Batwoman is an Arrowverse series on The CW through and through, but it has woven in a lot of similarities to Tim Burton’s Batman movies. Starring Ruby Rose as the titular caped crusader, who is the first lesbian superhero to headline her own TV series, Batwoman brings the mythology of Batman and Gotham City to the Arrowverse. As Batwoman, Bruce Wayne’s cousin Kate Kane is learning to become the hero Gotham needs and deserves while utilizing all of the Dark Knight’s wonderful toys in her quest to protect her city.
Aesthetically, Batwoman appears to be more of a tribute to The Dark Knight Trilogy by Christopher Nolan. The Arrowverse’s Gotham City is obviously modeled after (and shot on location in) Chicago, which was the city Nolan chose to stand-in for his grounded and realistic version of Gotham in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Batwoman’s Wayne Tower is also the spitting image of the skyscraper in Nolan’s films. By contrast, Tim Burton unforgettably created a more fantastical and stylized version of Gotham in his two films, 1989’s Batman and the sequel, Batman Returns. While Batwoman seems to be a fusion of multiple Batman influences and the series generally leans more towards the Nolan style, Burton’s vision of Batman and Gotham has been receiving notable shout outs and copious amounts of love.
This week’s episode of Batwoman, “I’ll Be Judge, I’ll Be Jury”, dropped two bombshells that directly callback to Tim Burton’s Batman movies. The first was revealing the Joker’s real name: Jack Napier. In Batwoman’s mythology, the Joker is responsible for the tragedy that separated twins Kate and Beth Kane (Rachel Skarsten) as children, but it’s now official that the Arrowverse’s Clown Prince of Crime’s alter ego is the same as the Joker portrayed by Jack Nicholson. In Batman 1989, Jack Napier was a high-level gangster working for Boss Carl Grissom (Jack Palance) before he transformed into the Joker. Jack Napier also murdered Thomas and Martha Wayne before uttering his catchphrase, “Do you ever dance with the devil by the pale moonlight?” Of course, the Joker died at the end of Batman 1989, while it’s not yet clear what the Harlequin of Hate’s status is in Batwoman.
Batwoman also revealed that Oswald Cobblepot was once Mayor of Gotham and he briefly brought back firing squads as a method of capital punishment. In Batman Returns, Oswald Cobblepot (Danny DeVito) was the alter ego of the Penguin and Cobblepot successfully ran for Mayor with the help of billionaire industrialist Max Shreck (Christopher Walken), although Penguin never actually made it to his inauguration. Last year’s Elseworlds crossover established the Penguin as a prisoner in Arkham Asylum but his political career looks to have been far more successful than Batman Returns’ Cobblepot’s was. The Wonderland Gang led by Alice could also be considered Batwoman’s stand-in for the Penguin’s Red Triangle Gang.
Along with previous Arrowverse shoutouts to Burton’s movies like Corto Maltese, the South American country photographed by Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger), as well as MacGregor’s Syndrome, the disease Nora Fries (Vendela) and Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Gough) were dying from in Joel Schumacher’s Batman and Robin, Batwoman has made other, more subtle references to Batman 1989. For instance, the Batcave beneath Wayne Tower is designed to look somewhat similar to the Batcave in Batman 1989 with its elevated rampways, industrial-style computer banks, and the vault for Kate’s Batwoman costume. The fact that Batwoman also uses a grapple gun is an innovation from Burton’s movies since Michael Keaton’s Batman pioneered the grapple gun as his preferred means of vaulting to rooftops.
There’s also the fact Bruce Wayne is missing in Batwoman, which could be regarded as a vague reference to Tim Burton’s Batman. Keaton’s version of the billionaire was a notorious recluse who rarely made public appearances instead of the flamboyant playboy Christian Bale pretended to be in Nolan’s films. Batwoman plays up the fact that Bruce Wayne is an absentee figure in Kate Kane’s life as she literally writes a journal to him about her struggles as Gotham’s new Dark Knight.
Next: Arrowverse Theory: Why Batman Disappeared
Batwoman airs Sundays @ 8pm on The CW.
