Batman

Batman is the cowled scruge of Gotham City's criminal underbelly, having served as the city's protector for many years. Even though he has no superpowers, he has extreme willpower and has trained himself physically and intellectually to take on some of Gotham's toughest criminals

History
Bruce Wayne was born on February 19, 1972, in Gotham City, to the wealthy socialites Thomas and Martha Wayne. Bruce had an idyllic childhood due to his family's fortune and the love supplied by his parents. Growing up, Bruce only had one true friend, a boy by the name of Thomas Elliot, who’s father owned Janus Cosmetics. Thomas and Bruce enjoyed playing games of strategy, Thomas always seemingly outmaneuvering the otherwise brilliant Bruce.

On June 26, 1980 tragedy struck when the Waynes were walking home from the Monarch Theatre after an evening showing of The Mark of Zorro. While taking a shortcut down an alley, the Waynes were held at gunpoint by a mugger who demanded Martha's pearl necklace.When the clasp of Martha’s pearl necklace got stuck and Thomas abruptly moved to help his wife, the mugger got spooked and shot Thomas. When Martha attempted to scream for helped, the mugger fired a second shot, killing her instantly. Horrified by what he had done, the mugger then fled, leaving the orphaned Bruce screaming over his parent's lifeless bodies.

When police arrived on the scene, Bruce was comforted by Detective Harvey Bullock who promised to find the killer. Bruce was then taken home by his family's butler, Alfred Pennyworth, who had been named Bruce's legal guardian through the will of Martha Wayne. During the funeral for his parents, Bruce, overcome with grief, broke away from the service. As he ran, he stumbled across a decrepit area of the estate and fell into a cavern filled with numerous bats. This would later inspire him to use that fear to battle the criminal elements that took his parents' lives.

Later that night, Bruce knelt next to his bed by candlelight and made a solemn vow. He swore by the spirit of his parents to avenge their deaths, by spending the rest of his life warring on criminals.

In 1986, Bruce was attending Roxbury Fielding Academy. He used his relationship with Erin McKillen a daughter of the Irish mob, and with whom he attended Roxbury Academy - to locate Joe Chill, the man who killed his parents, and learned that he had simply needed the money, and there was no deeper meaning to his parents deaths. Fueled by the death of his parents, Bruce left Gotham to travel all around the world, training under many different teachers and masters, learning many different skills. He would later use these skills in his crusade against the crime and corrupt in Gotham.

For the first seven years of his travels, Bruce trained under many masters, learning a wide array of different skills. Bruce started learning his detective skills from Harvey Harris, the best detective in London in 1987. Bruce later traveled to France in 1988 to study forensics under Willie Doggett, where he met Giovanni Zatara, a sorcerer moonlighting as a magician. Zatara helped Bruce learn to escape several traps and other tricks and illusions, such as using smoke to disappear. At the age of 19, he learned how to race cars in life-or-death situations from Brazilian criminal, Don Miguel. Bruce studied the ins and outs of technological gadgetry under the guidance of the brilliant inventor, Sergei Alexandrov. At age 20, Bruce was training in Norway, and after 28 hours of fighting a new opponent each hour, Bruce's determination struck fear into all the other contestants that were present. Bruce also trained with Chu Chin Li and Tsunetomo, two martial arts masters in the Far East.

Bruce continued to travel, training with Shihan Matsuda in the Himalayan Mountains. From Shihan Matsuda, Bruce wanted to learn to further his martial art skills but also to control his body with complete mastery and precision. In 1993, Bruce was incarcerated in a Bhutan prison for theft, after helping a young street orphan steal fruit from a local market. He was eventually bailed out by a man named Henri Ducard, who had been following Bruce for some time. Henri offered Bruce a a position within his secret organization, known as the League of Assassins, which was lead by the immortal Ra's Al Ghul. Upon his recruitment into the League in December of 1993, Bruce caught the eye of Ra’s al Ghul’s eldest daughter Talia.

Bruce was primarily taught by David Cain, one of the world's premiere assassins. Bruce eventually surpassed Cain’s teachings and began tutoring under Ra’s himself. It was during this time in mid-1994 that Bruce began a passionate love affair with Talia. Eventually, Ra’s discovered the affair between Talia and Bruce, and upon giving them his blessing, the two were married in August of 1995. In November, Bruce was officially inducted into the League as Khuffash (Translation: The Bat) and in a short time, Bruce became an elite member of their Inner Circle.

In 1997, Bruce was to be named Ra's Al Ghul's successor until Bruce learns the League intends to destroy Gotham, believing the city is beyond saving. Bruce rejects the League and its beliefs that killing is necessary, and he flees the League, returning to Gotham four days later.

Upon his return to Gotham in March 1997, Bruce quickly made himself available to the media, making it well known that he had returned to Gotham City and make it harder for the vengeful League to assassinate him in retaliation. Bruce reconnected with Alfred, and his uncle, Philip Kane, who had taken over the Wayne family company in his absence. Bruce quickly became the ‘billionaire playboy philanthropist’, spending his time surrounded by women, making club appearances and donating to various charities.

After seizing his company back, Bruce began using his resources to establish a plan of attack to rid Gotham of its criminal element. Bruce installed Lucius Fox as President of Wayne Enterprises and brought him, and Alfred in on his plans. Going full-blown theatrics, Bruce and Lucius created an armored suit based on Bruce’s childhood fear of Bats, hoping to inspire that same fear in criminals. With Lucius providing various gadgets, and Alfred providing assistance from Wayne Manor, the age of vigilantes began as whispers of the ‘Batman’ began to make criminals fear the night.

The so-called ‘Batman’ quickly became a name that criminals feared, while some just believed it to be a modern myth. That is, until he rescued reporter Vicki Vale from serial killer Victor Zsasz, where she managed to get the first picture of Batman. Wayne's first ally was assistant district attorney Harvey Dent. Most of the Gotham City Police Department was sent in force to capture him. He gained his most powerful ally when he met rookie detective James Gordon, one of the few honest cops on the force. The two developed a working relationship operating outside of the law when they needed to.

Batman's presence in Gotham City generated a new breed of criminals, no longer the simple thugs and gangsters involved in Gotham Organized Crime, but more dynamic personalities. Several costumed villains began to appear in Gotham after Batman’s debut such as Catwoman, Poison Ivy and Black Mask, but none gave them more trouble than the Joker. A malicious and deadly clown, he made his psychotic debut by giving mafia boss Sal Maroni the acid he used to burn half of Harvey Dent’s face, turning one of Gotham’s greatest heroes into the mentally insane villain Two-Face.

In 2000, Bruce attended Haly's Circus where he saw a family of trapeze artists called The Flying Graysons perform. When their act was sabotaged and the parents were killed, Bruce took in their son Dick Grayson. Boiling with grief and resentment, Dick made several attempts to run away, stealing Bruce's car to search for clues about his parents' deaths. Bruce, sensing Dick's turmoil, revealed himself as Batman - the cowled scourge of Gotham's underworld - and offered Dick a position as his sidekick, Robin and by October of that year, Gotham’s Dynamic Duo was born with the first outing of Batman and Robin, beginning the age of young heroes.

The appearance of the teen hero inspired many, but none more than Jim and Sarah Gordon’s daughter Barbara. The accomplished martial artist and hacker debuted in a makeshift costume as ‘Batgirl’ and nearly got herself killed. Disobeying Batman’s orders to quit, they eventually brought her into the fold and gave her an armored suit and more training, establishing the ‘Bat Family’ with their headquarters in the high tech Batcave below Wayne Manor.

In 2007, Barbara Gordon had retired from her duties as Batgirl, in order to focus more on school and getting into college. Despite this, her father's position as police commissioner still made her a target and as a result she was shot and paralyzed from the waist down by the Joker. Dick was angered by the fact that Bruce still refused to cross the line and kill the Joker, quit his role as Robin and left Gotham. Bruce, nonetheless locked the Joker up in Arkham Asylum.

Bruce actually missed Dick and as a result he became a drunken and thrill seeking playboy, leaving Wayne Manor and moving into a penthouse in Gotham, sleeping with several women and neglecting his duties as Batman.

A year later, Batman caught orphan Jason Todd trying to steal prescription drugs from physician Dr. Leslie Thompkins. Believing that Jason had potential to turn his life around, Bruce offered him the vacant position of Robin, and when he accepted, he trained him for months. After six months of intense training, Jason was out in the field as the second Boy Wonder.

Jason was determined to live up to legacy of the first Robin but it soon became apparent to Bruce that Jason was troubled. He fought recklessly, seemingly haunted by the memory of his abusive parents. Jason underwent some anger management courses and endured many a lecture from Bruce and his butler, Alfred. It was Bruce who decided that Jason could not be rid of his anger and instead would need to channel it.

Bruce referred Jason to one of his former mentors, Shihan Matsuda, who taught Jason several meditations techniques and how to control his anger, which greatly helped Jason. With this Jason became calmer and more level headed. Despite Jason's new attitude, he could not escape from the murderous clutches of the Joker, who had recently escaped from Arkham Asylum with the help of his new sidekick, Harley Quinn.

Captured by the criminal clown, Jason was tortured and beaten with a crowbar on a live webcam broadcast set up by the Riddler. The Joker even held a sadistic poll where viewers could vote for Jason’s fate. When it was over, Joker left Jason’s broken, lifeless body strapped to the Bat-Signal, with a “J” branded on his cheek and bright green paint sprayed across his chest-plate reading “HaHaHa. The Joke’s On You, Batman!”  Carrying Jason's limp and bloodied body away from the Bat-Signal. After the death of his protege, sidekick, and friend, Bruce became much more hardened and angered, morphing into a more relentless and violent version of Batman. Batman, in his anger at Joker for killing Robin, broke his teeth and once again defeated and sent him to Arkham Asylum.

In 2010, Ra’s Al Ghul had not only tracked Bruce Wayne down to Gotham City but discovered that he was Batman. Ra’s put together a plan to not only “purify” Gotham if it’s crime but to also get revenge on Bruce for running away from the League of Assassins and his daughter Talia. Talia had since forgiven Bruce and traveled to Gotham to warn him of her father’s plans but it was already to late.

Ra’s caused a large jailbreak at Arkham Asylum, releasing all of Batman’s most deadly foes then he used an artificial Earthquake machine to cause an earthquake in Gotham, plunging the city into crime and anarchy. Barbara Gordon became the hacker known as Oracle in order to help Batman with technological support and Dick Grayson returned to Gotham to help out as well, now going by the name: Nightwing.

In response to the earthquake, the US government evacuates most of the civilian population, then declares Gotham a "no man's land", destroys all bridges leading to the island, and sets up a military blockade to prevent people from entering or exiting. Gangs and various supervillains Batman had battled over the years swiftly carve up the city. The city's police's commissioner, James Gordon, and several members of his department, stay behind to protect civilians.