Batman is an ongoing series in the DC Real-time reboot (DCX) about the titular character and his supporting cast, detailing his life in real-time from his training with the league of assassins to his training of Batman Beyond.
The key theme of the character is: Justice.
Story[]
1994[]
Bruce Wayne is born to Thomas and Martha Wayne, into one of the most loved and wealthy families in Gotham City.
2002[]
8 year old Bruce witnesses his parents murdered by Joe Chill, and swears to bring all crime to justice. He is placed under the care of his family butler, Alfred Pennyworth, and Wayne enterprises is taken over by Thomas's closest student, Lucius Fox.
2013-15[]
19 year old Bruce Wayne kills Joe Chill after he is let free from jail after Gotham's overpopulation. After admitting his actions to his childhood friend Rachael Dawes, she disgraces him, and Bruce, feeling lost, leaves the country. He is believed to have died in the eyes of everyone, likely through drugs or depression or other causes related to his widespread fame. In reality, he travels to Asia, where he begins life again as a farmer, helping those in need when he can. After trying to foil a drug cartel, he is jailed, only to escape with a man named David Cain, who became a friend to Bruce on the inside. Once they escaped, David invited Bruce to travel with him, where the two of them walked weeks into the mountains before finding a secret monastery. There Bruce is welcomed into the League of Assassins, where David would train him in their secret art.
Over the next two years, the organisation's founder, Ra's Al Ghul, would take an interest in Bruce, teaching him personally the acts of fighting, deception, stealth, investigation and fear, where he learned to hone Bruce's fear of bat's against his enemies. Bruce became good friends David and would often look after his young daughter Cassandra, he also developed a romantic relation with Ra's own daughter Talia. Over time however, the League's political influence and power, alongside their international campaigns to influence world events came out. This lead to Bruce defecting from the organisation, defeating Cain in one on one combat, and leaving and deciding it was time to return to Gotham.
2016[]
This is when the comics begins publishing. Everything prior to this point is told through flashbacks. Bruce Wayne has recently returned from the League of Assassins after defecting from the organisation, shocking the world who believed him to be dead. Driven by a new desire for justice, he begins roaming the streets in a recreation of his assassin garb, stopping crime but failing to adapt to the city environment, alongside protecting his identity as the current most famous face in Gotham. Thus he begins using his wealth and trust in Lucius Fox to acquire high end gear for his vigilantism. He uses the League's advise regarding fear, turning the symbol of bat against his enemies as Batman, a brash an untested yet honourable shadow of the legend he would later become.
Origins: He would begin to take down the crime families of Gotham, gradually attracting media attention to the legend of the Bat. His actions however would however attract many charismatic and evil people into Gotham to maintain their grip on Gotham was still strong. These included the assassin Deadshot, pyromaniac Firefly, mob boss's Penguin and Black Mask and many other classic rogues. He would also take on the Red Hood Gang, who were influenced by the power vacuum in Gotham.
Batman did not have the trust of the police, who's corrupt commissioner being taken out left the inexperienced James Gordon in charge of the GCPD. On the legal front, district attorney Harvey Dent, the now-boyfriend of attorney Rachael Dawes, was making true difference for the people of Gotham.
The Long Night: The year would end with the Long night in December, as the league of assassins attacked Gotham to allow it to 'Reset' to flush out corruption. They were using Black Mask as a puppet, and Batman aims to stop the overwhelming force of the league. with David Cain not in Gotham, it is Ra's himself Bruce has to deal with. The league is causing chaos for the police and Batman through shootings, notably Black Mask's gang, who open fire on a circus, killing the parents of a young Dick Grayson. Batman rescues Dick, who would later assist him in dismantling some hidden bombs, utilising his Pakour skills. With the help of the police's trust and help, Batman is able to stop the League's plan and defeats Ra's, who he tries to save. Ra's denies Bruce's help, dying in an explosion. afterwards, seeing he needed help, he took in the young 15 year old Richard as his Ward, training him to become his sidekick, whom Dick named Robin after a story his late father used to tell him.
Key Characters Introduced: Batman, Alfred, Jim Gordon, Lucius Fox, Harvey Dent, Rachael Dawes, Dick Grayson.
2017[]
Batgirl: Batman continues to fight crime with his newly appointed sidekick, Robin. He would a few major crises in Gotham. After fighting villains such as the electrocutioner and Victor Zzazz, Gotham was invaded by Batman's first meta-human threat without the Justice League, Poison Ivy. After sealing part of the city in plants after taking the super-drug TITAN, Batman and Robin received help from another mysterious vigilante, the girl calling herself Batgirl. Not only this, but Bruce had been been contacted by a mysterious hacker named ORACLE, who had often been providing vital intel to the duo by hacking Batman's cowl frequencies. She is revealed to be the 18 year old Barbara Gordon, daughter of the commissioner who revealed she had been using her position and skills to provide intel as Oracle as she trained to become batgirl.
Batman turned Barbara away, but after defeating villains on her own, such as the Killer Moth, Bruce allowed her to join the team, taking on his time in the Justice League as good reason to have more allies in Gotham.
Justice League: After the body of General Zod is resurrected as 'Bizarro' by Lex Luthor, Batman looks to not have a repeat of the Metropolis incident, using his new battle armour and Kryptonite spear to defuse the situation or kill Superman if it came to it. Wonder Woman also travelled to aid Superman with this new threat, hoping to control the damage and lives lost. They travel to aid Superman, who is confused at the presence of other super-powered beings. The three of them control the situation together and defeat Bizarro, containing him and bringing Lex to Justice. They decide if there is any threat too big for one of them to face alone, they should reunite again. Superman decides it would be best to search the Earth (and beyond) to find more people like this, and over the next few months Batman would become good friends with both Clark and Diana, while also participating in many missions for the new 'Justice League'.
Back in Gotham, Batman has created a car to transport him and others across the city - the bat mobile.
Jokes On You: The trio became a strong team, taking on crime as an effective unit. Their true test came on Halloween night, when a large bounty was placed on the head of the bat family, with Deadshot, Killer Croc, Lady Shiva, Electrocutioner and Firefly all on the hunt for Batman and Co. They defeat the assassins, but the hunt is revealed to be organised by a new villain - The Joker. The joker is a crazed maniac who looks to prove a message to batman. He captures Rachael and Harvey Dent, scarring Harvey dramatically on half his face, driving him insane. Joker is apprehended, but the damage is already done to batman, Gotham's white knight is destroyed, becoming a crazed psychopath on the loose.
Key Characters Introduced: Barbara Gordon, Justice League (All members)
2018[]
The golden year for the caped crusader, it started on a high note, with the trio becoming the most effective crime beating team with their unique combination of talents.
Heist: The first major event came with the Blue Beauty, a dangerously rare diamond that finds the attention of the penguin and his goons, the cat-burglar catwoman and the sympathetic villain Mr.Freeze, who looks to use it for his own gain. Batman and Co make some strange partnerships and enemies, with catwoman being a vicious enemy and fiery lover to the bat, while Mr.Freeze becomes an unlikely ally that sees Bruce break the law and steal the diamond for him.
Heads or Tails: The newly insane Harvey Dent hires the madman and chemical genius Scarcrow to lure the dark knight into a trap, poisoning him with fear gas and tormenting him to his darkest nightmares. Meanwhile, Harvey begins capturing political officials and executing them or sparring them according to the spin of his coin, notably his own fiance and the only woman Bruce has ever loved - Rachael. Harvey shows his true insanity when he reluctantly kills her all due to the toss of his coin. Bruce is pushed over the edge, cracking out of his prison with Scarecrow to hunt down Two Face, who is now in hiding, relentlessly. When he finds Harvey, he beats him to a pulp, as Dick watches. This would lead to Dick wanting to spend some time away from the nightlife with the newly formed Titans.
Beast/Cyborg: The Bat-Family were drawn to the attention of the 'titans' a duo of teenage heroes. The bats fought them after hearing of their crimes, but it is revealed that Lady Shiva (alongside a small group of league of assassins followers) were hunting a framing the two in search of beast boy's blood. Robin forged a good relationship with the two, and the league was defeated, but now Batman was more alert that the league may return to it's former full strength.
Teen Titans: Robin takes the change in Bruce's behaviour badly, and decides to spend some time with a new duo of teenage heroes - Cyborg and Beast Boy. Together, they form the titans, who are commonly known as the Teen Titans. They would be joined by a few other sidekicks, forming an entire team.
This would lead to a different dynamic in the team between Barbara and Bruce, with the two having a very close relationship and with Bruce still mourning Rachael, their partnership almost turned sexual, though Bruce stopped it at the last minute, feeling guilty.
Harley: With Dick now back with the family they would face their toughest threat as the Joker has slowly been working with a psychiatrist (that has been featuring as a web comic over the year) as the Joker sees doctor Harleen Quinzell. She has slowly fallen for his persona, becoming obsessed to the point of madness. There, she organises a highly planned breakout of Arkham Asylum, which involves letting every prisoner free and escaping in the chaos. In a loose adaptation of the video game Arkham Asylum, Batman and Co. try to contain the breach, but Joker and Harley are given the chance to escape. Dick tries to stop them, but Batman orders him not to, activating a pocket of sleep gas in Dick's suit to stop him taking the joker on alone. The duo escape alongside many inmates, but Batman and co manage to keep in some of the other most dangerous inmates, like Poison Ivy, Deadshot and Killer Croc.
With trust at an all time low between Batman and Robin, on New Years Eve 2018 the 18 year old Dick quits team batman, with a rift between him and Bruce, alongside a fracture between Dick and Barbra after she did not share his romantic feelings.
2019[]
For the first few months of the year, Bruce and Barbara worked together, adjusting to the lack of a Robin, they dealt with the aftermath of Arkham, hunting down several high profile criminals, notably Zzazz, who captured batgirl and faces Bruce's new, more brutal methods as he ages. Batman has become a more level headed and efficient crime-fighter, which often makes his enemies gravely injured by his wrath.
Jason: Shortly after the Zzazz event, Bruce finds a young boy on the streets attempting to steal a wheel from the Batmobile to sell on for a high price. Bruce offers the boy food, and shortly after assessing his character, Bruce's desire for another Robin lead to Jason Todd being quickly adobted as his new Ward, and trained over the next few months to be the new Robin. Meanwhile Barb and Bruce dealt with a psychotic new villain - Professor Pyg.
Fear Itself: In the company wide themed crossover revolving Fear, Team Batman face their own brand of fear in the return of the scarecrow, who has amounted his own group of thugs and made a lot of money through his fear toxin, which has been placed inside many air filtration systems. What follows is the city in terror, including a struggling Batman and Batgirl. After Alfred's encouragement, Jason goes on his most dangerous mission alone to help his mentor and father figure.