A teenage runaway, Mia Dearden had, to put it lightly, a rough childhood. Frequently abused by her father, she escaped from home, opting to live on the streets as opposed to suffering through even more pain at his hands. It became clear early on, however, that surviving alone in the harsh Star City streets would not see her last very long, and so, upon meeting a young man by the name of Richard, she moved in with him, mistaking his generosity with understanding, and his lust with love. In exchange for shelter and food, Richard explored ways to exploit her for his own gain, often acting as her pimp, selling her body to the likes of crooked cops and local politicians.

It was from one such politician that she was saved by the man who would become her mentor: the Green Arrow. Having confronted the councilman, the Battling Bowman told her that the life she was leading was not one someone her age, let alone anyone, should have to live; with this advice, he also gave her a business card – belonging to Oliver Queen’s Papp Street Mission, a non-profit shelter for the homeless and recreational centre for the youth.

Returning home to Richard, a denial of his advances quickly escalated into a standoff as he held a knife to her throat, telling her that he can’t have what happened that night lead back to him. With quick thinking and a realisation that this life was not something she wanted, Mia managed to turn the tables on Richard, asking him not to follow her and cutting his hand for good measure. With nowhere else to go, she left Richard’s home, making her way to the Papp Street Mission.

It was there that she met Oliver Queen, who she almost instantly figured out was Green Arrow – all it took was a look at his beard. Feeling like she was meant for more than volunteer work, she took it upon herself to learn archery, all while nagging Oliver and his son, Connor, to teach her themselves. Eventually, Oliver folded, and so began Mia’s archery lessons.

While Mia had gotten what she wanted, she was not yet done with her requests – Oliver was forced to endure a persistent barrage of badgering when she asked to be his sidekick. Time and time again he refused, not wishing to put her at risk. But then the unthinkable happened; Mia had tested positive for HIV, the product of her time as Richard’s fille de joie. Oliver, feeling as if he owed her a chance, gave her a more intensive training regimen, and, after believing that she was ready, allowed her to debut by his side. Taking his first sidekick’s, Roy Harper’s, alias, Mia began her career as Speedy, taking to the streets alongside the two Green Arrows.

Oliver soon had her enrolled amongst the Teen Titans, working alongside the likes of Robin, Wonder Girl and Beast Boy. Initially reluctant to join the team, Mia slowly found herself warming up to them, finding friends for life in a team of legacies trying desperately to live up to their mentors’ reputations. For the first time in her life, Mia felt important.

But any illusion of relevance was shattered on the tragic day of Christmas Eve; for it was then, in 2015, that Superman was killed. Unable to believe that such a great man, the perfect hero, was dead, Mia watched as the world dealt with its sorrow, unable to come to terms with her own. Her morals were conflicting. If Superman, a man that had made such a difference in the world, could have his life taken from him by a monster such as Doomsday, then who was she to call herself a hero? Who was she, or Oliver, or Connor or Roy, to don their costumes and masks, and tell themselves that the world was better off for it? Everything she had built her life upon was brought crumbling down the moment the Man of Steel died, and she was lost. She didn’t know who she was anymore.

Feeling an impossible urge to help fill the void Superman left, Mia resolved to leave Star City and the Titans, moving to new grounds: Metropolis. Whether she’ll succeed, she has no idea – but you can be damned sure that she’ll try.

Acrobatics: Mia is a proficient acrobat, incorporating her agility into her fighting style.
Archery: Trained by both Green Arrows, Mia is a very skilled archer, her marksmanship nearly matching that of her mentors.
Martial Arts: Receiving training from both Connor and Oliver, along with further training of her own, Mia is a very skilled martial artist, able to hold her own against multiple opponents.

In the simplest terms, I want Mia to spread her wings. Following the death of Superman, she’s going to be hurting, right alongside the rest of the US, and the world. She’s going to be hurting, and she’s going to be thinking, ‘Now that he’s gone, who could possibly take his place?’ And in order to cope with this, maybe in an attempt to get an answer, she’s going to leave Star City – the Arrow family – and she’s going to try to become her own hero. While she’s on this journey, she’s going to make both enemies and friends, and she will run into her fair share of difficulties and troubles. But eventually, she’s going to come out on top – and she will have figured out who she really is in the process. In short, I want to tell a Bildungsroman, coming-of-age story, with Superman’s death as the catalyst.

Neutral Good

TBD

Jefferson Davis met Rio Morales at his physical therapist’s office in the great borough of Brooklyn, New York. Now, you can call it whatever you want – sappy, stupid, cliché – but the fact of the matter is, it was love at first sight. The moment he laid eyes on her, he knew that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. And so, after much time spent debating whether or not it was a good idea, Jefferson came to the conclusion that he should ask her out on a date. And so he did.

The first date became the second. The second became the third. The third, the fourth. Before they knew it, they’d moved in together. After two months of knowing each other, they got married.

Talk about moving fast.

On the 3rd of August, 2002, they were given the greatest gift they could ever imagine: their son, Miles. Living in a small apartment in the sunny side of Brooklyn, Jefferson and Rio watched as their little boy grew into the slightly bigger boy they always wanted him to be. He was smart, thoughtful, resourceful; every bit his parents’ son. There was no way they could love him any more than they already did. But despite all his great qualities, they were saddened to see him struggle with other kids. To them, he was nothing more than a geek. But lucky for him, there was another boy that happened to be ten times the nerdzoid he was: Ganke Lee, legophile and proud. They soon became inseparable, and Jefferson and Rio couldn’t be happier.

The years sped by, and the family of three soon found themselves in a state of anxiety like no other. Miles, now aged thirteen, had applied for one of New York’s finest charter schools, Hawthorne Academy, and the day had arrived where he would find out if he’d been accepted. After sitting through a nerve-wracking admittance ceremony, he was relieved to find out that he was.

After celebrating with his parents at a nice little restaurant, Miles rushed over to his Uncle Aaron’s to give him the good news. Unbeknownst to him, a spider there awaited him, one that would change his life forever.

It bit him, and Miles, having fainted, then come to, then fainted again, was forevermore banned from visiting his uncle at the behest of his father.

Over the following two months, the young man discovered and then tested some nifty powers he’d gained courtesy of the spider, sharing the knowledge of his newfound gifts with Ganke. Ganke, as hyped as one could be, told Miles that he should become Spider-Man’s sidekick. Miles, being opposed to the idea, told Ganke that he should go stick it where ideas don’t stick. Months passed, and Miles was able to control the urge to use his powers – but eventually, all things must come to an end.

Walking along the streets of Brooklyn, he bore witness to a building in flames, the screams of its inhabitants shrill and urgent. The fire department was on its way, but the fire was getting worse and worse in their absence. He didn’t have a choice. Hoodie up, he leapt into the inferno, carrying the family that was stuck in there to safety, one by one. As the firemen arrived Miles left, using his powers to appear intangible as he crawled up to the rooftops, where he would remain unseen. Little did he know that keener eyes saw inconsistencies in the light, and through further concentration were able to make out his form in the daylight. And so Spider-Man followed him, having observed his heroics, seeking to have words with the now fourteen year-old.

After getting over the stutter initiated by seeing his idol in the flesh, Miles heard Spider-Man out, who hoped to convince him to continue using his powers for good. Before he left, the web-slinger imparted a saying to Miles that would stay with him forever:


Encourage by these words, Miles went back to his dorm with new vigour. Sewing together a costume with Ganke’s help, he took to the streets as New York’s second Spider-Man, hampered by a lack of webs but nonetheless making do.

A few weeks in to his new career, Miles ran into his first real problem as a superhero – and it came in the shape of his uncle, Aaron. Aaron explained how he was a criminal, and how it was him that stole the spider that bit Miles. More than that, however – he knew that Miles was the new Spider-Man. As Miles tried to recover from that shock, he went on to explain that he owed money to some very bad people, and that they wanted him, for lack of a better word, dead. He then gave Miles an ultimatum: help his dear old uncle get rid of the competition, or let Aaron tell his father, a deadset anti-superhero, that his son was the very thing he hates.

Given a day to mull things over, he let Ganke know of his dilemma, desperate for guidance. At midnight, he made his decision.

He refused his uncle’s offer, rain falling around them as they stood on a rooftop. Needless to say, Aaron didn’t take it very kindly. Wearing a suit made by the Tinkerer, he attacked Miles, their fight quickly spinning out of control as it spilled onto the street. Miles, determined to bring his uncle to justice, slowly gained the upper hand – but in a last ditch effort to escape, Aaron set off an explosion to escape, disappearing without a trace. He hasn’t been seen since.

It’s been a few months since then, and the superhero life is treating Miles well – at least, as well as it can treat a fourteen year-old. Nothing but the future knows what it holds for him. Here’s hoping that it’s bright.

The only real difference from the source material here is the fact that Peter Parker isn’t dead. Instead, he serves as Miles’ idol, his guide in superheroics, and, eventually, his mentor. There are other minor differences, like the fact that Miles’ uncle didn’t die in their fight, but believe me when I say that they’ve been made for a purpose. Other than that, this is the Miles as seen in the comics (both Ultimate and his recent 616 run), who I hope will be able to make as much of a mark on this world as Eddie’s Peter.

Chaotic Neutral

TBD

Thomas and Martha Wayne’s second son, Bruce was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, privy to the perks afforded by his father’s corporate giant, Wayne Enterprises. Living on the outskirts of Gotham City in his family’s manor, he was often left alone with his older brother, Thomas Jr., and butler, Alfred Pennyworth, as his parents attended to such things that the lives of wealthy philanthropic socialites demanded of them. While one would think that being raised under such privileged conditions would guarantee that a child grew into little more than a spoilt brat, this was not the case for either of the Wayne brothers. Thomas Sr. and Martha were not your typical members of high society, planting their roots deep within Gotham’s foundations; Thomas, a renowned physician and surgeon, ran a large number of free clinics throughout the city’s most impoverished neighbourhoods, and Martha, having developed a strong social conscience in her youth, fought hard for Gotham’s children through her many charity events, giving the proceeds to any orphanages in need, all while campaigning for the gentrification of neighbourhoods such as the Narrows and East End. With such devotion to their fellow man, Thomas and Martha hoped to instil into their children values that would see them use their affluence to help those who were less fortunate.

Unfortunately, a life in which the two brothers could be raised by their parents was snatched away from them, be it by the cruel hands of fate or simply harsh circumstance, one cold night out at the theatre. Cornered in the place that would become known as Crime Alley, Bruce, age eight, and Tommy, age thirteen, watched as a common criminal shot their parents dead.

Custody of the brothers fell to Alfred, as per Thomas Sr.’s will, the older man struggling to coax the young Waynes of their mournful states; neither their therapist, Leslie Thompkins, or Bruce’s best friend, Thomas Elliot, could get more than a few words out of them. Worried about their increasingly antisocial behaviour, Alfred nonetheless relented, hoping that when Thomas and Martha’s killer was arrested, Bruce and Tommy might find some semblance of closure. And so he waited for the day that he would turn on the television and see the headline, “WAYNE KILLER BROUGHT TO JUSTICE,” but when the months continued to pass without any such news, Alfred all but gave up, fearing that he might lose the boys forever – but then they came to him. Bruce and Thomas knew of Alfred’s past – tales of his achievements while serving in Her Majesty’s Royal Marines and the MI6 were among their favourites – and they wanted him to train them, under the pretence of wanting a productive way to channel their anger, and while this wasn’t entirely untrue, it became clear that, as Alfred began to run out of things to teach them, that they had a larger plan in the works.

As their tutelage moved from Alfred to others, such as the world-famous boxer, Ted Grant, the boys started to drop their guardian hints as to what they were plotting, before telling him outright: they had vowed to avenge their parents’ deaths, and to see that Gotham’s criminal element, who struck so much fear into the hearts of the public, would have something to fear of their own. And so it was that Bruce and Tommy, fourteen and nineteen, left Gotham, marking the beginning of their worldwide trek as they trained under the world’s greatest martial artists, scholars, escape artists and strategists, the public believing that they were taking nothing more than an extensive trip around the world.

It was during the final years of Bruce and Tommy’s training that they found themselves in Nanda Parbat, stepping into the secretive world of the League of Shadows. Eight years had passed since they left Gotham, and they had learned a lot; gone were the helpless boys that watched their parents die in front of them – they were different now. They were capable.

They were greeted by the end of a sword as they entered the ancient halls of the League’s temple. To say that it was an organisation shrouded in mystery was an understatement, as its agents proceeded with the utmost caution, unable to believe that Westerners, Americans at that, knew of the League, and not only that, but its whereabouts, too. But after a test of their skills, Ra’s al Ghul, the Demon’s Head himself, deemed the brothers worthy, marking the beginning of their first years of League training – especially impressed when they name dropped one Henri Ducard. During their stay, Bruce and Tommy underwent a rigorous four years of training in the way of the assassin, preparing for their final test before their official induction: their first kill. It was around this time that Bruce developed a friendship with Ra’s’ daughter, Talia, soon spiralling into a fledgling romance that provided him with an anchor for much of his time there.

Four years later, Bruce returned to Gotham, alone.

Alfred welcomed him with open arms, doing the best he could to keep vultures – the most persistent among them, Victoria Vale of Gotham City News – from prying too deep into Bruce’s time away. He was surprised to see the youngest Wayne deflect their questions with expert charm and off-handedness, fitting into the role of the irresponsible playboy as easily as if he’d been raised by the Queens.

While Alfred was glad to see Bruce back home in good health, there was always one question on the tip of his tongue, one he was desperate to find an answer for: where’s Thomas? But no matter how much he wanted to know, Bruce had made it clear that he didn’t want to talk about it. The matter was dropped, and that was that – but Alfred wasn’t stupid. Something had happened between the brothers.

Gotham was not in a good state. Ever since Thomas Sr. and Martha’s deaths, the city had spiralled into chaos. Its officials reeked of corruption, and criminals, emboldened by the Waynes’ passing, expanded their operations well beyond their original scope – Gotham was now in their control. On the throne sat Carmine “the Roman” Falcone, uniting Gotham’s crime families under one banner: that of the Roman Empire. Falcone himself controlled half of the Upper East Side and the Bowery; the Maronis the other half, along with the rest of the Narrows; the Bertinellis seized the Upper West Side and Tricorner, while the Cobblepots had control of the Diamond and City Hall Districts, as well as Old Gotham.

Incensed, Bruce immediately began preparing for his mission, largely leaving his newfound responsibilities in Wayne Enterprises to its deputy CEO, William Earle. Donning a balaclava and tactical gear, he began striking the Empire where it hurt – barely escaping with his life each time. Recalling something Ra’s had taught him and Tommy early on, Bruce went to Lucius Fox, head of WayneTech, a different plan forming in his head. “Theatricality and deception are powerful agents.”

On the 27th of May, 2010, rumours of a bat-like terror shook Gotham’s underworld as the Roman Empire began sustaining crippling blows.

The Batman was born.

Bruce’s mission was underway, but it was far from easy. Falcone had many assets, one of them, Commissioner Loeb; as head of the GCPD, it was guaranteed that a SWAT team would be on Bruce’s trail, trying their hardest not to bring him in, but to shoot him dead. However, not all in Gotham’s law enforcement saw him in a hostile light, one being Lieutenant James Gordon, a veteran on the force for more than a decade. Jim viewed Batman as his only ally against the mob, and in turn, Bruce saw him as a valuable asset; using a modified Klieg searchlight dubbed as the Batsignal, Gordon summoned Batman whenever he had new intel to share, an arrangement that suited them both just fine.

While the GCPD knew of Batman, the rest of Gotham’s citizenry did not. To the public, he was nothing but a myth, an urban legend, fabricated by the police to scare any who might think to break the law. To any criminal who was not Carmine Falcone, Sal Maroni, Franco Bertinelli or Oswald Cobblepot, he wasn’t a man, but rather, a creature – a beast of terrible vengeance raining hell upon Gotham’s underworld. As far as anyone was concerned, Batman didn’t exist… and Bruce planned to keep it that way.

Within the span of months, he had sent shockwaves throughout the Roman Empire. The Bertinellis had retreated to Italy, Cobblepot had all but disappeared, the Maronis were relying on their only drug operation still underway, and Falcone was scrambling to hold it all together.

With his empire collapsing all around him, Falcone looked for someone to blame. Batman was untouchable; a ghost; making him pay was nothing more than a fantasy. Instead, Falcone turned to the one problematic cop not yet on his payroll: Jim Gordon. Hiring an old associate by the name of Ray Salinger, he rested a little easier knowing that Gordon’s family would soon suffer blows as crippling as his own. Not a night after he gave the order, Barbara Gordon, age thirteen, was kidnapped by the serial killer, Birthday Boy – Salinger’s alter ego.

Jim, in a state of panic he’d never been before, knew that he couldn’t help Barbara, not all by himself. Calling for Batman’s help, Bruce hurried to find his ally’s daughter before it was too late, searching for clues in the Gordons’ apartment and delving into Birthday Boy’s old case files. It wasn’t long before he found what he was looking for. Obsessed with his first victim, Amanda Grant, Salinger would take his victims – all young girls – to her former home, an abandoned mansion in the neighbourhood of Coventry. With a place to look, Bruce and Gordon rushed to save Barbara, bursting into the mansion as Salinger held a knife to her throat. After a brief scuffle, Bruce took the serial killer down – and in his anger, went after Falcone one last time.

The Roman Empire fell in the October of that year. To Alfred, it meant hope that Bruce might abandon his crusade – but Bruce had made it clear. He was just getting started.

As the year drew to a close, Bruce faced an even greater challenge than the Roman Empire: the enigma of the Riddler. Holding the Narrows at ransom, he demanded that Batman undertake a series of trials, or otherwise let the downtrodden neighbourhood suffer an explosive death. Playing to the Riddler’s whims, Bruce participated in potentially lethal “games”, all while trying to deduce Riddler’s location and identity, eventually succeeding. Tracking Riddler down to Gotham’s sewers, Bruce found his identity to being one Edward Nashton, former strategist of Wayne Enterprise’s CEO, William Earle. Bringing him in to the GCPD, Jim took credit for Nashton’s apprehension, further cementing Batman’s status as an urban legend.

By the beginning of Batman’s second year, Bruce had garnered three more allies: Detective Harvey Bullock of the GCPD’s Major Crimes Unit, and sibling lawyers, Harvey Dent and his sister, Jessica – an old flame of Bruce’s teens. Of the three, Harvey and Jessica were the most useful; their positions as assistant district attorneys meant that more of the scum Bruce brought in remained locked up. Bullock, on the other hand, though helpful with cases not super in nature, frequently questioned Batman’s methods, challenging him on more than one occasion. Their clashing ideologies saw Bruce avoid Bullock more often than not, only going to him if it was absolutely necessary.

Following the fall of Falcone’s empire and the ordeal with the Riddler, Jim had been promoted to captain of the Central Precinct, granting him access to far more information – and power – than before. Even though Commissioner Loeb was still the ever present anchor of corruption within the GCPD, Jim didn’t let that stop him from helping Batman in any way he could; whereas before it had been an uneasy alliance, after Bruce saved Barbara, Jim not only felt indebted to the vigilante, but a great deal of respect.

New Year’s opened with a spectacular display of flames as the mercenary known as Firefly set fire to a number of locations in Gotham’s Narrows, resulting in over a dozen deaths in total. Equipped with a high-tech suit, he was a dangerous new enemy – but in the end, it wasn’t enough to beat the Batman. Analysing the scorched remains of Firefly’s victims, Bruce was able to identify most of them as former employees of Carmine Falcone, tracking down a survivor, who revealed Firefly to be one Garfield Lynns, former enforcer for Sal Maroni. Batman confronted Lynns in City Hall, besting him just as he was about to kill Commissioner Loeb. Agreeing to testify against Loeb with evidence on his corruption and position in the Roman Empire, Lynns was able to get a shortened sentence at Blackgate Penitentiary with thanks to the Dents, much to Bruce’s chagrin.

With Loeb exposed, the GCPD was in need of a new commissioner, finding one in Jim. His administration saw the department’s relations with Batman grow a little easier; no longer was there a vigilante task force out to get him, but rather a willingness to work with him, something which Bruce was grateful for.

Batman found his next challenge in Killer Croc. Investigating a series of disappearances throughout Gotham’s Upper West Side, all of the evidence pointed Bruce towards the sewers. After a brief time spent searching, he found the remains of the missing persons, gathered in a bloody heap in a makeshift settlement amongst Gotham’s urine and excrement. Too far below ground to contact Alfred, Bruce could do nothing but fight when he was attacked by a hulking mass of green scales and sharpened teeth. The man that he would come to know as Waylon Jones, aka Killer Croc, tore through Bruce’s armour with quick and terrible ferocity, his seemingly impossible strength tearing through the Wayne heir’s flesh like scissors through paper. Weakened and bleeding out, Bruce managed to escape with a well-placed smoke pellet, dragging himself to what Alfred had sardonically dubbed the Batmobile, its autopilot driving him back to his headquarters below Wayne Manor. His injuries far beyond what Alfred could repair, Bruce’s loyal guardian came close to revealing the vigilante’s identity so that he might receive care in hospital – but Bruce had another idea in mind. Communicating through Morse code, he requested that Alfred call in a face from the past: Thomas Elliot, Bruce’s former best friend. Following in his father and Thomas Wayne Sr.’s footsteps, Tom had become a renowned surgeon throughout the East Coast, running Elliot Memorial Hospital in memory of his parents in the Bowery. Arriving at Wayne Manor, Tom was confronted by Bruce’s bloody form. Tending to his former best friend, no lie Alfred told could dissuade him. He remembered what the older man had told him all those years ago when he was fourteen, hoping that he could dissuade Bruce and Tommy Jr. from their mission. Thomas knew. Bruce was the Batman.

Despite Tom’s instructions, Bruce was back in action far sooner than he should have been. Donning an upgraded suit courtesy of Lucius Fox, Batman tracked Killer Croc down, besting him in the ensuing fight. The reptilian man was taken to GCPD lockup, before being committed to Arkham Asylum after pleading insanity in court. Seeing the extents to which Bruce was willing to push himself, Tom made it abundantly clear to his estranged friend that he would no longer be relying on Alfred’s medical expertise – but rather, his own. With Tom enlisted as Batman’s personal medic, Bruce continued his crusade. However, the next time he got injured, in what may be perceived as irony, it wasn’t Tom who gave him aid – it was an elusive woman by the name of Selina Kyle.

Someone was killing the heads of Wayne Enterprises’ competition. The ballistics eluded police – there was no way someone could pull off such accurate shots from such a large distance. The evidence didn’t lie, however, and soon William Earle, CEO of Wayne Enterprises, was under investigation for the murder of four high-profile businessmen.

Upon his return to Gotham, Bruce had done his research on Earle. He knew that the man wasn’t an honest businessman, but he’d kept Wayne Enterprises afloat for all these years, and with Bruce’s focus on Batman, that had to be enough. But this investigation opened Bruce’s eyes, and he started to monitor Earle’s activities, soon finding details of a wire transfer to one Floyd Lawton’s bank account – whose M.O. matched that of the GCPD’s mystery sniper, codename, Deadshot. With Bruce’s knowledge of Lawton’s previous four victims, he concluded that the next was Simon Stagg, head of Stagg Industries. He knew that Stagg was currently residing in a penthouse in the Fashion District, and so Batman scouted out the area, searching for Deadshot’s most probable position. It wasn’t long before he found it. Confronting the sharpshooter before he could pull the trigger, Batman and Lawton engaged in a firefight that spanned entire city blocks, making their way to the Fashion District’s less prestigious, yet still lavish, apartment buildings. Deadshot proved to be an extremely skilled marksman, more than living up to his apparent notoriety – a well placed shot wedged itself between the Batsuit’s chestplates, sending Bruce plummeting to a balcony below. Not waiting to see if his adversary was dead, Lawton fled the scene in fear of being found by the GCPD. When Bruce woke up, he was in a beautiful woman’s bed.

But this wasn’t like other times. Ever since his return to Gotham he had carefully put on a show, maintaining the image of an irresponsible billionaire playboy, like so much of the media seemed to want him to. This would understandably lead him to waking up in women’s beds, or them in his, after a night of agonising social activity. But no. This time, the night had consisted of chasing after a hitman – a hitman that managed to shoot Bruce through his armour, that sent him plummeting onto a balcony, knocking him out cold. A hitman that had inadvertently pushed Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle into each other’s lives.

Selina had patched Bruce up. It was temporary at best, and Bruce had to replace the stitches soon after, but she hadn’t done badly – and with her cat curled in a ball by his side, Bruce awoke early the next day, long before the sun would come up. It didn’t take long for him to notice that his cowl was no longer atop his head, and anger soon boiled out – anger that the headstrong Ms. Kyle shut down with seductive ease. Before she could ask what Bruce Wayne was doing running around in a bat costume, he left, intent on finding Deadshot before he could carry out his contract. He’d deal with Selina later.

When Batman found Deadshot next, he once again stopped him short of pulling the trigger. This time, Bruce made sure to keep the fight up close and personal, unwilling to risk another bullet. As the battle reached its peak, they were joined by a third party – a woman dressed in a cat-like costume, calling herself Catwoman – who Bruce quickly identified as Selina. He was surprised to see her prowess in combat, and with their combined skill, it didn’t take long for them to take Lawton down.

With adrenaline rushing through their system, Bruce and Selina shared a night of passion in her apartment. Though Bruce was not willing to admit it, it was the first time he had truly enjoyed such things since his time with Talia in the League of Shadows. So began Batman and Catwoman’s… complicated relationship.

The next day, Bruce made to deal with Earle, intending to leak evidence of his hiring of Deadshot after confronting the CEO as Batman. However, in accessing Earle’s computer, he saw no trace of the documents that had led him to finding out about Earle and Lawton’s business deal; in questioning the businessman, Earle acted dumb, unwilling to divulge any information. Enraged, Batman vowed that he would bring Earle to justice. It was only a matter of time.

The next Bruce saw of Earle, he wasn’t going after him. He was protecting him. A man going by the moniker of Mr. Freeze had taken those in Wayne Tower hostage, literally covering it in ice with technology that Bruce had never seen before. Batman confronted him, and in doing so learned that his real name was Victor Fries, an expert on cryogenics formerly under employment at WayneTech. He had been fired for using company funds for his own private research; research on how to save the life of Nora, his wife, who was dying from a rare heart condition. Searching for a cure, he had placed her in cryostasis using company equipment to prevent her health from deteriorating. Earle found out about this, and in an act of cruelty that Bruce was beginning to know him for, had ordered the funding for Fries’ projects cut and for Nora to be brought out of stasis. Unwilling to see his work undone and his wife dead, Victor struggled against Earle’s security, resulting in his exposure to his own cryogenic coolants. His body chemistry was significantly altered, leaving him only able to survive at sub-zero temperatures. He escaped unseen, taking Nora with him. Now, Fries had returned to take his vengeance on Earle. It took Batman all he had not to let him.

Earle was an evil man. Bruce knew this. He’d hired a contract killer, and a very expensive one, at that, to get rid of competition, and got rid of all evidence the moment he thought that he could get caught. He’d taken an innocent man – yes, he’d been misusing company funds, but for an innocent cause – and all the research, and the hope, that he had gathered, and ruined them without a second thought. Earle was scum, the very definition of the people Bruce had vowed protect Gotham from. But Victor was also in the wrong; he sought vengeance, not justice, and in doing so was putting innocent people in harm’s way. Bruce had no choice. He confronted Fries with words, trying to avoid a physical conflict. He had no wish to fight him. However, Fries’ hatred for Earle proved too strong to reason against, and the situation devolved into a fight, Bruce only narrowly escaping injury. That night, Victor Fries, alias Mr. Freeze, was taken to Arkham Asylum and punished for his crimes. And with no evidence to incriminate Earle with, there was nothing Bruce could do but watch as the current CEO of his father’s company got off scot-free once again.

The first item on Bruce’s agenda as 2012 came about was the removal of William Earle from his seat as CEO of Wayne Enterprises. The majority of WE’s board was more than cooperative (Earle had rubbed them the wrong way more than once), so Bruce soon informed Earle of his removal from office personally and with great satisfaction, gladly handing the reins over to Lucius Fox, who had by that time been promoted from Batman’s tech guy to a trustworthy member of Bruce’s inner circle, so far consisting of just himself, Alfred, Lucius and Thomas Elliot. Little did he know that this was the year it would grow by two more members.

In February, tragedy struck Haly’s Circus. A travelling act, the circus’ arrival in Gotham was highly anticipated, as it always was in the past. Bruce had taken Vicki Vale, recently made the host of her very own titular television show, on a date there. As far as he could tell, it was going well – a trio of teenage acrobats were wowing the crowd, and Bruce had to admit, their form was admirable – but then a man clad in red with a golden mask appeared, and chaos erupted. People died. Vicki and Bruce were threatened, the man claiming that they were the very thing that was wrong with Gotham; rich people trampling over the disenfranchised. Bruce managed to fend him off – Anarky, he called himself – chalking it off to self defence training when Vicki later asked. In truth, Bruce didn’t need to use even a fraction of his training; “Anarky” was weak and inexperienced, just a kid by the looks of it. By the time the police arrived, it was over. And one of the teenage acrobats, Richard Grayson, was left alone. Orphaned.

Barely a week after what would become known as the Haly’s Circus Massacre, Bruce took Richard in. Feeling guilty that he couldn’t do more when Anarky attacked, and sympathising with Dick’s situation – in doing his research, he discovered that this was the second time the boy’s family had been taken from him – it felt like the only right thing to do. Dick’s transition into Wayne Manor was awkward, the boy still in mourning for his lost loved ones. Bruce’s busy schedule in both Gotham’s streets and Wayne Enterprises’ boardroom (after what transpired with Earle, he was insistent on being more involved with his company) meant that Dick had to spend the majority of his time alone within the manor’s halls, exploring. One night when browsing through one of its expansive, dust-covered libraries, he stumbled upon something a little out of place – a hidden doorway concealed by a bookshelf, controlled by a singular mechanism: the Mark of Zorro, the original 1924 novelisation of the magazine serial. Walking through the dark corridor it revealed, he descended a seemingly endless set of stairs, walking out into the gigantic expanse of the Batcave, bearing witness to one of Bruce and Barbara’s more intense training sessions. With the two’s suits on display for all to see, everything suddenly made so much more sense to Dick. It wasn’t long before Bruce noticed his presence.

It was only after weeks of persistent badgering that Bruce agreed to train Dick, but even then, he only agreed to the basics, making it clear that he would never allow him to don a mask like himself. However, as Dick progressed in his training – his hand-to-hand combat a particular highlight; his skill in acrobatics contributed to a unique, dynamic style all of his own – both his ability and conviction were made abundantly clear, and Bruce finally relented, providing him with the training he truly sought.

Dick Grayson completed basic training in the August of that year. After undergoing what Bruce called “the Gauntlet”, in which he had to evade Batman for an entire night all while fighting whatever crime he saw, he donned a suit made to his own specifications and debuted as the “Boy Wonder” – a nickname courtesy of Alfred – codename, Robin.

Robin’s first run-in with Gotham’s brand of costumed crime would be with a man called Jervis Tetch. A schizophrenic man, Tetch had an unhealthy obsession with the works of Lewis Carroll, coming to believe that he was, in fact, a character from Alice in Wonderland: the Mad Hatter. Formerly under the employment of Horizon Labs, Tetch was a gifted inventor before the deterioration of his mental state, leading to his release from the company. As he slipped further into his delusions, he became obsessed with hats and finding “Alice”, believing her to be “in trouble” and that she “needed his help”. Using mind control technology he had invented after being let go from Horizon Labs, he began luring young, blonde girls to his lair in the Bowery, molesting and then murdering them in a psychotic episode. There had been three missing girls of such description by the time Batman and Robin picked up Tetch’s trail. Confronting him just as he was about to “free Alice” (his latest would-be victim), it was ultimately Robin that subdued Tetch as Bruce freed the captured girl. Jervis was later taken to Arkham Asylum.

In October, Bruce came into contact with the being known as Superman. Ever since the Man of Steel’s debut earlier that summer, along with the likes of the second Flash, Coast City’s Green Lantern and the vigilante dubbed as Spider-Man, Bruce had eyed these superpowered beings with great caution, compiling files within which he analysed their every power, action and aspect of personality, in the case that he ever needed to use such information against them. When he first found himself face-to-face with Metropolis’ resident hero, the man in blue was snooping around Wayne Enterprises, claiming that it was funding the criminal organisation known as Intergang; an accusation so bold and so infuriatingly untrue that the Batman denied it outright. It was impossible, he maintained – the fact that it was his company, and that as such, he should have known, he left out – and demanded that Superman leave. The tension between the two came to a boiling point when the Dark Knight attacked, thinking that he knew everything there was to know about Superman’s powers. However, he had underestimated him, and soon found himself held by the throat, his cowl ripped from his face like it was nothing but paper. And so that night, Superman discovered that not only did the Batman exist, but that his name was Bruce Wayne. After listening to the boy scout’s reasoning, Bruce grudgingly agreed to help him investigate – if what he was saying was true, then it was Bruce’s problem to fix. Following a carefully covered trail, the caped crusaders soon discovered evidence pointing at William Earle, implicating him in involvement with not only Intergang, but many other criminal enterprises as well. Giving Captain Gordon the information he needed to arrest the former CEO of Wayne Enterprises, Batman and Superman’s first team-up came to a close. By that time, Bruce had deduced Superman’s identity, and he watched Clark Kent leave as an ally – and not only that, a friend.

As the year came to a close, Gotham became subject to the biggest computer hack ever performed. Utilising a virus not unlike Stuxnet, the man known as the Calculator used a malicious software of his own design, utilising worms and remote access tools to take control of Gotham’s power grid. With the city at his mercy, he demanded that he be paid hundreds of millions of dollars, or otherwise render the power grid out of order. With a virus of such complexity, Bruce couldn’t hope to write a program to counter it in time; to do so would take weeks, if not months – time he did not have. He sent Barbara out into the streets to mediate the impending riots, focusing on tracking the Calculator down from the Batcave, something that would backfire on him as the criminal traced the hack back to his computer, compromising the lair. Unplugging every device with a possible connection to the internet, he destroyed their circuitry for good measure, before donning the Batsuit to track Calculator down remotely. Writing code from his suit, he located the hacker miles away from the city, confronting him in a small motel. Identifying him as Noah Kuttler, Batman forced him to deactivate the virus and wipe any and all data from his devices, effectively removing any information he might have on the Batcave’s location, and getting rid of any copies of the virus he had used to hack Gotham’s power grid. With Kuttler taken care of, Bruce refitted the Batcave with new computers, reinforcing its cybersecurity measures – all while getting to work on a program that could counter viruses with ten times the scope of the Calculator’s. All the while, Dick continued his training.

Oswald Cobblepot resurfaced as the world transitioned into the new year. After nearly three years in witness protection (agreeing to expose the Falcones and Maronis had seen him demand that he be guarded from what would no doubt have been a vengeful retaliation), he sprung back into the public eye with all charges against him dropped, and a lavish new nightclub to his name. The Iceberg Lounge opened to an enthusiastic crowd, boasting the most profitable opening night of any establishment in the Upper East Side. While people were flocking to the supposedly reformed Cobblepot and his new, “legitimate” business, Bruce was less than convinced that the mob boss had turned over a new leaf. With Barbara in tow, they broke into the Lounge, discovering that Bruce was, in fact, correct. Cobblepot, called “Penguin” behind his back by his underlings due to his... unfortunate appearance, was using his club as a front, still operating in Gotham’s underworld through the bartering of information and the sales of firearms, drugs and stolen goods. This lead to one of their many ensuing clashes over the years, with Cobblepot somehow always evading capture.

Bruce’s paranoia reached an all time high when he heard of CADMUS’s most recent development: synthetic kryptonite. He’d acquired that information through less than legal means, but it was for the greater good. He’d seen what the mineral could do to Superman – such an asset could be the difference between winning and losing if Clark were to ever go rogue. Bruce wasn’t kidding himself; Clark was the most optimistic, inherently good person he knew, perhaps to the point of stupidity. The chances of him ever switching sides were minimal at best. But even so, he had to be prepared for any outcome, any possibility. Who knew where the rest of Clark’s species were? What if they came to Earth, hostile, an unknown number of near-gods trying to retrieve one of their kind? What if it wasn’t Clark that would interest them, but Earth? He had to be prepared. And so, Robin in tow, Batman took a trip to Metropolis. Moving past the CADMUS facility’s security with practiced ease, they stole the amount of synthetic kryptonite Bruce required, escaping into the night. Arriving back at the Batcave, Bruce immediately got to work on his anti-Kryptonian armoury.

In mid-January, 2014, the University of Gotham was held at ransom by a former professor, Dr. Jonathan Crane. Specialising in psychology, Crane had always been fascinated by fear, coming to be fired from his job after performing several experiments on students with what would become known as his trademark fear toxin. Overwhelmed with rage, he returned to the university with murder in his eyes, calling himself the Scarecrow; he was dressed in a fearful costume to accompany his moniker. Flooding the school with his toxin, he caused everyone without a gas mask or the antidote to see, hear and feel their greatest fear, triggering an eruption of chaos unlike any seen before. Under the distraction such a disruption provided, Crane attempted to murder the regents responsible for his termination. Unfortunately for him, Batman and Robin were on the scene. While they managed to subdue Scarecrow without any deaths, it wasn’t before Bruce received a concentrated dose of the fear toxin. As Robin rushed to get him back to the Batcave, Crane was being escorted by GCPD officers to a police cruiser. The last words news teams managed to pick up from him were, “You think this is it? I’m just getting started. Gotham will know me. It will be afraid of me. I’ll make it a city of fear!”

It took two days for Bruce to recover from the effects of the fear toxin. Upon his recuperation, using a sample of the toxin extracted from his blood, he immediately got to work on an antidote – much to Alfred and Tom Elliot’s dismay. After a few nights of silence, Bruce returned to his regular schedule – taking out his frustrations on Gotham’s criminals. He began dating Selina Kyle again a few months later.

2015 opened with the kidnapping of three infants. Over the next few months, dozens more were taken from their homes. All evidence the GCPD uncovered pointed towards a human trafficking ring, with Harvey Bullock theorising that the babies were being sold to parents who thought they were simply adopting. However, when investigating, Bruce uncovered evidence that didn’t match Bullock’s hypothesis, and decided to follow the lead himself, keeping the police out of the loop. His search for clues took him all over Gotham, and all the while, more infants were being kidnapped; determined to find them before any harm could come to them, Bruce pushed himself harder than he ever had before, nights blending into days before he lost track of time completely. Eventually he found the location of where the infants were being held, where he believed that they weren’t being sold off to families in the United States, but rather, overseas. What he believed to be good, legitimate detective work led him to an abandoned warehouse in Gotham’s neighbouring city of Blüdhaven. Tipping Jim Gordon off to be ready at the scene, Batman went inside. What he saw would traumatise him for months – years – to come. A large pit, dug into the centre of the warehouse. Inside it, the dismembered bodies of all the kidnapped infants, of every baby taken over the last few months. And at the edge of the pit, the monster behind it all – a man dressed in purple, his skin bleached as white as a ghost, with a shock of green hair… and that smile. The grotesque, red-streaked smile as he laughed, cackling at Bruce’s horror. The Joker, he called himself. He’d been manipulating Batman the entire time, he said – he always had a feeling that he was real, he was simply too crazy a thing not to be – leaving clues and evidence that would point him here, to the warehouse in Blüdhaven, where the punchline awaited him, and oh, was it a good one. Bruce didn’t know how to take it. Rage, pure, unbridled rage, flowed through him, the sudden hatred he felt for the Joker unmatched by any other, not even by the hatred he had for his parents’ killer, whoever he may be. But there was also something else, something he had never felt before during his time as Batman, never induced by his own, natural reactions: fear. Bruce was afraid. And he took that fear, and that hatred, and that rage, the anger he felt for all those innocent lives lost, those lives barely lived, and he let it all out, hitting the Joker harder than he’d ever let himself hit anyone, over and over, until Jim burst into the warehouse and pulled him away. All the while, the sadistic, twisted clown cheered him on. The Joker's face would haunt Bruce's dreams ever since.

Following the Joker’s horrible debut, Bruce became more reclusive than ever. Not Alfred, Tom, Selina, or Dick could get him to open up. He spent weeks in isolation, never leaving the shadows of the Batcave. Eventually, Dick had enough. With his bags packed, he informed Bruce that he would be leaving Gotham for his hometown, Blüdhaven. He wanted to ensure that nothing like what the Joker did would ever happen there again. Bruce didn’t try to convince him to stay.

Just before the new year dawned, Alfred and Selina were able to convince Bruce to seek therapy. Seeking out Leslie Thompkins, his and Tommy Jr.’s psychiatrist since Thomas Sr. and Martha’s murder, he did as they wished, if only because he wanted someone to talk to. It was around this time that he was contacted by a mysterious figure going by “the Message Man”, offering to tip him off on crimes in progress and keep him informed on any developments, be it supercrime or not. After the Joker, although he would never admit it, Bruce had lost confidence in himself. Against his better judgement, he accepted Message Man’s offer, and further still, came to trust him.

On April 1st, Bruce’s worst-case scenario of the Kryptonian race became a reality when Commander Dru-Zod and his army invaded the Earth, intending to shape it into “New Krypton.” It wasn’t long before Kryptonian soldiers, powered by the Sol System’s yellow sun, arrived in Gotham, and Bruce was forced to don the suit he’d had prepared three years prior. With the synthetic substance weakening the Kryptonians, and their cells not fully charged by the sun’s radiation, he was able to hold them off as Gotham slowly shook around him, courtesy of Zod’s World Engines. However, one man was not enough to stop the aliens, and people died as a result. The Kryptonians only fled when their leader was flung into the Phantom Zone by Clark Kent, known to them as Kal-El – the traitor.

Following the invasion, Bruce continued on with life as it had been after Blüdhaven. He was not prepared for what’s to come.

As of the start of the IC, Batman is nothing more than a myth in the eyes of the public, barring a select few people. Your characters will likely have no idea that he exists unless you're playing someone in the GCPD or the immediate Bat Family.

Harold "Hal" Jordan // Highball // Green Lantern

Neutral Good

For as long as he could remember, Hal Jordan wanted to fly.

Born to Martin and Jessica Jordan in Coast City, California, the middle child of the Jordan family had always idolised his father. A former pilot for the United States Air Force, Martin worked as a test pilot and co-CEO for Ferris Aircraft, jointly owned by himself and his childhood friend and military buddy, Carl Ferris. With such a pivotal position in the multi-million dollar company, Martin was able to provide his family with a sizeable amount of wealth, leaving the Jordans well off, enabling Hal and his brothers, Jack and Jim, to attend private schools alongside some of America’s most favourite sons.

Martin frequently brought Hal along to Ferris Air as a boy, allowing the young man to watch, awe-struck, as he performed amazing feats in prototype jets for potential investors and contractors. It was in these demonstrations that Hal often met with Carl Ferris’ daughter, Carol; a girl his age that seemed to revel in her father’s wealth, they never quite seemed to form any significant bond, much to their parents’ disappointment – but this would change as they entered middle school.

Enrolled in one of California’s most prestigious schools, Hal and Carol were immersed in the highest education money could buy at Saint Elias’ School for Youths, their fellow peers the sons and daughters of the United States’ wealthiest tycoons. Most notable among them were Oliver Queen and Thomas Merlyn, belonging to Star City’s top one percent; it was these two boys that Hal and Carol befriended, forming a tight link that made the four of them inseparable throughout their schooling years.

Tragedy struck the Jordan family when Hal approached his thirteenth birthday, watching his father fly above him in Ferris Air’s newest jet. The last of its torque pins had failed just as Martin arced above the airstrip, burning up its oil faster than was safe – sending him to a fiery death in an explosion that shocked all in attendance.

The day his father died was the first time Hal had felt true fear – and with its arrival, his dreams seemed to die. While he and his family were afforded the sympathy of the Ferrises, Merlyns and Queens, the loss was overwhelming. Shaken by her husband’s death, Jessica forbade her sons from ever following in his footsteps, something that Hal didn’t take too kindly – and though he appreciated Carol’s grief for him, he couldn’t help but feel anger for her father, the notion that Martin’s death was all his fault.

Following his father’s death, Hal spent the majority of his teenage years seeking ways to distract himself from his grief, taking part in shenanigans with Oliver and Tommy in far greater frequency than before. Despite the constant partying, booze and fraternisation, however, there was always one thing on the forefront of his mind, one thing that he worked the hardest at behind his family and friends’ backs – he did all he could to ensure his future as a pilot.

At eighteen, not long after his, Oliver, Tommy and Carol’s graduation, Hal was accepted into the United States Air Force Academy – and while he couldn’t be happier, his family was shocked and hurt; Jack and his mother refused to speak to him, and Jim was reluctant to maintain contact in fear of what they would say. Carol, on the other hand, wasn’t so much hurt as she was furious; she shared Hal’s dream to live among the clouds, but with the deterioration of her father’s health, she was forced to prioritise Ferris Air instead, taking up a leading position within the company.

With Hal’s departure to the Air Force, Jessica began to grow ill. Bedridden for much of her remaining days, she continued to refuse to see her son, enforced by her eldest, Jack, who frequently stopped Hal from visiting, encouraging him to leave the sky behind. But no matter how desperate Hal became to see her, he couldn’t do it – to ask him to leave the military would be the same as asking him to throw his father’s jacket out.

Three years later, tragedy struck. It was all over the news: while in the Pacific Ocean, the Queen’s Gambit, the Queen family’s commercial yacht, had been caught in a terrible storm, sinking beneath the waves – taking Oliver and his father, Robert, with it. Hal didn’t hear of it on television, however – he heard of it from Thea Queen’s grief-stricken voice in his dormitory at Edwards Air Force Base.

The funeral was not the reunion Hal had in mind. He, Carol and Tommy mourned in each other’s company, in too much pain to do anything other than recount stories of the past – but even these were tinged by a sorrow too great to be therapeutic.

After returning to Edwards from Star City, Hal threw himself further into his work than he ever had, spending more time in the air than on the ground. Not Tommy, Carol, Thea or Jim, not even his military friends, Jillian “Cowgirl” Pearlman and Shane “Rocket-Man” Sellers, could break him out of his trance. And even though his longing to see his ailing mother was stronger than it had ever been, he just couldn’t bring himself to leave the Air Force.

So he got himself discharged instead.

In 2010, Jim had gotten married with the love of his life, Susan Williams, who was already pregnant with their first child. Jack was well on his way to entering Coast City’s City Hall, and Jessica had only weeks to live. Determined to see his mother before she passed, Hal did the one thing his pride allowed him: he broke General Jonathan Stone’s nose. Another one of Martin Jordan’s military buddies, Stone was sympathetic towards Hal – but nonetheless, the younger man’s actions strained what bond they had, and Hal was dishonourably discharged from the Air Force.

Rushing to the hospital, Hal desperately tried to get to his mom… but he wasn’t there in time. He arrived to see Jim and Jack’s tear-streaked faces as a doctor officially declared Jessica Jordan dead.

Jack blamed Hal for their mother’s death. He said that if he hadn’t gone off to fly his planes just like their father had, then maybe Jessica would still be alive today. But he did. He killed their mom. From that day forth, Jack cut any ties he previously had with Hal. Hal didn’t try to convince him otherwise.

After the funeral, Hal found that he was unbelievably angry at everything – at himself, at Jack, at the world – but more than all of those, at the man he blamed for his father’s death: Carl Ferris. Hal stormed to the Ferris household meaning to confront a shallow, uncaring businessman, but was instead met with nearly crippling reality. A saddened Carol explained to him what Martin’s death had done to Carl, the guilt riddling him with the same cancer that killed Hal’s mother. Realising that his anger was misplaced, Hal apologised to Carl, and was then offered something he’d been lacking since he hit General Stone: a job. Accepting, Hal worked happily as a test pilot in Ferris Air. Little did he know that in one year's time, his life would change yet again.

For the first time in his life, Abin Sur was afraid. The Green Lantern of Sector 2814 flew through space in his ship, a vehicle he did not need, towards the planet Earth. It was there that he believed a threat loomed for not only all who wore a power ring, but the entire universe itself – a superstition instilled in him by the Five Inversions, a group of beings with frightening abilities to see into the future, all but one imprisoned on the planet of Ysmault. Abin had brought the remaining Inversion, Atrocitus, with him, intending to use him as a guide towards the threat he called “Doom.” But Abin’s fear was too great, and Atrocitus broke through the construct that held him, attacking the Lantern and delivering a lethal blow. The ship crashed in the desert bordering Coast City, Atrocitus leaping from it as it passed over Big Bear.

Dying, Abin initiated a search for his replacement, seeking a native of Earth. His power ring eventually settled on an Earthman talking to his friend and mechanic, Tom Kalmaku: Hal Jordan.

Hal had settled into his job at Ferris Air well. As part of the conditions of his employment, he had to start as a mechanic. Before, he had known how to fly a plane… but not why it flew. With Tom’s help, he learned – and before he knew it, he was working as a test pilot, flying jets he could have only dreamed of as a child.

The ring found him as he helped Tom work on a plane, taking him to Abin Sur’s crash site. It was there that the alien explained his duties, that of protecting all life in the universe, before succumbing to his wounds. Hal buried Abin beneath the ground, not quite understanding what he was supposed to do with this newfound responsibility.

Wallace Rudolph “Wally” West // Kid Flash

Neutral Good

Wallace Rudolph West was born to Rudy and Mary West in the town of Blue Valley, Nebraska. An avid daydreamer, he would spend his days dreaming about the long-disbanded Justice Society of America, namely the Flash – a speedster who could, according to recounts of countless stories, run as fast as sound. Idolising the hero did well for Wally’s personal development; since the beginning of his infatuation with the Flash, he’d adopted the speedster’s strong moral principles as his own, seeing the world in black and white – good and evil – wherever he looked. However, his reputation as a dreamer and his admiration of the Flash didn’t do as well for his schooling. His parents would often be called up to the principal’s office, be it because the young West’s grades were at an all time low, or because he’d gotten in yet another fight with a bully picking on kids below his weight. But while most parents would scold their child, let them know how disappointed they were and then punish them accordingly, Wally’s parents were not so invested in their duties. Being what some would consider emotionally distant, Rudy and Mary were too busy trying to get rich quick and worrying about what others thought of them to truly concern themselves with their son’s upbringing, and as such did what they always did in such circumstances: they sent him to stay with his Aunt Iris.

This was not the punishment they thought it to be. Wally was as close to Iris as he was distant from his parents – as a little boy, he would often refer to her as his best friend. Living in Central City, Missouri – “the city always on the run” – Iris lived a life more exciting than that of anyone else he knew. Working as a journalist for Central City Picture News, she delivered news on both paper and television screens; if the story was big, you could bet that her name was on the byline. More than her job, though, Wally felt like she truly got him – like she truly understood who he was, and not only that, accepted it. During his “punishments”, so cheekily named by his aunt, one of his favourite pastimes was their visits to Keystone, Central’s sister city on the other side of the Missouri River, across the Kansas-Missouri border. The Flash’s home city before his retirement in the eighties, Keystone was also home to the Flash Museum, a proud building full of memorabilia from the Justice Society and the Flash’s heyday. It was here that Wally and Iris would spend the majority of their weekends together, dividing their time between the museum and sites where the Flash had fought what were considered some of his toughest battles, namely those between himself and the aptly named Rival, a man considered his reverse – a perversion of the speedster’s every principle, of everything he had ever stood for. Although Wally was born in Blue Valley, it was in Central-Keystone, the Gem Cities, that he was raised. In Nebraska, he was ridiculed because of his idol; an outsider. With his Aunt Iris, he was home.

It wasn’t until the middle of 2011 that he met Barry Allen. A forensic scientist for the Central City Police Department, Barry initially struck Wally as a boring man; Iris’ new boyfriend, he was around more often than not, and from what Wally saw of him, he did not impress. Always the last to arrive, Barry seemed so uninteresting, so dull, that he often found himself wondering what his aunt saw in the man; the only interesting thing he could find out about him was the coma he’d been in after getting struck by lighting – that was until they had their first real conversation. Once Wally actually paid Barry the attention Iris wanted him to, he was surprised – and happy – to find a kindred soul that shared his opinions on the world, on good and bad, on heroism and villainy, but not only that – on the Flash. When Barry spoke of the Flash, it was as if he was speaking from experience; an impossibility, Wally knew, as Barry was born in the decade that the Flash retired, but still – the teenager couldn’t help but wonder at how Barry could describe running at high speeds so vividly, how his imagination could take him to such places with so much detail and emotion.

And then the Flash released his autobiography. Titled Things You Can’t Outrun, the book revealed the Flash’s identity as that of one Jason “Jay” Garrick, a former scientist turned superhero caught in a one-in-a-million lab accident that transformed him into the speedster of fame. Upon its release, Wally immediately purchased a copy, and it was everything he expected it to be – a near one thousand page shrine of information on his childhood hero. The quotes collected over his years of activity didn’t portray half the man Jay was. In his autobiography, his words radiated the values he upheld, giving depth and detail to the tall tales Wally knew of – and to those he didn’t – that he could only dream of. But there was one thing in particular that caught his eye that both puzzled him and filled him with excitement – a single paragraph in one of the final chapters of the book.


The thought of a second Flash debuting in a time when Wally was alive seemed absolutely mind-blowing – and to think that he, whoever he was, had the blessing of Jay Garrick, was even more so. It seemed impossible to Wally. Another Flash, in this modern era. No way that could happen.

And then it did.

Within days of Superman’s debut in Metropolis, the second Flash sped his way through the Gem Cities in a sleek red suit, apprehending a grand total of two hundred criminals between the two cities before a minute passed noon. Wally was staying with Iris when it happened, and even saw the new speedster rush past her apartment building. Barry arrived shortly after, too late to catch a glimpse.

Over the next year Wally would continue to spot the Flash during his visits, quickly growing to admire the new hero just as much as he did Jay Garrick. The former superhero was right; whoever this new Flash was, he was the best candidate for the job. He wouldn’t dish out anything a criminal didn’t deserve. To those who could still walk away, he gave a chance. Even when the supercriminals began to surface – Captain Cold and his Rogues, Turtle Man, Double Down and Peek-a-Boo, to name a few – he didn’t serve them any unneeded punishment, never allowing his anger to get the better of him. But there was more to it than that. It was the little stories, too; the fluff pieces in the news about how he took the time (a few seconds) to paint an elderly couple’s fence, about how he renovated an apartment block that had been damaged in one of his run-ins with the Rogues, about how he’d brought pizza to a group of kids he’d saved from plummeting off the Central-Keystone Bridge in their school bus. He wasn’t like that supposed urban legend in Gotham, the Batman, a silent protector that hid in the dark – he was that guy all the locals knew, who always lent a hand because he wanted to, not because he was obliged to.

One hot summer’s day in the August of 2013, everything changed. Wally, now fifteen, was once again in Central City. This time was worse than the others. He and his parents had argued before, but it had never escalated to the point that it had now. Rudy had hit him. Before either of his parents could tell him to, Wally had already packed his bags. Barry and Iris could tell that something was wrong; yes, Wally was usually in a bad mood upon his arrival, but it was usually gone by the time he set foot in Iris’ apartment. But now, his mood only ranged from sullen to joyless – not even a sighting of the Flash near Iris’ work was enough to lift his spirits. A few days into his stay, Iris and Barry made an executive decision. They needed help from a friend.

The Flash met a starstruck Wally that evening, angry storm clouds overhead, touring him around the Gem Cities at speeds high enough to exhilarate, but not enough to cause injury by the laws of physics. They talked for a while, Wally asking all of the questions he had wanted to since the Flash first debuted a year earlier: what’s it like to be a superhero? How didn’t he get sick of criminals like the Rogues, always seeming to break out just to hurt people again? How did he get his powers? And so it was that Wally found himself in a familiar forensics lab in which he’d met with Barry countless times before. The Flash rearranged the room, placing vials of chemicals in a specific order, explaining that those were the substances that spilled onto him when he was struck by lightning – it was then that everything clicked, and Wally realised who it was that he was really talking to. And then the lighting struck.

Months after Wally woke from his coma, he and Barry theorised that Barry had subconsciously drawn the Speed Force to Wally, thus replicating the accident that gave him his powers – and making a sad kid’s dreams come true.

When Wally awoke from his coma, six months had passed. He wasn’t in the hospital, though – he was in STAR Labs’ Central City facility, under the care of Dr. Harrison Wells and Darwin Elias, who Barry told him were his go-to experts on their power source, barring Jay Garrick. At first, Wally thought he’d misheard Barry; surely he hadn’t said that the Speed Force was their power source. But then time slowed down, and Wally zipped from one end of STAR Labs to another, and he knew that he hadn’t misheard Barry. He had the Flash’s powers.

But while Wally was ecstatic, and Barry had agreed to help him learn how to control his speed, not all was well – his parents, more angry at Barry and Iris than they were happy to see him up and about, had banned Wally from visiting them until he was able to live on his own, and for a few moments, he was devastated. And then it hit him. He had the Flash’s powers. He didn’t need their permission to visit Barry and Iris; he could run from Blue Valley to Central City before either of them even noticed. So began a new chapter in Wally’s life, running to the Gem Cities to catch up with Barry and Iris, training with the former in the use of his powers. Eventually, Barry made him a costume with a reversed colour scheme to his own, and Wally happily debuted as Kid Flash. For a while, all was well.

And then his mother died.

Mary West was on a cruise. She needed a break from everything; Rudy was starting to drink again, and ever since Wally awoke from his coma, it seemed as if he wanted to do anything but spend time with his immediate family. No, he’d much rather have spent time with his aunt and her boyfriend in Central City, the very people that were to blame for his ending up in a coma. The only person that seemed to want to be with Mary was herself, and so she came to the conclusion that she shouldn’t wait for Rudy to snap out of his drunken, violent stupor, and nor should she expect Wally to suddenly prefer her company over that horrible woman’s – so the first chance she got, she bought a ticket for a relaxing cruise through the Caribbean. She did not make it back home.

A freak storm, seemingly out of nowhere. No one was prepared. The majority of the cruise ship’s occupants managed to get to the safety of a life raft. Mary was not one of them.

Wally blamed himself. He knew he shouldn’t, that it wasn’t his fault, but he couldn’t help but feel that with his powers – his speed – maybe, just maybe, he could have saved her. Maybe, just maybe, she would still be alive… if he’d just been fast enough.

Rudy blamed Wally, too. Slipping further into his drinks, he insisted that it was Wally’s insistence on keeping away from Mary, from him, that drove her to go on that cruise. Not long after her funeral, Rudy packed his bags and left, leaving Wally without his parents. Without a home.

Barry and Iris took Wally in without hesitation. They shared in his grief, but they were happy to be able to provide him with some semblance of normality, providing him with a family he could come home to. Joe West, Wally’s great uncle, became a more prominent figure in the young speedster’s life. Whereas before he’d served as an ally for the Flashes, after Mary’s death he became something more – what he was always meant to be. Family.

Wally began attending school at Central City High, held back a year due to his time spent in a coma. He was quick to find friends in Jared Morillo, Lilith Clay and Linda Park, three people with very clear aspirations – a future cop, psychologist and journalist – their sureness in where they wanted to go in life drawing him to them like some sort of lightning rod. Wally didn’t want to admit it then, but he, along with everyone else in the school, knew that he was drawn to Linda most of all. It wasn’t until mid-2015 that he found the nerve to ask her out. No one was surprised when she said yes.

As Kid Flash, Wally was increasingly in his element, taking to the role of a superhero as easily as he did talking. He even got to meet his childhood hero, the one and only Jay Garrick, and his wife, Joan; a meal with the Garricks became a near weekly event, something that Wally got excited for no matter how often they visited. Jay was everything the media and his book said, and more. Wally knew of the saying, “Never meet your heroes,” but people would eat those words if their hero was the original Flash. All in all, despite his mother’s death, things were going well for Wally. He wasn’t expecting the Kryptonians to attack.

But even before General Zod came with his army and the World Engines, an invisible enemy was making himself known to Barry. The Flash would find notes at work and in his home, letters from his “biggest fan” informing him of “something big” in the works, disturbed fan mail from an untraceable stalker. When the Kryptonians invaded… he struck.

Eobard Thawne. Professor Zoom. A man wearing a perverted, reversed version of Barry’s costume, he was faster than anyone Wally had ever seen before – initiating a chase through the Gem Cities as they were torn apart by Zod’s army, taunting them the entire way… to STAR Labs. It was no secret that the Central City division of the think tank were constructing a particle accelerator; the media frequently cited it as a controversy, with renowned scientists such as Dr. Reed Richards and Anthony Stark stating that there was no telling what the activation of such an apparatus within a populated urban environment such as Central City would mean, or what kind of damage it would cause. Professor Zoom’s plan soon became clear, as he sought to activate the accelerator – unfinished in its current state – under the blanket of distraction the Kryptonians provided. In desperate need of help, Barry and Wally called for help, signifying Jay Garrick’s return to action. As he and Wally did what they could to protect civilians from Zod’s army, Barry confronted Zoom, but was ultimately unable to defeat him – he was too fast. With the particle accelerator primed to explode, Barry began to run around STAR Labs, pushing himself to run as fast as he could without breaking the time barrier. If he was fast enough, then he might have been able to contain the explosion. But the strain was beginning to be too much for him, and with the onslaught of black matter and other “theoretical” energies, released as the accelerator ripped open the fabric of reality, causing him more damage than anything ever had, Barry was beginning to become one with the Speed Force. Unwilling to let his mentor and uncle (Barry and Iris had married a few short months ago) die, Wally helped him, running faster than he ever had before. With their combined speed, the explosion was contained to a two-block radius, dimensional energies flooding what was a relatively minimal area, as opposed to what could have been. Barry, Wally and Jay did their best to get everyone out of the blast radius, and as far as they knew, they did. Soon after, Superman and his allies defeated Zod and his army. The Kryptonians left in the Gem Cities fled at their leader’s defeat.

One month later, the Gem Cities were still recovering. Barry, Wally and Jay (who “temporarily ran out of retirement”) did their best to assist with the clean up, speeding up the process significantly. All the while, Barry and Wally reeled from the beat-down they received from Professor Zoom, his whereabouts thus far unknown.

Jonathan Samuel Kent // Jon-El

Jon, Jonno.

None at the moment. Just a guy trying to fill his father's shoes.

21

Male

Jon has inherited all of his father's best features; the chiseled jawline, those determined blue eyes, and his muscular physique. Jon is a handsome young man, as Nanna Martha so frequently tells him, and he seems to look his best when wearing his very own Superman suit, tailor made for him in the Fortress of Solitude.

Jon has all the abilities granted to a Kryptonian under a yellow sun; he has the strength, the speed, the flight, the visions and the hearing that his father and Aunt Kara have. However, being a part human does have its downsides - absent is his outright invulnerability. While he can still take an extraordinary amount of punishment, Jon can bleed. His bones can break, and a powerful enough weapon will hurt him. Lois and Clark have tried their best to counter this by asking the Batman himself, Bruce Wayne, to train Jon in the past; what we have now is a human-kryptonian hybrid with training from arguably one of the best martial artists - and detectives - in the world.

Jonathan Samuel Kent was born to Clark and Lois Lane-Kent in the shining city of Metropolis, Delaware. A human-kryptonian hybrid with a natural birth, his parents - and many of the scientists they consulted - were unsure whether he was even possible. But as his birth drew nearer, Clark could hear his steady heartbeat, and he and Lois were assured that Jon was not only a possibility, but that he was happening. He existed. Their very own little miracle.

Jon grew up knowing that his father was Superman, that his "Aunt" Kara was Supergirl, and that his big brother Conner was Superboy. When his powers first manifested at the tender age of five, it was Clark that promised him that one day, it would be him wearing the big "S" on his chest. However, getting used to his powers wasn't as easy as he thought it would be; not even his family was prepared for the challenges ahead. In the struggle to help Jon learn to control his abilities, Clark eventually called on the help of Bruce Wayne, the man who Jon knew to be Batman. With Bruce's training and his family's motivation, Jon came to use his powers masterfully. A little knowledge of martial arts and tactical strategies were bound to be helpful, too.

Now, at the age of twenty-one, Jon is pursuing a career as a novelist and journalist, just like his mother was before him. With Lois and Clark's full support, he was just about to begin his third year of college when his father disappeared. Unable to wait for his return any longer, Jon donned his very own suit, and with great apprehension and self doubt... he took flight.

Superman, Jon's father, is missing. One can only go so long without wanting some answers. And anyway, Clark and Lois have always told Jon that one day, the time will come for him to be the one protecting the Earth and its people. There's an itch in the back of his head telling him that that time is now.

Jon brings whatever it is the son of Superman should bring - a heavy-hitting set of powers with the morals and discipline you would expect from being raised in the Kent-Lane household.