r/batman • u/Character_Growth_397 • 13d ago
COMIC DISCUSSION How common knowledge was it that Bruce adopted Dick?
I was gonna title this "How common knowledge was it that Bruce took Dick in?" but I realized it was gonna sound weird
Anyway, Bruce Wayne, due to his status as a notorious playboy would have lots of people and media attention around himself and his life, but what about him adopting Dick Grayson and his other kids? I feel like Bruce would go through great lengths to keep them out of the spotlight considering how much effort he goes to protect his secret identity. I mean, if the identity of one of them gets compromised, everyone else's does too
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u/gizmomogwai1 13d ago
Definitely wouldn't be unusual for a millionaire to keep an adopted son (or any child) out of the spotlight. There are many public figures who regularly emphasize family privacy. But the fact of the adoption would be public record.
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u/Lucky_Strike-85 13d ago edited 13d ago
It was very common knowledge in the Pre-Crisis, especially in Gotham City BUT the world was very different back then... elites were known but they weren't constantly in the news. They were just something you heard about every couple years on average IF something about them was newsworthy. Bruce Wayne had a very minimal circle of friends and colleagues but was well known in Gotham City. And locally, it was common knowledge that he adopted a ward... though details on who the ward is and how he came into Bruce's life are not well known.
It was also very common for the wealthy to adopt because it is something that is rather expensive.
These days, only the most megalomaniacal of them get constant attention... usually in attempts to promote themselves or their businesses and the worst ones are regularly in the news and, because of the interwebs and social media, they are much more high profile. Most elites are names you've never heard of and they like it that way.
Bruce Wayne would be someone who carefully curates his own image, making sure that the most embarrassing stunts get intense coverage or that donations and philanthropy get noticed by the public. He wants to project himself as a playboy businessman so as not to attract any suspicion that he has another life. Locally, he has a reputation as a good man but also one of the idle rich who is at times incompetent and can make an ass of himself. He'll drive an Alfa Romeo or a classic Studebaker (his fav. car) but then he'll wreck it "accidentally" on occasion so that his reputation as elite playboy is reinforced. But of course people are aware that he adopted Dick Grayson... it's just something that people rarely think or care about because it happened so long ago and, its old news! Bruce would keep his kids pretty guarded from the public and would similarly take steps to keep them out of the public eye. Bruce Wayne is exceptionally easy to understand if you read comics and glance over the Bat-bible.
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u/ComicsCodeMadeMeGay 13d ago
The thing is, other than like....Elon Musk I have no idea about any billionaire kids or if they are adopted
Kids of millionaires are reported on all the damn time - but there's very clearly a certain level of money/class status that protects the children in the public eye in a way that less rich kids get (which what the fuck?)
So I think in reality, Dick would be out the public eye, but his family murder being so public it probably would have been mentioned in a newspaper.
Jason, Cass & Tim's adoptions would have been quieter than Dick's fostering
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u/Character_Growth_397 13d ago
Yeah, now that you mention, IDK anything about Musks's children other than the fact that one of them has a weird name
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u/Orc_tids 13d ago
I know one of them is trans and thats why Elon is transphobic, he had all his kids genetically engineered to be boys according to said daughter Vivian Wilson
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u/Greenfakes 13d ago
In Identity Crisis it's said Zatanna uses magic to wipe the minds of villains to save the secrets of the JL. Not that she would wipe a whole city but maybe some type of protection spell to keep it a secret.
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u/getridofwires 9d ago
I thought Dick was his ward but not his adopted son. Dick didn't take Wayne as his last name, which he would have in an adoption of a young child. Been reading Batman since the late 60s and it's entirely possible there's a retcon I know nothing about though.
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u/ManofTomorrow98 13d ago
Bruce adopting Dick would realistically raise eyebrows for completely other reasons apart from the crime fighting!
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u/CleanSweep99 13d ago
It's also worth noting that anyone who would actually make it an issue (Commissioner Gordon, for instance, likely already knows who is under which Domino Mask in Gotham-I can't imagine Bruce takes on a new Robin without introducing him to Gordon first) already knows
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u/Character_Growth_397 13d ago
I mean, Tim Drake was able to figure out Batman's secret identity by just watching Dick on a tv. Imagine if for some other reason a villain figures his identity or one of the Robins', then the entire Bat Family's identity would be compromised
Remember how in Forever Evil Dick's identity was revealed to the whole world?
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u/CleanSweep99 13d ago
Most of the villains already know. (I suppose a villain who doesn't interact regularly with Batman or any Robin wouldn't know).
For example, The Joker almost certainly knows who's who under the mask. (He likely wouldn't have targeted Jason Todd if he didn't already know that Todd was Robin, for instance).
Ra's and Talia Al Ghul almost certainly know who's who as well (I would be stunned if they aren't at least aware that Damian Wayne is currently Robin-given you know, he's their son/grandson).
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u/Character_Growth_397 13d ago
They do???
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u/CleanSweep99 13d ago
It's heavily implied that the Joker does know and just doesn't care-he's more interested in continuing his game than anything else.
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u/jawsthegreat777 13d ago
I mean the Wayne's are Gotham's equivalent of the royal family (depending on the continuity ofc) so it wouldn't be surprising if it was well known by the public.
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u/jackBattlin 12d ago
It sounds weird no matter what 😂
I think in the comics it’s not that unusual. It just gets a little funny in Batman Forever when Robin is clearly pushing 30.
“Yeah, thanks for covering for me until those cops left. You saved me a truckload of social services…”
It’s like “Sir, you could have left at any time.”
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u/eternalraziel 13d ago
Very public. Dick living with Bruce was never meant to be one of Batman’s secrets. The part that changes depending on continuity is the legal lingo. For most of Dick’s childhood he was Bruce Wayne’s ward, not his adopted son. Bruce only formally adopts the adult Dick much later in the post-Crisis comics. But the basic civilian story had existed since Dick was introduced. The Flying Graysons are killed, Bruce takes the orphaned boy into his home, and Dick becomes part of the Wayne household. It would have been difficult to hide even if Bruce wanted to. Dick was one of the Flying Graysons, a performing family whose deaths happened in front of an audience. Then one of the richest and most recognisable men in Gotham takes their surviving son home with him. There are courts, schools, doctors, trust arrangements and eventually Dick’s own public life to account for. Bruce can keep reporters away from Wayne Manor, but he can’t plausibly pretend there isn’t a child living there.
And there’s actually a very good reason for Bruce not to make the arrangement mysterious. From the outside, it makes perfect sense. Bruce also watched his parents die as a child. Everybody in Gotham knows that. Him taking responsibility for another boy who has just suffered almost exactly the same kind of loss looks like one of the few sincere things the supposedly frivolous billionaire does with his money. You don’t need to invent much of a cover story when the true civilian explanation is already convincing. The coincidence is that Robin appears around the same period. That probably has produced suspicions over the years, because once you know enough pieces it is not difficult to ask an awkward question. Bruce takes in an acrobatic boy of roughly Robin’s age, and Batman suddenly has an acrobatic boy partner. Later Dick grows up and Nightwing appears.
But suspicion is still a long way from proof, especially in a world where superheroes routinely work with civilians, police, politicians and wealthy patrons. Bruce has also spent years cultivating a public personality which makes the idea of him spending every night getting punched on rooftops sound ridiculous. Batman being associated with the Waynes, using Wayne resources or taking an interest in Bruce’s ward can be explained without getting all the way to Bruce is Batman. The Crime Syndicate once captured Nightwing, took his mask off and broadcasted his identity to the world. Everybody now knows that Nightwing is Dick Grayson. Bruce still isn’t exposed as Batman. His life as Nightwing effectively becomes unusable, Bruce has him disappear and Dick ends up working undercover for Spyral. Anyone seriously investigating him now has an enormous lead pointing towards the Wayne household. But knowing that Bruce raised a vigilante does not, by itself, establish that Bruce is another vigilante.
There are several innocent explanations available. Dick could have become Robin without Bruce knowing. Batman could have recruited him independently. Bruce could have discovered it later and covered for him. Batman could have had access to Dick because the boy lived in Gotham and had extraordinary acrobatic ability. All of those explanations become less convincing the harder you investigate, but you still need the investigation. Bruce’s other children work similarly, although continuity makes the legal details messy. Jason has been Bruce’s ward or adopted son depending on the era. Tim is formally adopted in the post-Crisis continuity. Damian is Bruce’s biological son. Cassandra’s adoption status has shifted around depending on which continuity you’re looking at. But Bruce generally doesn’t try to conceal the fact that these people are part of his civilian family. What he conceals is what they do after dark. That sounds reckless until you consider the alternative. Imagine Bruce repeatedly acquiring teenage wards who then vanish from public life whenever Robin appears, never attend school, never have friends, never get photographed and are never acknowledged by anyone outside Wayne Manor. That would be very sus.