Ellen Yin



Ellen Yin is a detective for Gotham City Police Department created for the animated series The Batman.

History
Ellen Yin was the partner assigned to detective Ethan Bennett. She hoped to defeat Batman in hand-to-hand combat and unmask him. She is shown to be fond of her partner and is Chief Angel Rojas' favorite PD person. Yin is as physically adept as any male cop she knows. Previously head of her department in Metropolis, she transferred to Gotham City looking for a challenge. She's a career cop at the top of her game, simple and by the book. Not warming to Bruce Wayne so easily, Ellen doesn't have it out personally for The Batman. As a vigilante, he's breaking the law. Not seeing past his swinging billionaire persona, she despises his seemingly silver-spoon arrogance.

When her partner and friend Ethan Bennett is transformed into Clayface, Yin loses one of her best friends in the city. Before she and The Batman parted ways when they fought Clayface, The Batman handed her a commlink, telling her to call him whenever she needed. Keeping the commlink, Yin calls The Batman her new "partner" during a coffee shop meeting with Ethan's best friend, Bruce Wayne.

Yin decides to test her new partnership with Batman by 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 anyway, after he and Catwoman stop the Penguin from enacting his plan. Her first true mission with Batman as partners came in "Riddled" when the Riddler planted bombs around Gotham, threatening to blow them up 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.

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 in "JTV". However, their partnership did not go unnoticed by the villains of Gotham, drawing unwanted attention to Yin. In "Strange Minds" in order to get his revenge on both Yin and the Batman, the Joker ambushed Yin in her apartment and knocked her out with a gas. He then kidnapped her and held her hostage at a secret location with bombs rigged to blow after eight hours. Batman attempts to save Yin by finding her whereabouts by entering the Joker's mind. Batman is able to save Yin just in time, after tricking the Joker into revealing where he'd trapped her.

After she receives a Batwave from Batman, the two work together until "Night and the City", where her Batwave was taken by Rojas, her badge confiscated. Yin and Batman are then briefly on the run from the GCPD, as well as the Joker, Riddler and Penguin. It was returned by Commissioner James Gordon at the end of the episode, and she was promoted. Yin no longer appeared after season 2, though it is implied she becomes Police Commmisioner in the near future during the fourth season episode "Artifacts".

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.

Physical Appearance
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, hanging down her back past her chest. She is mostly seen wearing a red jacket with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows, long loose-fitting grey pants, and black shoes. Yin sometimes removes her jacket, revealing 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 gala charity ball. She is also seen wearing a black winter 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 wears a hazmat suit as she tries to disarm a bomb set by the Riddler. In the episode "Tospy 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. Also the card features a crown above Yin's head, which conceals her high-set 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".

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.
 * Ellen Yin made her final appearance at the end of the second season and was replaced by Batgirl for the third season onward.
 * Ellen Yin bears a striking resemblance to Elisa Maza from Gargoyles, especially the maroon coat, black shirt, and jeans habitually worn by both.

The Batman

 * Season 1
 * "The Bat in the Belfry"
 * "Traction"
 * "Call of the Cobblepot"
 * "The Man Who Would Be Bat"
 * "The Big Chill"
 * "The Cat and the Bat"
 * "Topsy Turvy"
 * "The Rubberface of Comedy"
 * "The Clayface of Tragedy"
 * Season 2
 * "The Cat, the Bat and the Very Ugly"
 * "Riddled"
 * "Fire &amp; Ice"
 * "Meltdown"
 * "JTV"
 * "Strange Minds"
 * "Night and the City"
 * Season 4
 * "Clayfaces" (cameo on TV, imitated by Clayface)
 * "Artifacts" (Mentioned)

Voiced by

 * Ming-Na Wen (English)
 * Yuko Kato (Japanese)
 * Olga Velasco (Spanish)
 * Barbara Beretta (French)