Batman's History
Early Life
Bruce Wayne was born to wealthy physician Dr. Thomas Wayne and his wife Martha, who were themselves members of the prestigious Wayne and Kane families of Gotham City, respectively.
When he was three, Bruce's mother Martha was expecting a second child to be named Thomas Wayne, Jr. However, because of her intent to find a school for the underprivileged in Gotham, she was targeted by the manipulative Court of Owls, who arranged for her to have a car accident. She and Bruce survived, but the accident forced Martha into premature labor, and the baby was lost.
While on vacation to forget about these events, the Wayne Family butler, Jarvis Pennyworth was killed by one of the Court of Owls' Talons. A letter he'd written to his son Alfred, warning him away from the beleaguered Wayne family, was never delivered. As such, Alfred - who had been an actor at the Globe Theatre at the time[3] and a military medic before that, traveled to Gotham City to take up his father's place, serving the Waynes as butler.
As he grew older, his family's reputation made Bruce restless, and he began sneaking out of school to visit Gotham City, where he wouldn't be so easily recognized.[5] On one such outing, when he was ten years old, he was picked up by Officer Jim Gordon and his partner on their patrol. En route back to the station, Bruce witnessed Jim accepting a trench coat as a bribe from a tailor — though neither realized it was a bribe at the time — but Bruce would remember it as an indicator of Jim's character.
After his parents picked Bruce up at the police station, the Waynes went to see The Mark of Zorro at the Monarch Theater. When the Waynes were walking home after the movie, a mugger named Joe Chill attempted to rob them at gunpoint, and panicked, shooting both Thomas and Martha dead.
Later Childhood
Following his parents' deaths, Bruce attempted to commit suicide with a razor blade. However, just before he went through with it, he realized that this wasn't what his parents would want, and it was at that moment Bruce vowed to spend the rest of his life warring on crime.
Bruce became obsessed with the search for meaning in the loss of his parents. He thought perhaps the mythical Court of Owls was responsible, but he never found anything to prove it.
Shortly after their deaths, Bruce became obsessed with using toy guns and killing the man who murdered his parents. Because of this, Alfred sent Bruce to an Arkham boys' rehabilitation home upstate where he first met Harvey Dent. The boys became good friends but wouldn't realize their identities until years later.
In his youth, Bruce attended Gotham Academy. It was there that he dated Julie Madison, but his psychological issues with his parents' deaths ultimately led to the end of their relationship. One day, he was asked by a professor to answer a problem involving a projectile being fired at a target. This triggered Bruce to answer the question by burning the answer on the professor's front yard.
As a pre-teen, Bruce began getting into fights with a kid who was bullying Bruce's classmates. Alfred eventually grew tired of Bruce's desire to solve his problems thorugh aggression and told Bruce act strategically, rather than with his fists. Bruce interpreted this by locking the bully in the school boiler room and giving him poison ivy until the boy eventually changed schools. Bruce was later expelled from Gotham Academy and began attending Roxbury Fielding Academy.
Troubled by grief, Bruce found that he couldn't function the way he was, so he hired a homeless man to pretend to be Alfred to approve of the paperwork so that Bruce could erase his memory with electroshock therapy, but chose not to go through with it, and to use his pain as a motivator. At the age of 18, he used his relationship with Erin McKillen - a daughter of the Irish mob, and with whom he attended Roxbury Academy - to locate Joe Chill, and learned that he had simply needed the money, and there was no deeper meaning to his parents' deaths. During his final year as a student, Bruce participated in at least one underground fight and dated a young woman named Dana, who talked him out of becoming a police officer, noting how unsuited to the job he would be, and encouraged him to think on a larger scale. He was also psychoanalyzed by Doctor Hugo Strange, who he exposed as a fraud.
Travels and Training
Fueled by the loss of his parents, Bruce began a global sojourn. He began in Paris, briefly training with the world's best fencer; he would best said swordsperson after two weeks of training. Sometime later, Bruce encountered the Grey Shadow, a French cat burglar of high renown. Though he initially intended to turn the Shadow in, after some conversation and consideration (and no small amount of teasing), he became her protege. In the process of his training, the pair would rob the CEO of Sunrise Oil, Hubert Glonet, unaware that Hubert was the notorious serial killer known to the French public as 'The Foundling'. Bruce developed feelings for the Shadow, culminating in a kiss; however, the Shadow, who shared his attraction, rejected him as too young. Moments later, the pair would be interrupted by notorious manhunter Henri Ducard, who was hired by Alfred Pennyworth to track Bruce down.
The trio worked together to take down the Foundling. They were successful, but the confrontation resulted in Henri becoming hospitalized. For his own good, the Shadow fired Bruce, though they parted amicably.
Bruce then approached Henri, seeking to learn the art of manhunting from the prolific manhunter; he accepted, and Bruce became his assistant. Bruce also became close training partners with Ducard's son, Morgan. However, when Bruce discovered that Henri often killed his targets, he left. This caused Henri to send Morgan after him, but Bruce managed to defeat him, throwing him into Henri's office.
One of his earliest stops was in Tibet, where he trained in martial arts and sword fighting under Shaolin monks.
Bruce studied under Giovanni Zatara in Las Vegas, struggling to master the basic precepts of stage magic. During this period, he became very close with Giovanni's daughter, Zatanna, with the pair striking up an attraction. Hoping to impress Bruce, Zatanna introduced Bruce to real, arcane magic. However, Zatara disagreed with this choice, and erased the memory of this discovery from Bruce's mind.
After two months of searching, Bruce arrived at the Dojang of Master Kirigi on Paektu Mountain in North Korea. He was wordlessly denied entry by a sentry, who shoved him to the ground; over the next few nights, this process repeated violently until finally he was allowed entry. While training under Kirigi he became acquainted with another acolyte of Kirigi's, one who identified himself as Anton. They bonded over their shared desire to fight criminals, despite their differing motivations. 'Anton' and Bruce, going by 'Jack', spent almost a year atop Paektu mountain training under Kirigi.
Shortly after the arrival of a new crop of an aggressive, belligerent students sent by a 'benefactor' of Kirigi's, Bruce left, leaving his training under Kirigi technically incomplete as a result of his refusal to learn the lethal 'Vibrating Palm' technique. On his way down the mountain, Bruce was attacked by these new students, assassins-in-training. Alone, he fought valiantly, but was on the verge of being overwhelmed until 'Anton' arrived, and together, they fought off the attackers and resolved to train together moving forward.
At the age of 19, Anton and Bruce learned how to race cars in life-or-death situations from Brazilian criminal, Don Miguel. While there, his break-lines were cut, an action he later suspected was the handiwork of his cohort. Bruce himself tricked Don Miguel into getting captured by police during his final lesson.
Soon afterward, Bruce and Anton were apprehended in Moscow after staking out an FSB office trying to locate Avery Oblonsky, an ex-KGB freelance operative and held in prison for fourteen days. During their escape from imprisonment, it was revealed that the warden who had been keeping them captive was, in fact, a disguised Oblonsky, who agreed to train the pair in the art of disguise and manipulation. In the process, Wayne's true identity was revealed to Anton.
After training with Oblonsky, Bruce and 'Anton' travelled to the wilds of northern British Columbia, hunting down the world's greatest marksman, Luka Jungo, also known as "The Swiss Mark". The pair trained under Luka for several months. In the process, Luka made the pair that they would swear to never use firearms against other people. Luka, unsettled by Anton's behavior, confronted him, proclaiming him a killer. The confrontation resulted in Luka's death at Anton's hands, and the pair became very aware of the gulf between their motivations, coming to blows. Despite having a gun to Bruce's head, Anton could not bring himself to shoot Bruce, and parted ways.
He was also trained in stealth by an unnamed master in the Hida Mountains, in Japan.
At age 21, Bruce studied the ins and outs of technological gadgetry under the guidance of the brilliant inventor, Sergei Alexandrov.
At the age of 22, Bruce travelled to the Himalayas to train with Shihan Matsuda, who taught him to fight with the katana. He soon struck up a romance with the sword-sharpener's daughter, Mio. Matsuda warned him against creating personal ties with others, and to embrace his darker side. Matsuda's wife, though encouraged it, and because of Bruce's feelings for her, he inadvertently let an assassin into the Matsuda household. In the following course of events, Bruce discovered that Mio had been hired by Matsuda's wife to seduce him and then kill Matsuda. Both women and Matsuda himself were gravely injured, but before he died, Matsuda warned him that death is what would come of fostering close personal relationships.
At age 24, Bruce was training in Norway, and after 28 hours of fighting a new opponent each hour, Bruce's determination struck fear into all the Queen's men.[30] Bruce spent time with a nomadic people in the Nigerian desert enduring grueling training. It was during this time that Alfred attempted to contact him, but when Bruce received the phone call, he couldn't bring himself to answer.
Sometime during his time abroad, Bruce also trained with Chu Chin Li and Tsunetomo, two martial arts masters in the Far East and was also arrested for illegal base jumping at Meru Peak. He was also, at some point, trained by expert boxer (and former JSA member) Ted Grant.
Towards the end of his travels, Bruce returned to study under Zatara once more. Over the course of his renewed studies, Bruce and Zatanna encountered a demon known as Shantoz, a being that would escape hell every twenty years to feast on the souls of those with broken hearts. This time, when the secret of genuine magic was revealed to Bruce, he was allowed to remember, and together the pair was eventually able to defeat the demon by using Bruce's trauma as bait. Despite the temptation, Bruce decided against learning true magic, unwilling to pay the price it would exact on his soul.[33] During this time, Bruce and Zatanna became inadvertently bonded through a miscast spell, and would spend the next few decades having regular meetings in order to contain the arcane chaos their mistake wrought.
Throughout Bruce's training, he constantly crossed paths Minhkhoa Khan, the man he knew as Anton. Bruce and the man who would become Ghost-Maker became rivals, having fought on a few occasions due to their differing opinions on killing criminals. They crossed paths while seeking training in Dublin, Metropolis, and Morroco.[32] In Morroco, Khan killed their mentor Ouahbi, ostensibly in self-defense, like he did Luka.
Bruce continued his travels, making a stop in Mexico, where a mysterious assailaint slipped him psycobilin while he fought jaguars, and in Shanghai, where his rope was mysterliously cut, though he was rescued at the last minute by Skyspider, a thrillseeking urban explorer who had previously mentored him. He discovered that she had recently trained Minkkhoa Khan under the same fake name he'd used with Bruce, 'Anton'.
Suspecting Khan of attempting to kill him, Bruce pressed on, seeking out Doctor Daniel Captio, an expert mentalist who was capable of complete concious control over both his brain and body. While under his tutelage, Bruce was able to learn control over his body, but was unable to control his emotions. Interested, Daniel tested him with falsified photos of the people he cared for, murdered. At that moment, an injured Minhkhoa arrived at the door of Captio's estate; Bruce accused Minhkhoa of both the murders and of previous attacks on Bruce himself in Rio De Janero, Mexico, and Shanghai; Minhkhoa had no idea what Bruce was talking about, and expressed regret at the deaths of Luka Jungo and Master Ouahbi. He revealed that he had been tracked and attacked as well, and had come to warn Bruce.
Outside, Bruce confronted the mysterious assailant who had been tailing him across the world and who had attacked and greviously injured Minhkhoa: Harris Zuma, AKA 'The Still', a renowned assassin in the employ of Ra's al Ghul. They fought on the cliffside as a storm struck, and Bruce was able to channel his fury and love, overtaking Zuma. Zuma revealed that the loved ones Bruce saw dead in the photos were still alive, and that his employer, the Demon's Head, was offering them an invitation to train with him in the Crystal Hills of Abu Dhabi. Bruce then confronted Doctor Captio, realizing that he had doctored the photos that had enraged him so. After Minhkhoa recovered, the pair left Captio's manor together, determined to seek out Ra's Al Ghul.
They eventually made their way to Ra's Al Ghul's crystal fortress in the heart of the Rub' Al Khali Desert, accepting his tutelage. During this period, he was introduced to Ra's daughter, Talia Al Ghul, who assisted in the training of the pair. Ra's told the pair that he intended to change the world using the principles of 'Lazarus', the supposed name of his organization, intending to build entirely self-sustained 'Lazarus Cities'.
While training, despite his rejection of the Demon Head's principles, Al Ghul became very certain that Bruce would one day become the true heir to his ideals and organization. As such, he gifted him a small box, supposedly containing the eye of a god.
Talia and Bruce became close during this time, but Bruce's distrust of her father's methods and goals resulted in the bond turning frosty. Towards the conclusion of their training, Ra's revealed the truth of his intentions to Bruce and Minhkhoa, and made them duel for the right to replace Harris Zuma as second in command, the Demon's Hand. Bruce defeated Minkhoa, and Ra's allowed Zuma, Bruce's ostensible predecessor, to remain alive, requesting that he take the unconcious Minkhoa Khan from the Crystal Hills. He then declared Bruce to be the Demon's Heart, though Bruce did not remain with the organization; he recognized that their plans involved mass death, and planted explosives throughout the Crystal Hills, collapsing the structure. In the proces, he fought Ra's, who defeated him; however, he was rescued by Minkhoa, who dragged him out of the collapsing cave system. Despite this, they parted ways, swearing that Minkhoa would never enter Gotham, and that Bruce would never enter any city Minkhoa set up shop in. Before returning to Gotham, Bruce made one last stop in Argentina. While leaving to board his plane back to Gotham, Khoa made one last attempt to convince Bruce to give up on Gotham and join him in stopping crime around the world. Bruce refused and the two agreed to continue with their previous agreement.
After seven long years of absence, Bruce finally returned to Gotham at the age of 25. To formally end his training, Bruce climbed to the top of Wayne Tower and did a base-jump off the top, resulting in a concussion, road rash, as well as a dislocated shoulder and elbow.
Early Heroic Career
In the original New 52 continuity, Zero Year was a year long event. However, following changes to the timeline due to Rebirth, Bruce's exploits with the Red Hood Gang and Riddler were shortened to last over the course of a few weeks in order for stories from the New Earth continuity to fit in, such as Year One and The Man Who Laughs.
Batman Begins
With only his mission in mind and no care for his legacy as a Wayne, Bruce moved himself out of Wayne Manor and into a brownstone on Park Row from which he based his early attempts to infiltrate the Red Hood Gang after only six weeks back. Despite trying to remain off the grid, Bruce's uncle Philip Kane had kept tabs on him and had also gained control of Wayne Enterprises in Bruce's absence, hiring strategist Edward Nygma, who advised him to have Bruce killed if he wouldn't play ball.
Philip outed Bruce's return to the media. When Bruce refused to return to the company while his uncle was selling weapons, Nygma advised Philip to have Bruce killed, and the Red Hood Gang soon attempted just that by blowing up Bruce's brownstone with him inside.[28] Injured, Bruce crawled back to Wayne Manor, where Alfred reaffirmed his support for him and bandaged his wounds.
In the original New 52 continuity, Bruce decided to take on the appearance of a bat following this attack; however, following subsequent continuity changes, this was adjusted to align with previous continuities.
During an early outing, while disguised as a veteran, Bruce encountered Selina Kyle on the streets of Gotham; at the time, she was operating as a prostitute. They came to blows, and Selina would later remember this as their first meeting, though Bruce would disagree for semantic reasons.During this outing, Bruce would be grievously injured, and was nursed back to health by Alfred yet again. Afterwards, he would decide to take on the guise of a bat, presenting the concept to Alfred the following morning. Alfred rejected it at first, but Bruce was persistent. Over the next few days, they assembled the suit, and on the following Saturday, Bruce made his first patrol as the Batman, attracting the attention of journalists, who chronicled what they knew of the mysterious vigilante in a front-page article in the Arkham Post the day after.
Soon afterward, industrial tycoon David Lambert was murdered, and Bruce would investigate; this would become his first real investigation as Batman- an adventure he would later recall as the Case of the Chemical Syndicate.
The Zero Year
Later, Nygma returned to detonate an EMP blast that left the entire city in the dark. Commissioner Loeb declared the Batman a vigilante criminal as Bruce began investigating a series of murders committed by a disgruntled Waynetech employee, while building a jammer to prevent another EMP attack when power was restored. The ex-employee, Dr. Karl Helfern was challenging enough that Batman allied himself begrudgingly with Jim Gordon, and together they learned that Helfern was the Riddler's pawn. Their plan to defeat both men failed, and the jammer was destroyed such that when the power was restored, the Riddler stole complete control of the power grid, shutting it down and flooding the city.
In the following months, the city fell into ruin, with the Riddler nightly challenging the citizens to best him with a riddle in order to earn back civilization.[51] Allying with Jim Gordon and Lucius Fox, Batman planned to locate the Riddler by piggybacking his signal during the challenge.[10] The plan failed, but Batman managed to find the Riddler in the place they'd first met, and best him in a battle of wits, both restoring power and saving the city from an inevitable air-strike. Afterwards, Bruce and Lucius began rebuilding Wayne Enterprises.
In the original New 52 continuity, Jim Gordon was then immediately advanced to the role of commissioner; however, following subsequent continuity changes, Jim Gordon remains Captain as late as the Joker's debut.
While the city was recovering from the Riddler's attack, Batman encountered the first Mister Bloom, Daryl Gutierrez.
Bruce would later come into conflict with the Falcone Crime Family.
Cormac Dodge
At some later point, Batman came into conflict with Cormac Dodge, who became the supervillain known as the Escape Artist. Cormac, a master technologist, was able to hack into the early Batcave's systems and learn a great deal about Bruce's investigations. Using this information, Cormac put Batman into increasingly diabolical manufactured scenarios.
Cormac recruited the young, homeless Anita Jean as his prodigy but refused to let her have friends or pets. Seeing her loneliness, Batman made her an offer, and she became an insider in Cormac's operation. Eventually, Anita and Batman cornered Cormac atop the Gotham Incinerator Plant. Cormac threatened to reveal Bruce's identity to the world if he was arrested, claiming that Bruce and Anita would lose everything if he went down. Panicking, Anita shot Cormac. Bruce intensely reprimanded her, not realizing her fragile state, and Anita subsequently appeared to commit suicide, though Bruce would learn years later that she survived.
Meeting Superman
Bruce first encountered the Kryptonian superhero Superman when Jax-Ur came to Gotham. In order to escape the Phantom Zone, Jax-Ur began kidnapping Gotham citizens and he forced the Riddler to lure Superman to the city. Batman shared information with Superman, but refused to work together until Alfred disappeared. Concerned for his father figure, Bruce revealed his identity to Superman and the two partnered directly. They tracked Jax-Ur and Riddler to the Gotham City Harbor, where a trapped was sprung and Bruce was sent to the Phantom Zone.
