Batman (Bruce Wayne)

Batman is the superhero protector of Gotham City, a tortured, brooding vigilante dressed as a bat who fights against evil and strikes fear into the hearts of criminals everywhere. In his public identity, he is Bruce Wayne, a billionaire industrialist and notorious playboy. Although he has no superhuman abilities, he is one of the world's smartest men and greatest fighters. His physical prowess, technical ingenuity, and tactical thinking make him an incredibly dangerous opponent. He was also a founding member of the Justice League.

History

Early Life

 Main article: Batman Origins

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.^[2]

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.^[4]

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.^[6]

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.^[7]

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.^[8]

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.^[9]

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.^[10]

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.^[11] Bruce was later expelled from Gotham Academy and began attending Roxbury Fielding Academy.^[12]

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.^[13] At the age of 18, he used his relationship with Erin McKillen^[14]—a daughter of the Irish mob, and with whom he attended Roxbury Academy^[15]—to locate Joe Chill, and learned that he had simply needed the money, and there was no deeper meaning to his parents' deaths.^[16] 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.^[11] 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.^[17]

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.^[18] 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.^[19][20]

One of his earliest stops was in Tibet, where he trained in martial arts and sword fighting under Shaolin monks.^[21]

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.^[22]

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.^[23]

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.^[23]

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.^[24]

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.^[25]

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.^[26]

He was also trained in stealth by an unnamed master in the Hida Mountains, in Japan.^[27]

At age 21, Bruce studied the ins and outs of technological gadgetry under the guidance of the brilliant inventor, Sergei Alexandrov.^[28]

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.^[29]

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.^[31]

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.^[5] He was also, at some point, trained by expert boxer (and former JSA member) Ted Grant.^[32]

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.^[34]

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.^[35]

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.^[35]

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.^[35]

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'.^[36]

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.^[37]

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.^[36] 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^[38]; 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.^[39] 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.^[40]

After seven long years of absence, Bruce finally returned to Gotham^[41] at the age of 25.^[42] 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.^[43]

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.^[44] 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.^[5]

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.^[30]

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.^[45]

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.^[46] 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.^[45]

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.^[47]

Using the fact that his return was outed publicly to his advantage, Bruce called a press conference outside the ACE Chemical plant to expose the Red Hood Gang's plans to the media. The gang attempted to disrupt it, and inside the plant, Bruce used a blackout to debut the Batsuit. Through blackmail, Philip was recruited into the Red Hood Gang, and when he failed to kill the Batman, he was shot dead. In fighting with Red Hood One, Batman knocked the man into a vat of chemicals, and he was thought dead.

The Zero Year

Later, Nygma returned to detonate an EMP blast that left the entire city in the dark.^[42] 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.^[48] 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.^[49] 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.^[50]

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.^[52]

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.^[53]

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.^[54]

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.^[55]

Year Two

The War of Jokes and Riddles

Not long after the Zero Year, Batman had his first confrontation with the resurfaced Red Hood One, now going by the name "the Joker." The clown had attempted to poison the Gotham Reservoir, only to be stopped by the Bat.^[56]

Having created a prototypical version of it during the Zero Year, Jim Gordon took the risk of placing a Bat-Signal on the roof of the GCPD precinct.^[44] Batman for a while worked closely with Jim Gordon and Harvey Dent in a war on organized crime until Dent was scarred with acid by the criminal Erin McKillen.^[57]

Approximately a year after his initial defeat, the Riddler broke out of prison and spurred a war between himself and the Joker, who had lost the ability to laugh, in what would be called "the War of Jokes and Riddles."

With each side recruiting all the villains they could to fight for them, the city was turned into a war zone for weeks, forcing Batman to choose a side to work with in order for the casualties to stop. Batman begrudgingly chose the Riddler and meticulously took out all of Joker's forces until only the clown was left. When Batman predictably betrayed the Riddler, Nygma surrendered and revealed that he orchestrated the entire war in an attempt to solve the riddle of how to make the Joker laugh again. Furious that Riddler caused the deaths of so many innocent people for something so trivial, Batman lost control and attempted to stab Nygma in the face with a kitchen knife, only to be stopped by the Joker himself—this event becoming one of Batman's greatest failures.^[58]

At some point after this, Catwoman, the Riddler, Killer Croc, the Penguin, the Clock King, and a mysterious figure known as 'The Help' became embroiled in an attempt to steal a mysterious object given to Bruce on the last day of his training by Ra's Al Ghul.^[59]

Further Adventures

The First Robin

Around this time, Bruce took in young circus acrobat Dick Grayson after his parents were murdered by the gangster Tony Zucco. Without knowing Bruce's secret, Dick would sneak out of Wayne Manor at night, hunting Zucco, and the Batman would be there to protect him every time. Eventually, when Bruce was ready, he finally revealed his identity to his ward, but, at that point, Dick had figured it out for himself. With the common goal of justice, the pair began fighting crime as Batman and Robin.^[60] Bruce would later admit that Dick saved his soul, believing he saved him from being consumed by rage.^[61]

Soon after Robin's debut, they caught Catwoman as she attempted a heist aboard a boat in Gotham's harbor, disguised as an old woman. Bruce considered this to be their first true meeting, despite their previous encounters, because this was the first time they'd met as their fully realized selves.^[62]

At this point, the Scarecrow became an active criminal and gassed the Dynamic Duo with his fear toxin for the first time.

In one specific mission, Batman and Robin tracked Scarecrow's international operations by following him to Prague. Batman realized that the Scarecrow was dealing with a child trafficker named Mother, who planned to use his experimental "trauma toxin" to create more traumatized children to abduct. Bruce kept this information secret from Dick, convincing him the mission was exclusively to capture Scarecrow. Bruce contacted Mother, pretending to be interested in purchasing a replacement Robin, but the ruse was unsuccessful. Mother escaped and remained dormant for years.^[63]

During Dick's career as Robin, the tone of many of Batman's adventures changed, and many of Batman's reocurring foes softened, becoming less lethal; Jim Gordon described the phenomenon as Robin's attitude 'infecting' them.

Early in Dick's career as Robin, before Bruce fully trusted Superman, the trio teamed up to take down the Penguin, who had recruited the extra-dimensional Thunderers of Qward to act as heavies on the advice of Lex Luthor.^[64]

Zur-En-Arrh

Following an encounter with Professor Milo, Bruce seemingly hallucinated a vivid encounter with an alien Batman called the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh. The experience terrified him, and, believing he needed a check against mental control and attacks, he set about constructing an alternate personality that would take control in the event of such danger, the Batman of Zurr-En-Arrh. While building this alternate self, the Joker returned, and, worse, returned to his old ways, murdering a number of Weltamix Pharmaceuticals security guards before taking the company's chemists hostage.^[65]

The Joker who had lost his trademark mirth, was trying to force the company's chemists to create a concoction that would cheer him up. Unfortunately, all of their anti-depressants would take weeks to take effect, something he found unsatisfactory. Batman, his backup personality still unstable and unfinished, confronted Joker in the midst of his own hallucinations. During the fight, the alternate personality briefly seized control and attempted to simply kill the Joker. Though he retook control and stopped himself from killing the Joker, feeling that buried beneath the Joker, there was still somebody who could be healed, it became clear to him that his back-up personality didn't possess his moral lines. As he finished constructing Zur-En-Arrh, he made sure to implement his specific moral code within the personality.^[66]

Some time later, his fragmentary memory of the Zur-En-Arrh encounter inspired him to add the iconic 'yellow circle' to his batsuit, enclosing the Bat-Symbol.^[67]

Founding the Justice League

Bruce was among founding members of the Justice League. While the team's actual first meeting is debated, prime amongst the contenders was when the heroes who would eventually comprise the League fought off an attack by the alien Appellaxians, which resulted in them nearly being turned into trees before emerging victorious. The heroes, inspired by their victory, formed a team, christening it the Justice League. One of their earliest foes was Starro the Conqueror.^[68]

In the original New 52 Continuity, the Justice League formed following an invasion of Earth by Darkseid. However, following subsequent changes to the timeline, this was supplanted with an adventure resembling the team's Earth-One and New Earth origin. While Darkseid's invasion may have still occurred, it seemingly did not occur in the way originally depicted.

The Adventures Continue

At some point, Bruce came into conflict with Ra's Al Ghul. He fell in love with his daughter Talia,^[69] and unknowingly fathered a son with her.

A group including Carter Hall erased Bruce's memories of a critical event; this would remain unknown to him for many years.^[70]

While trailing a low-level costumed criminal to Singapore, Bruce and Dick encountered Bruce's former rival, the Ghostmaker. Per their previous agreement, Batman and Robin reluctantly left Singapore, knowing that Ghostmaker would capture the criminal and see to it that he was extradited back to Gotham.

Batman once took Dick on a mission with the Justice League so that the boy could understand his worth as part of a superhero team. Even though Robin was outclassed for most of the mission, Batman assured the boy that, in the future, he wouldn't just be a member of the League—he was bound to be its leader.^[71]

Batgirl

Sometime later, Barbara Gordon had caught Batman's attention and was recruited into his crusade as Batgirl. At some point, the pair would face off against Catman atop the El Payaso Candy Company building.^[72]

World's Finest

Over the course of their careers, Superman and Batman and became close allies, despite some initial distrust and the stark difference between their methods and personalities. They would frequently operate as partners, a pairing referred to by some as 'The World's Finest'. At some point, they fought the tyrant Mongul MDCCXC together.

The Devil Nezha

One such outing was prompted by the unexpected team-up of the Gotham-based villain Poison Ivy and the cyborg Metallo under the influence of the Devil Nezha. During the encounter, Metallo injected Superman with a sample of Red Kryptonite, causing Superman to undergo a series of rapid and horrifying transformations. Batman contacted the Doom Patrol, who rapidly arrived on the scene. Luckily, Negative Man was able to incapacitate Superman.^[73] The group was able to purge the Red Kryptonite from Superman; Niles Caulder then identified the insignia on the vial that had been used to inject Superman as belonging to the Devil Nezha (having recently recoverd Nezha's sword from General Zahl themselves, and recounted the legend of Nezha's creation.

Simultaneously, several villains attacked other heroes, including the Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and the new hero Captain Marvel. Splitting up, Robin teamed with Supergirl, and the pair traveled in time in order to contact the House of Ji, who had defeated and imprisoned Nezha in antiquity. Superman and Batman traveled to Philadelphia in order to rescue Billy Batson from Felix Faust^[74] Despite some struggle, they were able to defeat Faust and rescue Billy before moving on to aid other heroes.

The pair then went to rescue Wonder Woman and the Flash, who under attack by Doctor Alchemy and Mirror Master respectively. They defeated both villains by tricking Doctor Alchemy into attacking Mirror Master's Mirror, only to be captured by Green Lantern, who had fallen under Nezha's sway.^[75] However, the pair was able to escape by overriding Hal Jordan's compromised willpower. The ring, seeing them as one individual and amplified by the ambient magic produced by Nezha, fused Batman and Superman into a single composite being.^[76] Nezha did not relent, though, and sent the heroes Black Canary, Firestorm, Martian Manhunter, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, and Red Tornado after them. However, the fused pair was able to force Nezha towards his far-away tomb with the assistance of the returned Supergirl. Realizing that Nezha was weak to modern technologies, the group managed to imprison Nezha within his tomb once again with the help of a Phantom Zone Projector.^[77]

Afterwards, Superman and Batman travelled back in time to the year 1892 to rescue Robin, who had inadvertently become lost in the timestream during his trip to learn from the House of Ji. There, they participated in a circus show undercover, and helped Robin solve an a murder before the trio returned to the present.^[78]

The Boy Thunder

Some time later, a rift opened up in the sky, and through it, David Sikela arrived, the last survivor from an unknown Earth elsewhere in them multiverse. They quickly realized the unique properties of David's biology gave him powers under Earth-0's sun, and brought him to Kandor to be examined by the Kandorian scientist Kim-Da. While there, Kim-Da fabricated David a costume inspired by Hel-Oz, an ancient Kryptonian hero. After a brief but traumatic excursion to Gotham, Robin took David to the secret base of the Teen Titans, where he introduced the teen to his friends and partners.^[79]

For a time, The Boy Thunder worked as Superman's sidekick; eventually, however, it would not last. After several adventures in which he helped subdue an earthquake, battle Doctor Phosphorus, fight Sinestro, and save the city from Atomic Skull, things rapidly fell apart as David was directly targeted. The Key attacked Gotham, using a psychotropic compound to effectively lock all of its inhabitants where they were when the attack began, including Robin and Batman, who were stuck in the Batcave. Despite an anxiety attack, David was able to help, rescuing trapped miners. Luckily, based on Batman's notes, Blue Beetle was able to disperse an antidote to the chemical. Unbeknownst to them, the Key was working with the Joker, who had larger plans.^[80]

David continued to study alongside Superman and Batman, struggling with anger issues and the trauma of losing his parents and world, later admitting to Superman that he believed himself to be responsible for his parents' death. Their heart-to-heart was interrupted by the next stage of the Joker and the Key's plan—using Angle Man's Angler to open a door directly from the bottom of the Gotham River into the city. Tragically, the pair used this distraction as an opportunity to kidnap David. They tortured David as Superman and his allies desperately searched for their lost friend. Eventually, they found him, and in the process of freeing him, David nearly killed the Joker. In the aftermath, Superman briefly considered using Kryptonian technology designed by Kim-Da to depower David, but decided against it.

However, the Key was not yet done with David. He summoned a motley crew of villains into the Fortress of Solitude, including Bag o' Bones, Acid Master, Doctor Phoenix, the Abominable Snowman, Ferlin Nyxly, and Zebra-Man. In the chaos, he activated the Bleedship that brought David to Earth-0, seeing it as the key to the multiverse. Resultingly, David was pulled out of Earth-0, sent to an unknown world in the Multiverse—but not before a tearful goodbye with Superman, Batman, and Robin.^[81]

Elementary

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Jason Todd and Tim Drake

Bruce, convinced that Dick was wasting his potential by remaining a sidekick to Batman, decided that Dick needed a push out of the nest. To that end, leading up to and on the day of Dick's eighteenth birthday, Bruce began implementing increasingly strict and draconian rules, criticizing Dick more often, and generally attempting to push him away so that he might find himself as an independent person. As a result, Dick Grayson quit his role as Robin and became Nightwing.

Sometime after that, Batman caught orphan Jason Todd trying to steal prescription drugs from Dr. Leslie Thompkins. Believing that Todd had the potential to turn over a new leaf, Wayne offered him the vacant position of Robin and, when he accepted, trained him for months. However, soon after Jason had become active as a vigilante, he was lured into chasing a woman he believed to be his mother to the Middle East—a setup by the Joker—and killed before Batman could save him.^[82]

After the death of Jason Todd, Batman became increasingly violent and reckless, which worried a boy named Tim Drake. Tim, who had deduced Dick Grayson's identity as Nightwing, tried to convince Dick to return as Robin once again in order to rein in Batman's rage. When Dick refused, Tim put on a Robin costume to aid Batman and Nightwing in a fight against Two-Face. Tim was of vital help in that fight, and Batman agreed to train Tim as the third Robin.^[83] Tim would later leave his identity as Robin to become Red Robin and lead the Teen Titans.^[84]

In an effort to take control of Gotham City, Bane ran Batman ragged, and then broke his back.^[85] Sometime later, Ra's al Ghul attempted to eradicate the population of Gotham City using the Ebola Gulf-A Virus, and was thwarted by the Batman.^[86]

Over the years, Batman compiled detailed contingency files on many of his allies in the Justice League, fearing the potential damage they could inflict on the planet if controlled. The files were eventually stolen by Ra's Al Ghul, who used them to target the league to catastrophic effect. Though the League was able to defeat Ra's, they were shaken by the experience and afterwards, for his perceived betrayal, Batman was voted out of the league.

Though he told Superman that the contingency for a rogue Batman was the Justice League, this was a deception^[87] to even Bruce himself.^[88] In truth, Batman's mental backup against psychological attacks, the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh, created an anti-Batman contingency in the form of Failsafe,^[87] a robot that would be activated if Batman ever willingly took a life.^[89] After creating Failsafe, the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh erased his memory of how to defeat the contingency.^[87] Meanwhile, Bruce himself remained blissfully unaware of the robot's existence.^[88]

Black Adam and Khandaq

Black Adam formed a group of heroes including Atom Smasher who entered Khandaq and deposed dictator Asim Muhunnad, despite the efforts of the Justice Society.

His newly reclaimed kingdom was not entirely willing to submit to his rule; the northern tribes built a resistance, targeting a new desalination plant in the Ahk-Ton Desert. He sent Atom Smasher to put down this rebellion with a show of force but instructed him not to harm the rebels. Later that day, he was confronted by Batman, who had infiltrated his palace with the intent to depose him. Out of respect, Adam returned to his human form, wanting to fight Batman on equal ground. Batman underestimated Adam, who fought him to a standstill using martial arts techniques only one with an extraordinarily long life could master. Forcing a pause, Adam offered to grant Batman a portion of his power, so that he could watch over Gotham for centuries, like Adam would with Khandaq.

Batman refused, and soon they were interrupted by the attacking rebels. Furious at Batman for distracting him, he renewed his attack, only to realize that he needed Batman's help. While Batman helped the palace staff and the injured within get to safety, Adam engaged the rebels with extreme prejudice.^[70]

Batman and Son

Bruce's longtime paramour, Talia Al Ghul returned to Gotham and introduced the Dark Knight to his biological son, Damian, whom she had grown in a lab and trained to lead the League of Assassins from birth. She intended for Bruce to train their son in the ways she could not, and in the hope of curbing his homicidal tendencies, he took on the boy as Robin to keep a close eye on him.^[90]

Not long after taking on Damian, Bruce was seemingly killed by Darkseid,^{[citation needed]} having in fact been sent back in time. While Nightwing eventually took on the role of Batman in his stead, training Damian as Robin,^{[citation needed]} Bruce fought his way forward through time.^{[citation needed]} and upon his return, announced that he had been privately funding the Batman, and declared the creation of Batman Incorporated.

New 52

The Court of Owls

While Bruce Wayne revealed plans to revolutionize the city of Gotham, the GCPD uncovered a body with ties to the legend of the Court of Owls and a warning of an attempt against Bruce's life.^[91] Batman believed the Court of Owls were just a legend, but after taking a meeting with an interested business partner in Lincoln March, Bruce was nearly killed by an assassin dressed like an owl in Wayne Tower.^[92] While investigating the assassination attempt, Batman became trapped in an underground labyrinth where the very much real Court of Owls held him for eight days and attempted to drive him insane. Despite this, he managed to break his way into an underground portion of the Gotham River^[93] and was found and revived from cardiac arrest by Harper Row.^[94]

Urged on by Batman's interference, the Court of Owls elected to resurrect all of their undead Talons from over a century of assassinations, in order to kill off several prominent Gothamites and regain full control of Gotham City.^[94] A swarm of assassins attacked Bruce Wayne at his home, but he was able to fend them off using an emergency robot-suit in the Batcave.^[95]

After tracking the Court of Owls back to their hideout, Batman found all its members dead—poisoned by their food. Following clues to the ruins of a mental hospital, Batman learned that Lincoln March, his former business partner, was behind the betrayal within the Court. March believed himself to be Bruce's Wayne's younger brother, Thomas Wayne, Jr.,^[2] and that, when he was a boy, he had been taken in by the Court and raised to believe Martha Wayne was his mother. March grew to resent Bruce and took the role of King of the Owls to win control of the city for himself and to kill Bruce. In their encounter, Lincoln March escaped, leading Bruce to assume the Court of Owls would one day return.^[4]

At that same time, a murderous vigilante called NoBody began attempting to win Bruce's son's loyalty away from him, encouraging him to break with Batman's no-kill policy. He soon realized that this man was Morgan Ducard, with whom he had trained in man-hunting some years ago.^[96] When Damian declined to join him, NoBody turned on him, and Batman was forced to save him. In the resulting battle, it was Damian who made the final blow and killed NoBody,^[97] causing his father to worry if he'd ever be able to train him not to perpetuate the cycle of violence.^[98]

Death of the Family

Having waited for nearly a year in hiding, the Joker reappeared at the GCPD Headquarters and killed several officers to signal his return to Batman, and to retrieve his face from the evidence locker, which he had cut off and left behind before his disappearance.^[99] The Joker then threatened to recreate one of his first recorded murders with Gotham's Mayor, but he killed all of the guards outside the Mayor's office instead, leaving disturbing frowns instead of the trademark Joker smiles on their faces. Seeing a pattern in Joker's twisted recreations of past crimes, Batman went to the ACE Chemical building, where a distraction provided by a reluctant Harley Quinn allowed the Joker to go to Wayne Manor and attack Alfred.^[100]

Once free, Batman returned to the Manor to find a cassette tape revealing that Alfred had been kidnapped and tortured. Confiding in Nightwing, Batman asked him to keep Alfred's kidnapping a secret, insisting that the Joker had not yet deduced his identity. Meeting next at the Gotham Reservoir, the Joker claimed that he did know everyone's identities and promised to kill each of the allies who had made Batman weak within 72 hours.^[56]

Bruce's allies compelled him to admit that after his second encounter with the Joker, he had found one of the Joker's cards in the Batcave but had never believed that his identity was compromised. Insisting that his allies remain safe in the cave, Batman followed a lead to Arkham Asylum, where he learned that the Joker had taken over without being noticed.^[101] There, Batman discovered that the Joker has renovated and rearranged the building into a kind of castle, of which Batman was King, and he was Jester. The only way to find out what happened to his kidnapped allies, whom the Joker had captured in the interim, was to go along with the skit the madman put together and electrocute himself in his hot-wired "throne."^[102]

Batman woke at a dinner table in the Batcave surrounded by his allies, all with bandaged faces. Removing the lids from the dinner platters in front of them, the Joker revealed each of their faces. After discovering that the bandages and severed faces were a fake-out, Batman chased down the Joker, who chose to fall into a chasm rather than allow Batman to reveal either of their identities and spoil his fantasy. Despite everyone being alive and well, Bruce's insistence on keeping secrets the Joker's taunts drove a wedge between he and his family.^[103]

The Demon Star & Gotham's Most Wanted

Armed with the League of Assassins' power, Leviathan began taking over the city of Gotham, and in an effort to gain more information, Batman took on the identity of Matches Malone to infiltrate the crime ring. He was, however, betrayed to Leviathan and sentenced to death, requiring Damian—who had been grounded in the Batcave, to defy his father's wishes to save him.^[104]

Batman was captured yet again by Man-Bat Commandos and put in a death trap by Talia, who had taken over Wayne Tower in the meantime. Against Batman's wishes, Alfred allowed Damian to leave the Batcave, once again, and help his father.^[105] While Batman escaped his death trap, Damian faced the villainous Leviathan agent the Heretic alone. Though he fought well, Damian was no match for it and he was skewered on the Heretic's blade, perishing.^[106]

Thwarted in avenging his son, Bruce was thrown from the Tower, and later held a small, private funeral for Damian, even as his city was overrun by Leviathan and the Mayor declared him a menace, forcing Wayne Enterprises to cut funding to Batman Incorporated.^[107]

Borrowing the Suit of Sorrows to face Talia and the Heretic, Batman transformed himself into a bat-creature^[108] After Batman pummeled the Heretic and discovered with disgust that he was a clone of Damian, the Heretic escaped Batman only to be executed by Talia for failing to follow her orders.^[109]

Batman and Talia came to a final confrontation in the Batcave, with the woman forcing him to choose between taking her life or giving his life along with his city—with the trick being that she had already poisoned him. In a bid for Batman's life, Wingman offered the Oroboro device Talia sought, as a distraction, as the headmistress of Spyral shot her in the head, freeing the city of Leviathan's grasp.

In the aftermath, Bruce Wayne was arrested, but charges were dropped. Upon his return to the manor, he and Alfred discovered that the corpses of both Damian and Talia had been dug up and stolen by Ra's al Ghul.^[110]

Requiem for Damian

Damian's death left Bruce an emotional wreck,^[111] compounded by the fact that his romantic interest, Natalya Trusevich had been murdered by the Mad Hatter when he allowed her to get close to him.^[112] He began going through the five stages of grief, beginning with denial. Bruce began alienating his family but, after spending time with each of them however, Bruce began to accept that he had lost a son, and that he was not completely responsible, which allowed him to see that Alfred, too, had blamed himself and been going through pain.^[113]

While attempting to recover from his grief, Batman was faced with the threat of The Wrath—a cop-killing arms dealer who had a vendetta against the GCPD, but soon defeated him.^[114]

Forever Evil

In the hopes of ridding the world of evil, Pandora tried to have members of the Justice League open Pandora's Box for her, believing that their virtuousness would prevent the calamity that occurred when she opened it.^[115] Unbeknownst to her, a secret organization was using her as a pawn in a ploy to have the three Justice Leagues come into conflict. The leagues split up in order to discover their own solutions to the puzzle of Pandora's Box.^[116] Batman headed the team who believed that there was a scientific explanation for the box and its apparent effect on Superman.^[117] Upon their eventual convergence upon the box, the Leagues discovered that it was a doorway to another world, from which the Crime Syndicate emerged, and imprisoned the majority of the Justice Leagues within the Firestorm Matrix.^[118]

Only Batman and Catwoman evaded the Syndicate's imprisonment and, after bringing a critically injured Cyborg to S.T.A.R. Labs for repair, learned that Nightwing's secret identity had been revealed by the Syndicate. Together, Batman and Catwoman decided to seek him out and rescue him from imprisonment.^[119] While searching for more resources in a Wayne Enterprises storage facility, Bruce and Selina encountered Lex Luthor and his followers, who were also prepared to combat the Syndicate. Their confusion at Batman's survival was smothered by the arrival of Power Ring. Hoping to counter him, Batman donned a Sinestro Corps Ring, only to have it removed and destroyed.^[120] Fortunately, Sinestro, himself was drawn by the ring's energy, and killed Power Ring, suggesting that Batman join the Sinestro Corps, if ever he had the opportunity to wear a yellow ring again.^[121]

After being forced to follow Lex Luthor's lead, begrudgingly, the pair discovered Nightwing trapped within an Apokoliptian device called the Murder Machine, deep within the ruins of the Justice League Satellite. Dick warned, though, that the device he was strapped to was synced with his heart rate, such that they would either blow up with the device, or they would have to kill him. Despite Dick's begging, Bruce refused to leave him. More decisively, Lex chose to suffocate Dick until his heart stopped, buying them the time to get him out of the machine and then resuscitate him.^[122] He had, in fact, given Dick a pill that would stop his heart temporarily, requiring a shot of adrenaline before brain death. Once Dick was revived, he, Batman, and Catwoman escaped to seek out the remainder of the Justice League. With a plan to use Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth to pull the League out of the Firestorm Matrix and Steve Trevor out of action though, Martian Manhunter appointed Batman to be the one to wield the Lasso, because of his connection to Wonder Woman. Using it, he saved the imprisoned heroes while Lex and his allies defeated the Crime Syndicate.

Afterwards, despite his closeness with Catwoman, Batman insisted that they could not start a romance together and returned home with Dick. Having been presumed dead, Batman offered him an opportunity to take advantage of his compromised identity by joining Spyral. In the meantime, Gotham had become a war zone between the inmates of Arkham Asylum and the inmates of Blackgate Penitentiary the latter of whom were led by Bane.^[123] As victor, Bane claimed the mantle of the Bat for himself, requiring Batman to wrest it back from him. When Bane was safely imprisoned in Arkham, Bruce Wayne promised funds to improve the asylum's security and to the city's restoration.^[124]

The Big Burn

Soon after taking control of the city again, Batman experienced a blast from the past when Erin McKillen returned to Gotham to meet with the other crime families to take back the city from the "freaks." McKillen's return caused a conflict with Two-Face, who received his famous scars from McKillen. After Batman managed to stop the two from killing each other, McKillen was arrested, her plan thwarted, and Two-Face, disillusioned with his life, shot himself through the head.^[125]

Also, around this time, Batman and his allies were mind controlled by Scarecrow and a group of Batman's other psychologically focused foes into believing they were living in Gothtopia, an idyllic version of Gotham. However, Batman broke free of the control before his allies did, and, not realizing the world they were living in was fake, they targeted him for apparently losing his mind. The Bat successfully stopped the Scarecrow and brought his friends back to reality.

Batman Eternal

When a mysterious malefactor came to Gotham City with a yearlong plot to destroy Batman's life, phase one of the mastermind's scheme involved framing Commissioner Gordon for the murders of a derailed train car full of people, which Batman swore to exonerate him for. Simultaneously, the mastermind invited former Gotham mob boss Carmine Falcone back from his refuge in Hong Kong to initiate a gang war with the Penguin, again to add another conflict on Batman's hands. However, despite the corrupt replacement Commissioner Forbes' interference, Batman, with the help of the GCPD, captured the two gang leaders, seemingly putting their war to an end.^[126]

While hunting for Hush, a criminal who was hired to participate in the real mastermind's plan, Batman had his first—albeit indirect—encounter with the Spoiler, who used him to save her from assassin Eduardo Flamingo who had been after her because she knew something about the secret of the attack on Gotham.^[127]

Another part of the plot to wear down Batman was to resurrect the evil cult leader Deacon Blackfire in Arkham Asylum, but this plan was (mostly) foiled by Batwing and Jim Corrigan. However, the building of Arkham Asylum was destroyed in the process, setting its inmates loose in Gotham.^[128] When Batman finally managed to catch Hush, it was too late—Batman had been distracted so long that the real conductor had totally cleaned out all of Batman's secret gadget caches and sold them to his enemies.^[129] While still searching for who was behind this complicated conspiracy, Batman set his sights on Ra's al Ghul who, also, was another red herring.^[130]

Upon Bruce discovered that while he'd been distracted chasing down leads, the city was on fire, and its infrastructure had been turned against the citizens. He then, at last, received an invitation back to Beacon Tower, to watch the end of everything he cared about. When he arrived, the one who met him there was the Cluemaster.^[131] However, despite all the Cluemaster's taunting and explanations as to how he pulled the scheme over on Bruce, he was unexpectedly murdered by the one who had really been behind it all—Lincoln March—the man who believes himself to be Bruce's younger brother.^[132] In their battle, Bruce found himself too weak to fight, but was bolstered when Jim Gordon called on the entire city to take on the role of Batman and be heroes for the sake of their own city. Soon, Batman's allies rallied around him, and it was Spoiler who beat March down—though he escaped into the sewers, only to be caught by the Court of Owls.

Following Arkham Asylum's destruction, Batman allowed Wayne Manor to be the temporary home to its inmates, and even went into the new asylum undercover as the dead man "Jack Shaw" to investigate a series of murders. Despite solving the mystery, and having the opportunity to get his home back, Bruce let the city keep the Manor until they were able to erect a permanent replacement in the wake of the recent attack on Gotham.^[133]

Robin Rises

Eventually, Batman decided at last to begin the search for Ra's al Ghul and the stolen bodies of Damian and Talia. When Batman had finally tracked down Ra's and successfully defeated him, Damian's sarcophagus was stolen by Glorious Godfrey and taken back to Apokolips. Ignoring the League's dissent, he snuck onto the Satellite to steal a specialized Batsuit designed to help him survive against the threat of Apokolips.^[134]

While Batman fought his way to Glorious Godfrey on Apokolips, his family decided that they would not allow him to fight this battle alone and kidnapped Cyborg, forcing him to open a Boom Tube that would get them to Apokolips as well. Before they left, Alfred gave each of them a new costume resembling that of Robin to remind them who they fought for.^[135] After questioning Godfrey, Batman united with his allies and learned that Darkseid's son Kalibak was using a powerful stone known as the Chaos Crystal and Damian's sarcophagus to power a weapon called the Chaos Cannon that could destroy an entire moon.^[136]

Batman's arrival on Apokolips roused even Darkseid himself, who challenged the determined father. Managing to get to Damian's body, Batman thrust the charged Chaos Crystal shard into Damian's chest and restored him.^[137] Escaping Darkseid's world through a Boom Tube, it was then that they discovered Damian's resurrection from the Chaos Crystal had given him super-human abilities.^[138] which wore off after some time.^[139]

Endgame

While recovering from an attack by the Scarecrow, Batman was attacked by a Jokerized Justice League, signaling the Joker had returned again at last.^[140] After subduing the Justice League, Batman then learned that the newest doctor at Arkham Asylum—Eric Border—had actually been the Joker in disguise all along. The madman, shedding his disguise in front of the hero, activated a toxin in Gotham that rendered all of its citizens Jokerized.^[141]

Looking for a cure for the new strain of toxin, Batman sought patient zero at the hospital for an antibody but discovered that patient zero was 'Joe Chill, the murderer of his parents. After hearing many rumors from friends and enemies alike, Batman began to believe that the Joker could possibly be immortal thanks to an exposure to the element Dionesium, a component found in Lazarus Pits.^[142]

By the time Batman had discovered the fabled pool of Dionesium that had been in the Joker's system, the villain had found him and attacked him in the tunnels. They fought brutally until both of them were near death, and as the cavern collapsed around them, Bruce held the Joker back from the healing pool, forcing him to acknowledge that he had not been around for centuries as he'd claimed. Together, Batman and the Joker died in that cave.

Resurrection and Memory Loss

When Batman's dead body was discovered in the rubble of the collapsed cavern, he suddenly came awake, apparently revived by the Dionesium within the cavern's pit. Alfred discovered that the revival had had the profound effect of remaking Bruce's brain from scratch—with no memories of his past life. Alfred told him all that he felt necessary but withheld the fact that Bruce had been the Batman. Bruce—a new man—had not wanted to know anyway.^[143] He later reunited with Julie Madison, an old girlfriend of his, and began working with her at the Lucius Fox Center for Gotham Youth in an effort to serve Gotham.^[144]

Many of Batman's former allies tried to contact Bruce, including the Justice League, but Alfred insisted that Bruce's past as Batman remain a secret to him. Any invitation that was made for Bruce to become a hero again was by buried by Alfred.

After seeing firsthand just how awful the effects of the new super villain Mister Bloom's attacks were, Bruce's feelings on the issue were resolved, and he decided to accept being Batman again.^[145]Despite Alfred's efforts, Bruce made it past him to the Batcave and discovered a device his former self had built in order to create clones who would have all of Batman's skills and memories. Bruce used the machine to get his memories back and returned at last to the role that killed him before.^[146] The newly returned hero faced and defeated Mister Bloom and was returned the title of Batman from its current owner—Jim Gordon.^[147]

Darkseid War

Bruce returned to being Batman just in time for an intense multiverse crisis—the Anti-Monitor and Darkseid were going to war, and they chose Earth as their battlefield.

The New God Metron, having infinite knowledge of the multiverse due to his Mobius Chair, came to the Justice League and tried to warn them of their impending doom. As a sacrificial precaution, Batman removed Metron from his chair and sat on himself to gain more knowledge of the war. By doing so, Batman was filled with every answer in the galaxy, total omniscience and nigh-unlimited omnipotence. He became the "God of Knowledge."

Batman asked the chair questions to test its knowledge, such as who his parents' murderer was. When the chair answered correctly, he asked the identity of the Joker, of which it responded "there are three."

With his new power on the Mobius Chair, Batman patrolled Gotham. Though Jim Gordon lit the Bat-Signal for him, Batman informed Jim it was unnecessary because now he knew every crime happening in Gotham and every crime that would happen. Jim questioned Batman's ethics with such a power, but the new God ignored him and harshly punished would-be criminals before they committed their crimes.

Batman discovered he couldn't change crimes in the past though when he tried to stop his parents from being murdered. Furious, instead, he traveled to the present to the jail cell of his parent's murderer Joe Chill. Batman angrily scolded the man and, in an effort to torture him, revealed that he—Batman—was Bruce Wayne before teleporting away. Chill was traumatized by the incident and didn't tell anybody what he had learned.

Batman's power had another price—he was incapable of escaping the Mobius chair. As the battle between Darkseid and the Anti-Monitor climaxed, Green Lantern Hal Jordan made a desperate attempt to free Batman from the chair's control by gifting him his Lantern ring, giving Batman enough willpower to leave the chair for good.

DC Rebirth

I Am Gotham, I Am Suicide, I Am Bane

 Main articles: Batman: I Am Gotham, Batman: I Am Suicide, and Batman: I Am Bane

While reestablishing himself as the protector of Gotham, Batman was greeted by two new super-powered heroes—Gotham and Gotham Girl—who he began to trust to serve the city.^[148] However, the two rookies soon found themselves victims of the mind-altering villain Psycho-Pirate, who was working under the instruction of Hugo Strange.^[149] Batman later discovered both men had been recruited to put a stop to the level of crime in Gotham City by Amanda Waller, but Strange had betrayed that mission.^[150] Psycho-Pirate drove Gotham into a rage, causing him to kill criminals in an attempt to prevent crime, while simultaneously rendering Gotham Girl a nervous wreck. With the help of the Justice League, Batman was able to restrain Gotham, but the overexertion of his powers killed Gotham.^[151]

Batman, wanting to find Psycho-Pirate to force him to fix Gotham Girl, discovered he had escaped to foreign nation of Santa Prisca and was under the protection of Bane. In order to get the Pirate back, Batman was encouraged by Waller to assemble a team that was practically "suicidal." He recruited a number of villains from Arkham Asylum: Ventriloquist, Bronze Tiger, Punch and Jewlee, and finally Catwoman, who was being held on 237 counts of murder.^[152] The mission was a success; Batman and his team escaped with Psycho-Pirate and left Bane beaten.^[153] Bruce later discovered Selina had taken the blame for the murders in order to protect her friend Holly Robinson, who had really committed the killings. She knew that if she took the fall, Batman would never let her die on death row and Holly's life would be saved.^[154]

Bane returned to Gotham to seek revenge on Batman for humiliating him.^[154] He fought and defeated dozens of Batman's rogues at Arkham Asylum to get to Batman, culminating in a fight between the two. Bruce emerged victorious, albeit barely.^[1]

After the Justice League were forced to team up with the Suicide Squad to fend off Maxwell Lord's nefarious plot for peace, Batman recruited an assembly of heroes and villains he thought could do some good to form the new Justice League of America.^[155]

Gotham Knights

Batman discovered he was being monitored by surveillance equipment, and after investigating he discovered Gotham's other heroes were being monitored as well. He recruited his cousin Kate Kane, also known as the vigilante Batwoman, to form a new team dedicated to combating this threat. The duo formed a boot camp for young heroes that would become known as the Gotham Knights, consisting of Red Robin, Orphan, Spoiler and a newly reformed Clayface;^[156] although the team would later recruit Batwing and Azrael as well. The Gotham Knights fought threats such as the Colony, a U.S. government agency dedicated to creating an army of soldiers modeled around Batman headed by Bruce's uncle (and Kate's father) Colonel Jacob Kane,^[157] the Victim Syndicate, a team of victims caught up in Batman's war on crime who sought revenge,^[158] the League of Shadows, an offshoot of the League of Assassins headed by Lady Shiva,^[159] and the Order of St. Dumas.^[160]

The team fell apart after Batwoman killed Clayface, who had gone rogue and was about to destroy the city. Batman objected to her use of lethal force, dividing the team and ultimately leading to its collapse.^[161]

The Button

Following his discovery of a mysterious button lodged in the walls of the Batcave, Bruce attempted to research the button to no apparent avail until, one day, it had a reaction when placed near Psycho-Pirate's mask. Seemingly connected, Reverse-Flash broke into the Batcave and began to wallop Batman until he was mysteriously disintegrated by a being he claimed was God.^[162]

In an attempt to discover who had killed Reverse-Flash and was manipulating the timestream, Batman and the Flash used the Cosmic Treadmill to follow the button's radiation and landed in the timeline Barry had created after he had gone back in time to save his mother. There, Bruce met the version of his father from that reality who had himself become Batman after the death of his son.^[163] Thomas Wayne encouraged Bruce to stop being Batman, and instead seek happiness.^[164] Batman and Flash managed to escape the collapsing timeline and return to their world with the help of Jay Garrick, who was stuck in the Speed Force.^[165]

Invasion of the Dark Multiverse

 Main article: Dark Nights: Metal

For some time, Bruce had been investigating the power of mysterious metals that he believed had been impacting the world since the dawn of mankind. By the time it was too late, Batman discovered that he had been selected by the demon Barbatos to be the vessel for his invasion of the Multiverse.^[166] Over the years, the Court of Owls, who were in fact worshipers of Barbatos, had exposed him to four of the five heavy metals required to open the portal to the Dark Multiverse. They exposed him to the final metal, Batmanium, which transformed Bruce into a doorway, allowing Barbatos and his army of Dark Knights to enter.^[167]

While his Justice League teammates fought the Dark Knights, Bruce's mind was trapped in the nightmarish Dark Multiverse. There, Barbatos told him that he first saw Batman when he was sent back in time to the dawn of man, and he had shaped Bruce's life in order to lead him to this point.^[168] Superman attempted to restore Batman, but he too was captured in the Dark Multiverse.^[169] With the help of Wonder Woman and Lady Blackhawk, Batman and Superman were rescued. Batman defeated the Batman Who Laughs, the leader of the Dark Knights, by teaming up with his most unlikely ally, the Joker. The Over-Monitor told the Justice League of the power of the Tenth Metal, Element X—the most powerful metal of all. Through channeling the tiny amount of Element X present in every living human being, the heroes were able to restore the Multiverse to its normal state, however in the process they shattered the Source Wall, the wall surrounding the Multiverse. As the League prepared to face any and all threats this could cause, Bruce presented his plans for a new Hall of Justice.^[170]

Rules of Engagement

 Main article: Batman: Rules of Engagement (Rebirth) (Collected)

Following his father's advice and motivated by a conversation with Gotham Girl, Bruce decided to seek happiness in his life and proposed to Catwoman using the diamond she had stolen when they first met,^[171] and she accepted.^[58]

While Bruce and Catwoman temporarily left Gotham on a mission to find Holly Robinson] in the country of Khadym, Alfred informed Dick, Jason, Duke and Damian of the engagement. Despite his initial doubts, Damian accepted his father's decision.^[172] When Batman returned to Gotham, he was encouraged by Catwoman to tell his closest friend Superman of his engagement.^[173] Batman, Superman, Catwoman and Lois Lane went on a double date; a rare occasion in which the two heroes got to spend time together outside of crime fighting.^[174]

Wonder Woman arrived in Gotham, informing Batman that The Gentle Man had decided to take them up on an offer. Years ago, Batman and Wonder Woman discovered The Gentle Man, a man who endlessly protected Earth from the invasion of creatures from another realm. They offered him the chance to take his place for a day and he had decided to take them up on their offer. The Gentle Man failed to tell the heroes that time passed differently in this realm; while they spent what felt like years in battle, mere hours had passed on Earth.^[175] While alone for so many years, Batman and Wonder Woman almost gave in to a romantic attraction but refrained out of love for their partners. Catwoman forced The Gentle Man to swap places with Batman and Wonder Woman once more.^[176]

In an attempt to instill peace across the planet and protect Earth from destruction at humans' hands, Poison Ivy used her command over plant matter to take control of the minds of the entire planet's population, forcing them to live in harmony. Batman managed to inject himself and Catwoman with an antidote, leaving them the only people unaffected.^[177] Batman and Catwoman executed a plan to get to Harley Quinn, who he theorized could be used to break Ivy's control. The plan was a success and, upon the two women reuniting, Ivy dropped her control over humanity.^[178]

The time-travelling superhero Booster Gold, inspired by Superman's adventure to an alternate reality where Krypton survived, decided, as a wedding present to Batman, to create an alternate reality where Bruce's parents survived. However, after altering the timeline, Booster became trapped in this new, darker reality for two years until he was able to fix it again. Booster told Bruce about his attempted-gift but was permanently scarred from the incident.^[179]

The Wedding of Batman and Catwoman

 Main article: Batman: The Wedding (Collected)

When the Joker discovered that Batman and Catwoman were getting married, he staged an attack that he felt would ruin their wedding. Taking hostages at a cathedral, he forced Batman to play along in his mock-ceremony. Catwoman arrived, despite Batman's request that she stay home, and she fought off the Joker while Batman was incapacitated. As part of his plan, the Joker gave Catwoman the opportunity to let him bleed out and die, but she refused and actively saved his life. Though the clown was stopped, and the wedding was saved, during the fight, the Joker had gotten into Catwoman's head, sewing doubt that maybe if Batman was happily in a loving marriage, he wouldn't be Batman anymore.

Afterwards, while fighting Kite-Man, Batman suggested to Catwoman that their wedding take place that dawn, on top of the building they were currently on—Finger Tower. The pair found a judge to officiate the ceremony—one they felt was so much of a drunk, he'd forget their identities after the fact. Bruce asked Alfred to be his best man and his witness, while Catwoman freed Holly Robinson from prison to act as her maid of honor and witness.

Though everything was going as planned, Bruce briefly reconsidered the wedding but, after a little soul searching, confidently told Alfred he was ready.

Selina had doubts of her own, as her maid of honor Holly continued to stoke Selina's fear that marriage would ruin Batman.

That dawn, after everything had been put into place, Catwoman never arrived, leaving Bruce alone at the altar. She gave into her fear and believed not getting married was for the best.

When Holly Robinson was returned to Arkham Asylum, she reported back to Bane that she had successfully stopped the wedding. All the events the past few months were orchestrated by Bane to mentally and emotionally break the Bat.

Aftermath of Breakup

Batman, after being left by Catwoman, became even more depressed than usual. During this depressed state, he viciously went after Mister Freeze, who had been accused of murdering three women. Batman beat him mercilessly until he confessed to the crime.^[180]

When Freeze's case went to trial, coincidentally, Bruce Wayne was ordered to appear as a member of the jury. During the case, Bruce realized that he had made a mistake—Fries was actually innocent of the crimes—and had to convince the rest of the jury that Batman's evidence was not credible. Charismatically arguing against himself, Bruce successfully convinced the jury to acquit Mr. Freeze.

Afterwards, needing a fresh start, Batman decided to switch out the Batsuit he commonly wore, equipping one of his older models. He admitted he didn't want to wear the one that Catwoman left him in anymore.^[181]

When the Joker learned that the Batman Who Laughs became the way he was due to a chemical that activated when he broke his Joker's neck, the Prime Earth clown shot himself in the heart in front of Batman to activate the same chemical. Though Alfred managed to resuscitate the Joker after the fact, the plan worked, and Batman was temporarily infected to become evil just like the Batman Who Laughs. However, using Bruce Waynes from across the multiverse, Batman managed to overcome the toxin and even defeated the original Batman Who Laughs.^[182]

Bane's Conspiracy

During Bruce's jury session, Dick Grayson covered for him as Batman. After the trial, the mentor and mentee caught up with one another, and Dick expressed interest in returning to Gotham permanently.^[183] However, as part of Bane's ultimate plan to break Batman, the KGBeast was hired to shoot Nightwing in the head, damaging his brain and giving him total amnesia.^[184][185] More furious than ever, Batman tracked the KGBeast to a remote location in the north and beat him senseless, leaving him to try to survive in the harsh tundra by himself.^[186]

Batman returned to Gotham and was contacted by the Penguin, who informed him that Bane was behind everything: the wedding, the breakup, and the shooting of Nightwing. Bane had killed his favorite penguin, and Oswald had decided to defect from his plan.^[187]

Bruce, trusting the information, went after Bane in Arkham, against the authority of the GCPD, and proceeded to beat up Bane in incarceration, despite the villain claiming he had no involvement. Jim Gordon tried to intervene, but Batman punched him in anger.^[188] Gordon, cutting ties with the Bat entirely, destroyed the Bat-Signal with a baseball bat.^[189]

In his pursuit for answers, Batman was captured by Bane, who hooked him up to a machine designed by Dr. Crane to generate non-stop realistic nightmares. After many emotional, horrifying scenarios, Bruce broke free from the machine and battled his way out of Arkham Asylum, tactically taking out almost every inmate who had been let free in the downtime. However, after the fact, Batman's allies found no evidence of the breakout when they returned to Arkham hours later, leading them to question his sanity.

Doomsday Clock

 Main article: Doomsday Clock Vol 1

While Batman dealt with the growing conspiracy against him, approximately a year after Superman was merged back into a singular being, political tensions rose in the United States due to the "Superman Theory"—the idea that the US government was actively breeding superpowers in its citizens due to the exponentially higher accumulation of super-powered people in the West. Simultaneously, Batman's vigilantism was subject to widespread protests in Gotham by activists who felt the Bat's power went unchecked. Further escalating the tension, Wayne Enterprises was financially struggling and was under threat of being taken over by LexCorp.^[190]

At this time, travelers from another dimension arrived in Gotham, looking for their peer Doctor Manhattan, who would solve their political crisis back on their Earth. Rorschach II was assigned to contact Batman for help in their mission and, upon finding the Batcave, shared the original Rorschach's journal with Bruce in order to better explain the situation they were in. Batman took the time to read the journal, decided the entire story was lunacy, and tricked Rorschach into a cell at Arkham Asylum.^[191]

However, Batman learned to trust the story and, after finding and confronting Rorschach's leader Ozymandias, Veidt deemed Batman not useful to their cause and kicked him into a group of anti-Batman demonstrators. The protestors brought Batman to the Joker to be killed, but he was saved by Saturn Girl and Rorschach, having been released from Arkham by the former.^[192]

As political tensions continued to rise, now pitting the Earth's governments against one another, Batman aided the travelers in hopes that Doctor Manhattan could save his world too. Batman specifically kept the US nuke operators from overreacting and launching their weapons against Russia.

Upon summoning him, Manhattan admitted to his part in altering this world's timeline and, inspired by the unwavering goodness of Superman, reset the timeline once again to repair the damages he had made.

City of Bane

Physically and emotionally drained from all the challenges he had gone through, Bruce returned to Wayne Manor to find Bane finally initiating his endgame plan with Alfred as his prisoner. Standing beside Bane was his co-conspirator—an alternate-reality version of Thomas Wayne. Unprepared for another fight, Batman was physically demolished by Bane as Alfred begged for mercy.

When Bruce awoke from unconsciousness, he found himself having been brought to a desert by his alternate-reality father. Thomas revealed that they were on their way to a Lazarus Pit to resurrect Bruce's mother's corpse. Though the two Waynes fought and bickered along the way, by the time they reached the Lazarus Pit, Bruce revealed he had secretly buried Martha's corpse in the desert without Thomas knowing. Both furious, the two men fought, and when morning arrived, only one Batman escaped the pit and returned to Gotham: Thomas.

Back in Gotham, Bane had taken control of the city and let all of the villains loose, assigning them as his new dystopian "police force." Batman's allies were powerless to stop the pandemonium as Bane had a hostage: Alfred, who he threatened to kill him should any Bat-Family member enter Gotham.

Meanwhile, Bruce was stuck in the wilderness, unknown how long he had been travelling for and on the brink of death. He only survived because he was found by Catwoman, who brought him to an apartment in Paris and helped him recover.

Back in Gotham, Bruce's son Damian ignored Bane's warning and single-handedly snuck into Gotham to depose Bane himself. However, Damian was captured, and, making good on his threat, Bane killed Alfred in front of the boy, now using Robin as his new hostage.

Once Bruce had recovered enough at Catwoman's side, he convinced her he needed to return to Gotham and save it from Bane's chaos. Though Selina was hesitant, she agreed and went with him; the time they spent in Paris helped rekindle their relationship.

Upon returning to Gotham, Batman teamed up with Clayface to take down all the villains that Bane had set free. Concurrently, Batman's allies made an attempt to rescue Damian from Bane but, despite their best effort, they were all defeated by Thomas Wayne.

Batman eventually fought his way to Bane's location and faced off with him, one on one, no equipment or help. Batman successfully defeated Bane by cheating, but, before Bruce had the opportunity to physically break his opponent, Thomas Wayne betrayed them both and them unconscious.

When Bruce came to, he was shown Alfred's mangled corpse for the first time by his father. In Thomas' eyes, his plan was complete—he had emotionally broken his son to give up being Batman. However, Alfred's death had empowered Bruce to strike out against his alternate-reality father. After a tough fight, Bruce reigned victorious over Thomas and swore that he was no longer his father.

Justice/Doom War

Batman took part in the first fight for the Totality, where he shrunk himself inside Superman's body to protect him from the Totality's power. The Dark Knight had to fight against Lex Luthor, who shrunk himself as well, and infiltrated inside the body of Clark. Bruce was deeply injured in the fight, as Lex was powered up by the piece of the Totality he already possessed: both the Dark Knight's legs and arms were broken.^[193]

During Drowned Earth, Bruce was the only defense of the Hall of Justice, and managed to fight the Legion of Doom alone, but in the end lost, and Luthor was able to take the Totality away from the Justice League.^[194]

During the League's expedition in the Sixth Dimension, Bruce tricked the World Forger into believing the Dark Knight was his ally, while he gave Superman a chance to free himself up and counter the actions of Alpheus. Batman then convinced the World Forger into becoming a part of the League's active roster.^[195] Back on Earth, Bruce went to the future together with Wonder Woman and Superman, for a last effort against Luthor, who turned into the Apex Predator: finding themselves against Brainiac One Million, they were able to prevail thanks to the help of several Justice Leagues from the future, retrieving a piece of the Totality lost in time.^[196]

In the final conflict between Justice and Doom, Batman battled Luthor inside a transformed Hall, but thanks to Perpetua's full awakening, Justice lost. Transported away by the Quintessence, Batman was part of the League's last mission leading them to defeat Perpetua,^[197] but they once again failed. Coming back to Earth, they found their home turned into the Batman who Laughs' Metalverse.^[198]

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Joker War

 Main article: The Joker War

While still recovering from the loss of his mentor and father figure, Batman was dragged into a criminal conspiracy that had lasted for years regarding a secret supervillain named the Designer, and at the same time was forced to fight off five assassins who were after him as part of the Designer's grand scheme. The Riddler also staged an attack on Gotham, while he was broken physically and mentally due to not treating himself properly, being too busy trying to come up with the ultimate riddle to fool Batman. However, Batman quickly took out most of the assassins and teamed up with Deathstroke, Catwoman, Harley Quinn to defeat Riddler. Through all this the Joker was planning his ultimate surprise for the Dark Knight and his Bat-Family, with the startling knowledge of their secret identities once more.

After Batman tracked down the Designer, it was revealed the Joker was playing everyone, pulling the strings all along. He initiated his plot with his new sidekick Punchline, sending out waves of Joker rioters, who instantly took over the city. He also injected Batman with a toxin that made him see visions of Alfred and his parents with broken necks. Using the Designer's master plan designed for Catwoman, the Joker even successfully stole the Wayne fortune, making himself rich. Using more of the Designer's information, including a formula to reanimate corpses, the clown brought people back from the dead as zombies to attack Batman and Harley.^[199]

Meanwhile, Joker was wasting Bruce's money everywhere, on things like Jokerized limos and gold chain necklaces. Batman and Harley found their way to the rest of the Bat-Family, where they met and came up with a plan. Bruce also regifted the Nightwing costume to Dick Grayson, who had gotten a large portion of his memories back since his shooting.

Finally, Batman went to confront the Joker once and for all at his headquarters—ACE Chemicals. Upon his arrival, Bruce discovered that the Joker had partially resurrected Alfred's corpse as a zombie. Though Batman was emotionally crushed by the sight, he was forced to fight the Joker, who was wearing his own Jokerized Batsuit.^[200][201] Using Batman's gadgets against him, the Joker eventually got the upper hand on Batman and, as he was about to finish him off, was ambushed with a bullet through the eye by Harley Quinn. Harley then strapped bombs to both herself and Joker, forcing Batman to make the decision of which of the two he would defuse in time. To Joker's surprise, the Bat chose Harley, apparently leaving the Joker to die.

With the Joker War officially over, in the aftermath, Bruce discovered the Joker's bomb had been defused, theorizing that the Joker used his bat-equipment to set himself free. Bruce reburied Alfred's corpse with his allies.^[202]

Ghost Stories

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Death Metal

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Infinite Frontier

Urban Legends

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The Neighborhood

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Fear State

 Main article: Fear State

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Abyss

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Shadows of the Bat

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Shadow War

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Failsafe

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Gotham Nocturne

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Dark Crisis

 Main article: Dark Crisis

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Flashpoint Beyond

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Dawn of DC

The Bat-Man of Gotham

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The Gotham War

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Mind Bomb

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Dark Prisons

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Powers and Abilities

Abilities

• Acrobatics: Bruce is known as one of the finest human athletes on Earth, as well as proficient in gymnastics and acrobatics. Even before leaving to train as Batman, he was a very skilled acrobat.^[11][203]
• Archery: Bruce learned how to hunt and kill deer with a bow and arrow from Luka Jungo in British Columbia.^[204] Bruce was able to teach Tim Drake how to use a bow and arrow.^[205] However, Bruce admits that his archery skills are rusty.^[206]
• Athletics^[174]
• Equestrianism^[207]
• Genius Level Intellect: Batman is considered one of the smartest beings on the planet, alongside Lex Luthor.^[190] He owns a spectacular collection of books^[208] and claims to know every book.^[209]
  • Polymath: Batman is highly knowledgeable in various academic fields including Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, History, English, Criminology, Forensic Science. While Bruce never attended college in this universe, he spent years studying under several mentors in numerous scientific fields and engaging in autodidactic studies on his own time during his global sojourn.
  • Eidetic Memory: Bruce knows the "Memory Palace Technique," a strategy of memory enhancement that allows him to treat and store memories like a museum. He was taught this technique by Ra's al Ghul.^[210] With this technique, Bruce has developed a memory palace which allows him to store information for easier recall through a series of mnemonic devices and images.^[211]
  • Hypnosis^[212]
  • Hunting: Bruce learned how hunt and kill deer during his time training under Luka Jungo in Canada.^[213] While Bruce is highly skilled when it comes hunting targets in urban environments, he admits that he's rusty when it comes to hunting in wilderness environments.^[214]
  • Forensic Pathology: Bruce is an expert forensic scientist.^[215] He is capable of performing autopsies.^[216]
  • Gadgetry^[28][217]
  • Aviation^[218][219]
  • Disguise: Bruce is a master of disguise having been trained by Alfred.^[220]
  • Driving: Bruce was trained by Brazilian criminal, Don Miguel, in tactical driving.^[221] He is capable of driving many vehicles including cars, motorcycles & trucks, and can pilot jets, planes, helicopters, boats and submarines.
  • Escapology^[106]
  • Business Management: Bruce has years of experience in business management. He has thorough understanding of financial marketing and management. His industrial and business skills are on par with Lex Luthor.
  • Investigation: Hailed as the World's Greatest Detective, Batman has few equals when it comes to forensic investigations and solving crime mysteries.^[91] He is able to use even the smallest clues and slightest details to solve extremely difficult cases and accurately deduce the identity of unknown criminal masterminds. He is capable of observation, forensic investigation, and inductive and deductive reasoning of the highest caliber.^[222] Even with prior to his detective training, Bruce was capable of deducing and discovering one of the Court of Owls' meeting places when he was eight years old.^[223] Human intuition is an unlearnable trait and one of Batman's most effective tools. Given any mystery, he can arrive at the correct conclusions with a fraction of the data.^[2]
  • Tactical Analysis: Batman is known as one of the greatest strategists and tacticians in the universe. His strategies are so great, that not even Mister Terrific couldn’t find a flaw in his battle plan against the Pykkt Empire, especially after going over every angle of it, thus being capable of beating and outmaneuvering them. For the Pykkts are a civilization of alien warriors, who have destroyed thousands of worlds before coming to Rann and Earth.^[224]
  • Tracking
  • Chemistry^[225]
  • Criminology
  • Mechanical Engineering^[226][227]
  • Robotic Engineering: Batman created the android Failsafe.^[228]
  • Medical Science: Bruce was able to perform brain surgery on Two-Face that completely negated Harvey's darker side for some time.^[229] He was able to implant a failsafe in Jason that induces him with a sense of fear whenever he experiences heightened adrenaline.^[230]
  • Computer Hacking: Bruce was able to hack and record the mobile frequency of the Suicide Squad members' brain bombs and deactivate them.^[231] He can even hack into a Green Lantern Ring and an Apokoliptian computer.^{[232][233][234][235]}
  • Multilingualism: Batman is fluent in Portuguese, Dhari, Latin,^[236] Mandarin,^[237] Turkish,^[238] Russian,^[239] Indonesian,^[240] Greek,^[3] Icelandic,^[241] French,^[242] Korean,^[243] Shanghainese,^[244] Spanish,^[245] Gaelic,^[246] Polish,^[247] and Kryptonese.^{[248][249][250]} He can also understand American Sign Language,^[9] Morse Code,^[251] and Argot of the Ancient Sea People.^[252]
  • Multiple Personalities: After training under Dr. Daniel Captio and learning to use his mind to it's full potential, Bruce created an alternate personality he'd implanted within himself, to act as a contingency and protection against psychological attacks. He named this personality the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh. This version of Bruce has less restraint and acts more violent than Bruce normally would.^[253]
  • Occultism: Batman hates magic, but has allowed himself to learn at least a few spells, as a contingency for Superman.^[254] He is knowledgeable enough on magic to be able to instantly identify it, stating he can feel the sensation of it.^[255] He knows a spell that can expel demons.^[256] He even knows a spell that allows him to summon a magical armor form that allows to challenge and beat the likes of Kryptonians.^[257]
  • Leadership: Bruce has experienced leading the Justice League, the Outsiders and the Bat-Family.
  • Lock Picking: Bruce learned how to pick a lock when he was in grade school.^[160] He can pick handcuff locks in a few seconds,^[258] and can even pick a lock with his mouth.^[259]
  • Prestidigitation: While Bruce hates magic and admits that it isn't his area of expertise, he does have some knowledge of the field. Bruce was taught sleight of hand by Giovanni Zatara.^[260]
• Pedagogy: Bruce has trained multiple members of the Bat-Family in a wide variety of subjects, including martial arts and investigation.^[60]
• Interrogation: Batman is well adept in interrogation techniques, often using law enforcement methods as well as torture.
• Intimidation: Batman is able to instill great fear into others. His ability to do this was so great, he was capable of wielding a Yellow Lantern Ring. Sinestro even stated that he considered Batman a worthy member of the Sinestro Corps.^[120]
• Martial Arts: Batman is one of the greatest martial artists on the planet, having been trained by the best fighters around the world, including Ted Grant, David Cain, Henri Ducard, Master Kirigi, and H'sein Tsan.^[261] . In turn, he has also been able to pass on his learnings to his many proteges. Batwoman was able to identify at least fourteen different styles of martial arts from watching footage of Batman fight.^[262] Bruce even learned a technique called "language of combat," wherein he can communicate with others while fighting without speaking.^[263] Thanks to his years of martial arts training, Bruce can identify the martial art that his opponent uses against him and counter nearly any opponent.^{[264][265][266]} He is also capable of deducing when opponents are holding back in a fight.^[267][268] During the second year of his career as Batman, Bruce traveled into space followed by learning and mastering every form of combat in the entire Slag Galaxy, thanks to the tutelage of Punch Bot' and Ione.^[269]
  • Boxing: Bruce studied boxing during his time at Roxbury Fielding Academy.^[16] He was also trained in this fighting style by Wildcat.^[32]
  • Bam Pow: Bruce has trained in a unique fighting style that he invented to combat the Batman Who Laughs, which Alfred calls "Bam Pow."^[270]
  • Dim Mak: Batman is skilled in this ancient form of martial arts where you strike vital points of the opponent's body causing paralysis, intense and prolonged pain or death. He knows a two-finger nerve strike technique that, if not executed perfectly and with the precise amount of pressure, can easily kill someone.^[271]
  • Eskrima: Batman is highly skilled in Eskrima, capable of using a pair of metal pipes as an improvised set of eskrima sticks. He presumebly taught this fighting style to the Robins.^[272]
  • Jiu-Jitsu^[273]
  • Karate^[274]
  • Klurkor: Batman is skilled in Klurkor, a form of Kryptonian martial arts that he has learned.^[275]
  • Krav Maga^[276]
  • Kung Fu^[277]
    • Wushu^[277]
  • Muay Thai^[278][279]
  • Mushin^[280][281]
  • Ninjutsu^[60]
  • Stick Fighting: Batman is skilled in multiple stick-based martial arts, having trained the Robins to use bo-staffs.^[60]
  • Tae Kwon Do^[282]
  • Wrestling: While weary and suffering from blood loss, Bruce managed to wrestle with a bear.^[283]
• Meditation^[284]
• Music: Bruce is skilled at guitar.^[285]
• Peak Human Condition: Through intense training, a specialized diet, and biofeedback treatments, Batman represents the natural pinnacle of human physical prowess. His physical attributes roughly exceeded that of an Olympic level athlete. His strength, speed, stamina, agility, reflexes and coordination are at peak human perfection. He has spent his entire life in pursuit of physical perfection and has attained it through constant intensive training and determination. He can hold his breath underwater for eighteen minutes.^[286] Due to his contact with Dionesium, Batman was healed from all trauma and scarring received throughout the years of crime-fighting; enhancing his peak physical prowess to newer heights.^{[287][147][288]}
  • Peak Human Strength: Batman's strength is at the peak of human potential, far beyond that of an ordinary human.^[289][290] He's capable of kicking through trees and a motorcycle.^[291][292] He was able to lift Solomon Grundy with a single hand, someone who weighs over five hundred pounds.^[293]
  • Peak Human Speed: Batman's speed is at the peak of human potential, far beyond that of an ordinary human. Batman's so fast that his punches and kicks are blurs in combat.^[294]
  • Peak Human Agility
  • Peak Human Durability
  • Peak Human Reflexes
  • Peak Human Senses: Throughout Batman's years of fighting crime and intense training, his senses became so heightened that he can identify magic by feeling it, detect invisible objects, and can even see spirits like Deadman who remain unseen by normal people.^{[255][295][296]} Batman has the best senses in the entire Bat-Family, as he was the only one capable of sensing Nightwing's presence, when the rest of them couldn't.^[297] Not even Orphan or the Flash are capable of sneaking up on Batman, without him knowing.^{[298] [299][300]}
  • Peak Human Stamina: Thanks to Bruce's training and experience, his stamina and endurance has allowed him to fight for 28 hours straight.^[30] He underwent and survived the Thogal Ritual, where he spent 7 weeks in cave while undergoing a dangerous type of meditation in order to simulate an experience of death and rebirth.^[301] Bruce barely sleeps and is capable of regularly functioning on as little as two hours of rest in order to operate as Batman.^[302]
  • Toxic Immunity: Bruce has acclimated himself to most toxins and poisons.^[303]
• Precognition: After receiving training from a Mongolian Pastoralist, Bruce learned how to read the environment, to feel the subtle shifts in the Earth, in temperatures and the changing in the wind.^[304][305] He has even had a prophetic dream vision of the future.^[306]
• Stealth^[307]
• Swimming^[308]
• Ventriloquism^[309]
• Weaponry: Through his martial arts training, Bruce has become an expert in melee weaponry. He has displayed exceptional sword fighting capability and proficiency with knives, sticks, and various other weapons. He practices during his combat sessions to keep his skills intact, but he prefers unarmed combat.
  • Demolitions^[310]
  • Firearms: Despite his opposition to the use of firearms, Bruce is one of the world's top ten marksmen.^[311] He was trained by Luka Jungo in Canada on how to handle hand guns and received sniper training.^[312]
  • Fencing: Bruce studied fencing during his time at Roxbury Fielding Academy.^[16] During the first month of his training in France, Bruce trained with someone who claimed to be "the world's best fencer," whom he later bested after two weeks.^[313]
  • Swordsmanship^[21]
  • Stick Fighting^[272]
  • Throwing: Batman is a master marksman, capable of throwing his batarangs with immense precision.^[314]

Other Characteristics

• Missing Limb (Formerly): A battle with the Ghost-Breaker lead to the unfortunate loss of Bruce's right hand.^[315][316] He was later given a robotic hand.^[317] Bruce was later given a new right hand by the Robin of Zur-En-Arrh prior to his death.^[318]
• Drug Addiction (Formerly): Bruce was addicted to Venom at one point.^[319]
  

Paraphernalia

Equipment

• Batsuit: The costume Batman wears is composed of Kevlar and a small percentage of titanium; it's bullet-proof and resistant to various types of attack (explosions, impacts, falls, among others). Bruce later upgraded the suit to be made of an unknown synthetic polymer stronger than Kevlar that he designed.^[320][321] It is also flame-retardant and insulated. The gloves and the boots are reinforced to rebound the impact of punches and kicks. The gloves have some metallic blades on their sides. The cape is super-light, and it can be used to glide. The mask has a small percentage of lead, which shields Batman's face from X-ray powers or X-ray technology, and incorporates an infrared and night vision viewer,^[322] auditory sensors and a sonar. The mask is accessorized with some security systems (aggravating gas, electric blasts, etc.) like the utility belt, and also integrates an audio and video transmitter receiver device. The Batsuit can withstand temperatures of atmospheric re-entry (1477° C/2691° F) and can absorb energy and redirect it back at his opponents. ^{[323][324][325][326]}
• Utility Belt: Batman keeps most of his personal field equipment in a signature piece of apparel, a yellow utility belt. The utility belt has a button to call the Batmobile, and a command for teleportation. Over the years it has contained items such as plastic explosives, nerve toxins, batarangs, smoke bombs, a fingerprint kit, a cutting tool, a grappling hook gun, torches, and a "re-breather" breathing device. Superman entrusted Batman with a ring made of kryptonite, to be used should the Man of Steel ever need to be reined in (due to being mind-controlled by a villain, etc.). The kryptonite ring is contained in a lead pocket, in order to shield Batman from its radiations. Along with a portable EMP,^[102] the belt also has its own automatic security systems preventing outside users from accessing it. The belt even houses a portable spherical device that he created, that can scan technology, levitate and identify magic.^[327][328] Has a small device that can launch out a plethora chains made out of energy to pierce and restrain opponents.^[329] It has been counted that 42 sets of items, covers at least 30 percent of how much the Utility Belt can carry; meaning that the average belt can carry at least 140 sets of items.^[157]
• Hellbat: This suit is one of the three most powerful suits that Batman has ever used. Made for the battle, for the most extreme situations, due to Batman not having powers of his own. Although he couldn't originally access this suit by himself, without the permission from the rest of the Justice League.^[330] Batman now has full access to the suit and can summon it to him whenever he wants.^[331] Powerful enough to contend with a demon that was capable of containing Etrigan, beat down Kalibak and even stalemate Darkseid.^{[331][332][333][334]}
• Batcomputer: The central focus of all of Batman's computer-based technology, wired into nearly all of Batman's equipment. Built and manufactured by Batman, Alfred Pennyworth and Lucius Fox. It even possesses security protocols so that only Batman and members of the Bat-Family are allowed to use it. The Batcomputer is capable of initiating commands that involve hacking, scanning, solving, storing and processing any information that Batman or the Bat-Family desires. Holding a plethora of cryptic data and information, that even someone like Amanda Waller would find valuable.^[153] The communication connection and transitional frequencies can span up to 3,137 million light years.^[335][336] Bruce has even expanded its processing power and other capabilities by adapting a bot root code known as the Genie A.I. into it, including a Mother Box.^[337][338] It can even detect supernatural forces, such as magic energy.^[339]
  • Genie A.I.^{[340][341][342][343][344][345]}
• EMP Mask: Batman carries EMP tech that he can use as holographic disguise to morph his face to even his entire body.^{[91][346][347][348]}
• Cybernetic Hand (Formerly): Thanks to the efforts of Bruce Wayne of Earth-31, Bruce now possesses a bionic metal hand that he has full functional control over.^[316] It is strong and emits smoke. He's been able to snap Nightwing's Escrima Sticks like a twig, and was able to do the same to Robin's Battle Staff. He was also able to grip his fingers into a car door and tear it off.^[230] He recently got his hand back thanks to a clone of himself cutting off his own hand and giving it to Bruce as a gift.^[349]
  • Enhanced Strength^[230]
  • Smoke Projection^[350]
• Energy Blades: Batman has a pair of gauntlets capable of projecting powerful energy blades, that are strong enough to combat the near-indestructible Failsafe.^[350]
• Magic Gauntlets: Batman was gifted a pair of magical gauntlets by John Constantine, which allow him to fight non-corporeal beings hand-to-hand, as he did with Gentleman Ghost. Constantine won the gloves in a card game with a demon and gave them to Batman because he "doesn't like fighting with his hands."^[351]
• Helmet of Fate (Formerly)
  • Magic
    • Eldritch Blast
    • Flight
    • Teleportation
• Mobius Chair (Formerly)
• Black Lantern Ring (Formerly)
• Yellow Lantern Ring (Formerly)^[120]

Transportation

• Batboat
• Batcycle
• Batmobile
• Batplane
• Bat-Copter

Weapons

• Batarangs: His main set of weapons. Some of these bat shaped blades are electrically or sonically charged, while others are explosive.^[352] He even carries batarangs that are made of Nth Metal that can disrupt the presence of ghostly entities, magical creatures, and even break enchantments.^[353][354]

Notes

• Batman was created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, first appearing in Detective Comics #27. However, in the Prime Earth continuity, Batman first appeared as part of the New 52 DC Universe in Flashpoint (Volume 2) #5 by Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert.
• Batman (Bruce Wayne) appears as Batman (Prime) a playable character in the Infinite Crisis video game.
• Other less notable aliases Bruce has used are Bee Gee,^[355] Knute Brody,^[356] Dormouse,^[356] The Batman Who Laughs,^[182] Bat-Baby,^[357] the God of Knowledge,^[358] Sinestro,^{[citation needed]} Batman of Zur-En-Arrh,^[359] Night,^[360] Wilson Texlon,^[361] Wolf-Batman,^[362] Nightwing^[363] and Nightwing II.^[364]
• In The New 52, Bruce spent seven years traveling the world training, having left Gotham at eighteen and first became Batman at the age of twenty-five.^{[365][366][367]} However, because of DC Rebirth, this was changed so that Bruce spent five years traveling the world training, having left at sixteen and became Batman at age twenty-one.^[11][368]
  

Trivia

• Bruce was 8 years old when he lost his parents.^[369]
• Batman believes Superman is a better man than him.^[370]
• Dream reveals to Batman that his influence is felt throughout the dream-world. He causes nightmares to the wicked and instills hope in people he has saved.^[371]
• Batman and Gordon used the red scarlet rotary Batphone during the early years of Batman's career to communicate with each other, a reference to the 60's series. Years later Batman upgraded it to be a red touch-screen phone.^[372][373]
• Krypto likes and trusts Batman and even though he’s more powerful than Batman; Bruce would still try to protect Krytpo.^[374]
• Bronze Tiger has acknowledged that Batman’s the superior fighter to him. Stating that he’s the best in the world.^[375]
• Midnighter has admitted that he finds Batman awesome.^[376]
• Batman considers Superman as his favorite superhero.^[377]
• Superman considers Batman to be his best friend.^[378][379]
• Bruce provides allowances to his all of his kids, except Nightwing, who gets a stipend.^[380]
• Batman admits that Superman is his best friend.^[381]
  • But Bruce also called Alfred Pennyworth his best friend.^[382]
• Bruce once met George Clooney and claims that Clooney owes him a favor.^[383] This is a reference to Clooney's portrayal of Bruce Wayne in the film Batman and Robin being panned by many fans.
• Bruce is a cinephile and has a Letterboxd account.^[384]
• Bruce's birthday is October 7.^[385]
• Bruce has been a vigilante for at least twenty-two years.^[386]
  • Around the time of The Joker War, Demitrius Korlee, Jr. states that it's been twenty-one years since Batman put his father in prison.^[387]
• Amanda Waller considers Batman a metahuman,^[231] though he does not fit the traditional or the expanded definition of the term.
• Bruce isn't religious. He was raised Christian, but stopped believing in God after his parents were killed. He claims "I…put aside believing in…a deity."^[388][389] Bruce also admits that at times he wishes he could be a good Christian like his father was, but can't.^[390] Bruce is Jewish on his mother's side of the family, something his uncle Jacob and cousin Kate still celebrate.^[391] However, Bruce always celebrates Christmas instead of Hanukkah.^[392]
• Prior to losing a good portion of his fortune during the Joker War, Bruce's net worth was estimated to be over $100 billion.^[393] Bruce has since been relegated to the status of a millionaire after he was removed from the board at Wayne Enterprises.^[394] Following Zur's defeat, Bruce acquired the money Zur stored in multiple offshore accounts, bringing his net worth to a total of $3,120,926,002. Returning him to being a billionaire again.^[395]
• Batman has been shown to carry lollipops in his Utility Belt to help and distract children at emergency scenes.^[396] Much to Dick Grayson and Superman's amusement, the lollipops were kept next to his smoke bombs for the longest time, so Bruce promised to change what pocket he used.^[397]
• Despite all his skills, Bruce was a terrible cook for a long time, not even being able to toast a crumpet without burning it.^[398] It wasn't until after Alfred's death that he got better at it.^[399][400]
• Bruce does keep shark repellent as part of his gear in the Batcave, a callback to the 1966 film.^[401] While traveling through the multiverse, Bruce was given a replacement utility belt by his Earth-66 counterpart that contained a canister of shark repellent that Bruce used on a pair of rabid sharks. He believed this proved he had finally met a Batman more prepared than himself.^[316]
• Like in previous continuities, Bruce doesn't drink alcohol and instead fools people by drinking ginger ale and apple juice.^[174][402]
• Bruce visits his parents' grave once a week.^[60]
• Bruce's blood type is O-.^[403]
• Bruce is a fan of old western films. One of his favorite actors is Gary Cooper.^[404]
• Bruce gained his Grapple Gun on his first year acting as Batman as a gift by Lucius Fox after he got severely injured during an fight with The Joker where he fell from an really high place. He then stopped using a rope and a hook after this.^[405]
  

Recommended Reading

• Batman (Volume 2)
• Detective Comics (Volume 2)
• Batman and Robin (Volume 2)
• Justice League (Volume 2)
• Batman (Volume 3)
• Detective Comics (Volume 1)
• Justice League (Volume 3)
• Justice League of America (Volume 5)
• Justice League (Volume 4)
• Dark Nights: Metal (Volume 1)
• Dark Nights: Death Metal (Volume 1)
• Batman/Superman: World's Finest (Volume 1)

Related

• Appearances of Batman (Bruce Wayne)
• 4 Images featuring Batman (Bruce Wayne)
• Quotations by or about Batman (Bruce Wayne)
• Character Gallery: Batman (Bruce Wayne)

Footnotes

Batman Family member This character is or was an incarnation of or an ally of Batman, and a member of the Batman Family. This template will automatically categorize articles that include it into the "Batman Family members" category.

Justice League member This character has been a member of the Justice League of America, or the Justice League in any of its various incarnations, sworn by a duty to act as guardians of America and the world by using their skills and/or superpowers to protect Earth from the clutches of both interstellar and domestic threats. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Justice League of America members" category.

Outsiders member This character is or was a member of one or more of the teams known as the Outsiders. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Outsiders members" category.