Has Batman ever actually rehabilitated a criminal?

[canadianaidan64]

I know batman doesn't kill because he thinks it would make him just as bad as his villains, and instead he's constantly sending them to arkham hoping that they will change their ways. I'm just wondering if this has ever actually happened. Has a criminal batman caught ever gone good (and stayed that way)?

[Jeff Brady]

It's not Batman's job to rehabilitate criminals.

[sunofdarkchild]

I know batman doesn't kill because he thinks it would make him just as bad as his villains, and instead he's constantly sending them to arkham hoping that they will change their ways. I'm just wondering if this has ever actually happened. Has a criminal batman caught ever gone good (and stayed that way)?

Going by the way you worded the question, yes. They tend to be one-shot petty crooks though. Not the super villains. I forget the issue, but shortly after No Man's Land there was an 'a day in the life of' story that had a few panels of a former crook explaining why he had a criminal record at a job interview and how Batman told him as he caught him that he could do better and he took it to heart. Also, some crooks who turned to crime because they had no other option have been given jobs at Wayne Enterprises and done well.

Jason might count as a major villain that turned good, maybe.

[RobinFan4880]

He totally does but they are never the named villains from his rogue's gallery. The plots often involve Bruce giving the crooks a second chance by working at Wayne Enterprises.

[Laevatein]

I didn't actually read the books, but I know Riddler went straight (at least for a while). How involved in that was Batman?

[FanboyStranger]

Harold Allnut, right? Although I don't know we can ever really call him a villain so much as someone manipulated into a life of crime.

[SiegePerilous02]

He would totally help reform Harvey Dent and make it stick if DC Comics would actually allow it to happen.

Aside from that, no major ones, though he offers helping hands to reformed street thugs and the like by giving them jobs and donating to social reform.

[nepenthes]

He would totally help reform Harvey Dent and make it stick if DC Comics would actually allow it to happen

This is the thing - the real rogues can every truly reform, because comics. Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Bane, Catman, Talia even the friggin Joker have had their moments of redemption, but it's like Arkham Asylum, you can never remove them from play for too long.

Small time crooks though, yeah. I'm sure where forgetting a many but Rucka/Brubaker built a mini around it in Turning Points. Small time crook turned family man pulls a stunt to get Batmans attention - to thank him for turning his life around.

I always liked this issue,

[K. Jones]

Catwoman is the most obvious example here. While he and she had a sort of femme fatale romantic back-and-forth going on forever, in the 80s she basically went full-on hero, and she's never gone back to "outright criminal". Even now, as kingpin of Gotham, she's living in the grey world of being sympathetic and protecting people.

Prior to the New 52, Harley was reformed. Out the window now, but Bruce was even on the board of trustees that cleared her, akin to in TAS (no surprise, Dini wrote it.)

Poison Ivy, too, talking about the Sirens, although she's always sort of jumped back and forth between being outright terrible and quite sympathetic. Good one minute, bad the next, so it's a tough sell. So she "has been reformed" for stretches. Another temporary reformee - Two-Face, from pre-Hush until One Year Later. And yeah Riddler, too, how could I forget? That Dini, always reforming the less villainous villains.

The Cavalier is a good example. Of course he's C-List and was never exactly the heinous killer-type. (Not the Mortimer Drake version, anyway.) Fabian Nicieza turned him into Leslie Thompkins bodyguard.

Azrael seems like a big one. Both Azraels. Deranged killer assassins who then become allies of Batman. Jean-Paul Valley struggled with his programming for years and finally died a hero. Michael Lane failed in his mission - and resigned to basically become a monk - but he never succumbed to The Devil, so to speak, and became the horrible 666 future antichrist villain.

[Tupiaz]

It's not Batman's job to rehabilitate criminals.

Maybe not Batman's but it is Bruce Wayne's job. Bruce knows fighting crime only as Batman isn't going to work that is why he gives a damn about Wayne Enterprise (at least to the modern interpretation). If Wayne Enterprise is just the explanation for the reader it is an out of universe explanation. When Wayne Enterprise help people in Gotham (criminal or not) it gives a in universe explanation which helps creating a bound between Bruce and Wayne Enterprise in the fight against crime.

[Nite-Wing]

its not Batman's job to rehabilitate criminals
its no heroes job
although pre 52 he was blamed for a lot of his villains messed up psychological issues
he did manage to rehabilitate Two face
I don't think Batman believes in redemption in any case, I doubt he'll forgive or forget about any of the horrible things most villains have done and call it okay

[Tupiaz]

its not Batman's job to rehabilitate criminals
its no heroes job

It could easily be done.

[Godlike13]

Catwoman is the most obvious example here. While he and she had a sort of femme fatale romantic back-and-forth going on forever, in the 80s she basically went full-on hero, and she's never gone back to "outright criminal". Even now, as kingpin of Gotham, she's living in the grey world of being sympathetic and protecting people.

And he did it with his penis. That must be the secret

[dancj]

IIRC there's some of that in the Turning Points miniseries.

[Tupiaz]

IIRC there's some of that in the Turning Points miniseries.

Yes, as nepenthes already mentioned.