it is purely coincidence (which Alfred doesn't buy). Just then, Tim returns, handing Bruce his gift. Only to realize it was broken. Feeling very bad, he apologizes about how he ruined Father's Day for Bruce. Bruce simply smiles and tells him that Tim coming home safe made Father's Day perfect for him.
  • All Star Batman and Robin: "We mourn lives lost. Including our own."
  • Detective Comics #726 (not to be confused with the Paul Dini Christmas story; that's #826): The Joker combines this trope with a hefty dose of Crowning Moment of Awesome and Magnificent Bastard. To explain: He's used morse code to coerce the guy in the cell next to his to escape, kidnap a small girl, and hide her somewhere. By the time Batman's on the case, the guy's already offed himself, so Batman's only chance of saving the girl is The Joker himself. After a less-than-informative conversation, The Joker realizes that Batman really isn't in the mood for a mind-game, and flat-out tells him where the girl is: in the trunk of a half-submerged car. After fighting his way through an ARMY of thugs, Batman finally does find the girl, and saves her just before she suffocates. Later, Batman returns to Arkham and asks why Joker came clean, to which the Ace of Knaves gives this response:

Joker: Why? Just... Because. I know you, Batman. When you approach a hostage situation like the one I put you in tonight... you probably assume the victim is already dead. Oh, sure. You do everything in your power to save them anyway, because that's you. But you don't really dare hope, do you? After tonight, though...
(Cue Batman lifting the alive, cheerful child out of the water, the rising sun in the background)
Joker: You'll never be able to do that again, will you?

  • One short in the Batman: No Man's Land arc, drawn in DCAU style, has Batman and Batgirl (Cass) trailing a mob assassin carrying a "violin case" through the broken city. At one point, the guy is stopped by a gang, who asks him to "pay". Cass is ready to leap to their defense, but Batman stops her. The killer opens the violin case and takes out... a violin. The gang leader: "It's been six weeks since the walls went up. Six weeks since we've heard any real music. Play us something. A little 'Danny Boy', maybe?" The Reaction Shot may be the best use of Cass' Expressive Mask ever.
  • A surprising example from Batman's Bane in Secret Six after Batman's death. To honor his foe, Bane, Catman and Ragdoll go around stopping a group of assassins who are targeting certain people, including children. It speaks volumes that despite Bane and Batman not seeing eye to eye, Bane was doing this out of respect for him. "The Batman. The Batman saved your child, Mr Cooper."
  • The Paul Dini-written Batgirl Adventures #1 features Harley Quinn having to resort to forming a team with Batgirl in order to rescue Poison Ivy, which is heartwarming in itself to see the lengths Harley would go for Ivy. While the issue is memorable for certain innuendo, the real moment of heartwarming comes when Harley arrives to untie Ivy, including a big hug and "Hi, Baybee!" greeting, much to Ivy's surprise and amazement as she believed Harley was killed when Kit abducted Ivy.
    • During Dini's run on Detective Comics, he wrote a story in which Harley helped Batman take down the new Ventriloquist. Her reason? The original was able to break out of his shell and tried to cheer her up when she felt alone and scared during her first night in Arkham.
  • The conclusion of Batman's "Fear of Faith" arc (itself a part of the larger "No Man's Land" crossover). To summarize: dozens of citizens, a great many of them immigrants, have taken shelter in the lawless, earthquake-ravaged Gotham inside a church run by two stubbornly pacifistic priests. Said priests' stubborn equal treatment of all who come their way leads to the Penguin using the church as an illegal arms storehouse, as well as the Scarecrow walking amongst the refugees and corrupting their minds. By the end, the refugees have just barely managed to avoid an all-out gang war, realize that Scarecrow's manipulations had led them down that path, and prepare to kill him. One of the priests, however, begs Huntress (the one vigilante who had placed it on herself to watch over the church) to stop them:

Huntress: Couldn't stop them if I wanted to. Revenge is human nature, after all.
Father Papaleo: It is also human nature to bend to the force of a superior will. Please! I've seen you do things I would have thought impossible, Huntress. I know you can help. I believe in you.

    • Huntress convinces the mob to not murder Scarecrow (who had actually wanted to be killed as a martyr for his theory that fear drives people to unimaginable deeds), and instead reasons that Scarecrow is a figure to be pitied, not hated. The refugees gather around him, showering him with promises that their patron gods (Jesus, Allah, Vishnu, etc.) will forgive him. Scarecrow, utterly confused and broken, flees the church, proven wrong about his Humans Are the Real Monsters theory.
  • Batman gets many in Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? Batman has died and all of his friends and enemies are telling different versions of his death.

Clayface: He died sssaving the city. No that's not true... he sssaved the city, yes... but he died sssssaving me. I ssssaid, "I'm not worth it." He said, "everyone's worth it."

  • Another one for the Bat-group, this time Harvey and Montoya get a turn: http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/1125719.html
    • Ah, the start of the fucked-up-ness that is Montoya and Harvey Dent. Good times. Too bad Two-Face keeps fucking up their relationship. One wonders why Harvey insists on keeping the jerk around. One guesses that they are rather attached to each other.
    • As long as we're discussing that comic, this engineering troper was rather pleased by the last story. Batman's mechanic, a man named Henry, is remembering his mother, who kicked him out of his home, when he is caught in and survives the earthquake which decimates Gotham. His first concern is for the bat-gear, which Batman relies on him to fix. Alfred then comes by and tells him that it's not worthwhile to try and fix all the broken gear, and that Henry should just go until Alfred needs him. Between this and his memory of his mother, Henry is heartbroken and feels that he's leaving the only good home he's known. As he's walking away from the Batcave, Henry sees Gotham. A whole city, broken and needing to be fixed. Henry has a lot of work to do. Just, the idea of one dude with a toolbelt walking to a decimated Gotham, so he can help rebuild it with the same care as he fixed the Bat's gear...
  • Issue #32 of Gotham Knights, in which we see all the assorted non-superhero things that Batman does as Bruce Wayne to try and improve Gotham, and the lives of people Batman has helped.
    • Found it here. I thought the things he does as Batman deserves a mention here too. One of them was him visiting Two-Face in jail and playing a brief game of chess with him, implying that he came every night to do it. He even watched over his "children", sending Dick's whole police squad bulletproof vests, watching Tim wipe the floor with some crooks with a proud smile and asking Barbara how her father is. And at the end of the day, he still found time to say thank you to Alfred for everything that he had done for him.
  • Pretty much this, with plenty of father and son moments in Batman, whether it's between Bruce and Alfred or Bruce with Robin, from Dick to Tim and including briefly even Jason Todd.
  • I don't know if this counts being made by a fan, but the end of this short Batman comic is particularly emotive.
  • There are so many with the dad & son moments between Batman and Alfred, but the biggest one - which is also a tremendous Tear Jerker, is this exchange in Battle for the Cowl:

Superman: Are you alright?
Alfred: Am I alright, sir?... No, I'm not... My son has died.

  • At the end of "Heart of Hush", Bruce Wayne looks over Selina Kyle and blames himself for Hush cutting out her heart (she got better). He tells her that after so many years of shutting out people, he could never shut her out, that Catwoman is the only person to ever hold his heart. Batman finally admits, that no matter what happens, he will always love her.
  • Joker, of all people, gets one in Emperor Joker. Having achieved ultimate Cosmic Power, he decides to unmake the universe because anyplace that would let a monster like him exist must be broken. Harley Quinn approaches him and begs him to spare her. He actually takes pity on her and, for all her "tears of service," transforms her into a constellation, promising she'll have the best seat in the house.
  • In "The Resurrection of R'as Al Ghul", Dick Grayson returns to Gotham to protect Batman's bratty son, Damian, and finds a thousand of R'as Al Ghul's ninjas attacking Wayne Manor. He questions why he has to do all this for Damian, "a kid that no one likes", before remembering that Tim is in there too, at which point he throws himself into the fight. Awwww.

Dick: "No. It's for Tim. For him, a thousand ninjas is just the beginning of what I would do."

  • From Batgirl #5, especially considering everything's she's been through.

Steph: Everything doesn't have to be about fear. There's room in our line of work for hope too.

  • In Red Robin #17, Bruce has returned and is having a rooftop conversation with Tim. He states that since coming back, he has forgotten to do one thing. Cue the next page where the two hug. This troper "D'awww"ed.
  • Red Robin #9: Tim finally reunites with his friends and family. The most touching would have to be his reunion with Superboy. He stands in stunned silence as Superboy teases him about his costume change until he finally hugs Superboy in relief.

Superboy: Tim? Buddy? If you're trying to be all dark and grim now, this isn't going to help.

  • A Death in the Family sneaks in a CMOH into the scene where Superman and Batman are informed that since the Joker now has diplomatic immunity, Batman is banned from doing anything to him. When they're alone, Supes rather apprehensively (Batman had punched him in the face earlier that day in a fit of rage) calls Batman "Bruce", asks if Jason was Robin, and mentions that he thought he was a really nice kid. All the anger and growling and vengeance that Batman had been caught up in since Jason's death immediately dissolves into grief as he says "Yes, he was. Jason was the best."
  • Batman and Robin #20 - The entire family gathers to watch The Mark of Zorro.
  • Batman saves an inmate from committing suicide at Dead Man's Point on Arkham Island. Awww!
  • In Issue #6 of the New52 Batman & Robin #6:

Nobody: I was setting you free. Why would you throw away all I had to offer?
Damian: Why? Because he's my father, you idiot.

  • The Riddler's conversation with The Penguin in Gotham Underground #9

Riddler: Look Ozzie... I'm not really good at this. I don't really have many friends to speak of. But... but thank you for being the one person who I could actually converse with on an equal level and for--
Penguin: Eddie... enough already. You don't want to still be here when Intergang finally shows up.
Riddler: Yes... well in that we're in total agreement. See you in the next life, my friend.

Batman: Firefighters and police are coming. Reporters won't be far behind. Time for you to go into your media-friendly detective act.
Riddler: Look, there's no reason we both can't...
Batman: No. We can't.
Riddler: Suit yourself.

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