Batwoman, Spoiler, Batwing and Blue Bird are not really part of the family.

They should have stopped after the death of Jason Todd.

@muyjingo:

Batwoman have to be... At least she is his (Batman) real cousin :)

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and yea... to answer... Batman have to step across his limits of darkness once and for all... to be a bad guy.... not evil, not good... somewhere in the middle ! At least when u hear that name BATMAN it sound like it ! No more sidekicks, Alfred gonna to die... he finally have to step in darkness to be that...

I am happy as long as we are getting interesting character.

@theamazingbatman760: I would honestly have been okay with that :) (so long as we still got some post-Jason Dick and Batman stories, ala Legends of The Dark Knight or a similar format)

YES! Alfred, Nightwing, Batgirl, and Damian would be so aweome. After that it just gets to be too much.

I think that most of them should just leave Gotham rather than Die(Jason-my boy I'm looking at you) or Give up the suit(You hear me dicky?)

I agree with everything you said. The exact members you mentioned are the only ones I feel should be in the Bat family (Batman, Alfred, Dick Grayson, Batgirl, and Damian (he basically encompasses Tim and Jason)).

Some ppl think the large Batfamily cast is potentially good for the Bats "brand" and DC. Some compare it to the X-Men in the 90s, thinking it can be like the new big comic family to reach the younger crowds and even general masses.

I think the potential is there. DC is sitting on a multimedia gold mine w/ Grayson. Robin, as a concept character, is arguably just as known to the general public as Batman, give him more publicity or merchandise. Batgirl can carry her own TV show. A Gotham cartoon series would be cool, focusing on the supporting cast members. And so on and so on.

While it may saturate DC's general line, the latest Bats line titles show it can still bring diverse characters and genres to the Gotham family. I personally don't mind it the over-saturation of Gotham, as long as there is some diversity. Yeah, DC has other fictional cities it can explore, but if just having that small tie to Gotham/Batman allows fringe comics like Gotham by Midnight and Gotham Academy to exist and survive, then I'm all for it.

No Tim Drake=No deal for me

Edit= on second thought, I could live with it as long as I could get a well written Tim Drake in some shape or form somewhere else

Who's spoiler?

Nop, not all the characters that are Bat related are members of the Bat family, its like saying all metahumans are Avengers.

@dr_cheesesteak:

Is your avatar cover of some comic book ?

nah, it's a commission piece. Not sure how much the artist got paid for it. Financially, at least. He sure did pay for it in the PR department, though, unfortunately.

DC should get rid of some Bat-Family books and add some new books like Blue Beetle or The Atom.

Stephanie Brown, a former Robin and Batgirl. In the new 52, though, she started off as Spoiler.

@perchance2dream: As far as I know, most of the actual Bat-family members are rarely even mentioned in the majority of Batman books. In the main title the core members have only been featured for a few issues in Death of the Family and these last few installments of Endgame. Other than that, Grayson has only made a cameo in Court of Owls.

Other than Batman and Robin the other "Batman" comics don't really feature members of the Bat family. They've all been off doing their own thing in other comics like Teen Titans and Grayson. Besides, they're very interesting characters in their own right.

I quite like the current line up as it is, it has diversity with Gotham Academy and Gotham by Midnight. Also it's not like every book features Batman all the time, just a few tie ins.

You're mostly right. It's just the extended Bat Family is, imo, responsible for most of the cluttered storytelling throught Batman Eternal. :P it could've been way better.

Agreed :p will never happen though!

Yeah :(

Ah, well I haven't read Batman Eternal. Is it worth a purchase?

@dr_cheesesteak: I agree with everything you said, you delicious sounding bastard.

@battle_forum_junkie: if you have the money lying around to pick up the collected edition... why not? But no, I'm not necessarily sure I can recommend it, unless you're just a huge fan of Alfred and confounded by continuity. (Which Convergence is changing, anyways.) There are some really great moments in the art and storytelling, but I'd say they're sometimes few and far between. The pacing is horribly uneven and that art grossly inconsistent. :P all that said, I don't regret collecting the entire run, lol.

Would get if: you like Alfred, Stephanie Brown as Spoiler, Hush, absurdly complex evil schemes

Would not get if: you lack the patience for wading through numerous artists and writers, or you're strapped for cash.

BatWoman, BatWing and Spoiler arent members of the Batfamily.

They are friends.

BatGirl it more like a cousin or something like that.

Alfred needs his own series!!!

@perchance2dream: I might have to pick it up at a later date then. :P Thanks for the info, though, I appreciate it.

Convergence won't be changing any continuity, by the way. It's basically just a re-numbering.

Yep too many cooks

Thanks for the heads up. Was wondering whether to pick up "Batman Eternal". l have been collecting "Batman" and "Detective" since the early 80's and still enjoy reading those titles. "Legends Of The Dark Knight" was a great series too.

I feel like that's just semantics... "Batfriends"/family. If they wear the mantle of the Bat with Bruce's approval and they protect Gotham, I consider them Batfamily. Agreed though, about the Alfred comment! :)

No problem! :D

I know it's a renumbering and not a "hard reboot," but DC *has* said they are going to use the opportunity to loosen up on some of the continuity.

^^^My thoughts exactly :P

@perchance2dream: Family, friends, co workers arent the same.

@deathpoolthet1000: Here's a couple different definitions of the word family:

"a group of people united in criminal activity.

a group of objects united by a significant shared characteristic."

The Batfamily as I described definitely are united by shared characteristics, and vigilantism is most definitely illegal. Boom. "Family" on two counts :P although I think this is an "agree to disagree" type situation. If you don't consider all those people I listed as Batfamily, great, but that wasn't really the point of my original post :P (I can definitely see the argument that Batwoman isn't a part of the family, though, as she's largely independent!)

I don't think the Batfamily is too big, at least not as long as everybody has his own series.

The problem at the moment is in my opinion that the "family dynamic" between the core members is still not completely reestablished and that the series that would have been the ideal opportunity to do this (Batman: Eternal) was used to introduce and showcase new characters.

@aahz: really good point! I haven't really thought of that before.

I agree, way too many people...it shud be

Batman, Alfred, Dick Grayson, Batgirl, and (maybe) Damian?

With Jason Todd death being 100% definite and damian getting darker but not evil

Batman's Batfamily is fine just as is.

Joker was right.

I only consider the Bat family the Robins and Alfred.

But it is really someting that that needs to be done.

It is for example still not defined what the relationship of Tim to Dick and Barbara is like or what the relationship between Barbara and Damian is like.

The Jasons and Barbaras trip to South America in Eternal was in principle exact the right idea, it was just poorly executed. (If they had left El Gaucho and Batwoman, this romance that felt just completely wrong and this "Batgirl is so much better than all Robins" stuff out of it, and came up with a better flashback than the "you are no Dick Grayson", it could have been a pretty decent story line). And there are more team ups like this needed.

And I still think that Jason, Tim and Barabara shoud each get at least one story from the beginning of their career like the one Dick got in Batman and Robin Annual #2.

I know what you mean, the Zero Issues were good at introducing how they transitioned from who they were to their alter egos but seeing short stories of them in the beginning of their careers would be cool to see.