Member
Dion
An Outsider
Lord WraithB A T M A N
“My parents taught me a lesson, lying on this street, shaking in deep shock... dying for no reason at all. They showed me that the world only makes sense when you force it to.”
B R U C E W A Y N E ♦ 1 9 7 4 ( L A T E T H I R T I E S - M I D F O R T I E S ) ♦ M A L E ♦ C H A O T I C G O O D
C O N C E P T A B S T R A C T:
This is a version of Batman that I started writing for the third Maximum Comics. Unfortunately I didn’t get very far, but with Absolute I now have an opportunity to finish the story I started to tell.
The main difference between this Batman and any other iteration is that after twelve years of activity in Gotham (our story begins in 2012), he’s still an urban legend as far as the world is concerned. The only ones aware of his existence are the G.C.P.D., Gotham’s “elite” criminal element, Bruce’s closest allies and the Justice League, for whom he’s served as an unofficial liaison of sorts, keeping his name out of it for the sake of protecting his mythical status.
The stories I want to tell test Bruce mentally and physically. The first arc deals with him being thrust into the public eye, destroying the element of mystery and fear that he’s relied on for so long. Beyond that, he’ll be confronted by fears of his own; by family, love, and questions of his purpose.
I just want to try and tell a good Batman story, really.
The main difference between this Batman and any other iteration is that after twelve years of activity in Gotham (our story begins in 2012), he’s still an urban legend as far as the world is concerned. The only ones aware of his existence are the G.C.P.D., Gotham’s “elite” criminal element, Bruce’s closest allies and the Justice League, for whom he’s served as an unofficial liaison of sorts, keeping his name out of it for the sake of protecting his mythical status.
The stories I want to tell test Bruce mentally and physically. The first arc deals with him being thrust into the public eye, destroying the element of mystery and fear that he’s relied on for so long. Beyond that, he’ll be confronted by fears of his own; by family, love, and questions of his purpose.
I just want to try and tell a good Batman story, really.
N O T E S:
B A S I C T I M E L I N E:
◼ 1974 | Bruce Wayne is born four years after his older brother, Thomas Wayne Jr.
◼ 1982 | Thomas Sr. and Martha Wayne are murdered in the place that would come to be called Crime Alley. Bruce and Thomas Jr. watch on in horror. The killer is never caught.
◼ 1988 | Bruce and Tommy Jr. embark on a worldwide trek, training for a time when they’ll avenge their parents’ deaths.
◼ 2000 | Bruce returns to Gotham City alone. Months later, whispers of a bat-like terror shakes the city’s criminal underworld as the Roman Empire sustains crippling blows.
Desperate to blame someone for his empire’s imminent fall, Carmine Falcone turns his anger on James Gordon, the one problematic cop not yet on his payroll. Hiring Ray Salinger, a serial killer known as Birthday Boy, Falcone has Gordon’s daughter, Barbara, kidnapped. Batman tracks her down and rescues her, delivering Barbara into the arms of a grateful ally.
The Roman Empire falls not long after.
◼ 2003 | After witnessing a trapeze act go horribly wrong at Haly’s Circus, Bruce cuts his date with Victoria Vale short in order to comfort a boy that is left an orphan. He adopts Richard Grayson soon afterwards.
◼ 2004 | Dick Grayson debuts as Robin.
Jim Gordon is kidnapped. As Bruce busies himself with finding his ally, his search is cut short by the activation of the Batsignal. Summoning him to the Central Precinct, he is met there 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 demands that Batman 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 agrees to let her tag along, provided that she did everything he told her to. Barbara and Jim Gordon return home safely that night.
A few nights later, Batman agrees to train Barbara, impressed by her levelheadedness and tenacity.
◼ 2005 | Batgirl debuts, helping Bruce free Robin from the Mad Hatter.
◼ 2008 | Barbara hangs up the cowl, moving onto college. She and Dick resume their relationship despite this.
◼ 2009 | The Justice League is formed in response to A.R.G.U.S.'s Avengers. Batman acts as their liaison, keeping his involvement under wraps in order to protect his mythical status.
◼ 2011 | Gotham suffers a severe earthquake, damaging much of the city and killing thousands. Bruce starts the Wayne Foundation to provide for those who’ve been affected.
This tragedy is soon followed by another, starting with the kidnapping of three infants. Over the next few months, dozens more are taken from their homes. All evidence the G.C.P.D. uncovers point towards a human trafficking ring, with Harvey Bullock theorising that the babies are being sold to parents who think they were simply adopting. However, when investigating, Bruce uncovers evidence that doesn’t match Bullock’s hypothesis, and decides to follow the lead himself, keeping the police out of the loop.
His search for clues takes him all over Gotham, and all the while, more infants are being kidnapped; determined to find them before any harm can come to them, Bruce pushes himself harder than he ever has before, nights blending into days before he loses track of time completely. Eventually he finds the location of where the infants are being held, where he believes that they weren’t being sold off to families in the United States, but rather, overseas. What he believes to be good, legitimate detective work leads him to an abandoned warehouse in Gotham’s neighbouring city of Blüdhaven. Tipping Jim Gordon off to be ready at the scene, Batman goes inside.
What he sees 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 calls himself. He’s been manipulating Batman the entire time, he says – 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 awaits him, and oh, is it a good one.
Bruce doesn’t know how to take it. Rage, pure, unbridled rage, flows through him, the sudden hatred he feels for the Joker unmatched by any other, not even by the hatred he had for his parents’ killer, whoever he may be. But there’s also something else, something he had never felt before during his time as Batman, never induced by his own, natural reactions: fear. Bruce is afraid. And he takes that fear, and that hatred, and that rage, the anger he feels 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 bursts into the warehouse and pulls him away. All the while, the sadistic, twisted clown cheers him on. The Joker's face would haunt Bruce's dreams ever since.
◼ 2012 | Frustrated with the tight leash Bruce keeps on him, coupled with the man’s refusal to deal with the psychological damage that plagues him in a healthy manner, Dick leaves Gotham and Robin behind.
◼ 2013 | Batman encounters a group of thugs attacking a young boy in the Narrows. Taking pity on him, Bruce takes him to the Batcave to patch him up. When the boy wakes up, Bruce discovers that he's been living on the streets by himself. Revealing his identity, the billionaire offers him a place to live. Jason Todd is adopted soon after.
◼ 1974 | Bruce Wayne is born four years after his older brother, Thomas Wayne Jr.
◼ 1982 | Thomas Sr. and Martha Wayne are murdered in the place that would come to be called Crime Alley. Bruce and Thomas Jr. watch on in horror. The killer is never caught.
◼ 1988 | Bruce and Tommy Jr. embark on a worldwide trek, training for a time when they’ll avenge their parents’ deaths.
◼ 2000 | Bruce returns to Gotham City alone. Months later, whispers of a bat-like terror shakes the city’s criminal underworld as the Roman Empire sustains crippling blows.
Desperate to blame someone for his empire’s imminent fall, Carmine Falcone turns his anger on James Gordon, the one problematic cop not yet on his payroll. Hiring Ray Salinger, a serial killer known as Birthday Boy, Falcone has Gordon’s daughter, Barbara, kidnapped. Batman tracks her down and rescues her, delivering Barbara into the arms of a grateful ally.
The Roman Empire falls not long after.
◼ 2003 | After witnessing a trapeze act go horribly wrong at Haly’s Circus, Bruce cuts his date with Victoria Vale short in order to comfort a boy that is left an orphan. He adopts Richard Grayson soon afterwards.
◼ 2004 | Dick Grayson debuts as Robin.
Jim Gordon is kidnapped. As Bruce busies himself with finding his ally, his search is cut short by the activation of the Batsignal. Summoning him to the Central Precinct, he is met there 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 demands that Batman 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 agrees to let her tag along, provided that she did everything he told her to. Barbara and Jim Gordon return home safely that night.
A few nights later, Batman agrees to train Barbara, impressed by her levelheadedness and tenacity.
◼ 2005 | Batgirl debuts, helping Bruce free Robin from the Mad Hatter.
◼ 2008 | Barbara hangs up the cowl, moving onto college. She and Dick resume their relationship despite this.
◼ 2009 | The Justice League is formed in response to A.R.G.U.S.'s Avengers. Batman acts as their liaison, keeping his involvement under wraps in order to protect his mythical status.
◼ 2011 | Gotham suffers a severe earthquake, damaging much of the city and killing thousands. Bruce starts the Wayne Foundation to provide for those who’ve been affected.
This tragedy is soon followed by another, starting with the kidnapping of three infants. Over the next few months, dozens more are taken from their homes. All evidence the G.C.P.D. uncovers point towards a human trafficking ring, with Harvey Bullock theorising that the babies are being sold to parents who think they were simply adopting. However, when investigating, Bruce uncovers evidence that doesn’t match Bullock’s hypothesis, and decides to follow the lead himself, keeping the police out of the loop.
His search for clues takes him all over Gotham, and all the while, more infants are being kidnapped; determined to find them before any harm can come to them, Bruce pushes himself harder than he ever has before, nights blending into days before he loses track of time completely. Eventually he finds the location of where the infants are being held, where he believes that they weren’t being sold off to families in the United States, but rather, overseas. What he believes to be good, legitimate detective work leads him to an abandoned warehouse in Gotham’s neighbouring city of Blüdhaven. Tipping Jim Gordon off to be ready at the scene, Batman goes inside.
What he sees 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 calls himself. He’s been manipulating Batman the entire time, he says – 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 awaits him, and oh, is it a good one.
Bruce doesn’t know how to take it. Rage, pure, unbridled rage, flows through him, the sudden hatred he feels for the Joker unmatched by any other, not even by the hatred he had for his parents’ killer, whoever he may be. But there’s also something else, something he had never felt before during his time as Batman, never induced by his own, natural reactions: fear. Bruce is afraid. And he takes that fear, and that hatred, and that rage, the anger he feels 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 bursts into the warehouse and pulls him away. All the while, the sadistic, twisted clown cheers him on. The Joker's face would haunt Bruce's dreams ever since.
◼ 2012 | Frustrated with the tight leash Bruce keeps on him, coupled with the man’s refusal to deal with the psychological damage that plagues him in a healthy manner, Dick leaves Gotham and Robin behind.
◼ 2013 | Batman encounters a group of thugs attacking a young boy in the Narrows. Taking pity on him, Bruce takes him to the Batcave to patch him up. When the boy wakes up, Bruce discovers that he's been living on the streets by himself. Revealing his identity, the billionaire offers him a place to live. Jason Todd is adopted soon after.
S A M P L E P O S T:
This will also serve as my first post should this be accepted.
