Big Brother Instinct / The DCU

The DCU

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Comic Books

Comic Books

• Batman: Dick Grayson's relationship with everyone he knows, him being on both ends. Be they a Titan, Leaguer or one of the Batfamily, Dick will make sure to get you messed up for harming them. Be they a Titan, Leaguer, or Bat, they will make sure to get you messed up for harming him. As Jason Todd found out, even if you're his brother, you do NOT hurt one of the other brothers... or one of his sisters for that matter.
  • Special mention to his relationship with Tim Drake, the third Robin and Dick's adopted little brother. One issue had Tim believed to have been killed by the Joker when a mass Arkham escape was in progress. Nightwing then beats the Joker to death with his bare hands, it didn't help that the Joker decided to bring up how he had also killed Jason Todd (the first of Nightwing's adopted little brothers). The Joker was just lucky Batman was around to revive him.
  • And a second one to Dick's relationship with Batman's biological son Damian Wayne, who eventually softens up to Dick, though he probably wouldn't say it out loud.
  • Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) has a Big Sister Instinct for Tim, Stephanie Brown, Cassandra Cain and Damian and much like her love interest Dick she takes any injury or insult towards her "Bat-siblings" very personally. Babs even journeyed to Apokolips alongside Bruce and Jason and fought Parademons to get Damian's body back and resurrect him.
  • Jason himself aka Red Hood in modern comics is a more a Loving Bully variant, he acts aloof with his adoptive siblings due to his own personal problems with Bruce and is often plain douchey to them. Much like Raphael from the Ninja Turtles though he actually does love and appreciate his adoptive brothers deep down and will dispense out particularly brutal violence to anyone who hurts them (especially Tim whom he’s closest to), even Damian whom he has every reason to dislike, he still looks after in combat.
  • Helena Bertinelli aka Huntress similarly acts like this towards the younger members of the Bat-Family on occasion, she’s shown explicit care for Tim, Cassandra and later Damian and even played Team Mom in Public Enemies.
  • Catwoman tends to be a female version of this whenever she acquires a female tagalong who's too old for this to be considered Mama Bear.
  • Batwoman: Kate Kane was this to her twin sister Beth, whose personality was meeker than Kate's. On one occasion Kate even beat up an older boy who was bullying her.
    • Kate also tried to be this for her cousin Bette but it didn't work out. Bette thought she was babying her and hated it.
• The Flash:
  • Over the years, Wally West and Bart Allen have been portrayed as having a tense and distant relationship, especially during Geoff Johns' Teen Titans; however, Wally can nevertheless be protective of Bart. When he returns to Earth to find out that Bart's been killed by Inertia he's so pissed that he almost kills him by running him full speed into a mountain. He changes his mind last minute but still steals all of his speed turning him into a living conscious statue after which he puts him into the Flash museum forcing him to look at a statue of Bart.
  • Barry Allen relationship is this for Wally himself having travelled through time and death to protect him including once from 2 Reverse Flashes, in The Flash (2016) Barry even cried when he learned he had forgotten Wally due to a Cosmic Retcon and hugged his protege. When Aquaman doubts Wally's trustworthiness, Barry threatens him right then and there.
• Supergirl: It's complicated, but both Superman and Supergirl are this to each other (Supergirl is technically at least fifteen years older, but due to suspended animation shenanigans, Superman is a grown man while she's still a teenager).
  • In the Red Daughter of Krypton arc, Superman was NOT amused when he found out what his cousin had became a Red Lantern, and both Green and Red Lanterns were frightened of what he would do should he blame them. Later on, when one of Supergirl's enemies mentioned that he would go after her cousin after defeating her, she pounced on him and beat him.
  • In War World Superman is trying to find Supergirl, who has gone missing. When The Spectre -literally God's Wrath's embodiment- gets in his way, Superman tries to punch him. Superman is not prone to listen to reason if Kara is in danger.
  • In The Supergirl from Krypton (2004), Superman is very overprotective of his long-lost, new-fond young cousin. Very, very overprotective and short-tempered. Darkseid found out the hard way.
  • In Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade, Superman is protective from his cousin... and Lex Luthor from Lena. Say whatever you want about Lex, but he cares for his little sister.
    Lex: Lena is my sister, alien... I'm going to save her.
  • Say what you will about Bizarro, but in Bizarrogirl , he intended to flee because he wanted to protect his young cousin at all costs.
  • In The Girl with the X-Ray Mind, Supergirl needs Lex Luthor's help to stop the Phantom Zone inmates. Luthor cannot care less if a trio of Kryptonian criminals wipe out all of mankind, but he agrees to help to thwart them only because their scheme is endangering his little sister Lena.
• Wonder Woman:
  • Princess Diana could, would and has fought gods and monsters to protect her fellow Amazon sisters, especially Donna Troy whose Diana's actual sister or clone in some continuities. To a lesser extent Diana also cares for Cassie Sandsmark, whenever they meet.
  • In Wonder Woman (2011), Diana sets up a male colony on Themyscira as a sign of progression, and comes to cherish her "brothers". So later upon returning home to discover that other Amazons have butchered the men, Diana goes on a massive Unstoppable Rage and takes bloody revenge on those responsible for their massacre.
• Billy Batson aka Captain Marvel loves his little sister Mary dearly as well his younger friend Freddy (his adoptive brother in Post-Flashpoint continuity) and unleashes lightning powered butt whooping to Dr Sivana, Black Adam or anyone stupid enough to hurt or threatened them.
• Green Lantern: Post-Green Lantern: Rebirth, Hal is attentive to and protective of Kyle. As Kyle regards Hal with a large dose of Big Brother Worship, he generally doesn't mind, but can find it aggravating at times:
  Kyle: Always playing me like your kid brother, Hal. I can hold my own!
  White Lantern Ring: RAGE.

Films

Films

• Aquaman (2018): Defied. Arthur was originally overjoyed to find out that he had a little (half-)brother, and wanted to try to be a brother to him after their mother died. However, when he found out that his brother was a warmongering racist and "... kind of a dick", their relationship quickly soured. The end of the film teases that the brothers may reconcile, so...

Live-Action TV

Live-Action TV

• Arrowverse
  • Arrow:
    • Oliver Queen is very protective of his younger sister, Thea. In the earlier seasons, he looks after her well-being in an almost obsessive fashion (e.g. stopping her from having sex and trying to curb her hard-drinking party lifestyle), which ends up straining their relationship until he finally comes clean to her about his vigilantism. Justified since the last time he saw her before the yacht incident, she was a young girl, so he continues seeing her that way after his return even though She Is All Grown Up. Reaches its climax in Season 3, when a flashback reveals that Oliver killed a drug dealer who sold drugs to (the then-underage) Thea, while in the present, after Thea gets mortally wounded by Ra's al Ghul, he offers up himself to become the next Ra's in exchange for saving her life in the Lazarus Pit.
    • Oliver's best bud Tommy is also this to Thea. After getting wasted at a club, Thea is given a ride home by Tommy, then is comforted by him when Roy is kidnapped. It's implied that, during the time that Oliver was away, Tommy looked after Thea as something of a surrogate brother. Becomes poignant in Season 2, when we learn that Tommy is Thea's biological brother, as his father, Malcolm, fathered her with Moira.
  • The Flash: One of the first things Iris does when she learns that Wally is her long-lost younger brother is to discourage him from participating in Central City's drag race. When that doesn't work, she risks herself being put in the crosshairs of the organizers by blackmailing them to stop the race entirely.
  • Supergirl:
    • A sureway to rile Alex up is by threatening or endangering Kara. This came from the time when the two grew up, as Alex essentially had to sacrifice her social life so she could keep an eye on and prevent Kara from being outed as an alien. Also goes both ways, as Kara, being the stronger sibling physically, is always mindful to keep Alex from harm's way during missions (technically, Kara is the older one of the two, thanks to being suspended for years in the Phantom Zone).
    • Despite being her baby cousin, Clark is this to Kara. He was the one who gave her a home when she crash-landed on Earth, after all. In the first season, it's shown that he regularly texts Kara to inquire about her feelings and saves her once when she is overpowered in a fight.
• In Gotham, this is one of Selina Kyle's defining traits. In her second episode, she tries to comfort a scared kid by telling him to "go for the eyes" if he's messed with by the villains of the week. She's the only friend Ivy Pepper has. When she meets Bruce Wayne, she tries to help him learn how to fight and roof-hop, as well as tries to protect him from the assassins sent after her and from Silver St. Cloud, who was sent to manipulate him. She kills Reggie after he threatens Bruce. When she encounters her old friend Bridget Pike, she offers her shelter in her own safe place, tries to help her friend get money to escape town, and is prepared to throw down with Bridget's abusive "brothers" to rescue her friend. For all her rough exterior, her Big Sister Instinct has made her one of the more compassionate characters on the show.
• Gotham Knights (2023): In the first episode, Harper tries to make a deal with the cops to take the fall for Bruce Wayne's murder in exchange for her younger brother Cullen being set free. She's later overprotective to him, after having protected Cullen for a long time as much as she could, starting with from their abusive father. After he pushes back against this, Harper apologizes and tells Cullen how much she admires his bravery, having seen Cullen can very definitely handle himself.
• Lois & Clark: The titular couple to Jimmy Olsen.
• In Smallville, while they are about the same age, Clark tends to have this towards Chloe. Very much justified given the first three guys she tries to date (not counting Clark himself) all tried to kill her (Sean in Cool, Justin in Crush, Ian in Dichotic). Also because he is Superman and she is an ordinary girl who isn't even particularly good in combat.
  • Even when they are adults and after Chloe had her first marriage, this behavior persisted. In Escape, when Clark finds out Oliver and Chloe are sleeping together, he says that she has been through a lot, and that Oliver should never take her for granted. Ollie then reminds Clark that Chloe is a grown woman at this point, and that she can handle herself, and that in any case, he'd never hurt her. It all works out, and Ollie/Chloe and Clark/Lois become the two OfficialCouples of the show, and — rather adorably — also become avid Shippers on Deck for each other.
  • With being six years older, and coupled with his Lonely Rich Kid past, Lex Luthor very frequently felt this way towards Clark Kent in the early seasons of the series. Getting extremely protective and angry whenever the young farm boy was threatened or harmed.

Western Animation

Western Animation

• Teen Titans (2003): The Titans have this towards each other. Of additional note is Raven having this towards her "kids" (Melvin, Timmy Tantrum, and Teether), Beast Boy towards his adoptive family (the Doom Patrol), and Cyborg towards the Titans East team.
• Young Justice (2010)
  • Nightwing is this to the current Robin, Tim Drake after the Time Skip.
    • Given how the quarrel between him and Batman (leading to him quitting Robin to become Nightwing) never happened in this universe, he is close to Jason Todd (confirmed on Ask Greg); and after Jason's death, understandably he is more protective of Tim than ever.
    • Nightwing has this for all the younger team members. When the Reach kidnaps Lagoon Boy, Beast Boy, Impulse, and Blue Beetle, he orders the rescue squads to proceed despite the probability of discovery, only saying "Get our boys."
  • Other examples include Cheshire, who was ready and willing to murder to Aqualad when she believed he'd murdered her little sister; Miss Martian, who is scary protective of Superboy and Lagoon Boy (her boyfriends) and Beast Boy (her surrogate little brother); and Aqualad, who hates being the leader of the team but continues to, believing that Robin is too young.
  • In Season 2, Superman finally showed at least one sign of this towards Superboy by taking a missile in the chest for him (presumably a missile that would've packed too much punch for Superboy) fired at the younger half by deep cover mole Aqualad.

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