Who Is Batman’s Love Interest in the Comics? Explained

Despite having a rather busy schedule, Batman always managed to find time for romance. He is a philanthropist, inventor, and crime-fighter, and according to his dating history, quite the ladies’ man. Most of Batman’s romances were straight-up toxic, and he has a tendency to pick his gals from his own rogues’ gallery. Still, it makes for interesting stories, and we can’t wait to tell you all about it. Let’s take a look at Batman’s love interests in the comics.

Batman’s primary and most iconic love interest in the comics is Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman. Even though the two have the longest-running romance in the comics, they never quite managed to be there for each other at the right time and place, so their relationship is best described as on-again-off-again. Batman’s other notable love interests in the comics are Julie Madison, Vicki Vale, Talia al Ghul, and Wonder Woman.

Now that we’ve covered the basics, it’s time to analyze Batman’s romances in a bit more detail. If you want to find out everything about his complicated past, stay with us!

Does Batman have any love interests?

Batman has had numerous love interests in the comics over the years. But most of them never stuck. He dated normal women, superpowered women, and villains. You name it. He is a self-professed bad boy with an affinity for hard-to-get women. This is why most of his relationships eventually ended badly. So let’s take a look at some of the most notable Batman Relationships in the comics.

Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman, is Batman’s greatest love

We’re all familiar with Catwoman. In many ways, Catwoman is Batman’s equal. She doesn’t possess any kind of superpowers but managed to hone her body to be a lethal weapon as she operates in peak human condition. Catwoman started out as Batman’s enemy. She was primarily an adversary in her early history and eventually shifted to become sort of an antihero. At some points, Batman chased Catwoman, and sometimes she would chase him. The two are stuck in a perpetual game of a romantic cat and mice.

There are some continuities where they are married and have a family together. However, most of the time, it ends up with Heartbreak. The two are currently broken up in the comics but still have feelings of attraction and something more toward each other.
Catwoman is Batman’s longest-running and most iconic love interest, but she is only the tip of the iceberg since Batman was seriously involved with some other iconic love interests.

Julie Madison was Batman’s first girlfriend

Julie Madison is, as we’ve already mentioned, Batman’s first major love interest (that we know of). She was wealthy, beautiful, and charming enough to completely swipe Bruce off his feet. The two even got engaged. It didn’t last long, and the two broke off their engagement before making it to the altar.

The worse part is, despite being one of the closes people to him at the time, Julie never had a single idea that Bruce is, in fact, Batman. The two broke off the engagement after her father’s passing and, after that, dated and married several influential people.

Batman had his own Lois Lane – Vicki Vale

Vicki Vale was Batman’s equivalent of Lois Lane. She was a report for Gotham Gazette, and in the past, most of her time was spent trying to figure out Batman’s identity. She had solid evidence and suspicion that Batman was, in fact, Bruce Wayne. Their romantic relationship developed much later, but it was a dead end. After that, the writers decided to head in a different direction with the character and develop her as a standalone character. She did make numerous re-appearances over the years, however.

Batman got involved with the daughter of one of his most significant enemies

Talia al Ghul proved to be equally fatal as she is beautiful. She is the daughter of supervillain Ra’s al Ghul and a member of the League of Assassins. At first, Talia was torn between the bonds of love and the bonds of loyalty she felt toward her father. Talia al Ghul was briefly married to Batman, and they even had a child together, Damian Wayne, who would later become Robin.

Ra’s encouraged the relationship since he saw Bruce Wayne as an individual worthy of fathering his grandchild. At first, Talia was tolerable. She was always a morally gray character, but at least she was putting some effort into the relationship. Later she went full-on evil and sided with her father. How much of that is nature, and how much is nurture? We might never find out. The relationship ended completely when Batman refused to side with her and turned mostly sour.

Other notable Batman’s relationship

As you can see from the examples shown above, Batman never had much luck when it came to love. He is too much of a private person (and paranoid) for any relationship to succeed long enough. Despite that, Batman had several other love interests even though his main romances ended up badly. Some of the women Batman dated are:

Black Canary

Black Canary is often mostly associated with Oliver Queen, aka Green Arrow, but she was known to engage in ahem, shall we say, physical activities with Batman. In Batman: The Brave and the Bold, she did have some legitimate feelings for Batman, but he never returned them, and the relationship never really took off.

Harley Quinn

This weird pairing reached its full depth during Batman: Beyond The White Knight #5, when we could witness a tender moment between the two. Kisses are exchanged, and Batman swears his undying love to Harley. The twist is he is sort of possessed by the Joker.

Kathy Kane, aka Batwoman

Batwoman’s romantic history with Batman is mostly tragic as she chases him, but he doesn’t feel that serious about her. The two had the strongest relationship during the Silver Age when they were even married on a couple of occasions. In the more modern version of the character, she is lesbian and manages just fine without Batman’s affection.

Lois Lane

Lois Lane and Batman did indeed hook up, and it almost led to something serious. In the new 52 era, Batman lost all of his memories, and he pursued Lois’ help in investigating the matter further. He was acting “unlike” himself, and Lois realized that there was something more to Batman than his usual haughty self. The two developed some sort of partnership and even feelings for each other.

It could never last, however, since Batman ultimately did regain his memories back, and once he did, he didn’t want anything to do with Lois. In fact, he didn’t like the idea of even kissing Lois Lane.

Lorna Shore

Batman and Lorna met while she was working as a museum curator, the relationship started off quite nicely, and the two were starting to be serious about each other. Bruce then realizes that whoever is involved with him would be in constant danger from his villains and decides to break things off with her. Lorna did move eventually. She listened to her common sense and moved far away from both Batman and his enemies.

Natalia Knight, aka Nocturna

The only reason why Nocturna managed to grab Batman’s attention was because of the perfume that caused most males to simply lose their minds over her. Batman was no exception to this, and the two started a fiery and passionate relationship. After the physical things had run their course, Batman figured out he was being duped and was under the influence of the perfume the whole time. He immediately broke things off as legitimate feelings for her were non-existent.

Pamela Isley, aka Poison Ivy

Similarly to his relationship with Nocturna, Batman was crazy about Poison Ivy at first due to her ability to manipulate pheromones. It was a turbulent and toxic relationship that did turn into legitimate feelings eventually. Batman even went as far as to cure her of her condition. It ultimately resulted in tragedy as Poison Ivy decided to revert back to her original condition and died as a result.

Wonder Woman

Batman was involved with Wonder Woman in numerous instances, but it never led to anything more serious than exchanging a few kisses and simply admitting their feelings. Although the pair seems to have a good dynamic between them, they eventually admit that they work much better as partners and friends.

Zatanna Zatarra

As you’ve probably noticed, Batman has things for powerful women, so it’s no wonder that he was involved with one of DC’s most powerful magic users. Zatanna and Batman never had anything serious, mind you, but there was potential. Things went south when he caught her mindwiping Doctor Light. She reacted by mindwiping Batman, an unwise move, perhaps. This destroyed any shred of trust that he once felt he had with her. Ultimately they did manage to resolve their issues once again and share a friendly relationship, but nothing more.

As you can see, the common pattern of most Batman romances is that they were first introduced as his villains. And, well, most of his relationships were toxic. His most notable romantic interest and partner in the comic is Catwoman, with Talia al Ghul being among the most controversial.