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This article, Bruce Wayne (Earth-41417), is property of MarvelousMarty. |
Outsiders (ex-leader);
formerly Wayne Enterprises (chairman and shareholder; former director), League of Assassins (defected)
Adrian Arkham (maternal first cousin, twice removed)
Thomas Wayne (father, deceased),
Martha Wayne (mother, deceased),
Philip Kane (maternal uncle, deceased),
Jacob Kane (maternal uncle),
Gabrielle Kane (maternal aunt, deceased),
Helen Wayne (paternal aunt),
Thomas Wayne, Jr. (possible brother, deceased),
Kate Kane (cousin),
Elizabeth Kane (cousin),
Bette Kane (cousin),
Damian Wayne (son),
Alfred Pennyworth (legal guardian, deceased);
Selina Kyle-Wayne (wife),
Helena Wayne (daughter);
Aiden Wayne (son);
Dick Grayson (adopted son),
Jason Todd (adopted son),
Tim Drake (adopted son),
Cass Cain (adopted daughter);
Past Romances: Julie Madison (first love and ex-fiancée),
Silver St. Cloud (ex-girlfriend),
Andrea Beaumont (ex-girlfriend);
Vicki Vale (ex-girlfriend),
Talia al Ghul (ex-wife),
Dinah Lance (former fling),
Zatanna Zatara (fling, infatuation)
History
I'd rather lose every fragment of my soul than let any innocent person lose their lives to crime and villainy... Lose sleep over my city every night so that others can wake up to see another day. Because someone has to step in and watch over the people of Gotham when everyone else is standing with the shadows.
- --Batman
Bruce Wayne (born late October 1972) was the son of influential Gothamite multimillionaires and philanthropists, Thomas and Martha Wayne. However, one fateful night changed him forever when a young Bruce witnessed both his parents get gunned down by a mugger. While he was left as an orphan, traumatized by tragedy and loss, Bruce was still raised and nurtured under the care of his legal guardian and family butler, Alfred Pennyworth, as well as the care and nurture of Dr. Leslie Thompkins, a family friend who first comforted Bruce since the very night he lost his parents. Over time, Bruce also began training how to fight for himself and others before traveling across the world to learn from different mentors in his lifelong vow to protect the innocent from the hands of the wicked and criminal, as even if he couldn't avenge the passing of his parents, he could still save lives and leave no evildoer from getting away with their plans and actions without taking their lives, the same way the mugger did with his parents in cold blood.
After returning to his home in Gotham, Bruce saw what he had feared and expected: crime and corruption had risen, and in response he began his brutal yet selfless crusade by utilizing his wealth and arsenal of gadgets, and putting on a suit to fight crime and conceal his identity in doing so. Bruce's suit symbolizes a bat, which used to be his greatest fear as a child, but he had since embraced it into a symbol that would strike fear into every criminal that he would take on and bring to justice when law enforcement failed to do so. Little did Bruce would realize that while fear had stricken and intimidated most criminals who crossed his path and even plenty of civilians whom he had sworn to protect, the symbol would also go on to inspire the lives he had saved or reassure a good number of the public about his presence that stops crime in Gotham with every chance he gets, with some calling him a hero. By the end of his first year as a crime-fighting vigilante, Bruce's persona would be called Batman, as he would also eventually accept the moniker as his codename. Over time, Bruce Wayne would somewhat develop into a persona and "disguise" of its own as a charismatic billionaire playboy and philanthropist although he still truly cares about the welfare and safety of his city and the people living in it as much as Batman does, although he does what he can by helping run his parents' legacy, the company Wayne Enterprises.
While being a lone bat has been the reputable shtick of the Batman, he inevitably as both the Caped Crusader and his public Bruce Wayne persona would see the rise in supervillains that came to devastate Gotham throughout the following years and in time, Bruce knew well that he could not handle them alone for long. In his early thirties, Bruce first recruited a teenage Dick Grayson as his legal ward, whom Bruce had seen himself due to the similar tragedy they experienced after witnessing the assassination of the Flying Graysons, which left Dick as a grieving orphan. Training Grayson under his and Alfred's wing and taught him his knowledge and ways of crime-fighting, Bruce not only had his compassionate and adventurous ward to become Batman's sidekick—Robin—but he had also raised and embraced him like his own son.
At the same time when Robin had emerged, Batman gained alliance with another youngster, Barbara Gordon, whose father is the GCPD Captain and future Commissioner Jim Gordon. Barbara believed in the good intentions of the Dark Knight that she would even help her father see the vigilante's sincerity to fight crime and bring justice, and it was not long after that he took her under his wing as she'd eventually take on the moniker of Batgirl.
Furthermore, Grayson and Gordon would only among the first of many knights that Batman would end up training or at least inspiring and teaming up with to protect their home and people from crime in the following years to come, some of which include the now legendary names of Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Cass Cain, Helena Bertinelli, Luke Fox, Stephanie Brown, Kate Kane, Damian Wayne, Duke Thomas, and Harper Row, all of whom would embrace their own unique ways as protectors of Gotham City and beyond.
Around the late 2000s, Batman would find himself realizing that he was only a part of a larger world, perhaps a greater universe than the very home he is protecting, that he was among the world's finest protectors when he first met and worked alongside respectable and just as admirable heroic individuals such as Green Arrow, Black Canary, The Flash, Wonder Woman, and Superman. During those years of newfound alliances and adversaries, Batman would become a founding member of the superhero team known as the Justice League.
However, in spite of his growing alliances and explorations across the cosmos, Batman kept his words and rarely abandoned his role as Gotham's leading protector of the night and entrusted his closest knights whenever he had no other choice but to join his fellow League on battles and expeditions that required and heeded his expertise and courage in order to save the world or universe from cosmic dangers when no one else could stop and prevent such threats. Even across the universe and (later) multiverse, Batman encountered and fought forms and faces of evil mirroring his archnemesis Joker and his other rogues gallery back home, such as the hyperintelligent collector Brainiac, the Anti-Life-driven despot Darkseid, and even the darker and nihilistic villainous counterpart, Owlman, who could've been his older brother in another life.
But the ultimate battle for Batman's legacy would eventually come into a climactic culmination between his greatest allies and adversaries with the Arkham War. Around the summer of 2025, Gotham had ignited into a warzone between the inmates of Arkham Asylum and the inmates of Blackgate Penitentiary, a conflict that worsened with the involvement of other extreme intervening groups such as the Suicide Squad, Court of Owls, League of Assassins, and even splinter groups of the Justice League who were mostly sent under the orders of powerful figures to either assist Batman's allies or deal with the mayhem on their own needlessly harsher terms. When the Joker began to rally up his own faction that targeted Batman and Wayne's closest allies and loved ones amidst the chaos, Bruce made the ultimate sacrifice to end the Arkham War as it ended in the Joker's demise and his presumed death, yet in the favor of his allies, who all mourned the loss of one of the most fearless and selfless heroes who they've fought and bonded with for decades.
When the rest of the world believed of his passing and the Batman Family had continued operating as vigilantes in honor of his memory, Bruce began to reflect on his life by moving away from Gotham with his enemy-turned-ally and longtime lover Selina Kyle, who had since also indefinitely dropped her own heroics as Catwoman after Bruce's disappearance, and traveled overseas where they finally got to spend time with each other as lovers and heroes as everyday civilians, helping out various people in need. Having watched and heard of his allies' whereabouts from time to time, Bruce gradually came to learn and realize that he no longer needed to let the tragedy of his parents' passing define him and his own life any longer. Slowly but surely, Bruce would resurface to his fellow heroes and demonstrated his assistance toward them by wearing his suit once more, partaking as an essential participant in the Final Crisis. When he found himself having a heartfelt reunion with the rest of the Batman Family, Bruce formally gave Grayson his blessing to continue taking on the mantle of Batman, knowing how well he had done even without the guidance of the former.
In the aftermath of the Final Crisis, Bruce had decided to step down his longtime role as the Caped Crusader and after thirty-five years of fighting crime and protecting humanity alongside the heroes that came with and after him, he passed on the mantle of Batman to several worthy successors in his family of crime-fighters aside from Grayson. Although Bruce would often come and go to assist Wayne Enterprises, the Gotham Knights, and sometimes the Justice League, believing that the impulse and duty to protect the innocent lives is something he could never wear off, his new priority was to settle down with Selina, and their new children.
Powers and Abilities
Powers
None known.
Abilities
- Peak Human Condition
Strength level
Class 12+
Weaknesses
- Missing Right Hand
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Paraphernalia
Equipment:
- Batsuits
- Hellbat
- Utility Belt
- Grapple Hook
- Line Launcher
- Bat Computer
- Genie A.I.
- Brother Eye (Destroyed)
- EMP Mask
- Magic Gauntlets
Transportation:
- Batmobile
- Black Tumbler
- Batcycle
- Batpod
- Batboat
- Batcopter
- Batplane
- Batwing
- Batwing
Weapons:
- Batarangs
Notes
- Bruce has operating as a vigilante for at least thirty-five years, becoming Batman when he was twenty-five years old in the final months of 1995, returning to Gotham City after seven years of training and traveling across the world.
- Batman's retirement was considered to have occurred in the aftermath of Arkham War, when his presumed death prompted Nightwing to take up his mantle for three years. Giving himself and the rest of the Batman Family a better closure after resurfacing, Bruce finally retired as Batman on an active basis in the fall of 2030. He is currently fifty-eight years old.
- Batman's retirement was considered to have occurred in the aftermath of Arkham War, when his presumed death prompted Nightwing to take up his mantle for three years. Giving himself and the rest of the Batman Family a better closure after resurfacing, Bruce finally retired as Batman on an active basis in the fall of 2030. He is currently fifty-eight years old.
Trivia
- Superman considers Bruce as his best friend. He would attend Clark Kent and Lois Lane's wedding as their best man around the early 2020s. Bruce is also the godfather of the pairing's son, Jon Kent.
- Even with his "no kill" code as Batman, Bruce has killed a few criminals in his life when he joined the League of Assassins in his years of training (reluctantly or during heat of the moment), although such scenarios were not directly caused by him or done by him on purpose when he became Batman. Most of the deaths that Bruce caused haunted him with regret and sorrow, yet the experience further motivated him to atone for his sins and vow to never repeat the same mistakes in his following missions.
- In the final days of Arkham War, Batman finally snapped and was about to take the Joker's life after a brutal duel, only for Red Hood to put fatally lead into the Clown Prince of Crime numerous times with the latter's own revolver in order to save a severely injured Batman. Still, when the two got stranded in the caverns of Gotham, Batman chose not to use the last of his first aid kit to heal the dying Joker.
See Also
- Appearances of Bruce Wayne (Earth-41417) (Chronological)
- Appearances of Bruce Wayne (Earth-41417) (Unordered)
- Character Gallery: Bruce Wayne (Earth-41417)
- Fan-Art Gallery: Bruce Wayne (Earth-41417)
- Quotations by Bruce Wayne (Earth-41417)
Discover and Discuss
- Search News for: Batman · Bruce Thomas Wayne · Bruce Wayne (Earth-41417)
Links and References
- None.
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. |
 This character is or was 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 both interstellar and domestic threats. |
| League of Assassins member |