14

In Batman's first appearance in Detective Comics No. 27, he is referred to as "The Bat(-)Man" exclusively.

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In the issue, characters say "It's the Bat-Man" rather than "It's Batman". For example:

It's the Bat-Man — get him!

In which issue does a character refer to him as just "Batman" for the first time? In particular, when is "It's Batman" (with no definite article) used for the first time?

For the purpose of this question, hyphenation ("Bat-Man" vs. "Batman") is unimportant.

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    @Thaddeus I summon thee! – CandiedMango Oct 14 '15 at 6:44
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    Because I'm BATMAN!!! – BBlake Oct 14 '15 at 20:37
20

Interestingly, there are actually three four answers to this question...

The Narrator

The first time that Batman is consistently referred to as "Batman" (as opposed to "The Batman") by the omniscient narrator is Detective Comics #95, some 7 years after his original debut.

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In-universe characters

Batman is inconsistently referred to as "Batman" (no 'the') by both the narrator and quite regularly by various in-universe characters from Detective Comics #33 onwards, only 12 issues (2 years) after his debut:

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His Logo

Batman lost his "the" from the Title logo in Detective Comics #114 in 1946, 9 years after his original debut:

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"It's Batman"

The first instance I could find of that specific phrase being uttered is in Detective Comics #110, in which Batman (and Robin) assist Scotland Yard with their inquiries:

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    That first image is very interesting. I never knew that Batman faced the evil of Dr. Robotnik. – Omegacron Oct 14 '15 at 19:13
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    This is excellent --- what I was looking for and more. :-) – Praxis Oct 14 '15 at 19:26
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    @Praxis - If something's worth doing, it's worth doing right. – Valorum Oct 14 '15 at 19:33
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    Ehm... Robin the Boy Wonder was a creepy bearded man with a fedora at first? – Mr Lister Oct 14 '15 at 19:38
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    @Richard : The original version of my question would have been answered by the "In-universe Characters" part of your answer (but the original version changed due to tinkering after some user comments). Given what you've found, I've restored some of the original question (including the original title). But you've still gone way above and beyond, given the "Narrator" and "Logo" parts of your answer. :-) – Praxis Oct 15 '15 at 0:03

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