Before I go further, I should probably explain who she is. Harriet is Dick Grayson's aunt, who came to live at Wayne Manor after Alfred died. This occurred in the last couple pages of Detective Comics #328 (April 1964). At this point, you may have the same concern I always have: if Dick has a living aunt that knows where he is, why is he living with Bruce? To my knowledge, this is never explained. This came up a lot in the Pre-Crisis world - basically, there's no reason for Bruce and Dick to grow up the way they did because they have family members coming out of the woodwork all the time.
So now we get to the point of the post: although the character herself was not a creation of the show, her name is! See, in her first appearance - and for most of her appearances afterward - she was simply "Aunt Harriet". Maybe the presumption was that her last name was Grayson, who knows. But the show gave her the last name "Cooper".
It's not a change that happened right away, but in Detective Comics #373 (January 1968), the comics address her by her full name for the first time, and we see that her last name is, in fact, Cooper. This particular issue also changed Mr. Zero's name to Mr. Freeze, so it's clear they had the show on their mind.
Kyodai Ken from Batman: The Animated Series in this week's Detective Comics #996. 2 to look forward to Control Freak and Joy Stick in January 30s Teen Titans Annual #1
ReplyDeleteThanks! They’re coming, don’t worry.
ReplyDeleteIf I recall correctly, Aunt Harriet was introduced to help dispel the notion of Batman and Robin being gay, as first drummed by that muckraker extraordinaire, Frederic Wertham.
ReplyDeleteIt was felt that having an older woman introduced into the Wayne household would introduce a sense of heteronormity, rather than having three men of varying age sharing a house together.
I’m aware, but that could’ve been solved just as easily by a housekeeper. There was no reason she had to be related to them.
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