- "All I've seen the last few months...the last two nights...has challenged everything I ever believed in. It all comes down to one thing. Ethan. He was right. Gotham needs the Batman."
- ―Detective Ellen Yin
Ellen Yin is a GCPD detective for Gotham City Police Department. Initially working with Ethan Bennett to capture the Batman, she eventually allied with the Dark Knight after Bennett's transformation into Clayface. Yin was created specifically for the animated series The Batman, though it has been speculated that she was an adaptation of Ellen Yindel.
History
Early Career in Gotham
Ellen Yin is a police detective with the Gotham City Police Department, formerly head of her department in Metropolis PD. She transferred to Gotham PD looking for a challenge (it is implied that she left Metropolis due to Superman's presence there). Yin is a career cop at the top of her game, simple and by the book. She is as physically adept as any male cop she knows, if not better, and has proven to be skilled in hand to hand combat. She was initially assigned as a partner to Detective Ethan Bennett.
Yin quickly grows fond of her partner after being tasked with unmasking the Batman. Having shown to be an effective detective, she gains the approval of Chief Angel Rojas. She had a difficult relationship with the Batman initially, and not warming to his alter ego Bruce Wayne so easily either. Ellen doesn't have it out personally for The Batman. As a vigilante, he's breaking the law, and as Bruce Wayne she only sees a spoiled billionaire playboy, despising his seemingly silver-spoon arrogance. She also thinks Catwoman is similar to Batman due to the fact that both wear costumes. She tried to take down Joker, Penguin, and Mr. Freeze, but Batman always beat her to the punch.
When her partner and friend Ethan Bennett is transformed into Clayface, due to Joker's putty, Yin loses one of her best friends in the city. She is able to talk him out of killing Batman, but he slips away, leaving Yin with the choice to unmask an unconsious Batman or not. In the end she decides against it, realising the need for the Batman in Gotham. Before she and Batman parted ways after fighting Clayface, Batman handed her a Batwave commlink, telling her to call him whenever she needed. Keeping the commlink, Yin later calls Batman her new "partner" during a coffee shop meeting with Ethan's best friend, Bruce Wayne.
Partnership with the Batman
Yin soon decides to test her new partnership with Batman, asking for his help in "The Cat, the Bat and the Very Ugly" as she investigates Catwoman and her mysterious new partner in crime. When Yin discovers that the mysterious partner is none other than the Batman himself, she questions her trust in the caped crusader. She decides to trust him though, after he and Catwoman stop one of Penguin's schemes to hold all of Gotham at ransom.
Her first true mission with Batman as partners came in "Riddled" when the Riddler planted bombs around Gotham, threatening to detonate them if Yin didn't play his "game". The two worked together to solve the riddles, with Batman communicating secretly with Yin through the Batwave. They are both eventually captured by the Riddler, upon discovering his true plans. Yin and Batman were able to break free and foil the Riddler's plan. Riddler later attempts to reveal Yin's partnership with the Batman to Chief Rojas, but Rojas ignores him, calling him a lunatic.
In the episode "Fire & Ice", Ellen attends a charity party hosted by Bruce Wayne. She tells Wayne that she knows his secret, and he initially thinks that she knows he's Batman. However, the "secret" is that Yin realizes that Bruce's "spoiled, arrogant playboy" persona is only a facade.
When her former friend turned villain, Ethan Bennett resurfaced as Clayface, he is apprehended by Batman and receives therapy at Arkham Asylum. He is later cleared for released after he was deemed safe to return to society, as long as he didn't use his abilities. Yin is relieved to have her friend back, but Bennett is still angry at the Joker and seeks revenge. Yin, along with Batman attempt to reason with him, but he loses control, deciding that it was easier to be Clayface than Ethan Bennett. In the end Yin is the one to take him down with a device given to her by Batman, immobilizing him. Later Yin sadly says 'we've really lost him this time'.
Yin and Batman grow closer as partners, with each mission together. Yin starts to trust Batman more than her police colleagues, saving Batman from capture by her newly assigned partner Detective Cash Tankenson in "JTV". Yin is unwilling to accept Tankenson's brash behavior, but when he is targeted by the Joker, she fears that she will lose another partner to the Joker's madness, and orders Tankenson to stay away from him. Her new partner refuses to listen however, and becomes Joker's prisoner. Yin eventually saves him with help from Batman. Tankenson later transfers to a desk job, leaving Yin once again with Batman as her sole partner.
However, their partnership did not go unnoticed by the villains of Gotham, drawing unwanted attention to Yin. In "Strange Minds" getting his revenge on both Yin and the Batman, the Joker ambushed Yin in her apartment, catching her off guard and incapacitating her. He kidnapped her and held her hostage at a secret location with bombs rigged to blow after eight hours. Batman attempts to save Yin by entering the Joker's mind to find out her whereabouts. Batman is able to save Yin just in time, after tricking the Joker into revealing where he'd trapped her.
Yin worked alongside Batman until "Night and the City", where her Batwave was destroyed by Rojas, and her badge confiscated. Yin and Batman were then briefly on the run from the GCPD, as well as the Joker, Riddler and Penguin. Her badge was later returned by Commissioner James Gordon at the end of the episode, and she was reinstated.
Future
Years into the future, Yin was mentioned by Oracle to have been promoted to Police Commissioner. She still maintained a working relationship with Batman and his allies.
Physical Appearance
TV Show
Ellen Yin is a young Asian-American woman with brown eyes and long dark hair. She most commonly has her hair in a high-set ponytail. However, she has been known to let her hair down. She most commonly wears a red jacket with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows, long loose-fitting grey pants, and black shoes. Underneath her jacket, she wears a black short-sleeved t-shirt with a gun holster strapped over her shoulders.
In the episode "Fire and Ice" she is seen wearing a red sleeveless dress to the police charity ball. She is also seen wearing a black winter fur coat, with a red turtle-neck sweater earlier in the episode. In the episode "Strange Minds" Yin is forced to wear a red and purple jester costume after being kidnapped by the Joker. In the episode "Traction" Yin is temporarily hospitalized by Bane and is seen wearing a hospital robe, with several bandages on her face.
In the episode "Riddled" Yin briefly wears a bomb suit as she tries to disarm a bomb set by the Riddler. In the episode "Topsy Turvy" Yin is sealed in a playing card by the Joker. The card design has a purple royal robe with two white hands, each holding scepters and one of them is upside down. The card also features a crown above Yin's head, which conceals her ponytail and the bottom half of the card has a face of a woman with long dark hair. The Joker calls Yin "Queen of Spades".
Comic
Yin's appearance in The Batman Strikes! comics is largely the same as in the show. In Issue #7 "Icestorm" she wears a version of her red jacket with fur lined cuffs. In Issue #12 "Break in at Gotham Central" Yin wears a red Chinese style dress and glasses to go undercover at an underground auction. In Issue #47 ":20 minutes" Yin wears tactical gear and a helmet with her name printed on the front.
Powers and Abilities
- Above average physical strength: Yin is as physically fit as most cops in her field, in some cases even fitter. She has shown herself to be an adept swimmer. She is able to chase down and overpower criminals with relative ease.
- Skilled in Hand-to-hand combat: Detective Yin has shown off her skills as a crime fighter when taking down Riddler's goons.
- Skilled Detective: Yin has shown that her detective skills are almost as good as Batman's, able to logically follow clues which lead her to solving crimes both alongside Batman and by herself.
Appearances
The Batman
- Season 1
- Season 2
- "The Cat, the Bat and the Very Ugly"
- "Riddled"
- "Fire & Ice"
- "Meltdown"
- "JTV"
- Grundy's Night (deleted scene only)
- "Strange Minds"
- "Night and the City"
- Season 4
The Batman vs. Dracula
- Doppleganger Cameo
The Batman Strikes!
- Issue #1 "Penguin Rising"
- Issue #2 "City of Bats"
- Issue #3 "Outlaw and Disorder"
- Issue #4 "Without a Chance"
- Issue #5 "Deadly Partner"
- Issue #6 "The Cat's Prize"
- Issue #7 "Icestorm"
- Issue #9 "Sanity Plea"
- Issue #11 "Man of Service"
- Issue #12 "Break in at Gotham Central"
- Issue #13 "Catwoman on the Prowl"
- Issue #14 "Sands of Time"
- Issue #15 "The Lost Ones" (behind the sences)
- Issue #17 "Who is Batman?!?"
- Issue 22 " Demolition"
- Issue 25 " Behind Bars"
- Issue 28 " The Comic and the Straight Man" (Cameo)
- Issue 30 " Young at Art"
- Issue 47 ":20 Minutes"
Voiced by
- Ming-Na Wen (English)
- Yuko Kato (Japanese)
- Olga Velasco (Spanish)
- Barbara Beretta (French)
- Vikrág Kiss (Hungarian 1. version)
- Kata Kelemen (Hungarian 2. version)
Gallery
Trivia
- Though the character of Ellen Yin is largely original to the series, it appears that she, or at the very least her name, was likely inspired by the character Commissioner Ellen Yindel, from Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Both displayed strong, anti-Batman beliefs at their introduction, and though never confirmed, it is implied that Yindel, like Yin, developed a certain respect for Batman, after seeing his heroics. It is also mentioned in the Time Skip episode, and likely a nod to the comic, that she became Commissioner.
- In an interview, Ming-Na Wen revealed that she was kept in the dark on Ethan Bennett's Clayface transformation during the making of Season 1, saying that it came as a complete surprise when it came to the episode in which he turns into Clayface.
- Ellen Yin made her final appearance at the end of the second season, with only a few brief mentions by name in later seasons. Other speculated reasons for her disappearance include the availabilty of her voice actor Ming Na-Wen clashing with other projects at the time, with some suggesting that the studio wanted to make a shift to more familiar Bat Family characters like Batgirl, Robin and Commissioner Gordon. It has been speculated that the inclusion of Commissioner Gordon as an ally cop to Batman was too similar to Ellen Yin's role to require both of them to share the screen, which is all the more confusing when Gordon goes on to have minimal interaction with Batman in the field, serving mainly as a means of introducing Batgirl, perhaps Yin's true replacement. None of these theories have ever been confirmed by the cast or by WB. An alternative reason was WB deciding to tone down the series to be more kid-friendly, especially after the darker storyline in "Strange Minds".
- Ellen Yin bears a striking resemblance to Elisa Maza from Gargoyles, especially the maroon coat, black shirt, and jeans habitually worn by both.
- Ellen Yin appeared in a total of 16 episodes in The Batman TV show, yet 18 issues of The Batman Strikes! comic.
- Yin's likeness makes an appearance in The Batman vs. Dracula (2005) made-for-TV movie, in which a guest at Bruce's party for Gotham's elites is drawn extremely similar to her appearance in the Season 2 Episode "Fire and Ice", though it is never confirmed whether this is Yin herself. The movie takes place sometime after Season 2 and was released between early episodes of Season 3. It is possible that this ghost cameo was a remnant of original plans to include Ellen Yin in the film. The reasons for Yin's absence from the film are potentially the same reasons she didn't appear after Season 2, whether it be studio decision-making or Ming-Na Wen's availability. Perhaps the Vicky Vale storyline was originally meant for Detective Yin, further developing her relationship with Batman/Bruce, even including the romance subplot, especially when considering this was Vicky Vale's only appearance in canon. Yin may have been cut and replaced by the young reporter after she was removed from the show.
- Yin makes a cameo appearance of sorts as one of the guests in Scooby-Doo and the Gourmet Ghost (2018).
- In the DCEU movie Birds of Prey (2020), a character named Ellen Yee makes an appearance as the ex-girlfriend of Renee Montoya and is Gotham City's district attorney. Due to the similarilty in name, its possible this was a subtle reference to Detective Ellen Yin, despite being a completely different character with a different background.
- The cleats of Yin's shoes change throughout the first two seasons.
- Her voice actress, Ming-Na Wen, previously voiced Mulan from the 1998 Disney film of the same name. Ellen Yin also resembles the title character as well since both are Chinese, or course Yin herself is basically Chinese American.