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The Narrows, 2005.

A traumatized boy is escorted out of his home by police as two bodies are covered by a tarp. The couple is a lower class family, a small business owner and a nurse practitioner. A break-in turned home invasion and double homicide, the attending officer James Gordon notes, with nothing notable about them except for their name - Wayne. 

It isn't mere coincidence, as the city soon learns that the patriarch of the family was indeed the brother of billionaire Phillip Wayne, sole heir to the Wayne family fortune and CEO of Wayne Enterprises. Phillip's reputation as a cold, calculating businessman who never fails to step on the little guy to stay ahead is put aside, as the news portrays him in a gentler light when side-by-side with his 10-year-old nephew at the burial site of the deceased Thomas and Martha Wayne. It is said that Phillip will gain legal custody of the boy, whose name is kept anonymous from the press, and that the mystery child could potentially become the new face of Wayne Enterprises when he turns of age.

This, of course, never happens. When the cameras are done rolling, Phillip places his nephew Bruce into the care of a private investigator that he has on retainer, hoping that a foster home can be found without taking a hit to his newfound publicity. The private investigator, Alfred J. Pennyworth, takes an immediate shine to the boy and decides that Bruce needs to be raised with more care and finesse than Phillip would ever be capable of. Alfred ensures that Bruce's education is paid for and that his future remains prospective in the face of a two-fold barrage of tragedy and greed.

This only partially happens. Bruce is eventually diagnosed as having extreme Post Traumatic Stress. He can barely get through a night's rest without waking up screaming, reliving the horrible night that his parents were murdered. Alfred consults Gotham City's top psychiatrists, but nothing seems to work. Bruce is constantly sneaking out of the house, often being found at his parents' gravesite after hours and telling the officers that find him about the last movie he saw when they were alive: [i]The Shadow Of The Gray Ghost[/i]. 

[i][b]"Criminals are a superstitious and cowardly lot,"[/b][/i], the boy explains, paraphrasing the film. [i][b]"That's how you can stop them, isn't it? Because they're afraid."[/b][/i]

The officers usually say nothing, but it's a fantasy that Bruce carries with him for the rest of his life. Growing into the role of a teenage social outcast, he becomes reclusive from his schoolmates, teachers, and neighbors. Alfred eventually learns that Bruce is intentionally blocking them out, with his sights set on one goal: the complete and utter dissolution of organized crime in Gotham. So in a desperate bid to break through to his son, Alfred plays along with this delusion - so much so that he eventually gets lost in it himself. Bruce is convinced that he will need instructors for this mission of his, so Alfred reaches out through the grapevine to find what Bruce is looking for, still thinking it to be harmless, though an intense phase of his troubled young life. 

The first instructor that Bruce meets is Ted Grant, a former heavyweight boxing champion turned owner of the run-down Wildcat's Gym. In exchange for taking on a part-time job in helping to fix up the place, Grant gives Bruce nightly lessons in hand-to-hand combat. The basics of boxing, at first, but Bruce eventually convinces Grant to bring in some friends that can teach him a cursory knowledge of how to perform Silat, Kali, Wing Chun, Jeet Kune Do, Muay Thai, Tai Kwon Do, Wushu and even Judo with relative success. Grant is amazed at Bruce's proficiency with each style, displaying a level of memory retention that allows him to mimic and master every move that he's given. By the time that he turns eighteen, Bruce is a natural - so much so that he turns his attention away from combat to seek a new vocation.

Though Alfred eventually retires from the business, he does introduce Bruce to a detective named Slam Bradley under the pretense of needing a steady job. Bradley puts Bruce to work on errands, but eventually catches onto the kid's true intention: he wants to learn the trade. And so Bradley takes him out on a few field investigations, letting him know how to approach a scene undetected, tail a potential suspect, gather evidence, and come up with conclusive results. Within three years, Bruce becomes equal in skill to his mentor and is working as an assistant, breaking some of Bradley's toughest cases on his own. 

During this phase in his life, Bruce runs afoul of some dangerous members of Gotham's underworld. But rather than turn back and avoid danger, Bruce seems to run toward it, despite Slam's protests - eventually having a falling out with his determined protege. But Bruce doesn't seem to care, and within a night, Alfred discovers the reason why in a letter left for him: he's realized that to learn all he needs to know, he'll have to turn to more unorthodox mentors to stay ahead. Burglars, thieves, underground fighters, drug dealers, gang members, street racers, and all manner of the criminal element that infests the city. Only through them, Bruce reasons, will he learn how to turn their methods against them. Alfred doesn't see or hear from Bruce for another five years.

But as Bruce's "education" continues, it becomes clear that the Wayne family name is carrying terrible secrets. Phillip Wayne is arraigned on suspicion of colluding with the Falcone Crime Family, painting Wayne Enterprises in a less than flattering light and prompting the question of who will become Wayne's successor. While a few stories run of the mysterious young boy that Phillip supposedly adopted, most outlets are focused on leading figures of the industry that are looking to bid for Wayne Enterprises' stocks. The most ruthless of them is the owner of a franchise series of nightclubs named Oswald Cobblepot, looking to go legitimate and put Wayne Enterprises back on top. In actuality, however, Oswald is Carmine Falcone's rival in the mob and knows that securing the company will generate enough revenue to make his weapons' trade the most prospective venture on the black market. The only thing standing in Oswald's way is the jailed Phillip - and with a single phone call, that obstacle is rooted out: Phillip Wayne dies in a pool of his blood, having been shivved by three fellow inmates. Within a month, Oswald is named CEO of Wayne Enterprises.

Over the next few years, the corruption in Gotham begins to escalate. The streets are engulfed in a massive gang war between Roman Sionis, the sadomasochistic leader of The False Face Society, and Waylon Jones, the murderous psychopath who butchered his way to the top of the food chain, earning himself the moniker of Killer Croc. Through these powerful underworld leaders, several criminal enterprises are allowed to thrive. Dr. Crane of the mental hospital established in place of Wayne Manor following Phillip's death, Arkham Manor, seems to be misplacing many of his patients. The police turn a blind eye to this activity and the District Attorney, Harvey Dent, is proven to be far from incorruptible. Mayor Rupert Thorne openly mocks the victims of GCPD brutality in The Narrows, proclaiming that any violence would have been avoided if they'd vacated their homes. Captain Lyle Bolton is visibly covering up these incidents, threatening any press that attempts to cover what's happening. Millions of citizens are being blackmailed by an anonymous hacker who bizzarely leaves puzzles in places of frozen bank accounts. The economy is down, tensions are escalating, and even those fighting for the good - such as Lieutenant James Gordon - are beginning to lose faith in the possibility that peace can be restored.

Enter a series of robberies at Wayne Enterprises' Applied Sciences Division. A figure in black attacks each of the archival warehouses with uncanny precision. Each security guard is systematically taken down, the alarms are bypassed, the military-grade technology that lies dormant is stolen in irregularly large quantities, and the warehouses themselves are ransacked to the point that no one piece of equipment can be properly identified. Oswald Cobblepot publicly condemns the lunatic responsible, placing pressure on Mayor Thorne and Commissioner Loeb to head up an investigation. But the thief is never caught and the robberies go unsolved. 

Around the same time, Lucius Fox is greeted outside of his home by a young man with jet black hair. He tells Fox that he knows what happened to the man's late son, Luke, how nothing was ever done about the wrongful murder at the hands of a corrupt cop named Flass. He promises that if Fox, a former engineer and member of the board of directors at Wayne Enterprises, helps him to not only learn how to use a heap of stolen technology but improve upon it, that he'll make sure Luke's murderer is put in jail for the rest of his life. The man only ever identifies himself as William Kane, but Fox suspects it to be an alias. Nevertheless, he takes a chance. Within a week, Arnold Flass is arrested after evidence is anonymously collected and sent to Lieutenant Gordon. Fox begins teaching 'William' what each gadget does, and 'William' begins sending back notes.

But it isn't enough. Despite being armed to the teeth with such items as an experimental grapple launcher, modified tasers, tear gas and mace caplets that explode upon impact, and a police radio dispatch forcefully taken from a corrupt officer, Bruce Wayne returns to Alfred's doorstep in a bloody heap, near the point of death after having tried to save a family from being jumped just outside of a theater by a gang of False Facers. As he lies in a hospital bed, drifting in and out of consciousness, Bruce begins to relive the night that he'd always been afraid to confront in a series of hallucinations. This assault on his senses doesn't stop until, upon happenstance, Bruce notices a winged animal fighting to defend its nest outside of his hospital window. It inspires him to fight these delusions in tandem, becoming unafraid of the memories of losing his parents as the bat manages to restore its place. 

Taking it as a sign, the words of The Gray Ghost echo throughout Bruce's mind throughout his recovery: that criminals are a superstitious and cowardly lot. To prey on their fears, he'll have to appear to them as something that isn't entirely human. Within an hour of being released from the hospital, he phones Lucius Fox with a brand new series of ideas - and with some trial and error, a new persona that Bruce crafts for himself that will begin the fight to reclaim Gotham. An unsung figure that will strike from the shadows and use the night to his advantage. 

The beginning of the The Gotham Bat's legend has begun.