[Music] bruce wayne is famous for his brooding disposition his uncompromising devotion to justice and his nightly routine of putting the fear of god into gotham's criminal underbelly it would be safe to say bruce isn't also known for his warm supportive child-rearing demeanor in fact at first glance it's hard to imagine bruce wayne ever wanting kids with a positively abysmal work-life balance and a fanatical obsession with saving gotham city it's safe to say bruce's days and nights are spoken for raising a child is hard work and the batman has little time for anything other than training patrolling and the little sleep he can squeeze in between them but if batman could be said to have one weakness it would be his children adoptive and otherwise though he never originally intended on bringing kids into his dark and stormy world over the course of his life bruce would adopt and sire several children though in this particular video we'll just be focusing on those not from alternate universes it would take time and lots of help from alfred for bruce's hardened emotional exoskeleton to crack but eventually his kids would give batman something that was taken from him long ago something he thought he would never get back a loving supportive family richard dick grayson widely regarded as batman's prodigal son was the first kid ever to be brought under bruce wayne's proverbial wing the child of john and mary of the flying grayson's trapeze act a young dick's parents were murdered during a performance in gotham city after their circus refused to pay extortion fees to the local mob in retaliation a low-level hitman named tony zuko frayed the wires of the grayson's trapeze the night before a performance as dick watched in silent horror as his parents fell to their deaths an equally horrified bruce wayne watched from the audience as another child was orphaned at the hands of gotham's merciless criminal element seeing reflections of himself in the boy and with more than enough resources to raise him bruce offered to foster richard after the murder of john and mary bruce began his career as a parent by keeping a cold and consistent distance between him and richard which did little to help the boy transition into his new home but when batman discovered dick sneaking out onto the streets of gotham searching for his parents killer bruce let the child in on his own secret life of crime fighting the agile and athletic young circus performer began training at the hands of one of the world's foremost combat experts and would soon be the first person ever to take up the mantle of robin eventually batman would legally adopt the boy wonder and dick would serve as his loyal and dependable sidekick for his entire young adulthood a founding member of the teen titans and one of the first ever teenage superheroes in comic book history dick grayson is considered by many me mostly to be the most famous robin even to this day as a born acrobat and gifted aerialist dick's fighting style is less calculated and deliberate than his mentor and most of his successors this unique blend of acrobatics and martial artistry would define robin's image for decades to come while batman was always a blunt instrument of violence robin would be a flitting bird adept at keeping foes off balance and preoccupied before dispatching them with swift precision his extensive training and natural athleticism quickly made dick one of the most feared combatants in the world and though he and batman's partnership would be formative for them both eventually dick's optimistic and idealistic attitudes would clash with bruce's cynical distrustful demeanor the original dynamic duo's differences would grow to a fever pitch until dick eventually walked out on bruce quitting his life as the boy wonder dick would leave gotham city and move down the coast to the city of bloodhaven an equally crime-afflicted town without a bat presence to protect it taking up the name nightwing to distance himself from his past partnership as well as to help maintain his secret identity dick would finally step out from behind the shadow of the bat and begin sharding his own path nightwing would make a name for himself as one of batman's greatest successes quickly establishing himself as a symbol of hope rather than the fear-mongering his mentor favored but with the mantle of robin left unattended bruce wayne soon found another candidate to fill the boy wonders pointy-toed shoes in many ways jason todd stands as the complete opposite of dick grayson this isn't to say that the two brothers despise one another in fact their relationship is grown to be quite amicable in recent years but compared to his predecessor's bright cheery nature jason would quickly bring his own more brooding angst-fueled personality to the dynamic duo batman first met jason todd one night while returning from a patrol to find a young street urgent stealing the tires off of the batmobile in a rare impulsive decision bruce wayne brought the wayward jason todd under his wing and began training the boy to replace his recently departed sidekick in jason bruce perhaps saw even more of himself than was apparent in dick jason was the son of well-meaning but tragically doomed parents catherine and willis todd his mother died of a drug overdose when he was very young and his father had recently disappeared after falling down on his luck and taking a job as a hired gun for two-face jason had nearly a fraction of the natural athleticism that made dick such an outstanding fighter and an easy fit for the role but bruce saw a fire in jason embers of a white-hot rage that burned deep at his core that could propel the boy to overcome any obstacle a refusal to quit at any cost bruce recognized that fire as one that burned in his own chest as well he vowed to help jason control that rage to temper it such that it could be used for justice rather than burn away everything in its path jason took to training with an enthusiasm and fervor rarely seen in one so young the boy had never known anything other than the struggle to survive on the mean streets of gotham and the chance to prove himself brought out that unstoppable force inside him as robin jason was plucky steadfast and proved himself to be as forceful and effective a partner as batman could ever work beside jason's robin would shrug off the role of evasive distractor that dixo effortlessly pioneered and put his own more rebellious fist oriented stamp on the robin legacy but before long tragedy would strike the burgeoning bat family like never before in what is now one of the most famous moments in batman history the joker would eventually manage to kidnap the second robin and hold him helpless far from the protection of his mentor the clown prince of crime beat jason todd within an inch of his life with a crowbar again and again mercilessly torturing the second boy wonder as batman raced furiously to save his son for once batman would arrive too late as bruce finally sprinted towards the warehouse where jacob was being held joker's planted bomb detonated taking jason with it it would mark one of the darkest moments of batman's entire life and would have lasting repercussions on both his personality and the rest of his children eventually talia al ghul who we'll be returning to later would revive jason using one of her father's rejuvenating lazarus pits jason would blame bruce for his death and vow revenge on his father for not saving him as he should have taking up the mantle of red hood jason's rage would boil over and he would begin killing criminals in a punisher-esque bid to purge gotham of all criminals before turning his skills and murderous intentions on batman himself though jason's hatred for his father would eventually cool he would never again be the same and his relationship with his father would take years to heal once jason forgave bruce for not saving him his siblings and his father would accept jason back into their ranks with open arms but jason would forever be marked as the black sheep of the bat family but before we get to bruce's third adopted son be sure to subscribe to the channel with notifications on to never miss an upload and smash that like button for some plot armor today now let's meet the third boy wonder the one who saved batman from himself after jason's death bruce was all alone for a time with the unimaginable loss of jason weighing heavy on his shoulders only trusty alfred who took a very active role in the raising of all of bruce's children saw as bruce's pain and grief turned to anger and violence as batman's nightly patrols became bloodier and bloodier for one gotham city youngster following batman's descent into brutality via the nightly news it became crystal clear that not only did batman lose a robin he needed a robin enter tim drake son of archaeologists jack and janet drake tim's parents spent months at a time absent from their gotham city home leaving the boy to his own devices for much of his childhood if dick grayson represents batman's best intentions and jason represents his anger in his fists then tim represents batman's brilliant detective's mind easily the smartest of the three original holders of the robin mantle tim was very young when he witnessed jon and mary grayson fall to their doom while attending the circus with his parents but he never forgot the tricks that their son dick grayson performed that night when he later saw footage of the first boy wonder fighting with criminals on the streets of gotham city robin performed some of the same maneuvers tim remembered from the circus and he connected the dots all the way back to bruce wayne understandably batman was extremely resistant bordering on furious at the idea of ever training another protege after the death of the last robin but eventually after tim saved batman's life during an encounter with twoface bruce reluctantly admits that his more violent tendencies are assuaged when he works with a partner with that tim drake was adopted as the third robin and batman's intellectual disciple was officially taken under his wing during his tenure as the boy wonder tim drake would reaffirm some of robin's original roles that jason had been less interested in filling most notable among these would be participating in and later leading both the teen titans and the newer young justice notably tim's time as robin would coincide with the emergence of another teenage hero in gotham operating outside of batman's purview robin and the spoiler aka stephanie brown would become romantically involved for much of tim's time as robin stephanie would even temporarily take on the mantle of robin when tim took a brief hiatus becoming the first but not the last female robin tim though not as organically acrobatic as dick nor as stubbornly tough as jason would come into his own as a remarkably impressive staff wielder though first and foremost tim's brain would always be his greatest asset in and outside of battle just as dick could outmove any opponent and jason could outmuscle them tim would out-think everyone and anyone on the battlefield making him one of the most formidable and underestimated robins of them all though earlier i said that dick grayson was the most famous robin in my opinion tim drake was the best robin he carried the mantle with a purpose and an ease that made him a perfect fit for the boy wonder and complimented the dark knight's gruffer personality perfectly of his children thus far it's safe to say that tim and bruce's partnership in the field reached something that most closely resembled equality during their time as batman and robin tim was a dependable resourceful and compassionate robin though his similarities to his mentor's calculating nature did occasionally betray a capacity for chilly shrewdness and hyper rationality when bruce was apparently killed for a time tim took on the mantle of red robin to search for his mentor despite all appearances to this day tim operates as red robin though he is still active in many youth-centered circles of heroes such as the teen titans cassandra kane is the daughter of two of the world's foremost and most ruthless assassins the hitman david kane and lady shiva cassandra kane was raised by an abusive father who entrapped her mother into bearing his child and leaving it for him to train into the perfect killing machine he raised the child without speech or language training her only in the language of combat and body language as a result of her training cassandra can read complex human emotions and intentions based purely on body language at an extremely high level not only is this her way of understanding and navigating social situations it gives her a predictive power and advantage in one-on-one combat rival to none however when her father first forced her to kill she understood the wrongness of her actions and fled she revealed herself in gotham city after her father was hired to kill commissioner gordon cassandra prevented the hit and saved the commissioner's life she ultimately gains batman's trust after running straight into enemy fire to save a life on instinct cassandra though certainly still a child when she came into bruce's life was difficult for bruce in entirely new ways compared to his other children and easier in some ways as well cassandra is one of the foremost fighters on the planet batman himself has described her ability of predictive combat as perfect and admitted that in a one-on-one fight with cassandra he would lose cassandra was already an agent capable of keeping herself safe when she and bruce met though there was a short lull in her combative abilities when her understanding of body language was lost due to spontaneously gaining language she trained with her mother for a period of time and soon regained her martial prowess in full though she can speak now she still says very little because of her skill bruce didn't need to worry about her safety when out in the field as he had with his previous children but it meant he faced an even greater challenge as a parent making sure that cassandra understood right and wrong bruce is used to training people to fight he's less adept at teaching people how to deal with their feelings he did so by encouraging cassandra to live and work with some of his other partners with outstanding moral character such as nightwing red robin and oracle through this immersion as well as her own moral fiber cassandra has become one of the most trustworthy and quietly respected members of the bad family cassandra has gone by many names including most famously batgirl and more recently orphan sometimes even preferring to remain completely anonymous but given the number of batgirls there have been i've always been partial to the name she once chose for herself black bat the most recent long-standing individual to hold the mantle of robin damien wayne is the biological child of bruce wayne and talia al ghul damian was raised secretly by his mother within the borders of the league of assassins similar to cassandra damian was raised to be the perfect assassin by his mother undergoing brutal and dehumanizing training methods and being taught to be comfortable with death and killing from his very birth his mother talia was the daughter of the demon's head himself raz al ghul and one of the world's foremost fighters in her own right damien was raised outside of bruce's knowledge and batman didn't even know he had a biological child until damian was nearing his 10th birthday when talia essentially abandoned the child in bruce's care in an attempt to disrupt his efficiency this move largely succeeded as damian was an impudent egotistical and pathologically violent young child who believed himself far superior to his adopted siblings from the moment he entered batman's life shortly after talia left the boy assassin on bruce's doorstep batman's presumed death plunged the bat family into darkness dick grayson would step into his father's cape and cow choosing damian to serve as his robin damian was 10 years old by far the youngest to take on the mantle of boy wonder he was also perhaps the most proficient combatant but he lacked restraint years of training and comfortability with death skewed his perspective beyond understanding of his father's rule against killing damien and dick took time to settle into their roles as batman and robin but once they did a profound relationship was forged between the two brothers damien's time under dick's tutelage would prove extremely formative and essential for the young robin he accepts his new family even if he rarely gets along with them damian has had particular conflict with his direct predecessor tim drake and the two have fought numerous times usually but not always with damian as the aggressor when bruce wayne returned from the dead and once again took up his place as batman damien retained his role as robin under his father's mentorship the two would initially have a difficult time understanding and connecting with one another though in time damien could be trusted to heed the wisdom and rules of the bat and resist the more murderous and violent lessons from his upbringing initially damien had little interest to put it politely in the idea of working with the teen titans but robin would eventually join the team at dick's request and learn to put more trust in his peers damien is a finely tuned fighting machine much like cassandra though far less humble and reserved about his abilities damien is boisterous cocky and downright disrespectful at times his deep set need to prove himself against anyone and everyone made for a rocky introduction into the bat family but with lots of patience coupled with the guidance each sibling offered as he grew damien has come into his own as robin and quickly become a modern fan favorite during the climax of his and his father's showdown with the league of assassins damian heroically sacrifices himself in a battle against an adult clone of himself that his mother created in his absence bruce is grief-stricken at the loss of his son and his misery brings about a demeanor in the bat reminiscent of jason todd's death though many friends and family would beg bruce to see reason batman would soon take it upon himself to find a way to revive damien at any cost after retrieving a chaos shard from the dreaded and infernal lands of apocalypse bruce actually succeeds in resuscitating damien's corpse damian would develop powers for a short time after his revival from the power of the chaos shard but eventually those powers would dissipate and he would return to the robin mantle exactly as he left it to this day damien remains the boy wonder and has integrated well into the bat family as he's grown older including striking up a fast and fierce friendship with fellow super son jonathan kent as an honorary mention to finish off our list we present the last of bruce wayne's children terry mcinnis similarly to the now mega famous harley quinn terry mcginnis is a character who debuted not in the pages of a comic but on a lauded bruce tim animated show batman beyond this means that most of terry and bruce's time together is covered within the animated show and not in pen and paper comics though terry didn't originate in the comic book universe he has nevertheless been confirmed through various comic appearances as a canonical future member of the bat family which makes him just as solidified a character as any other albeit one with far fewer appearances since his debut terry was born in the distant future in a dystopian reflection of gotham still overrun by the criminal element after stumbling upon an elderly bruce wayne's past as the dark knight detective terry dawns a futuristic bat suit and becomes the batman of his time he and bruce work well together though neither suspects their direct relationship with one another until they had already been working together for some time eventually terry uncovers that amanda waller purveyor of the infamous suicide squad and government sanctioned psychopath used nanotechnology during terry's conception to copy bruce wayne's dna into terry's genetic makeup as a result technically speaking terry is indeed bruce's biological progeny though terry does indeed count as one of bruce's children bruce did not raise terry and their relationship while tight-knit never nears anything like the truly paternal relationships bruce had in his younger years with his other children additionally existing in the distant future means that terry is much less involved with the core bat family than the other children on our list today though as the eventual inheritor of the batman cow it could be said that terry became bruce's final protege the one who kept the legacy of batman alive even when it had all but been snuffed out thank you so much for joining us as we counted down bruce wayne's children from first to last we hope you've enjoyed the video which of bruce's offspring is your favorite let us know in the comments on behalf of us all here at plot armor comics we hope you have a great day