Several months ago I posted a list of people who know, or used to know, Batmans secret identity at some point in the last two decades or so; meaning the modern DCU continuity of the Post-Crisis era. Then I solicited feedback from my fellow fans and soon posted a second, much expanded, version.
Lately Ive been thinking its about time to go back to that and update it again. But I decided its time to make the entire thing more comprehensive to include a separate list of those who knew Bruces secret in the Silver and Bronze Ages, when his stories were set on Earth-1 in the Pre-Crisis Multiverse. (Some of the people who learned the secret in those days seem to have had the information scrubbed from their heads in later retcons.)
For my purposes, Im counting the Pre-Crisis, Earth-1 era of Batman continuity as beginning in 1956 (the year that Barry Allen, the Silver Age Flash of Earth-1, debuted) and ending in 1986, in Batman #400, the final issue of Doug Moenchs mid-80s run as a Batman writer.
So what I want right now is your help in tracking down any character who knew Batman = Bruce Wayne in any story published in that thirty-year range except that of course we should still ignore any Batman story that specifically warned the reader it featured the Golden Age Batman who lived and died on Earth-2. (Although: who knows? Someday I may get around to compiling a separate list for him! But not just now.)
A few ground rules, subject to change at any time:
1. In cases where someone has used multiple aliases over the years, Pre- and Post-Crisis, Im generally listing them here under whatever alias they were using regularly in the early-to-mid 80s, just before the transition to Post-Crisis continuity. For instance, Donna Troy is listed under Wonder Girl I and Garfield Logan is listed under Changeling.
2. If the person didnt habitually use a costumed alias, I insert that person into the list in alphabetical order by first name. (Example: Alfred Pennyworth is listed under A for Alfred instead of P for Pennyworth, because I think most fans dont think of him as Pennyworth, Alfred the way he would be listed in a phone book)
3. To make life a little easier on myself, I am for the moment ignoring all the characters from the Pre-Crisis Earth-2 who knew for a fact that their worlds Batman was Bruce Wayne (the Golden Age version), and therefore knew or could very easily have figured out, if they cared, that the Earth-1 Batman was also Bruce Wayne.
4. The only inhabitant of Earth-Prime that Im bothering to list as a character who knew Batmans secret identity is Superboy-Prime. I dont see how he could possibly fail to know. But Im leaving out lots of other Earth-Prime characters who visited Earth-1 at some point (including Julius Schwartz, Cary Bates, Marv Wolfman, George Perez, etc.).
THE MASTER LIST OF PEOPLE WHO KNEW, PRE-CRISIS
Alfred Pennyworth (Pre-COIE, Alfred never even met Bruce until after Bruce was already Batman and Dick Grayson was already Robin. When Alfred first moved into the Manor to be the new butler, he didnt know what he was really getting intobut he found out)
The Atom II (Ray Palmer. All the regulars of the JLAs Satellite Era apparently knew each others identities in the Pre-Crisis era)
Batgirl I (Barbara Gordon. In the Pre-Crisis days, she was never known as Oracle. She apparently learned who Dick and Bruce were, had the knowledge mindwiped away, and figured it out all over again later or possibly the old mindwipe was retconned away very quietly; its unclear. I once wrote about this sequence of events in excruciating detail at Barbara Gordon: A Bad Mindwipe and a Later Retcon)
Black Canary II (Dinah Lance, who until a JLA/JSA crossover in 1983 retconned her origins was supposed to be her own mother. Its a long story, okay?)
Black Lightning (Jefferson Pierce. Learned in Batman and the Outsiders #13. Along with four other founding members of the Outsiders: Geo-Force, Halo, Katana, and Metamorpho, all listed below)
Catwoman I (Selina Kyle. Her knowledge was established in Batman #355 when, for the first time in Earth-1 continuity, she clearly addressed Batman as Bruce. Apparently we never found out just when and how she had previously learned.)
Changeling (Garfield Logan. The way Marv Wolfman wrote The New Teen Titans in the early-to-mid 80s, it appeared that everyone who was a bona fide member of the team ended up knowing that Robin I (later Nightwing) was Dick Grayson, and that he was the ward and protégé of Bruce Wayne, aka Batman. Thus you will also see listings here for Cyborg, Kid Flash I (Wally), Raven, Starfire II (Koriandr), Terra I, and Wonder Girl I (Donna). Post-Zero Hour, Denny ONeil frantically tried to retcon all this six ways from Sunday, but that has nothing to do with how things stood in the early-to-mid 80s in the Pre-Crisis continuity.)
The Crime Doctor (Bradford Thorne. Dead. Learned in his first appearance, in Detective Comics #494. One issue later, he went into a coma from mercury poisoning. He had no further appearances in the Pre-Crisis continuity, but in theory, the threat of his a) recovering, and b) still remembering, was constantly hanging over Batmans head)
Cyborg (Victor Stone)
Dala (Female vampire who learned the secret, in the Earth-1 continuity, in a story arc in 1982. She and her brother The Monk had no further appearances in Pre-Crisis continuity.)
Deathstroke the Terminator (Slade Wilson. This one is a bit iffy, but heres what I think I know: In the Pre-Crisis era, Dick Graysons teammates in the Titans all knew he was the first Robin (later Nightwing). For awhile, newcomer Terra I (Tara Markov) was the exception to the rule, but eventually he decided shed proved she was trustworthy. All the other Titans also seemed to know that Dick Graysons mentor was Bruce Wayne, aka Batman, with the Batcave being located beneath stately Wayne Manor. Terra was a spy and definitely shared Dicks secret identity with Deathstroke the Terminator. I dont remember Deathstroke, in any Pre-Crisis story, ever explicitly saying I know Bruce Wayne is Batman, but the assumption Marv Wolfman seemed to be going on in that era was: ANYBODY who knows Dick Grayson is Robin I/Nightwing also knows Bruce Wayne is Batman, which makes a lot more sense than Denny ONeils mid-90s retcons to the contrary!)
Douglas Dundee, M.D. (In Pre-Crisis continuity, he was the old doctor who had known Bruce all his life and was well aware of his secret identity. He could be trusted to treat Batmans occasional bullet wounds and so forth without reporting them to the police)
The Elongated Man (Ralph Dibny)
Firestorm (Ronnie Raymond merged with Martin Stein)
Geo-Force (Brion Markov. Learned in Batman and the Outsiders #13)
Green Arrow I (Oliver Queen)
Green Lantern #whatever (Hal Jordan)
Halo (Violet Hunter. Learned in Batman and the Outsiders #13)
Harbinger (Lyla, the former assistant to the Monitor. Had access to information about everyone interesting)
Hawkman (Katar Hol of Thanagar, aka Carter Hall)
Hawkgirl (Shiera Hol of Thanagar, aka Shiera Hall)
Hugo Strange (Found out in the Steve Englehart run in the 70s that is collected in the Batman: Strange Apparitions TPB)
Jason Todd (Robin II. A very different character from the Post-Crisis Jason who was killed in A Death in the Family and more recently came back during Judd Winicks run on the Batman title. This version of Jason independently discovered the secret passage behind a grandfather clock, and thus the Batcave and the spare costumes and so forth, in Detective Comics #526. By sheer coincidence, his parents (circus aerialists) were getting killed by Killer Croc right about then, so Jason ended up moving into Wayne Manor as Bruces new ward and protégé.)
Jimmy Olsen (For some reason, Silver Age Superman didnt think it proper to trust Jimmy with his own secret identity, but felt it was perfectly all right to trust him with Batmans secret identity. No, I dont understand the logic either but I havent actually read the story in question; I just heard about it online!)
Joe Chill (Batman revealed his true identity to Joe Chill to scare him. A few minutes later, Chill got himself killed by some fellow thugs who shot him full of holes when he confessed that he had just learned he had essentially created Batman, the guy who had made so much trouble for all of them over the last few years. A little bit too late, the thugs realized they should have extracted the name from Chill before killing him in anger. Oops! Still, for about five or ten minutes, Joe Chill knew the secret)
Katana (Tatsu Yamashiro. Learned in Batman and the Outsiders #13)
Martian Manhunter (Jonn Jonnz)
Metamorpho (Rex Mason. Learned in Batman and the Outsiders #13)
The Monk (Vampire villain who learned the secrets of Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson during a story arc in 1982. Then he and his sister Dala were taken into custody by a mysterious priest, and the Earth-1, Pre-Crisis versions of those characters have never been heard from since!)
Nightwing I (Dick Grayson, formerly Robin I)
Nocturna (Doug Moenchs scripts in the mid-80s sometimes called her Natasha Knight and sometimes called her Natalia Knight apparently he lost track of what her first name was, even though hed created her himself? But she definitely knew for awhile before the transition to Post-Crisis continuity)
The Phantom Stranger (He seems virtually omniscient. In Detective Comics #500 he gave the Earth-1 Batman and Robin a chance to visit a previously unknown parallel world where Thomas and Martha Wayne were almost due to be murdered by a crook in front of the horrified eyes of their little boy, Bruce, unless somebody intervened to prevent this tragedy obviously he knew this opportunity would have special meaning for Batman)
Ra's al Ghul (Already knew the secret, from behind-the-scenes detective work, when he made his debut in Batman #232. Hed made up a hypothetical shopping list of every special piece of equipment Batman might need in order to operate as independently as he did, and then he had people do research to find out who in the Gotham City area had bought most or all of the things on that possible list, and the name Bruce Wayne kept popping up, in one category after another. At least some of Ras Ubus and other hirelings have also known)
Raven (In the early 1980s, Dick Grayson was not uptight about letting his fellow Titans know that his mentor was Batman, aka Bruce Wayne. Besides, Raven had already used her mystic powers to find out Dicks own secret ID before he ever met her face-to-face . . . its a pretty safe guess that she could have done the same thing to learn Batmans secrets, if she cared to take the trouble)
Red Tornado II (John Smith. Satellite Era JLA)
The Shadow (Sometimes known by such names as Kent Allard and Lamont Cranston. His knowledge was established in Batman #259.)
Silver St. Cloud (Learned during the Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers run on Detective Comics that is reprinted in the TPB Batman: Strange Apparitions. Nobody told her; she had just gotten so well-acquainted with Bruce when they were dating that the next time she saw Batman in action she recognized his mouth and jaw at a glance)
Starfire II (Koriandr of Tamaran)
Superboy-Prime (Clark Kent of Earth-Prime, which was supposed to be our Earth. Presumably he knew from a very early age, thanks to comic books, TV shows, etc. Just as he always knew that the Superman of Earth-1 also used the name Clark Kent)
Supergirl (Kara Zor-El, aka Linda Lee Danvers. As I recall: Earth-1 Superman maintained, in his Fortress of Solitude in the Arctic, a display of life-size replicas of many of his superhero buddies, each costumed figure standing alongside a replica of the matching secret identity. That included Bruce Wayne next to Batman. Since Kal-El completely trusted his cousin Kara (and she was worthy of it, too ah, those were the good old days!), she had the full run of his Fortress and basically knew everything Superman knew about other heroes)
Superman (Clark Kent, Kal-El)
Superwoman (Second character in Silver Age/Bronze Age continuity to use that alias, to the best of my knowledge. Kristin Wells. She was a history professor in the 29th??? Century who took a strong interest in those old-time superheroes. In DC Comics Presents Annual #2 she traveled back to the 1980s to learn the last secret identity of that era . . . therefore she already knew from textbooks that Bruce Wayne had been Batman, right?)
Talia (Definitely knew; probably learned from her father after he had researched the point)
Wonder Girl I (Donna Troy)
Wonder Woman (Diana of Paradise Island)
Zatanna (Zatanna Zatara. Knew from her time in the JLAs Satellite Era)
Doubtful cases where Id appreciate some guidance include:
Owlman of Earth-3. Did we ever learn if he was a member of the Wayne family of his native world, or was he just some random guy who happened to wear a costume similar to the Earth-1 Batmans?
I strongly suspect The Spectre (Jim Corrigan) knew, but Ive never been an expert on his continuity. I dont know if any story ever made it clear that he knew.
And another question: Did the Pre-Crisis version of Kathy Kane, Batwoman, ever learn for a fact that Bruce Wayne was Batman before she died?
Lately Ive been thinking its about time to go back to that and update it again. But I decided its time to make the entire thing more comprehensive to include a separate list of those who knew Bruces secret in the Silver and Bronze Ages, when his stories were set on Earth-1 in the Pre-Crisis Multiverse. (Some of the people who learned the secret in those days seem to have had the information scrubbed from their heads in later retcons.)
For my purposes, Im counting the Pre-Crisis, Earth-1 era of Batman continuity as beginning in 1956 (the year that Barry Allen, the Silver Age Flash of Earth-1, debuted) and ending in 1986, in Batman #400, the final issue of Doug Moenchs mid-80s run as a Batman writer.
So what I want right now is your help in tracking down any character who knew Batman = Bruce Wayne in any story published in that thirty-year range except that of course we should still ignore any Batman story that specifically warned the reader it featured the Golden Age Batman who lived and died on Earth-2. (Although: who knows? Someday I may get around to compiling a separate list for him! But not just now.)
A few ground rules, subject to change at any time:
1. In cases where someone has used multiple aliases over the years, Pre- and Post-Crisis, Im generally listing them here under whatever alias they were using regularly in the early-to-mid 80s, just before the transition to Post-Crisis continuity. For instance, Donna Troy is listed under Wonder Girl I and Garfield Logan is listed under Changeling.
2. If the person didnt habitually use a costumed alias, I insert that person into the list in alphabetical order by first name. (Example: Alfred Pennyworth is listed under A for Alfred instead of P for Pennyworth, because I think most fans dont think of him as Pennyworth, Alfred the way he would be listed in a phone book)
3. To make life a little easier on myself, I am for the moment ignoring all the characters from the Pre-Crisis Earth-2 who knew for a fact that their worlds Batman was Bruce Wayne (the Golden Age version), and therefore knew or could very easily have figured out, if they cared, that the Earth-1 Batman was also Bruce Wayne.
4. The only inhabitant of Earth-Prime that Im bothering to list as a character who knew Batmans secret identity is Superboy-Prime. I dont see how he could possibly fail to know. But Im leaving out lots of other Earth-Prime characters who visited Earth-1 at some point (including Julius Schwartz, Cary Bates, Marv Wolfman, George Perez, etc.).
THE MASTER LIST OF PEOPLE WHO KNEW, PRE-CRISIS
Alfred Pennyworth (Pre-COIE, Alfred never even met Bruce until after Bruce was already Batman and Dick Grayson was already Robin. When Alfred first moved into the Manor to be the new butler, he didnt know what he was really getting intobut he found out)
The Atom II (Ray Palmer. All the regulars of the JLAs Satellite Era apparently knew each others identities in the Pre-Crisis era)
Batgirl I (Barbara Gordon. In the Pre-Crisis days, she was never known as Oracle. She apparently learned who Dick and Bruce were, had the knowledge mindwiped away, and figured it out all over again later or possibly the old mindwipe was retconned away very quietly; its unclear. I once wrote about this sequence of events in excruciating detail at Barbara Gordon: A Bad Mindwipe and a Later Retcon)
Black Canary II (Dinah Lance, who until a JLA/JSA crossover in 1983 retconned her origins was supposed to be her own mother. Its a long story, okay?)
Black Lightning (Jefferson Pierce. Learned in Batman and the Outsiders #13. Along with four other founding members of the Outsiders: Geo-Force, Halo, Katana, and Metamorpho, all listed below)
Catwoman I (Selina Kyle. Her knowledge was established in Batman #355 when, for the first time in Earth-1 continuity, she clearly addressed Batman as Bruce. Apparently we never found out just when and how she had previously learned.)
Changeling (Garfield Logan. The way Marv Wolfman wrote The New Teen Titans in the early-to-mid 80s, it appeared that everyone who was a bona fide member of the team ended up knowing that Robin I (later Nightwing) was Dick Grayson, and that he was the ward and protégé of Bruce Wayne, aka Batman. Thus you will also see listings here for Cyborg, Kid Flash I (Wally), Raven, Starfire II (Koriandr), Terra I, and Wonder Girl I (Donna). Post-Zero Hour, Denny ONeil frantically tried to retcon all this six ways from Sunday, but that has nothing to do with how things stood in the early-to-mid 80s in the Pre-Crisis continuity.)
The Crime Doctor (Bradford Thorne. Dead. Learned in his first appearance, in Detective Comics #494. One issue later, he went into a coma from mercury poisoning. He had no further appearances in the Pre-Crisis continuity, but in theory, the threat of his a) recovering, and b) still remembering, was constantly hanging over Batmans head)
Cyborg (Victor Stone)
Dala (Female vampire who learned the secret, in the Earth-1 continuity, in a story arc in 1982. She and her brother The Monk had no further appearances in Pre-Crisis continuity.)
Deathstroke the Terminator (Slade Wilson. This one is a bit iffy, but heres what I think I know: In the Pre-Crisis era, Dick Graysons teammates in the Titans all knew he was the first Robin (later Nightwing). For awhile, newcomer Terra I (Tara Markov) was the exception to the rule, but eventually he decided shed proved she was trustworthy. All the other Titans also seemed to know that Dick Graysons mentor was Bruce Wayne, aka Batman, with the Batcave being located beneath stately Wayne Manor. Terra was a spy and definitely shared Dicks secret identity with Deathstroke the Terminator. I dont remember Deathstroke, in any Pre-Crisis story, ever explicitly saying I know Bruce Wayne is Batman, but the assumption Marv Wolfman seemed to be going on in that era was: ANYBODY who knows Dick Grayson is Robin I/Nightwing also knows Bruce Wayne is Batman, which makes a lot more sense than Denny ONeils mid-90s retcons to the contrary!)
Douglas Dundee, M.D. (In Pre-Crisis continuity, he was the old doctor who had known Bruce all his life and was well aware of his secret identity. He could be trusted to treat Batmans occasional bullet wounds and so forth without reporting them to the police)
The Elongated Man (Ralph Dibny)
Firestorm (Ronnie Raymond merged with Martin Stein)
Geo-Force (Brion Markov. Learned in Batman and the Outsiders #13)
Green Arrow I (Oliver Queen)
Green Lantern #whatever (Hal Jordan)
Halo (Violet Hunter. Learned in Batman and the Outsiders #13)
Harbinger (Lyla, the former assistant to the Monitor. Had access to information about everyone interesting)
Hawkman (Katar Hol of Thanagar, aka Carter Hall)
Hawkgirl (Shiera Hol of Thanagar, aka Shiera Hall)
Hugo Strange (Found out in the Steve Englehart run in the 70s that is collected in the Batman: Strange Apparitions TPB)
Jason Todd (Robin II. A very different character from the Post-Crisis Jason who was killed in A Death in the Family and more recently came back during Judd Winicks run on the Batman title. This version of Jason independently discovered the secret passage behind a grandfather clock, and thus the Batcave and the spare costumes and so forth, in Detective Comics #526. By sheer coincidence, his parents (circus aerialists) were getting killed by Killer Croc right about then, so Jason ended up moving into Wayne Manor as Bruces new ward and protégé.)
Jimmy Olsen (For some reason, Silver Age Superman didnt think it proper to trust Jimmy with his own secret identity, but felt it was perfectly all right to trust him with Batmans secret identity. No, I dont understand the logic either but I havent actually read the story in question; I just heard about it online!)
Joe Chill (Batman revealed his true identity to Joe Chill to scare him. A few minutes later, Chill got himself killed by some fellow thugs who shot him full of holes when he confessed that he had just learned he had essentially created Batman, the guy who had made so much trouble for all of them over the last few years. A little bit too late, the thugs realized they should have extracted the name from Chill before killing him in anger. Oops! Still, for about five or ten minutes, Joe Chill knew the secret)
Katana (Tatsu Yamashiro. Learned in Batman and the Outsiders #13)
Martian Manhunter (Jonn Jonnz)
Metamorpho (Rex Mason. Learned in Batman and the Outsiders #13)
The Monk (Vampire villain who learned the secrets of Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson during a story arc in 1982. Then he and his sister Dala were taken into custody by a mysterious priest, and the Earth-1, Pre-Crisis versions of those characters have never been heard from since!)
Nightwing I (Dick Grayson, formerly Robin I)
Nocturna (Doug Moenchs scripts in the mid-80s sometimes called her Natasha Knight and sometimes called her Natalia Knight apparently he lost track of what her first name was, even though hed created her himself? But she definitely knew for awhile before the transition to Post-Crisis continuity)
The Phantom Stranger (He seems virtually omniscient. In Detective Comics #500 he gave the Earth-1 Batman and Robin a chance to visit a previously unknown parallel world where Thomas and Martha Wayne were almost due to be murdered by a crook in front of the horrified eyes of their little boy, Bruce, unless somebody intervened to prevent this tragedy obviously he knew this opportunity would have special meaning for Batman)
Ra's al Ghul (Already knew the secret, from behind-the-scenes detective work, when he made his debut in Batman #232. Hed made up a hypothetical shopping list of every special piece of equipment Batman might need in order to operate as independently as he did, and then he had people do research to find out who in the Gotham City area had bought most or all of the things on that possible list, and the name Bruce Wayne kept popping up, in one category after another. At least some of Ras Ubus and other hirelings have also known)
Raven (In the early 1980s, Dick Grayson was not uptight about letting his fellow Titans know that his mentor was Batman, aka Bruce Wayne. Besides, Raven had already used her mystic powers to find out Dicks own secret ID before he ever met her face-to-face . . . its a pretty safe guess that she could have done the same thing to learn Batmans secrets, if she cared to take the trouble)
Red Tornado II (John Smith. Satellite Era JLA)
The Shadow (Sometimes known by such names as Kent Allard and Lamont Cranston. His knowledge was established in Batman #259.)
Silver St. Cloud (Learned during the Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers run on Detective Comics that is reprinted in the TPB Batman: Strange Apparitions. Nobody told her; she had just gotten so well-acquainted with Bruce when they were dating that the next time she saw Batman in action she recognized his mouth and jaw at a glance)
Starfire II (Koriandr of Tamaran)
Superboy-Prime (Clark Kent of Earth-Prime, which was supposed to be our Earth. Presumably he knew from a very early age, thanks to comic books, TV shows, etc. Just as he always knew that the Superman of Earth-1 also used the name Clark Kent)
Supergirl (Kara Zor-El, aka Linda Lee Danvers. As I recall: Earth-1 Superman maintained, in his Fortress of Solitude in the Arctic, a display of life-size replicas of many of his superhero buddies, each costumed figure standing alongside a replica of the matching secret identity. That included Bruce Wayne next to Batman. Since Kal-El completely trusted his cousin Kara (and she was worthy of it, too ah, those were the good old days!), she had the full run of his Fortress and basically knew everything Superman knew about other heroes)
Superman (Clark Kent, Kal-El)
Superwoman (Second character in Silver Age/Bronze Age continuity to use that alias, to the best of my knowledge. Kristin Wells. She was a history professor in the 29th??? Century who took a strong interest in those old-time superheroes. In DC Comics Presents Annual #2 she traveled back to the 1980s to learn the last secret identity of that era . . . therefore she already knew from textbooks that Bruce Wayne had been Batman, right?)
Talia (Definitely knew; probably learned from her father after he had researched the point)
Wonder Girl I (Donna Troy)
Wonder Woman (Diana of Paradise Island)
Zatanna (Zatanna Zatara. Knew from her time in the JLAs Satellite Era)
Doubtful cases where Id appreciate some guidance include:
Owlman of Earth-3. Did we ever learn if he was a member of the Wayne family of his native world, or was he just some random guy who happened to wear a costume similar to the Earth-1 Batmans?
I strongly suspect The Spectre (Jim Corrigan) knew, but Ive never been an expert on his continuity. I dont know if any story ever made it clear that he knew.
And another question: Did the Pre-Crisis version of Kathy Kane, Batwoman, ever learn for a fact that Bruce Wayne was Batman before she died?
