This article describes various allusions in the American television series Smallville to DC Comics character Batman, also known as Bruce Wayne. Although Batman had never appeared on the series, there were several references to the character and his universe. The notes on this page are generated by viewers and comics fans, but not necessarily verified by the show's producers or writers.
Batman is the superhero name given to Bruce Wayne, a billionaire who detictes his life to avenge his parents' death and preotect his home, Gotham City. In the future, he becomes one of the world's greatest heroes as well as (along with Superman and Wonder Woman) one of the founding members of the Justice League of America.
Due to Batman's restarted film franchise, Bruce Wayne did not appear on Smallville because the film division of Warner Bros. (DC's parent company) is working with the character. The creators of Smallville were actually thinking of making a Bruce Wayne TV series before the idea of a Superman-oriented show ever came about, but it was never realized. Alfred Gough said that an appearance of Bruce Wayne on the show was unlikely.[1]
However, it's apparent that Bruce Wayne/Batman is a part of the Smallville universe as Chloe Sullivanmentions meeting "a billionare with high-tech toys" while meeting heroes around the world.
Smallville writer Bryan Miller who is writing the comic book continuation of the series Smallville Season 11, confirmed that Batman will make an appearance in the series, in the story arc called Detective.
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Bruce Wayne/Batman had never appeared on Smallville, however the writers of the show had made many allusions to the Dark Knight on the show. These include:
Blüdhaven is mentioned in this episode, which is the sister city to Gotham, and future home to Batman's first protege, Richard "Dick" Grayson a.k.a. Robin/Nightwing.
The line Lex delivers as he pummels Clark with the kryptonitering "I want you to remember, Clark... there was one man who beat you", is nearly verbatim of a line Batman delivers while delivering a punch to Superman in Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.
Andrea Rojas, a metahuman vigilante known as the Angel of Vengeance, is the closest to an appearance of Batman on Smallville.
In the Batman Animated Series there is a character called Andrea Beaumont who has the vigilante alias of the Angel of Death better known as Phantasm whose look was loosely based on that of the grim reaper. Andrea is the ex-fiance of Bruce Wayne and is similar to his alias of the Batman in that they both ultimately became vigilantes as a result of their parents being killed by criminals. However, there is one significant difference that separates them and ultimately lead to them going separate ways. Though they both became vigilantes, Andrea chose to become a killer, following a warped code of "eye-for-an-eye" justice, while Bruce chose to fight crime without taking anyone's life.
When Andrea first appears, theme music very similar to Danny Elfman's version of the Batman theme can be heard.
Andrea's choice of mostly black clothing and a mask that covers her face.
She was driven to fight crime by vengeance.
Her mother was killed by a mugger.
She claims she is "blind as a bat."
She has great knowledge of the criminal underworld.
She is a keeper of kryptonite (Batman carries kryptonite on any mission that may involve a dangerous Superman, at Superman's request).
When Clark goes to the Daily Planet to ask Chloe about Lana and Lex, she asks him about the assassin. She said, "Riddle me this?" - a reference to the Batman villain, The Riddler.
Chloe says Clark will be everybody's "Boy Wonder" if a man reveals Clark's secret on his blog, "Boy Wonder" is a nickname for Robin, Batman's sidekick.
After killing Marcos at the end of the episode Tess Mercer drops the toxic flower used to poison Queen onto the ground. The entire scene takes place outside of a movie theatre. This could be interpreted as an allusion to the Monarch Theatre: the movie theatre outside of which Bruce Wayne's parents were murdered, prompting his transformation into The Dark Knight. Many incarnations portray Bruce Wayne as laying flowers in rememberence of his parent's deaths.
Chloe makes a reference to Batman's Bat-Signal: "I seriously doubt we're going to be able to call her out by putting a spiked heel over a kleig light."
Lois, as Stiletto, tells Clark "I gotta get back to my cave," a nod to Batcave, Batman's secret headquarters.
Lois then breaks through a window in the roof and lands in a room with criminals in classic Batman fashion.
Ray Sacks, Metropolis's District Attorney, holds a press conference and calls out to the Blur to reveal his identity. Clark, who is at the press conference, is about step up, until Lois interferes. This is similar to the scene from The Dark Knightfilm, when Harvey Dent, Gotham's District Attorney, holds a press conference and calls out to Batman to reveal his identity. Just as Bruce Wayne is about to reveal himself, Harvey Dent falsely claims that he is Batman.
Ray Sacks is very similar to Harvey Dent, since Dent also became a corrupt Ex-District Attorney after he became Two-Face.
Interesting to note that Harvey Dent was originally named "Harvey Kent", but his name was gradually changed by the creators to avoid any confusion with Clark Kent.
Chloe mentioned that Oliver wouldn't be the first orphan super-hero to join a celtic cult, a reference to Bruce Wayne joining the League of Shadows to train as "Batman" in the Batman Begins film.
Hawkman in this episode displayed many characteristics that foreshadows Batman. [citation needed]
Ted Grant also known as Wildcat had a cameo in this episode in the comics he taught Batman and Catwoman how to fight as well as the daughter of Black Canary Dinah Lance.
In the comics a young Bruce witnessed Alan Scott as Green Lantern in action during his first visit to the city of Metropolis. (Batman:Hush)
While Talking to Alec Abrams/Stephen Swift, Chloe refered to the superhero community as The World's Finest. World's finestSuperman\Batman:World's Finest
was the title name of a comic that featured DC Comics two leading superheroes, Superman and Batman. It eventually became the title team nickname of Batman & Superman.
A poster of a character dressed similarly to Robin is in the background when Alec speaks with Harry.
At the Metropolis comic convention in the opening of the episode the banners had "WHAACK" "KAPOOW" a nod to the 60's Batman TV series. There were even a few fans dressed as the caped crusader and a few of his supporting cast members both heroes & villains. [picture needed]
The destruction of Watchtower is very similar to a storyline in "Birds of Prey", in which Oracle is forced to destroy the Clocktower's system to keep it out of the reach of the villain Blockbuster.
When confronted by the media about being a billionaire vigilante super-hero, Oliver admits that he's probably not the first one. Batman is of course one of the most well known billionaire vigilante heroes in comics. Furthermore his line that "This isn't about who I am. It's about what I do." is similar to the Batman Begins line Bruce as Batman says to Rachel "It's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me."
The Scarecrow masks seen in the film Batman Begins are seen on the local townsmen from the ghost town. In fact, one of the men was riding a horse much like that seen in the film.
Clark's speech, "It's not what I'm called that should define who I am. It's who I am that should define what I'm called" bares a unmistakable reference to Bruce Wayne's speech, "It's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me" from Batman Begins.
Conner Kent is introduced into the series, In the comics Conner has a deep connection to Bat-family due to being best friends with Tim Drake, the third boy to wear the mantel of Robin and current Red Robin.
Oliver searches for the Bow of Orion to use against Darkseid. In the comic series Final Crisis, Batman used a weapon from the New Gods that killed Orion to confront Darkseid as well.
Lois can be seen using a WayneTech laptop. This is a direct reference to WayneTech, a subsidiary of Wayne Enterprises, the company founded by Thomas Wayne and currently run by Bruce Wayne.
At the 9th chapter of Guardian Oliver talks about crime and states to his wife Chloe that Star City has the second-highest crime rate in America if you count Gotham City.
Bruce Wayne/Batman finally appears in the Smallville continuity.
Barbara Gordon makes an appearance but takes on the crime fighting identity of Nightwing rather than her official pseudonym name from the comics and mythology as Batgirl.
Batman's wears an armored Batsuit that bears a resemblance to Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy.
The voice of Batman is based off Christian Bale's interpretation to disguise Bruce's voice with a dark growl.
Bruce Wayne visit to Metropolis revolves around a meeting with Lex Luthor, usually when Bruce would be coming to Metropolis in the comics to cover his true motives as Batman he'd set up a business venture between Wayne Enterprise and LexCorp to explain his presence in Metropolis to the public eye.
Barbara alludes to the three various members from his Rogue Gallery of Villains:Joker, Penguin and Killer Croc.
Batman and Superman's first encounter usually always involves a physical altercation before they put aside their differences and come together as one to team-up.
The scene where Batman and Superman are in the Batmobile and is being chased by the police is very similar to the scene in Batman Begins with Batman and Katie Holmes' Rachel Dawes.
Three of Batman's primary vehicles of transportation on "Land", "Sea" and "Air" have appeared (The Batmobile), (The Batwing) and (The Batboat). The Batmobile here resembles the Tumbler from Batman Begins and the Batmobile seen in the Tim Burton movies(and to an extant the Batmobile from the book Batman:Child of Dreams.)
Clark fashions his own Bat-signal to summon Batman, The Bat-signal is a primary device uses by Police Commissioner James Gordon to contact Batman.
Joe Chill is the man responsible for the murder of Thomas & Martha Wayne, which in turn caused the birth of Batman .
Victor Fries Aka : Mr. Freeze, is a cold hearted villain of Batman.
Mr.Freeze alludes to his wife, Nora during a conversation with The Prankster.
Bruce forges a thermal insulated Batsuit armor to battle Mr. Freeze and a lead-lined Suit for Superman to combat The Prankster. Batman is known for have various armored batsuit's ready to combat any villain or situation he comes up against.
Batman and Green Arrow have a bit of a rivalry
Crime Alley is the location in which the Wayne Murder occurred. Bruce constantly brings a pair of red roses to the landmark as a means to pay respects to his beloved parents.
Bruce and Clark come to an understanding and mutual respect for one another. In the mythology Batman & Superman are known as "The World's finest".
The sequence panel in which Batman emerges from the gotham swears and heads to an armoured-plated Batmobile is very similar to Tim Burton's 1989 "Batman" film. In which Batman emerges from the museum building with Vicki Vale who he tells to get into the car.
Batman alerts Watchtower of a threat heading to Metropolis, Is a reference to Bats affiliation JLA before joining.
Batman and Superman are considered the main flagship characters of DC Comics[citation needed].
Both Batman and Superman are the only DC comics characters to have been featured in every incarnation of media.
When planning for a hopeful appearance in the early seasons, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar saw Bruce as a rival for Lana's affections, but they were disallowed the use of the character. [citation needed]
↑Appearing at the Los Angeles Comic Book and Science Fiction Convention at the Shrine Auditorium on Sunday [February 10, 2007] afternoon, the show's creators said they have tried several times to get Bruce Wayne, but they've moved on from that pursuit. "Sadly, no," Gough said with a smile after the first of several Batman/Bruce Wayne questions during the panel. "It's not our fault. We've tried and tried, but because of the feature-film franchise, they've made that kind of off limits. Unfortunately." "It's a very clear statement: You can't use Bruce Wayne," Millar said. "We've got over it and we're moving on. There are plenty of other characters we can exploit." http://www.comicscontinuum.com/stories/0702/12/smallvillela.htm
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