Despite the decades of comic book material becoming more and more prominent, there are still endless characters and concepts that haven't leaped off the page yet. Some of those ideas seem like no-brainer pitches for the modern superhero movie ecosystem, leaving fans to wonder when or if they'll hit the screen.
With one of the most heavily publicly criticized trailers of all time, The CW recently unveiled Gotham Knights. Not to be confused with the game of the same name, the show stars a team of unknown or entirely original characters. This decision has many fans asking why the network would reach for obscure names like Duela when so many icons are still barely represented.
The aforementioned Gotham Knights game also contributes to fan confusion on the matter. The team represented in that game consists of four beloved characters, most of whom have had little to no presence on the screen. Dick Grayson as Nightwing appears somewhat frequently in Batman's DC Animated outings and is supposedly getting a solo film, but hasn't really been portrayed in live-action. Jason Todd as Red Hood only appears in season 3 of Titans and throughout animated material. Tim Drake as Robin has the same list, Titans, and DC Animated features. Barbara Gordon as Batgirl probably has the most representation, between Batman & Robin and the upcoming HBO Max solo film. The upcoming game might be the biggest spotlight the characters have enjoyed outside the comics. This is bizarre considering how successful a Batman-Family series or film could be.
The Batman Family, often shortened to Bat-Fam, is the collective team of sidekicks and young wards recruited by The Caped Crusader. Most members of the team were brought in as children, and the lineup often includes Bruce's son Damian Wayne. The network of costumed crimefighters also contains characters like Catwoman, Spoiler, Bluebird, Harley Quinn, Azrael, and many more heroes. Though most fixtures of the Bat-Fam operate on their own, like the Justice League or the Avengers, they will band together to face a big enough threat. Very few superpowered beings make up the team, it's overwhelmingly dominated by capable mortals doing their best. Interestingly, many of the members find themselves disagreeing and struggling against each other's methods. The Bat-Fam is a fascinating group of street-level heroes with unique gimmicks and a fun dynamic.
When laid out with the relevant information, the Bat-Fam comes across as an obvious no-brainer pitch for DC's cinematic universe. The franchise has long struggled to bring any comic book character to the screen with anything approaching the success of Nolan or Burton's takes on the Bat. In every medium, for better or for worse, Batman wins most of the popularity contests and gets most of the beloved adaptations. The Bat-Fam represents a chance to eschew most of the hard parts of making up a superhero team. The DCEU efforts towards the Justice League have hit various snags and resulted in two films that were complete messes for different reasons. The Bat-Fam carries the potential to fix most of the problems and achieve the same success.
Imagine a series of films that introduce individual protégés of the Bat one by one. The Batgirl and Nightwing films are already in motion. Batman could be the series' answer to Nick Fury, slowly uniting the group to face a greater threat. It's a take on the cinematic universe format in which DC gets to use the popularity of Batman to sell every individual piece. People love Nightwing, Red Hood, Batgirl, and many more of the family's membership. The idea seems easy to understand and likely to be popular, but there is a reason that the franchise hasn't made moves in this direction.
This idea, like so many others, has been left on the page as a consequence of DC's reticence to give Batman a partner. The bedrock of the Bat-Fam concept is Batman's habit of adopting young wards, and the cinematic iterations of the character haven't had a living Robin since 1997. Much has been made of the studio's refusal to let heroes have a sidekick, but The Boy Wonder has been integral to Batman for decades.
Robin has been excised from most on-screen iterations of the character because he's incompatible with the excessively dark presentation most seem to demand. Someone decided that a young sidekick leaves the character without the tortured and miserable aesthetic that's so key to their vision of Bruce Wayne and that idea has remained strong. It's an unfortunate truth, but much of Batman's iconography and best comic book moments are locked behind the decision to finally let Batman have a Robin on-screen again.
The Bat-Fam is a great superhero team that would make for a fantastic TV series or film franchise. With CW's Gotham Knights earning a truly staggering sea of derision, fans might not get to see this idea for some time.