The DCU
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Comic Books
Comic Books
The following have their own pages:
- Hitman (1993) takes place in an area of Gotham known as the Cauldron, and is said to be so bad Batman stays out of it.
- Averted in Super Powers — the first issue begins with Batman mysteriously missing (he'd been captured by Brainiac), so Superman stays to fight the rampaging supervillains while Wonder Woman goes into space to rescue him.
- From about 1985-2010, DC Comics was essentially split into two barely-related worlds. Dark and magical characters such as Constantine, Swamp Thing, the Endless, and Lucifer interact with each other but rarely cross over with mainstream superhero characters (though it still happened very occasionally). This changed with the Flashpoint event, where the WildStorm, Vertigo, and main DC universes were all fused together. Interestingly, for a time, Constantine existed as a younger version in the mainstream DCU, while retaining all his years of real-time aging and mature content in his solo title Hellblazer, until the latter's conclusion in 2012, replaced with the slightly-more-mature-than-mainstream DCU title "Constantine".
- In John Ostrander's writing of The Spectre, his human host (Jim Corrigan) asks Father Cramer why the Spectre never responded to the obliteration of Coast City. Father Cramer suggested that the Spectre was designed by God only to respond to certain cries for vengeance. Hell, the Spectre usually stays out of most cities populated with superheroes, because if he did, most Rogues Galleries would be swiftly depopulated, and then what would the writers do? He does occasionally show up to kill off villains who've lost their Plot Armor, but Joker Immunity still remains his worst enemy.
- Touched on during Stephanie Brown's book Batgirl (2009) which showcased both her friendship with Supergirl, and the fact that when she went up against a team of bad guys with Powered Armor-induced superpowers, she had already pre-planned an intervention of Kara and her team of equally superpowered heroes.
- An egregious example with Adam Strange. The character's entire premise was that the Zeta Beam that takes him to the planet Rann will wear off, so he can only stay there for a limited time. There was no reason that he couldn't have asked Green Lantern or other space-travelling superheroes for a lift to permanently solve this problem. (This point was admittedly addressed in the 2020 Strange Adventures series where Strange begs both Hal Jordan and Superman to fly him to Rann to no success.) To a degree, Strange has done it before: Hawkman and Hawkwoman helped him work up a way to teleport to Rann without the Zeta Beam.
- Later developments in the Green Lantern books more or less invoked this with respect to Earth: per the terms of a deal between the two, Guy Gardner and the Red Lanterns now patrol sector 2814 (which includes Earth), while Hal Jordan and the rest of the GL Corps are required to stay away. New Lantern Simon Baz is allowed to stay on Earth but isn't allowed to go anywhere else. The deal was dropped when Guy Gardner left the Red Lanterns and the entire Green Lantern Corps disappeared, leaving a vacuum that wasn't filled until DC Rebirth, when the Sinestro Corps decided to take over and Hal Jordan, having been a renegade on the run during the period before, decided to come back and right that wrong, the other Corps members making their way back from where they disappeared off to.
- Aquaman:
- Usually justified, since Aquaman's solo adventures typically take place underwater.
- Double subverted in the first issue of his 2003 series, where he is exiled from Atlantis and left chained to a rock on a shore to die. The first thing he does is try to call the Justice League for help, only to find that the bad guys destroyed his communicator and are magically blocking his telepathic connection to Martian Manhunter.
- Played straight, then subverted late into his New 52 run. Thule, a Dark World counterpart of Atlantis is invading Earth, spreading poisonous waters and launching attacks on cities. Aquaman single-handedly fights off the invasion and rescues refugees from Thule while staying one step ahead of the forces of Atlantis under the command of his evil sister-in-law, without once calling any of his friends for help. Subverted when he bumps into the Justice League, who have noticed what's going on and showed up to help. He admits that trying to handle a trans-dimensional incursion by himself was dumb and accepts their aid.
- When Arthur is deposed (again), new king Corum Rath uses a mystic artefact to surround Atlantis in a magical force field, with Arthur trapped inside and Mera and Garth outside. Garth suggests asking the Titans and Justice League for help, but Mera points out that Rath rose to power off the back of an isolationist movement, and getting surface-born superheroes involved would only make things worse.
- Zig-zagged at the end of Kelly Sue DeConnick's run. When the Ocean Master attacks Atlantis with an army, Arthur calls in all his superhero friends to help. However, both forces just kind of stand around and watch the brothers fight one on one.
- Justified and even lampshaded in Lazarus Planet. The Justice League has disbanded in the aftermath of Dark Crisis, thus the superhero community is caught flatfooted and struggling to deal with the crisis caused by Lazarus Island's volcanic eruption.
- At the end of RWBY/Justice League, the young Justice League create their own space-bound Watchtower to protect Remnant from extraterrestrial invaders, thus are situated in a way that they can't interfere with the rest of RWBY's canon.
- Superman:
- The Death of Superman has had the fact that only Superman took on Doomsday lampshaded a few times. During the Reign of the Supermen arc, the Cyborg Superman muses that heroes like Green Lantern and the Martian Manhunter could have easily defeated Doomsday if they showed up. Seeing as the Cyborg was a villain and later stories reveal that this wouldn't have been the case, this is easily a case of Unreliable Narrator. Also, ironically the Martian Manhunter had been there, but under a different identity.
- In the Tales from the Dark Multiverse version of "The Death of Superman", Lois, plunging into the Despair Event Horizon, chews out the heroes who arrive too late, claiming that they didn't care at all that a hero like Superman needed their help and they didn't show up.
- "Superman and Spider-Man": Defied. Doctor Doom leads Hulk to Metropolis, causing Superman to move to New York City as he figures out what Doom is planning. Meanwhile, Peter Parker, who had gone to Metropolis to take pictures of Hulk, finds himself working for Perry White for a while until he gets homesick and goes back to New York.
- Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia averts this trope, only in this case it's Batman pursuing someone who's fled Gotham. Batman goes rather out of his way to chase down a rather low-level criminal, in comparison to who he's usually up against, well beyond the limits of Gotham City. Given how it ended up for him, it might also explain why he keeps to Gotham.
Films
Films
The following have their own pages:
- The LEGO Batman Movie: The entire Justice League is shown partying midway through the film, but none of them show up when all the villains in the Phantom Zone are let out and Gotham risks falling into an abyss. Parodied in How It Should Have Ended, where all the superheroes do show up and so instantly override the Bat-Family's attempt to save their city.
- Batman and Harley Quinn has Batman consider breaking the trope, but most of the heroes at the time were out with other things (in space or at Atlantis) and the heroes left available were B- and C-list heroes that Batman and Nightwing did not want to deal with, and Booster Gold (who they also didn't want to deal with).
- Averted in Superman Returns — in the news report, Gotham actually is listed as one of the cities where Superman stopped to do good deeds. Mostly just a Mythology Gag, though, since as far as we know other superheroes don't even exist in this universe.
Live-Action TV
Live-Action TV
The following have their own pages:
- Titans (2018): Averted in season 3. During the third season, The Titans team moves into Gotham city to help out with the crisis, mainly because the Joker killed Jason Todd, and Batman killed the Joker in retaliation for Jason's death and left the city. Before Batman leaves, he hands the reins of Gotham over to his former sidekick Dick Grayson / Robin I / Nightwing when he accepts he can no longer protect Gotham for crossing such a line. Dick's team, the Titans, come with him to Gotham to help him restore order.
Video Games
Video Games
- Batman: Arkham Series: All of the games partially justify this by having the entire story take place over a single night.
- Batman: Arkham Asylum invokes this by having the Joker specifically announce that if he sees anyone in a cape besides Batman on the grounds, he's going to detonate the bombs he has scattered around the city.
- In Batman: Arkham City, Robin makes a brief appearance, but by this time, it is revealed Joker infected thousands of people with his tainted blood and Batman instructs him to return to Gotham because he knows that Robin will soon be needed there, so Gotham is saved by Batman and Catwoman despite the fact that the Justice League would have been all over it even without Bruce calling for help at the start of act 5, though this could be explained as the fact that Batman shut it down not long after it started. Also, in a DLC, it is revealed that Robin was behind the scenes stopping Black Mask.
- Even other Bat-Family members are neglected. Batwoman, Huntress and the Creeper are all established to exist by the time of Arkham Knight, but never appear to help. Well, Jack Ryder does appear, but it never occurs to him or Batman to turn into the Creeper, though a throwaway line in Arkham Knight has Ryder remark to Bruce about how he wishes he had superpowers, implying he has never been the Creeper in the Arkhamverse.
- In Batman: Arkham Origins, Batman works alone and doesn't believe he needs helps fighting crime. Giving Batman Character Development about how he can't face his war alone and needs to make allies is part of the plot.
- The Justice League is absent in Batman: Arkham Knight because after your first bomb encounter, Scarecrow and the Knight's threat is broadcast worldwide to prevent outside involvement lest there be a big crater where Gotham used to be. A mook comments that he's worried about "that freak from Metropolis" intervening, so it's probably due to the rapid developments that the other heroes don't get involved — it's all over before other heroes learn of the event and can react.
- Gotham Knights (2022): While the trope is enforced, it's not explained in any waynote , despite the game taking place over several weeks. There are numerous references to the Justice League, Outsiders, and Titans, which makes the absence of these groups much more jarring.
- Averted in Injustice: Gods Among Us. The prequel comic starts with Superman and Batman talking in Metropolis. Later, the Joker causes trouble in Metropolis and the Justice League tries to deal with him. They fail, and his plan to kill Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane, and ultimately all of Metropolis goes off without a hitch. This leads to the dystopia years later in the main game, where Superman has taken over the world Knight Templar style along with other fallen heroes and Batman leads other heroes in the La Résistance against Superman's forces.
- The LEGO Batman Trilogy breaks this trend with Batman: while the first game plays this trope straight by featuring only Gotham characters, the sequel, the aptly titled LEGO Batman 2: DC Superheroes, makes it quite clear that it averts the trope by having, well, the rest of the DCU joining in. The game actually lampshades the entire concept by having Superman just casually drop by and save the day, pissing off Batman greatly and telling Robin to not expect Superman to swoop in and save the day every time. When the Joker and Lex Luthor invade the Batcave, Batman begrudgingly lets Robin call out to Superman, but when he doesn't immediately show up, Batman goes to tell him I Told You So, but ends up being saved at the last minute. At the end of the game, the entire Justice League shows up to save the day, making Batman realize that sometimes, outside help is needed.
Western Animation
Western Animation
- Lampshaded in Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Night of the Batmen!" Aquaman, Captain Marvel, Green Arrow, and Plastic Man regularly team-up with Batman during the course of the series, but run into numerous obstacles when they try to fight crime in Gotham (partly because they are in disguise to fill in for an injured Batman, trying to do things his way rather than play to their own strengths). Otherwise, averting this is the hook of the series. Batman fights villains, and eagerly accepts the help of any hero he comes across, or otherwise calls in his buddies to assist.
- DC Animated Universe:
- Superman: The Animated Series:
- In the three-part episode "World's Finest", when Superman and Batman first met, they clearly did not trust one another (the mutual discovery of each other's secret identity was implied to be the one thing preventing the other from turning them in). From the pilot episode, "The Last Son Of Krypton", a brief mention of the "nut from Gotham City" made it clear that Batman was not held in much high regard as a hero outside of Gotham.
- In "Knight Time", this is averted to interesting effect when Superman DOES go into Gotham to investigate Batman's disappearance with Robin's help (and disguised as Batman). One priceless scene in the episode is "Batman" able to overcome the best efforts of Bane, Mad Hatter and Riddler with brute force.Mad Hatter: [shocked at how "Batman" survives a stone pillar falling on top of him, and then kicks it off of him with two feet] That's not possible.
Robin: He's been working out.
- The New Batman Adventures:
- The episode "Girls' Night Out" subverts it when Livewire escapes to Gotham (and runs into Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy). In response, Supergirl must team up with Batgirl to stop the trio.
- Played straight with a justification in "Love is a Croc", in which one of the newspapers describing the duo's crime spree includes a side-story headline "Superman Has Hands Full".
- Justice League:
- In the first episode of Unlimited, Green Arrow lampshades this trope, getting angry when Green Lantern takes down some criminals that he was fighting and calling him a big name hero who has now decided that fighting street crime is his thing.
- While this was averted in the series finale and justified against Brainthor, the series premiere had a team of seven taking on a planetary invasion. At least with the Thanagarian invasion, future Unlimited league members like Vigilante were stated to be fighting offscreen or imprisoned because of it.
- Lampshaded and justified in the episode "In Blackest Night", to explain why none of the Trinity are helping out today:Martian Manhunter: Wonder Woman is on another case, Superman's dealing with an earthquake and Batman would only say that he's "busy".
- Superman: The Animated Series:
- Superman shows up later anyway because "It was just a 4.0."
- A subtle episode that was Flash-centric shows that Flash deals with his supervillains differently - some of them act like Flash is their counselor. In short, only Flash can deal with the villains in Keystone.Flash: [admonishingly] James, you're off your meds, aren't you?
Trickster: Better off without 'em! Take 'em if I start feeling down.
Flash: You know that's not how the medicine works. You're not well!
Trickster: I'm fine! [brightens up] ...You wanna throw some darts?
Flash: No, listen, James, you're wearing the suit again.
Trickster: I am? [looks down at his costume] Well, what do you know?
Flash: Here's the deal, buddy. Tell me where those guys went, and I'll come see you in the hospital. We'll play darts! The soft kind.
Trickster: [smiles widely] Okay, they're gonna ambush you at the Flash Museum!
Flash: See? That's all we needed! [to Batman and Orion] Come on, we better get over there.
Orion: What about your enemy?
Flash: Oh, right. Dude, as soon as you finish your drink, turn yourself in!
Trickster: [raises mug] Got me again, Flash!
- A subtle episode that was Flash-centric shows that Flash deals with his supervillains differently - some of them act like Flash is their counselor. In short, only Flash can deal with the villains in Keystone.
- Teen Titans (2003)
- The Titans never even mention their adult counterparts, at least not by name. Even when the fate of the world is at stake, and every teen-aged hero on Earth has been captured except for half-a-dozen C-list Titans, no one thinks to let Superman know what's happening. This despite the presence of characters like Robin, Aqualad and Speedy.
- The League wasn't even mentioned when Trigon made a successful planet-side takeover. Neither were the Titans East. There's Die or Fly, and then there's this. This specific case may be justified by those who read the source story, showing the other superheroes were petrified when Trigon's dimension began absorbing Earth.
- The Doom Patrol are the only "adult" superheroes that actually appear, and even then its only for two episodes and afterwards they are quickly forgotten and never mentioned again. The only reason they appeared at all was to setup the main antagonists of the final season, "The Brotherhood of Evil". The only other hero to appear is Batman but only in a small number of background references that only those familiar with his mythos would really notice.
- The reason for all of this is because at the time, DC Comics and Warner Bros. Animation had a policy of "Character Embargoes". A character couldn't appear in one show if another show already had them in a major role. While Teen Titans was running, for example, it had dibs on Robin, so Robin couldn't appear in Justice League or The Batman, and no Batman characters could appear on Justice League, since The Batman had dibs on them. Ironically, this ban included Harley Quinn, a character who was created for one of the shows that Justice League was a continuation of. Batman was grandfathered into Justice League by virtue of being a main and popular character, the Joker appeared in "Injustice for All", and several different Batman villains cameoed in "A Better World" (as lobotomized patients in the Justice Lords' version of Arkham), but the only other exceptions were Speedy's guest appearance in the Justice League Unlimited episode "Patriot Act", which occurred after Teen Titans had aired all their episodes but still had reruns, and technically, Kid Flash's appearances in Teen Titans, as both he and Justice League's Flash were obviously Wally West, but under different identities allowing the writers to "Exploit a Loophole". Both Justice League's Speedy and Teen Titans's Kid Flash were clearly based on the other show's version of the character, going so far as to use the same voice actors.
- Conversely, the comedic Spin-Off Teen Titans Go! mentions and showcases many adult superheroes regularly. Early seasons had Batman making background cameos, several appearances of Aquaman, and an episode where, sick of Beast Boy slacking off, the team holds auditions for other Animal-Themed superheroes to replace him, such as Vixen. Later seasons and the movie would go on to have members of the Justice League in speaking roles and involved with the plot.
- Young Justice (2010)
- Averted where the Justice League has evolved into an international organization so effective that the villains had to form a Secret Society called "The Light" in response, because individually they were no match for the heroes. At the start of the show, the League's roster is twice as large as it normally is in the comics, and it gets even bigger as time goes on. Team-ups if anything appear to have become the norm.
- Apparently played straight earlier in their careers. Word of God stated that before the League was formed, there was one team-up between Batman and Superman and one between The Flash and Green Lantern, and that was it.
- Season 2 had Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, John Stewart, Martian Manhunter, and Hawkwoman on an intergalactic trial (with Icon and Hawkman on the defense) after being brainwashed during the Season 1 finale, leaving just the B-listers and the Team to deal with the impending threat of the Reach.
- Season 3 has several members of the League on an intergalactic goodwill tour (as a show of good faith after being found not guilty), while several other members, including Batman, Green Arrow, and Black Lightning, resign in protest due to Lex Luthor using his position as UN Secretary General to influence the UN into limiting the League's jurisdiction (though in Black Lighting's case, his resignation comes out of a My God, What Have I Done? moment when he kills a monster that used to be a little girl). This leaves the Team, the Outsiders, and several former members no longer operating under the League to handle the global Superhuman Trafficking crisis.
- Harley Quinn (2019): Averted literally, and then enforced literally, in "Devil's Snare": When the Legion of Doom creates an army of man-eating trees in a Gotham City park, the Justice League shows up. Shortly thereafter, the Queen of Fables traps the League in her story-book world, leaving the villains in control of the city for the next dozen episodes.
