What type of fighting styles do you see the Bat family having?

[godisawesome]

This is strictly for the fun of it. Asides from the classic "master of all martial arts," what type of specific fighting skills do you think each member of the clan focuses on? They probably all have a good education in most forms from Batman, but it would make sense that each hero would favor certain attacks and styles. So, you decide your own criteria for their styles and defend your ideas.

So, I picture Nightwing as favoring a mix of capoiera and muay thai since I like the idea that he's acrobatic and can probably strike from more directions than you'd expect, and I figure he can probably kick as well as Jean Claude Van Damme. His weapon skills are pretty clearly escrima.

I figure Jason Todd probably uses krav maga for his weapon skills, with more kali style knife fighting skills. And since he sometimes uses a kris-style knife, I kind of want to see him use pencak silat because it's relatively obscure.

Tim Drake probably has some form of Kung Fu mixed with whatever judo or karate skills he had before Shiva taught him. I also like to think that he uses jojutsu alongside bojutsu for his weaponry style in case his staff gets broken. Anybody know a style that would mimic his wing usage in the New 52?

That's all I have for now. what about you guys?

[RoughNTumble]

Maybe a lot of the styles used in MMA for practicality reasons?

I don't know much about the martial arts.

[batGRRRl4ever]

Oh that's easy! Batgirl fights Daredoll style!

[The_Livewire]

I think they have their own unique styles, not formal training (Well pre-boot Bruce being the exception).

Bruce, clearly MMA style, in part because he takes half a dozen different arts and meshes them.

Dick, More graceful, acrobatic, dodging, sweeps etc. I'd actually think that would make a good difference between Bruce and Dick. Dick's better with room. Bruce in close quarters. The Escrima fits, because it can look flashy.

Jason, Gun Fu. :-) More seriously, he's going to be more brutal than Bruce, but less able to adapt. I picture him relying on the pistols with larger numbers because he's prone to be focused.

Tim: Very conservative, very analytical. If Bruce fights mixing different styles into a whole, Tim fights to counter how his foes react. In his last series, he seemed to have holes in that it took him a while to counter a new trick, bt once he did, it was effective.

Damian: Likely the most trained (except maybe Bruce above) but the poorest fighter both because of his age and he's fighting against his training in not killing. He ends up stopping for a split second when his muscles want to crush the throat, but he has to tell them something different.

As to the girls...

Kathy. I don't know enough about Batwoman, but hopefully her style would reflect military hand to hand training.

Babs (preboot) Very similar to Dick's since they both had similar training (acrobat/gymnyst) Oracle was skilled with Escrimia sticks, and had a tricked out chair.

Bette (preboot) I picture her using less kicks and more punches, her legs get her out of or into the way (reflecting her past playing tennis)

Cassandra. Likely the most 'traditional' martial artist of the group. Similar issues to Damian, but more experience in overcoming them.

Stephanie Aerobic Kickboxing, maybe some Mui Thai style. plus some overlap with Tim. No where near as good as the others.

And because I consider her an honorary (having been trained by Dick briefly)

Rose, Definately street fighting dirty tricks style. Likely looks even scarrier because of her precognition skills.

[The Lucky One]

Batwoman trained in the U.S.... Army, wasn't it? Not sure what fighting style is taught there, but her style is probably heavily military influenced.

Tim, yeah, hard to pin down since his teachers were all those "master of all fighting styles" types (Lady Shiva, King Snake, Batman). I can't remember if his first miniseries went into details about exactly what styles they were teaching to him.

Steph was an accomplished gymnast before she took up crimefighting, so I'd imagine a very fluid, constantly-moving fighting style. But really, she's so "make it up as I go along" that I'm sure her style would be a mixture of multiple schools, with little rhyme or reason that nonetheless ends up working somehow.

Misfit- three weeks of spin classes and a free karate demonstration in the dojo at the strip mall.

-D

[The_Livewire]

Dang, I forgot Misfit.

I also forgot about Tim's training. It would be a nice way to show the age difference between Tim and Bruce. A master of, say, Savate comes at Bruce, he'll mix different styles to beat him. Tim's brain goes "Savate, Ok the best style to counter that is -" and he falls into a 'rut' of using - to counter the guy.

[MajorHoy]

They need more water ballons and pillow fights.

[Dick_Wingnut]

capoeira is a joke, lets keep this to legitimate fighting systems.

I see Dick as having a more Tae Kwon Do oriented style given the likelihood of the immense power and flexibility in his legs, with dashes of Jeet Kune Do given his ability to "be like water" and his natural weight class being around the 185lb mark.

Bruce being a big dude would have a more traditional kickboxing style, very conservative wasting very little energy, given his weight and strength he would also be more apt to incorporate grappling and submissions into his arsenal.

Tim being a Bruce wanna be would have a similar style, but would stray more into small joint manipulation disciplines like Aikido.

Jason should be dead, and trying to figure out how a 10 year old would fight for Damien is so silly I have a hard time imagining anything effective for him in the realms of reality.

[The Lucky One]

Jason should be dead, and trying to figure out how a 10 year old would fight for Damien is so silly I have a hard time imagining anything effective for him in the realms of reality.

True, although technically if you're using that logic, it's hard to imagine the women being as effective as they're usually portrayed as being either. That's not sexism -- obviously a great female fighter would destroy an untrained male schlub. But since on average, nature favors men physically in things like strength, size, and speed, and since the female bats are usually drawn looking more like models than female bodybuilders, it's hard to imagine any of them beating a 6'4", 250 lb goon who's had even moderate combat training in "reality."

-D

[Dick_Wingnut]

I agree, and I've said as much on here before and got called a sexist.

I enjoy watching ladies kick ass the way they do in comics, but it would always be a fantasy.

I am a huge Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano fan, but even the best of the best female fighters would lose against most males in the same weight classes unless they are juicing.

[Van Cleaf]

Ah, get that Denny O'Neil / Frank Miller crap out of your head, Batman is a brawler. ;)

[Robotman4]

Babs would probably use a mix of Mui tai and Judo. Strong legs and precision boxing strikes for Mui thai and Judo would allow her to use her opponent's weight against them and keep them off balance.