Bruce Wayne has quit being Batman more often than many DC Comics fans might have remembered, and each time a different person has stepped into the role of the Caped Crusader. The reasons that Wayne left the role vary. He experienced a crippling injury at the hands of Bane. He seemingly died when he fought Darkseid. He was exiled, went into retirement, and believed the role had passed him by. Many of the times his successor took over were during the main DC Comics timeline, but other instances occurred in futuristic storylines, including one a century after his death.
From his handpicked successors to heroes who took over the role because they felt it was their time, here are all of Batman’s best successors, ranked based on effectiveness, cultural impact, and what they did for the mantle itself.
10) Jean-Paul Valley
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A man Bruce Wayne handpicked ranks at the bottom of the list, because he allowed the stress of the role to send him down a dark and deadly road. After Bane broke Batman’s back in “Knightfall” (1993), Bruce Wayne was out for a year, and he chose a hero named Jean-Paul Valley to replace him as Batman. Valley then started to take Batman in a more violent direction, including creating the AzBats armor with razor gauntlets and projectile weapons. He banished Tim Drake from the Batcave and began to brutalize villains, even breaking Batman’s no-kill rule. When Wayne was healthy again, he retook the mantle and stopped Valley, who returned to his role as Azrael.
9) Jason Todd
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Jason Todd became Batman for a very short time during the “Battle for the Cowl” storyline (2009) after Bruce Wayne seemingly died during the Final Crisis series, fighting Darkseid. Most of the Robins began to fight for the role, and Jason was the least qualified of them to become the new Batman. He changed the suit to a red-and-black one, and he added guns to Batman’s supply of weapons, proving he was the wrong answer to the question of who should be the next Batman. When Jason began killing villains as Batman, Dick Grayson was forced to take on the role to stop him.
8) Alfred Pennyworth
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Alfred Pennyworth is a notable Batman successor because he was never meant to be the next Batman, but was instead used as a decoy on more than one occasion. In fact, this goes back to the 1960s, when Alfred took on the role in several of the Batman storylines. His training as a British intelligence agent and medic prepared him for the role better than many other people. He also wore the costume on Earth-2. When he takes on the role of Batman, he often quickly relinquishes it, but he is at least worthy of wearing the costume.
7) Jim Gordon
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It seemed Batman had died at the end of “Endgame” (2015) by Scott Snyder. With Batman gone, the government decided to step in and have their own Batman, and they assigned the role to Jim Gordon. He didn’t have the strength, power, or durability of Batman, so he utilized a massive mech suit called the Rookie, which included a rabbit-eared silhouette and a Gotham City PD insignia. Gordon was the first state-sanctioned Batman, and he was successful in helping clean up the streets. When Bruce Wayne returned alive, he took the role back. Gordon was a good cop attempting to live up to an impossible legacy.
6) Jace Fox
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Jace Fox was Lucius Fox’s estranged son, and he made his debut in Future State: The Next Batman (2021). He took on the role of Batman’s successor in the near-future timeline, and he ended up getting his own series called I Am Batman. Eventually, DC brought him to the mainline continuity after Future State ended. He is the first Black Batman in the main continuity, and this allowed creative teams to deal with stories about racial profiling, systemic inequality, and police abuse of power. He and Batman coexist, with Jace working in and out of Gotham City.
5) Brane Taylor
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Brane Taylor is a Batman from far into the future. He made his debut in Batman #67 in 1951 as the 31st-century Batman. This makes him one of the earliest future Batman concepts and one of the first successors to Bruce Wayne in DC Comics, although there was another Brane from the 30th century who appeared in 1944. He is a descendant of Wayne, and he inherited the role in the family legacy centuries after Wayne had died. He lives in a futuristic setting, with advanced weapons, technology, and his own Bat-Belfry. He even has his own Robin. This Brane also traveled to the past and worked with Bruce Wayne more than once. While a Golden Age curiosity, he is the direct forerunner of every future Batman concept.
4) Tim Drake
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Like Jason Todd, Tim Drake also took on the role of Batman’s successor in “Battle for the Cowl” in 2009. Unlike Todd, Drake was not a murderer. Instead, he wanted to test himself to see if he was worthy, alongside Dick Grayson. He also wore the costume in 1994 during “Prodigal,” and he was Batman’s handpicked successor at one point until Wayne learned he had a son. He is the smartest possible Batman, a detective who rivals even Batman himself in his brilliance. However, he chose to step aside because he believed Dick Grayson was always the right choice.
3) Damian Wayne
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Out of all the successors, Damian Wayne is the one who wanted it the most. In fact, he has said more than once that he was raised to become the next Batman, whether anyone liked it or not. Wayne has the legacy since he is Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul’s son, and he first took the mantle in Batman #666 in 2007 as the future Batman of a ruined Gotham City. He sold his soul to the devil to become Gotham’s protector, making him the most morally complex Batman variant in history. He is biologically “engineered” to be Batman’s successor.
2) Terry McGinnis
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Terry McGinnis is an alternate timeline Batman from the future who first appeared in Batman Beyond. He is a troubled teenager in Neo-Gotham in a future where Bruce Wayne retired as Batman, and later agrees to mentor Terry when he takes on the role as his successor. Unlike other Batman successors, Terry changed the entire design and appearance of the Batman costume and went with a high-tech suit with cloaking, flight, and strength-amplifying servo-motors. He became canon in DC Comics in 2010, and later in Future State, and he surpassed many characters who originated in the comics.
1) Dick Grayson
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The best Batman successor of all time is the man who wore the costume longer than any other hero, other than Bruce Wayne. After Wayne died in Final Crisis, the “Battle for the Cowl” storyline began, and the Robins battled for the right to be the new Batman. Tim Drake knew it should be Dick, and Grayson finally suited up to stop Jason Todd. When it ended, Dick was the new Batman and Damian Wayne was his Robin. This was the first great storyline with Damian as Robin, as his relationship with Dick was superior to anything with his father. He even took a role as a leader in the Justice League as Batman and was superior to Bruce Wayne in many ways during his reign.
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