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@Byrd Man So is The Hunter a part of Parker's backstory in this continuity? I started reading Darwyn Cooke's adaptation and it's great.




Guest-starring @Nexus Prime as Commissioner James Gordon...


B R U C E W A Y N E ’ S J O U R N A L
A P R I L 3 0 T H, 2 0 1 3


All I hear is laughter and screams. Mirth and pain. They join together like two lovers’ hands, intertwining with the comfortable familiarity of time. I want to make them stop, to tell them to be quiet, but they’re persistent and unwavering, unwilling to leave me be. They pierce my mind with a clarity I don’t want – I can hear them as clearly as I can smell the tangy iron of blood, as clearly as I can see brick and steel plummeting to the streets below. Soon all that will be left is laughter and anarchy, the mark this diseased excuse for an Earth has left on me and mine.

I’m sorry, Father. I’m sorry, Mother. It’s taking me over. I can’t see past my own fears and doubts. I thought I could not fail you more than when I lost Tommy… but the events of the past six months are weighing heavily on me. Gotham is dying, and the world is not far behind. It’s plagued with scum, a cowardly lot that seemingly outnumbers the few good people left at every corner; no one is motivated out of anything but their own agendas, their own greed, their own lust or their own anger. Gotham reeks of terror and mistrust, of concealed chaos and corruption of the innocent. It fears the unknown. Alfred and Dick have tried telling me that it’s not my fault, and I’m desperate to believe them, but although my heart yearns for absolution, my mind knows better, and so the guilt stays, mingling with the laughter and the screams. Gotham is dying. And I fear that the Batman is, too.

I know that the mission must go on. I know that I have to keep fighting. But the laughter and the screams won’t leave me alone. I don’t know where they end and my reality begins.

I fear that someday soon, they’re all that will be left.



M A Y 2 N D, 2 0 1 3 T H E N A R R O W S G O T H A M C I T Y, N J


Gotham was quiet. It seemed that it always was these days, what spirit it had beaten out of it when the ground shook and its monuments crumbled, its people retreating into silence as they took time to mourn. But that wasn’t anything new. Ever since its establishment, it had been this way. Gotham was always mourning. This time, it just had a greater loss to grieve.

The crime scene was nestled between two run-down apartment blocks in the Narrows. The buildings were arranged in such a way that the alley was tucked into the shadows, away from prying eyes; it was the perfect place for a murder, covered by a pitch-black blanket in the night. The G.C.P.D. had cordoned off the area – yellow tape blocked the only entrance, police cruisers and officers stationed in front to usher away any curious passers-by. Remote area lighting was set up around the scene, CSI’s recording evidence in coveralls and masks.

Batman stood near the police barricade, hidden in darkness. Near him was Commissioner James Gordon. He still looked like the lieutenant the Bat had met twelve years ago, determined, ever the beacon of good amid the cesspool of corruption that was Gotham. He watched the crime scene from his spot near a cruiser, back straight; he carried himself with military-like discipline, unwilling to let himself slip on the job. But Batman could smell the cigarette smoke on his trench coat, stronger than usual, and the bags under his eyes told the same story: Jim was weary. But unlike most people – unlike Batman – he shouldered that weariness and the stress that came with it, and used it to fuel himself. If anything, Jim was more purposeful than ever.

“Jim,” said Batman.

Any other person would have jumped out of their skin, to be sneaked up on like that. But Jim had been at this for twelve years. He didn’t even turn to look.

“Batman.”

“What can you tell me?”

“Three vics,” Jim began. “No identification yet, but we're working on it. Medical examiner tells me this was a precision job, and judging from the way the bodies were left I'd say this was a professional hit. Multiple contusions from blunt force trauma and several lacerations to the heads and torsos. Each had their throat slit right along the jugular. Someone with serious skill killed these men, and they did it fast enough that no defensive markings were left; these guys didn't stand a chance.”

The commissioner finally turned slightly to glance back at Batman. “Whoever did this is definitely in your area of expertise, which is why I called you in. That, and one other thing.”

Jim stepped to the side to allow the vigilante room to peer at the back end of the alley, and gestured with his right hand towards the brick wall there. “I think someone left you a message.”

One of the victims had been crucified to the wall, pinned by metal stakes. His throat opened up in a bloody smile, his head hanging low, the blood seeping into his clothing. It dripped onto the ground in steady drops, pooling four feet below him. To his right was a calling card, no doubt left by the killer, drawn in their victims’ blood –

An owl’s head, shining in red, its bloody ink trickling down the wall.

The other two victims lay on the ground below it like nothing more than discarded dolls, thrown away by a bored child who got tired of toying with them.

The owl could have meant any number of things. One was Leland Owlsley. He was a stretch; although he was based relatively close to Gotham in New York City, the crimelord didn’t have any reason to expand his operations, least of all in a city as volatile as this. And to announce his presence so boldly, leaving a message for a vigilante that he most likely didn’t think of as anything more than a myth, didn’t fit his M.O.; he prided himself on his intelligence, and despite it, he often relied on his strength in combat – he didn’t showcase the skill required to kill these men so efficiently.

He was off the suspect list, for now.

The other potential culprits were so obscure that they bordered on near impossibility or myth. The White Owl had long been incarcerated, and the Court of Owls was nothing more than a nursery rhyme told to the children of Gotham and Blüdhaven to scare them into behaving. Their Talons were nothing more than words spun into nightmarish thoughts, and although thoughts could kill… it was never this gruesome.

“Pennywise,” said Batman, holding his fingers to the button activating his comm-link. “Are you seeing this?”

The lenses over his eyes were streaming the Batcave everything he saw.

“That I can, sir,” replied Alfred.

“I need you to look for anything that might be linked to this owl symbol. People, organisations – everything. Anyone that might be skilled enough to kill these men without a struggle. Send over what you find.”

“Of course, sir.”

Batman ducked beneath the yellow tape – “CRIME SCENE – DO NOT CROSS” – the crime scene investigators giving him a wide berth as he traversed the alley. He stopped in front of the bodies, taking in every detail. His cowl’s HUD fed him information; their approximate height and weight, the measurements of the lacerations that covered them, estimations made by programs he’d created to aid him in his investigations. The victims were tall, all above six feet; they had muscle to accompany their height, with little fat to it, looking to be around one hundred and ninety pounds in weight. Whoever killed them had to be fast and strong to leave them so defenceless – a common crook would have been faced with a challenge, the victims’ strength and number an advantage against one man with a knife.

The lacerations were long and deep. Exempting the throat cuts, they were about seven inches in length, some cutting through skin, flesh and muscle to the bone – those on the victims’ faces were smaller in comparison, little more than scratches. Weapon likely had a spear-point blade, noted Batman, Lacerations missed any vitals – purposeful. The killer wanted to cause pain. Toyed with them. Angles of the cuts suggest that they’re left-handed.

The victims’ skin broke where the contusions stained it, patches of blue amid drops of red. Blunt force likely exerted through fists. Tissue disruption indicates the use of brass knuckles. Hits were hard – the cause of death. Throats were slit post-mortem.

Jim said that the police were yet to identify the victims. It would take too long to wait for them to get a match, waste too much time – time that the killer could spend finding their next target. That was a risk Batman couldn’t take. Using the screen on his left gauntlet, he ran pictures of the victims through his own facial recognition software, containing data from the G.C.P.D., F.B.I., C.I.A., S.H.I.E.L.D. and Interpol. He got a match within seconds.

Happy Ackerman. Dutch Hancock. Koby Hillam. Small-time crooks turned big-time thugs, wanted for multiple counts of assault and battery, grand larceny and armed robbery. Their employer: Edward Nashton. The Riddler.

Currently held within Arkham Asylum.

“Pennywise. Anything?” Batman asked through his comm-link.

“I’m afraid not, sir. But you might want to beware of the Talon. Just look at how it’s left these gentlemen,” deadpanned Alfred.

Batman ducked under the tape once more, coming to stand next to Jim in the shadows. The more he ran the possibilities through his head, the more he was beginning to think that the killer was a new player. Who this new player was, he didn’t know – but the information he gathered from the crime scene should help push him in the right direction. The victims were scum, but the killer was even more so. Innocent or not, they didn’t deserve to die.

“The killer’s left-handed, likely a male,” said Batman. “He used a spear-point blade, probably a knife. All lacerations but their slit throat were made with the intent to hurt, not kill. Whoever he is, he’s skilled enough to toy with his victims.”

“Yeah,” Jim glanced up at the body pinned to the wall, the man's face permanently distorted in pain from the moment of death. "I get the distinct feeling this guy had motives other than simple murder; playing with his victims before finishing them off like some sick predator definitely fits in line with that. A killer with professional talent like this wouldn't have left us so many clues if he didn't want to, or enjoy it.”

Batman nodded, continuing. “The victims died from blunt force trauma. The killer hit hard, with technique. He used some form of brass knuckles. Slit their throats after their deaths.”

“Thanks. I appreciate you coming in on this, Batman. I'm swamped with other cases as it is, and I still have the mayor breathing down my neck about clean up operations in the lower districts...”

The older man stopped, stroking his moustache lightly as he studied Batman's crouched form. James Gordon had spent enough time around and with this particular vigilante to recognise that certain aspects were off; that something had changed ever since that incident with that clown creep last year. Batman could try and hide it behind his cape and cowl, put on a façade of indifference that was to be expected, and most people would buy. Most people thought the caped crusader was some sort of legend far beyond the understanding of mortal men. But Commissioner Gordon understood what Batman really was, and that even the so-called "Dark Knight" could be affected by horror and tragedy.

“And Barbara will be coming back from university soon, so I've got that to prepare for,” said Jim, changing the subject. “I know she loves being independent and self-reliant these days, but I'll be more than glad when she's home again. She's doing great, though. Really proud of her and the future she's making for herself. She still asks about you when we talk on the phone, you know, not that I can ever tell her much. I'm sure she'd want to hear how you're doing, though. Make sure her hero and saviour is as well off as she's been. If you want to give me something I can tell Barbara to put her at ease that you're doing alright, I'll be sure to let her know...”

“Tell her I’m fine, Jim. She has no need to worry about me.”

A giggle, somewhere in the far recesses of his mind. A pale face. An insane smile. They flashed across his vision, replacing Jim for just a split second – ushering a wince that caused the commissioner to frown.

The shadows grinned at him. “You’re lyyyyy-ing,” they sang.

“Right,” Jim said, dubious. “I’m sure she doesn’t.”

His doubt hung in the air, like a bad smell. After a few seconds, Batman broke the silence, turning away. “Take care of yourself, Jim.”

“You too, Batman.”

Batman withdrew his grapnel gun from his belt, aiming at the roof above him. He pulled the trigger, the wire shooting out with speed, its clawed end clasping onto the edge with an audible impact. Pulled taut, the gun worked to carry Batman up, whirring in the process. He climbed from the edge of the roof with ease, walking west to the corner where he’d parked the Batmobile. The night wasn’t coming to an end; not yet. He had someone he wanted to talk to first. The Riddler was about to get an unexpected visit.

A camera flashed on the neighbouring rooftop. It went unnoticed by Batman, its owner smiling in the evening gloom.

“Perfect.”
@Gowi@GreenGrenade

How malleable would any lore re: Joker be for you two?

Unfortunately I have pretty big plans for the Joker, so I'd like to keep him as an NPC for now. Pretty much any other Batvillain is fair game, though, barring Riddler and Two-Face.
B 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.

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.

S A M P L E P O S T:

This will also serve as my first post should this be accepted.


B 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.

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.

S A M P L E P O S T:

This will also serve as my first post should this be accepted.



Should probably state my interest here instead of just on Skype, so hey. Wraith already knows, but I'm working on apps for Batman and Invincible. Looking forward to this, everyone!
B 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.

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.

S A M P L E P O S T:

This will also serve as my first post should this be accepted.



C H A R A C T E R C O N C E P T P R O P O S A L



"I wouldn't try that... I'm Invincible."

M A R K U S G R A Y S O N 1 9 9 8 ( 1 9 ) 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:

With Mark, I want to write a coming-of-age story. He’s a hero that’s always trying to find his place in the world – hell, the universe – unsure of whether the way he goes about things is the right way, and of whether the burden he brings onto the ones he loves, and society as a whole, is worth all his efforts. Even with Superman’s mentorship, he’s going to struggle with being Invincible; with knowing that his father is a threat, not an ally; and with all of the troubles he’ll be forced to face, and put his family and friends through.

No matter what kind of person Mark turns into, be it a hero or a villain, I just want to tell a good story with a character I love.

N O T E S:

The timeline's pretty underwhelming in terms of writing, but it should give everyone an idea of Mark's background.








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Also; Sup @Greengrenade

Sup
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