15 Times Batman Got Married

Now that we know that Catwoman has officially responded to Batman's proposal, it opens up a very real possibility that Batman will be getting married in a future comic book. That, of course, would be a seismic shift in our understanding of the character, who has often been defined by his status as the ultimate loner, despite Bruce Wayne being known as the ultimate playboy.

However, amazingly enough, Batman actually has gotten married a number of times in the comics over the years. Outside of his marriage on Earth-2, though, these were all imaginary stories or dreams or something of that nature, so they don't "count" the same way that they would if Batman gets married in the current DC Rebirth continuity. They still happened, though, so let's take a look at 15 times in the past that Batman has gotten married in the comics.

15 CATWOMAN (DC SUPER STARS #17)

The most notable Bat-marriage has got to be the one between the Batman and Catwoman of Earth-2. Earth-2, you see, was introduced after DC had introduced new versions of Flash and Green Lantern in the late 1950s. They had proven to be popular, but fans would continue to ask about the earlier versions of those characters. DC eventually explained that there was an alternate version of Earth called Earth-2, where the earlier heroes lived. Eventually the idea was expanded to the point where we met alternate versions of Batman and Superman, as well.

The Earth-2 heroes were older, Earth-2 Batman had already retired and an adult Robin was now DC's protector. Years later, we learned that Batman and Catwoman had gotten married. Sadly, in the same issue we learned about their marriage, Catwoman died. Batman and Catwoman's young adult daughter became the Huntress to avenge her mother's murder.

14 TALIA AL GHUL (BATMAN SPECIAL-SERIES #15)

In the early 1970s, Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams introduced two major new additions to the Batman mythos, the eco-terrorist, Ra's Al-Ghul and his beautiful daughter, Talia. Talia was very attracted to Batman and actually saved his life the first time that Batman tangled with her father.

A few years later, O'Neil did another major event involving Ra's and Talia in 1978's DC Special Series #15 (art by Michael Golden and Dick Giordano), where Ra's had a plan involving spreading a gas throughout Gotham City to keep the citizens docile. He decided to spare Batman and captured him and married him off to Talia while he was unconscious. Batman took the time when he was supposed to be consummating the marriage to escape and foil the latest Al-Ghul plot.

13 BATWOMAN (BATMAN #122)

In the 1950s, DC was a bit self-conscious regarding the claims made in Fredric Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent that Batman and Robin were viewed as a "homosexual fantasy," so DC came up with Batwoman to serve as a love interest for Batman. Of course, when you suddenly introduce a female character into a dynamic duo like Batman and Robin, there was bound to be some hard feelings from the third wheel, Robin (hence them later introducing Bat-Girl for Robin) and they came out in Batman #122.

In a story by Bill Finger, Sheldon Moldoff and Ray Burnley, Bruce Wayne goes on a date with Kathy Kane (Batwoman's secret identity) and comes home to tell Dick Grayson that he's marrying Kathy! Once they trade secret identities, Batman insisted that Batwoman retire. She refused and ultimately got her secret identity revealed to everyone! It turned out to be a nightmare Robin was having!

12 LOIS LANE (SUPERMAN'S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LAME #89)

Batman and Lois Lane had a run-in with marriage in Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #57, when Lois got it into her head that Bruce Wayne was secretly Superman. She got all the way to the altar when Superman showed up to attend the wedding and Lois called things off! Batman and Superman knew she thought that Bruce was Superman, so they were just screwing with her.

In Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #89, however, by Leo Dorfman, Curt Swan and Mike Esposito, in an imaginary story, Lois fell for Bruce Wayne just for himself and married him. Superman was super jealous that Lois loved Bruce for himself and not because she thought he was a superhero. Bruce subsequently told her the truth on their honeymoon. She and Bruce had a son that Batman and Robin trained as Batman Jr.

11 WONDER WOMAN (JLA #90)

All throughout Joe Kelly and Doug Mahnke's run on JLA, Batman and Wonder Woman flirted heavily. During a dramatic moment in "The Obsidian Age," they even shared a kiss! In JLA #90 (by Joe Kelly, Chriscross and Tom Nguyen), Wonder Woman wanted to know where they stood in their relationship. She noted, "That stupid kiss, literally before dying... that has plagued us both. Was it simply a moment shared by warriors on the battlefield? Or a desperate attempt to reconcile years of emotion in a fleeting heartbeat? It's time for an answer. Damn you."

So she enters a machine that showed different possible futures if Wonder Woman and Batman got married and they were all over the place, with some ending in great triumph while others end in great tragedy. Ultimately, she decided it was too much and determined that they would remain just friends.

10 JULIE MADISON (BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT DYNASTY)

Batman: The Dark Knight Dynasty was a bold Elseworlds story by Mike W. Barr and a trio of artists (Scott Hampton, Gary Frank and Scott McDaniel) telling the story of Vandal Savage's millennia-long feud against the Wayne family. It opened with a knight named Joshua Wainwright in the Crusades. Then it goes to the 20th Century. There, Bruce and the Waynes are seemingly friends with Vandal Savage, but when the Waynes discover Savage's true nature, he has them killed.

Bruce has to adopt a costume based on the suit of armor worn by his ancestor to become Batman. He has just married Julie Madison, but he has to avenge his parents. He ends up dying, but not before getting Julie pregnant. Hundreds of years later, one of Bruce's descendants finally takes Savage down.

9 NATALYA TRUSEVICH (DETECTIVE COMICS #27)

Natalya Trusevich was a love interest of Bruce Wayne's during the New 52. She was a concert pianist from Ukraine, who Bruce had a hard time devoting his life to since he was, well, you know, Batman. Eventually, he decided to tell her the truth about his secret identity. However, since she was a love interest in a comic book, Natalya was then tortured by the Mad Hatter to learn Batman's secret identity. When she wouldn't reveal it, she was killed.

In a story in Detective Comics #27, however, by Mike W. Barr and Guillem March, the Phantom Stranger showed Batman a world where Thomas and Martha Wayne lived. Bruce grew up and married Natalya, but he ended up sacrificing his happiness in that reality to return to become Batman, as the needs of justice outweighed his happiness.

8 LARA WAYNE (BATMAN/SUPERMAN: GENERATIONS III #7)

Batman/Superman: Generations was a clever story by John Byrne that came out in Batman's 60th anniversary that followed the adventures of Batman and Superman over 80 years, 1929-2009, with time moving normally, so they each have kids and grandkids over those 80 years. The mini was a success, so Byrne followed it up with a second volume, which told new stories set at different points between the 10-year periods.

He then followed it up with a third series, a 12-issue maxiseries following the adventures of Batman and Superman over the centuries (both characters had become immortal). Batman ended up marrying the granddaughter of Superman. However, oddly enough, through adopted family, her last name was actually Wayne, which made it sort of unsettling for Bruce Wayne to marry Lana Wayne.

7 UNKNOWN MRS. WAYNE (WORLD'S FINEST COMICS #215)

Bob Haney was a longtime comic book writer for DC Comics who had an interesting approach to continuity -- he didn't really care about it. People would joke that Haney's stories took place on their own Earth, Earth-Haney, because he would do stories that wouldn't make fit with the rest of the DC Universe, but were categorically not "imaginary stories."

One of the highlights of these types of stories was the saga of the Super-Sons. Introduced in World's Finest Comics #215, these were Batman and Superman Jr. Batman and his wife (whose face was always obscured) and Superman and his wife (same deal) sat back and watched their rebellious offspring try to be superheroes of a new generation. This all ostensibly took place in the regular DC Universe despite it being impossible to be taking place in the regular DC Universe. Denny O'Neil later revealed it was all a computer simulation.

6 CATWOMAN (CATWOMAN: GUARDIAN OF GOTHAM)

Catwoman: Guardian of Gotham was an unusual Elseworlds graphic novel (by Doug Moench and Jim Balent) where young Selina Kyle was walking home with her parents, Thomas and Martha Kyle, from a movie (Cat People, of course) when a young man mugged them and killed her parents. Young Selina inherited their fortune and decided to become a superhero known as the Catwoman.

Catwoman's defense of Gotham City led to a new criminal starting to dress up as a Batman, in response to Catwoman. Meanwhile, Selina began to date Bruce Wayne and they got married. She was shocked, however, to learn that Bruce was Batman and that he planned on murdering her and taking her fortune! Later, she learned that he was also the mugger who killed her parents!

5 TALIA AL GHUL (BATMAN: SON OF THE DEMON)

While not that many people remembered the Batman/Talia marriage from DC Special Series #15, one of those people who did remember it was Mike W. Barr (whose name has popped up a lot during this list). He wrote the graphic novel, Batman: Son of the Demon, with artist Jerry Bingham. In the novel, Batman teamed up with Ra's Al Ghul to stop one a former associate of Ra's Al Ghul who had actually murdered Talia's mother years earlier!

Batman and Talia get married (or rather, they consummated their earlier marriage) to signal this new alliance and Talia gets pregnant. Batman becomes so concerned about protecting her that he gets sloppy in battle. Talia then pretends to have a miscarriage so that Batman can concentrate and stop the bad guy. After he succeeds, she also annuls their marriage. Later, the baby is shown being adopted by a nice family.

4 BATWOMAN (BATMAN #131

Alfred Pennyworth has seen a whole lot of stuff in his time as Batman's butler, but he's totally cool with it all because he cares for Bruce Wayne deeply. However, sometimes it seems like he might care a little too much, which was shown in Batman #131, where we learn that Alfred has a whole story about a possible future for Batman where Batman gets married to Batwoman and they have a son who becomes Robin II with Dick Grayson (now an adult) becomes Batman II.

These imaginary stories by Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff were popular enough that there were a couple of sequels (including Joker's son, Joker II), but the whole thing seems a bit unsettling. "Alfred, did you really have to spend 10 pages describing our honeymoon? This is quite detailed."

3 CATWOMAN (JLA #8)

Early in his run on JLA, Grant Morrison (working with fill-in artists Oscar Jimenez and Chip Wallace) re-introduced the Key in JLA #8, where the villain has captured the Justice League and locked them in alternate realities. Superman is a Green Lantern, Wonder Woman has lost her powers and fights Nazis in a white jumpsuit, Aquaman is in a Waterworld-type scenario and Batman, well, he is pretty much in a modern day version of Alfred's aforementioned speculative fiction.

Batman has married Catwoman and now their son is the new Robin, working with an adult version of Tim Drake, who is the new Batman. The JLA's newest recruit, Green Arrow (Connor Hawke) must save them all (in the end, he ends up defeating the Key with one of his father's old trick arrows).

2 JULIE MADISON (BATMAN VOL.2 #49)

After Batman seemingly died in the "Endgame" between Batman and Joker, Commissioner Gordon had taken over as the new Batman, using a special suit of armor designed by Wayne Industries and the Gotham City Police Department. However, the villainous Mister Bloom has defeated Gordon and now Gotham City needs the real Batman to return.

However, Bruce (who did survive) has no memories of his time as Batman and is with Julie Madison and they are in love. Alfred decides to then destroy a machine Batman had developed that was designed to implant Batman's memories into clones so that Batman's mission would never end. Finally, Bruce (and Julie, who is willing to sacrifice her love to help Gotham) forces Alfred to use a back-up file to override his current happy life and become Batman again. While in the machine, he sees alternate possible realities, including one where and Julie are married.

1 CATWOMAN (NIGHTWING VOL.1 #52)

In 2000, the Bat-titles were about to go on a pretty dark path with "Officer Down" (where Commissioner Gordon would be shot), so they decided to do something a bit lighter before that story. So they did a month called "Batman Dies!" as a throwback to the old Silver Age stories where the cover would say that Batman dies but the interior story would always explain it away somehow (a dream, a hoax, etc.)

While some titles devoted their whole issues to the concept, other books, like Nightwing #52 (by Chuck Dixon, Greg Land and Drew Geraci) just gave a few pages to the idea. Here, Catwoman (who guest-starred in the issue) daydreams about marrying Batman and then killing him when she realizes she'll never have him to herself.

Do you think Batman and Catwoman should get married? Let us know in the comments section!