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Batman stopped two criminals from blackmailing a woman named Maria Vargas, a renowned judge in Gotham City. They asked money in exchange of a videotape but Batman arrived and prevented the exchange from happening. The thugs dropped the tape by accident in a ledge from the

Quote1 You are a valuable commodity, Bruce Wayne. Or should I say Batman? Quote2
Hugo Strange


The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne is an episode of season 1 of Batman. It premiered on October 29, 1992.

Synopsis for "The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne"

Batman stopped two criminals from blackmailing a woman named Maria Vargas, a renowned judge in Gotham City. They asked money in exchange of a videotape but Batman arrived and prevented the exchange from happening. The thugs dropped the tape by accident in a ledge from the bridge they were in and Judge Vargas tried to reach the tape risking her safety. Batman saved Vargas from falling to the river but in the meantime the thugs drove away.

The Gotham City Police Department arrived at the scene and Judge Vargas was taken to a hospital. James Gordon told Batman about Vargas' recent vacations in a resort called Yucca Springs Health Resort and coincidentally the thugs' car was registered to that same resort. Batman needed no more information and he decided he should go to the resort and see what was happening.

Bruce Wayne arrived at the resort along with Alfred. Bruce went to the first session with Dr. Hugo Strange and he was taken into a room with a big computer and a leaning table in the middle. Strange placed Bruce in the table and told him that the machine would make him feel better by releasing the stress and lowering his defences. Strange started asking Bruce questions about his childhood and the machine projected some images on the screen. The images were Bruce's thoughts and as he remembered his parents' deaths the images were more clear. Strange pushed a little more and then he discovered that Bruce Wayne was Batman when the screen showed the batsignal coming from Bruce's thoughts. After Strange saw that, Bruce decided to dismiss the session and he went out of the room. Strange ejected a videotape of Bruce's thoughts and he now had something in mind.

Strange called to The Joker and told him that he possessed something that he might find interesting. After making a few more calls, Strange left the resort to the airport and Bruce decided to sneak into Strange's laboratory and check for any clues. At the airport, Strange welcomed The Joker, Two-Face and Penguin. All of them arrived at Strange's place because the Doctor called all of them. At the lab, Bruce looked up and found another copy of Maria Vargas's tape, which showed her as a child playing with matches despite being warned not to and accidentally set the Gotham Docks on fire. Bruce deduced that this was why Vargas was willing to pay so much money to Strange's henchmen: this scandal would ruin her career. Alfred warned Bruce about the recent guests and Bruce deduced that Strange must be planning to auction his videotape to the criminals. Bruce hurried up, deleting all the videotapes Strange had, created a new videotape with modified images and upon finishing, he destroyed Strange's machine. Strange arrived at the room and told his henchmen to stop Bruce Wayne and lock him in the resort's cellar along with Alfred.

Alfred and Bruce were trapped and tied up, but Bruce told Alfred that everything was going as planned. Bruce took a lockpick and freed from his chains. Strange was already auctioning the tape and the three villains offered him 50+ million dollars for the videotape of Batman's secret identity. However, Bruce had already escaped, dressed up as Batman and was in the control room where he switched the projector's cables. When Strange placed the tape in the projector, the images on the screen were the ones Bruce imagined the second time. On the video, Strange was speaking about how he could fool the three villains by telling them the identity of Batman, even when he didn't knew it. Strange turned off the projector but the villains were already enraged for what they saw. Strange tried to explain but the villains wouldn't listen and Penguin shot at the original tape and destroyed it. Strange used his car to escape but the villains followed him. Alfred followed them as well and Batman clinged to the car's side, then Alfred told Batman that he had contacted Dick Grayson.

Strange arrived at the airport but the three villains managed to catch him and forced him inside a plane. Batman launched himself to the plane's landing gear and clinged to the plane. Joker set the plane in auto-pilot and went to deal with Strange once and for all. Strange told the three of them that Bruce Wayne is Batman but Two-Face replied that he knew Bruce Wayne and that he couldn't be Batman. Joker was ready to drop Strange from the plane when Batman cut off the fuel feed of the plane and almost at once it began losing height. Batman dropped off the plane as it came crashing down. When the plane reached the floor, Joker dived to the ground and stayed there while Penguin and Two-Face threatened Batman with their guns. Using a Batarang, Batman disarmed them. The GCPD arrived instantly and placed the villains under custody.

Commissioner Gordon was talking with Batman and Strange kept saying that Bruce Wayne was Batman when suddenly Bruce Wayne appeared, proving his theory was incorrect. Wayne told Gordon that Batman asked him to trick Strange into believing that he was Batman, all this with the purpose of uncovering Strange illegal activities. Strange was taken by Gordon and after a while, it is revealed that Bruce Wayne is in fact Dick Grayson disguised as Wayne. Batman thanked Grayson for his help and both of them returned to Gotham with Alfred.

Appearing in "The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne"

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Notes

  • This is the 37th episode to be produced and the 29th to be aired.

Trivia


See Also

Recommended Media

  • None.


Links and References

Footnotes

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