Maribat

This article is about the crossover fandom of Miraculous Ladybug and DC Comics. You may be looking for the ship of Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Damian Wayne⁠—see Damian Wayne/Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

Fandom
Name(s):	Maribat
Abbreviation(s):	ML x DC
Scope/Focus:	Miraculous Ladybug and DC Comics (specifically the Batfamily fandom)
Date(s):	2019-2023
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Maribat refers to the crossover between Miraculous Ladybug and DC Comics, often specifically focused on Marinette Dupain-Cheng interacting with the Batfamily. Often, this features a romantic relationship between Marinette and one of Batman's 'kids', usually Damian but sometimes others.

For clarification, “Maribat” encompasses the entire DC universe, not just the Batman part of it. The moniker is a bit misleading, which is why some prefer to label using “ML x DC” instead.

Origin and History

Maribat is a trope with close overlap with ML Salt, specifically sparked by the handling of Chameleon (early season 3) which brought Lila Rossi back(a character much of the fandom dislikes) and featured Adrien Agreste(the love interest) being a bystander and not taking sides against Lila. As a result, many fans were frustrated at Marinette's treatment, especially in contrast to the way Adrien is treated by the narrative(where many fans believe Adrien's flaws are always excused or minimized by the narrative). To many Maribat fans, Adrien's shine as a love interest for Marinette dimmed, but with an absence of appropriate heroes in Miraculous canon, a romantic relationship with a hero from Gotham might fit the bill.

The first AU featuring this concept was by ozmav in 2019. The original post has since been deleted, but reblogs can be read at the following tumblr blogs link 1 and link 2; later, the works were reposted on ozmav's Ao3 account under the title: Damian Wayne and the Definitely NOT Angel.

Spread and expansion

As the fandom behind this crossover idea grew, the diversity of works also increased, and the overlap with ML Salt became smaller.

• Tumblr
• Archive of Our Own
• Discord

Fandom

Common Tropes

• Marinette is left behind on a class field trip to Gotham
• Hostage situation, usually taking one of two forms:

1. 1. Whole french class is held hostage (usually at Wayne enterprises); often targeted specifically due to Lila Rossi's lies. Marinette talks down or assists in take down of baddies while the bats arrive
   2. Marinette alone being kidnapped/hostage. Often due to her being a known associate of the Waynes (either as a Wayne child or dating one)

• Situation-in-Paris-Reveal: Bats are suspicious of Marinette because of how calm during a crisis she is, research Paris and discover the Hawkmoth situation is being covered up. The situation might have been covered up by the French Government or the team with the Miraculous not wanting the Justice League involved

Characterisation/Common Fanon

• DC characters being/knowing previous miraculous holders
  • Alfred Pennyworth was a previous miraculous holder, usually the peacock or butterfly, and they were lent to him by MI7 or British CIA equivalent for usage in war
  • Wonder Woman knowing about the miraculous because Hippolyta (her mother) was a previous Ladybug holder
• Pet names and dynamics with the bats:
  • Damian calls Marinette “angel” or habibiti (feminine form of beloved in arabic)
  • Jason calls Marinette “pixie pop” or just “pixie”
  • Marinette and Tim bond over their love of coffee and insomnia.
• Marinette is usually the heroine, and she is often characterised in similar ways
  • Most maribat fics feature a Marinette feeling exhausted and alone in her class, frustrated with Lila
  • Often, Marinette is characterised as sassy and hyper competent. She may speak fluent English, and sometimes Italian (with the explanation being her Nona Gina (paternal grandma))

• https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://maribat-archive.tumblr.com/*

Events

• Maribat March (AO3, tumblr
• Maribat Biodad Bruce Wayne Month September 2023 on Tumblr
• Maribat Mix & Match Monster Mash October 2023
• Maribat Rarepair weeks 2023

Fan works

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

External links

• Guide to Maribat^Archived by moonlitceleste (7 December 2020)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L48oG07hfpE
• https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/MaribatAU
• maribatserver on tumblr, the blog for the private Discord server
• [ ] on Archive of Our Own

References

Related Concepts, Fandoms, Terms, Fanworks
See also	Batfamily • DP x DC • ML Salt • White Collar × DC