1 9 8 4 - 1 9 9 8 // I N N O C E N C E D I E S
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.
2 0 0 6 - 2 0 1 0 // T H E L E A G U E O F S H A D O W S
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.
2 0 1 0 // Y E A R O N E
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.
2 0 1 1 // T H E D A R K K N I G H T
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 former Chief of Police Michael Akins. Akins’ 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 an uneasiness in knowing that he was a necessity, but hating that fact regardless.
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.
2 0 1 2 // Y O U T H
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, Jim Gordon was kidnapped. As the GCPD scrambled to find him, Bruce busied himself with finding any clues to his whereabouts, a search that was cut short by the activation of the Batsignal. Its light summoning him to the Central Precinct, Batman was met by a fifteen year-old Barbara Gordon, her kidnapping – and rescue – still fresh on her mind. Armed with footage of the Dark Knight (no doubt from one of her father’s case files) she demanded that Bruce help her get Jim back, lest she release it to the media and thus expose him to the public. Disapproving of her blackmail, but admiring her tenacity, Bruce agreed to let her tag along, provided that she did everything he told her to. Following a trail of familiar clues and cryptic riddles, they soon realised that the man behind Jim’s kidnapping was none other than Edward Nashton, the Riddler. Tracking him down to the expansive carpark of an apartment complex in Old Gotham, Batman navigated a variety of death traps even more complicated than those of his first tangle with Riddler. After a brief face-to-face confrontation with Nashton, and with Barbara’s help, the Riddler was apprehended. Jim and Barbara Gordon returned home safely that night. Edward Nashton was taken to Arkham.
A few nights after the incident, Batman offered to train Barbara. Her tenacity and fierce determination were to be commended, as was her level head under intense conditions – and this was the second time she’d been caught in the crossfire of Batman and Jim’s war against crime. She was happy to accept, and so every night, when her father was at work, he would train her on the roof of her apartment building. When she advanced to the point that it was no longer a suitable place to train, they would risk going to the Batcave, where training continued until September. Batgirl debuted not long afterwards, helping Batman take down Clayface, formerly the actor known as Basil Karlo before he was transformed into what could only be described as living clay, his change pushing him towards insanity and a life of crime.
Later that month, 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 or Barbara. 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.
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, focussing 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 and Barbara continued their training.
2013 - 2014 // C I T Y O F F E A R
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.
Dick Grayson completed basic training in the April 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 (much like Barbara had to before she became Batgirl), he donned a suit made to his own specifications and debuted as the “Boy Wonder” – a nickname courtesy of Barbara – 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, Batgirl 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 Batgirl and Bruce freed the captured girl. Jervis was later taken to Arkham Asylum.
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, Batgirl 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 Batgirl and 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.
Barbara hung up the cape and cowl in mid-2014, believing Bruce to have a very skilled and capable partner in Dick. Moving on with her life, she was already looking ahead to the future, excited for what it might hold. 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 // A S I C K J O K E
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, Barbara 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.
2016 // I N V A S I O N - P R E S E N T
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.
Member
Dion,
Simple Unicycle,
Half Pint,
Supermaxx,
Morden Man,
An Outsider,
Lord Wraith
