Canon blood types: Gotham edition

Note that the following information is not medically accurate and should not be taken as any kind of medical advice. Copious amounts of comic book medicine and biology abound here.

Bruce Wayne may (or may not) have O- blood, the universal donor type. —Batman 2016 Annual #3
Bruce is a compatible blood donor for Andrew Bennett. —The Brave and the Bold #195
Dick Grayson is a compatible blood donor for Bruce Wayne. (If Bruce has O- blood, then Dick must also have O- blood.)—Batman/Nightwing: Bloodborne
In the DC Animated Universe, Dick has O+ blood. —Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero
Jason Todd has O- blood. —Detective Comics #1032
In the DC Animated Universe, Barbara Gordon has AB- blood. She has the same rare blood type as Nora Fries, wife of Mr. Freeze. —Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero
Crystal Brown is a compatible blood donor for Stephanie Brown. —Batgirl (2009) #24
The Joker is a compatible blood donor for Alfred Pennyworth. —The Brave and the Bold (1955) #141
Helena Bertinelli has a rare blood type, the same as Guido Bertinelli. —The Huntress (1989) #6
Kirk Langstrom and Francine Langstrom have the same blood type. —Detective Comics#429

Bruce Wayne

Batman (2016) Annual #3 suggests that Bruce could have type O- blood.

Batman (2016) Annual #3, written by Tom Taylor - Batman is seriously wounded in the field. Alfred performs a blood transfusion with a supply of type O- blood.

Type O- blood can be donated to patients with any blood type. Batman might be keeping a supply of O- blood not for himself specifically, but for anyone in need of an emergency blood transfusion. So maybe we can’t conclude that Bruce must have O- blood.

The Brave and the Bold (1955) #195, written by Mike W. Barr - Batman donates blood to his friend, a heroic vampire named Andrew Bennett, who shielded him from a silver bullet.

Dick Grayson

In Batman/Nightwing: Bloodborne, we learn that Dick Grayson can donate blood to Bruce Wayne.

Batman/Nightwing: Bloodborne, written by Kelley Puckett - Batman is infected with a deadly virus and then taken captive. To save him, Nightwing takes an dangerous experimental vaccine that prompts his body to produce virus-fighting antibodies. Hours later, after Nightwing finds Batman, Nightwing undergoes a “complete blood transfusion” to deliver his antibody-rich blood into Batman’s body, while Nightwing receives Batman’s virus-laden blood.

If we assume that Bruce has O- blood, then he can only receive transfusions from O- blood, and thus Dick must also have O- blood.

In Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero (part of the DC Animated Universe), Dick has O+ blood. O+ is the world’s most common blood type; about 40% of the population has O+ blood. O+ blood can be donated to people with any “+” blood type (including A+, B+, AB+, and O+)—about 85% of the total population. O+ patients can only receive blood transfusions from O+ and O- donors.

Jason Todd

In Detective Comics #1032, Hush states that Jason Todd has O- blood.

Detective Comics #1032, written by Peter J Tomasi - Hush captures several Batfamily members, and attempts to steal and sell their organs as revenge against Bruce. Hush begins with Red Hood, and confirms that Jason has type O- blood.

Type O- blood is the universal donor type. This kind of blood can be donated to patients with any blood type. (Recall Mad Max: Fury Road.) People with O- blood can only receive blood transfusions from other O- donors. About 6.6% of people in the USA have O- blood.

Barbara Gordon

This canon is valid for the DC Animated Universe. Barbara may or may not have a different blood type in the comics.

Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero - Barbara Gordon is listed as having AB- blood in Gotham General Hospital’s database of blood donors. She is also a compatible organ donor (HLA match) for Nora Fries; and so Mr. Freeze kidnaps Barbara in hopes of performing a life-saving heart transplant for Nora.

For the sake of the plot, Nora needs a transplant from an organ donor with her same rare blood type. In real life, an AB- patient could receive organs from a donor with AB-, A-, B-, or O- blood, as long as the HLA typing matches (read more about that here).

Type AB- blood is the rarest ABO/Rh blood type worldwide; only 0.6% of people have this blood type in the USA. People with AB- blood can receive any Rh negative blood (including A-, B-, AB-, and O-); about 15% of the population has Rh negative blood that can be donated to AB- patients. People with AB- blood can only donate red blood cells to people with AB- and AB+ blood—about 4% of the population. However, type AB is especially valuable as the universal blood plasma that can be donated to patients of any blood type—and so people with type AB blood are often urged to consider donating blood plasma.

Stephanie Brown and her mother, Crystal Brown

Batgirl (2009) #24, written by Bryan Q Miller - Batgirl (Stephanie Brown) is poisoned with Black Mercy spores. She wakes up days later in West Mercy Hospital. Her mother, Crystal Brown, a nurse, donated her blood to help flush the spores from Steph’s system.

We know that Crystal can donate to Steph, but we don’t know whether Steph would or wouldn’t be able to donate to Crystal. Parents and their children don’t always share the same blood type. (This also means that Damian doesn’t necessarily have the same blood type as Bruce.)

The Joker and Alfred Pennyworth

The Brave and the Bold (1955) #141, written by Bob Haney - The Joker tricks Alfred Pennyworth into drinking exploding juice. The Joker drinks anti-exploding juice. Batman forces the Joker to donate his anti-exploding clown blood to Alfred.

Helena Bertinelli

The Huntress (1989) #6, written by Joey Cavalieri - Helena Bertinelli has been captured by villains who wish to open the locked vault of her late father, Guido Bertinelli. The lock can only be opened using a sample of Guido’s blood type. This blood type is so rare that the villains could not find any in the local blood bank at that time—and so they decided to capture Helena as their “fresh supply”.

In the mid-to-late 1990s, Helena’s father’s name was retconned to be named Franco Bertinelli. Then Huntress: Cry for Blood revealed that Helena’s biological father is not Franco, but instead Helena’s mother’s lover from the Cassamento crime family. In the end, all our information about Helena’s blood type may be invalid and apocryphal.

Helena possibly has AB- blood, the rarest blood type. This is the same blood type that Barbara has in the DC Animated Universe.

The Langstroms

Detective Comics (1937) #429, written by Frank Robbins - Francine Lee Langstrom has transformed into She-Bat after secondhand exposure to her husband’s bat serum and then being bitten by vampire bats in a cave in Nevada. Her husband, Kirk Langstrom (Man-Bat), says his the same blood type is the same as hers, and so he offers to donate his blood to help treat her.

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