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Quote1 Please inform the citizens of Gotham that Gotham City has earned a rest from crime. But if the forces of evil should rise again to cast a shadow on the heart of the city, call me. Quote2
Batman src

Batman (real name Bruce Wayne) is a quiet, driven, and aggressive vigilante waging a never-ending war on the corruption and crime in Gotham City, utilizing his genius intellect, combat skills, and advanced gadgets. In his civilian identity, he is a quiet but kind philanthropist and the head of Wayne Enterprises.

Origins

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Martha, Bruce and Thomas

Bruce Wayne was born to the wealthy Thomas and Martha Wayne in Gotham City, New Jersey. When he was ten years old, Bruce was taken to the Monarch Theater by his parents. On their walk home from the show, the Waynes were confronted by a pair of muggers. One of the muggers, Jack Napier, shot Thomas and Martha, but left Bruce alive after asking him if he'd "danced with the Devil in the pale moonlight".

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Dark knight of Gotham

After this, he was raised by Alfred Pennyworth, the kind family butler. At his parents' funeral, he ran away and discovered a cave filled with bats on the family grounds, and decided to take the image and use it to put fear into the hearts of criminals. Bruce trained in many fields for many years, attempting to become the best at everything. In 1989, donning a protective bat-like costume, and utilizing his immense intellect, fighting skills, and special gadgets, and operating from the cave he'd found, Bruce eventually took up the name "Batman" to fight the crime and corruption in Gotham as a violent vigilante by night. By day, he worked as a generous philanthropist and C.E.O. of his parents' company, Wayne Industries.[1][4]

Conflict with the Joker

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Bruce at the party

A few weeks after beginning his war on crime, Batman was merely viewed as an urban legend, seeing how only beaten-up and unconscious criminals seemed to talk about him. Meanwhile, at a party he was hosting at Wayne Manor, Bruce met Gotham Globe photographer Vicki Vale, and the two struck up a connection. However, he was forced to leave after learning that Jack Napier, who he didn't recognize, was raiding Axis Chemicals for crime boss Carl Grissom.

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Batman meets Jack Napier

Batman arrived and fought many of Napier's goons before facing down Napier himself. He shot at Batman, but the bullet deflected off his costume, slashing Napier's face and sending him tumbling into a vat of chemicals. Batman left before he could see that he had survived, albeit horribly disfigured to look like a clown. This transformation drove him insane, making Batman responsible for Napier becoming the deranged gangster and serial killer known as the "Joker".

That same night, Bruce and Vicki began dating, seeming a perfect fit for each other. But his deception and obvious lies angered Vicki, straining their relationship. The next day, Bruce discovered Napier was alive, and had taken over Grissom's organization as the Joker. He began investigating Napier with Alfred, and discovered he had excelled in chemistry in school, later confirmed by his creation of the toxin Smylex that he had placed in cosmetic products. Further investigation led Bruce to discover that Joker had tainted hundreds of products with it, but only certain product combinations would make it toxic, like lipstick and hairspray.

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The Joker meets Bruce Wayne

Bruce then learned that the Joker had lured Vicki to the Flugelheim Museum out of lust for her, and went in as Batman to save her. He took her to his cave, and gave her a file containing the cosmetic products to avoid mixing for her to publish in the Globe. He then knocked her unconscious and left her in her apartment with the file. He considered telling her he was Batman, and returned to her as Bruce, but the Joker busted in on them. Before shooting Bruce, who had shoved a metal tray under his shirt to protect himself, he asked him once again if he had ever "danced with the Devil in the pale moonlight". Bruce finally recognized the Joker as the man who killed his parents, and slipped away as soon as the Joker was gone and thought him dead.

The Joker challenged Batman to meet him at a parade he was throwing for Gotham's bicentennial. Just as he was watching this, Alfred brought Vicki into the cave, revealing Bruce's secret to her. She became unsure of whether she still wanted to pursue her relationship with him, and the two decided to think about their future while they went to the bicentennial, Vicki for photos, and Batman to take down the Joker once and for all.

After destroying Axis Chemicals, where Joker was tainting the cosmetics, Batman made his way to Gotham's center in his specialized jet, just in time to see Joker release Smylex gas from his giant parade balloons, beginning to kill everyone. Batman snagged the balloons and released them into the sky away from Gotham with his plane, but the Joker shot it down next to the Gotham City Cathedral before he could make another move. Joker then took a nearby Vicki hostage and climbed the stairs with her to the top of the Cathedral, unaware that Batman had survived the crash and was following close behind.

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The final battle

When Batman finally reached the top, he finally fought the Joker head-on, savagely beating him for killing his parents, as well as numerous innocents. Their battle eventually led them to a ledge, and the Joker attempted to escape by grabbing onto a ladder dangling from the helicopter sent by his men. Using his grappling gun, Batman wrapped Joker's foot to a gargoyle on the ledge. As the helicopter lifted, the gargoyle detached from the ledge, and the weight forced the Joker to let go of the ladder, plummeting to his death.

After this, Batman reached out to the police in an attempt to work with them, even giving them a special searchlight with a bat projecting it, which would come to be called the Bat-Signal, to call him when needed. They accepted, and a strong partnership was formed with Commissioner Gordon to protect the city from evil. As Bruce Wayne, he continued to run Wayne Enterprises from afar and even tried working with corrupt businessman Max Shreck to build a power plant, but he and Vicki ultimately broke up, with Vicki deciding she didn't like the secrets and pain of Bruce's lifestyle.[1][5]

Battling the Penguin

In December of 1992, three years after the Joker's attack on Gotham, Batman began fighting the Red Triange Circus Gang, who were causing havoc in the city, on several occasions. Their motives unclear, Batman killed as many as he could while the rest escaped. A few days later, a mysterious disfigured man known as the Penguin appeared, having rescued a child kidnapped by the Red Triangle Gang. He had been living in the sewers after his now-deceased parents tossed him in Gotham River as a baby. Upon investigating the Penguin, Batman found that he was actually a part of the Red Triangle Gang, having been a part of the circus himself, and so decided to keep a close eye on him.

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Batman meets Catwoman

During his investigations, Bruce met Selina Kyle, Max Shreck’s secretary whose emotional instability drew him to her, and the two began to fall in love. He also began flirting with the mysterious vigilante Catwoman soon after as Batman, which further complicated his already complex investigations with the Penguin and the Red Triangle Gang, especially when the Penguin ran a bid for mayor.

A few nights later at Gotham’s Christmas tree lighting, the lighter of the tree, the Ice Princess, was kidnapped by the Penguin, who framed Batman in the process. When he went to save the Ice Princess, Batman found her restrained in an abandoned building guarded by Catwoman, who was now working with the Penguin. The two fought, and the Ice Princess was freed, but the Penguin knocked her over the edge, sending her to her death. He then released a swarm of bats from the Christmas tree, and with Batman looking down on the dead Ice Princess, Gotham’s citizens and police instantly assumed Batman was to blame, and so chased after him, barely giving him time to escape. Meanwhile Catwoman is shocked by Penguin killing the Ice Princess and refuses his sexual avances, which results in the end of their allience and Cobblepot trying to kill her.

With the city's faith in Batman destroyed, the only course of action available would be to destroy their faith in the Penguin. During a campaign speech to the masses, Bruce and Alfred accessed the P.A. system and broadcast comments Penguin transmitted to Batman in the Batmobile about manipulating Gotham's citizens, which made the crowds turn on him almost instantly, forcing him to run back to the sewers. Satisfied with his work, Bruce then went to Max’s Christmas party to see Selina, believing the Penguin crisis to be behind him.

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At the party with Selina

Bruce met up with Selina at the party, and after talking with her for a time, he realized that she was Catwoman, and she put together that he was Batman. Before they could discuss their emotions further, the Penguin blew a hole in the building’s floor and rose up in a duck-shaped boat. He declared that he planned to slaughter all of Gotham’s firstborn sons, and that his gang was kidnapping them all at that moment. He then kidnapped Max, who betrayed him as a business partner, and quickly left, leaving Batman to head quickly to Gotham’s center to find the Penguin’s gang and save the children, which he managed quickly and easily.

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Final battle with the Penguin

Furious at his defeat, the Penguin decided to send an army of penguins equipped with missile launchers to the city’s center and destroy it all. As the penguins advanced into the city and Batman raced towards the Penguin’s hideout in the Arctic display at the old Gotham Zoo, Alfred managed to disrupt the signal controlling the penguins and sent them scattering, leaving only Batman and the Penguin for a final showdown. When Batman arrived, the two engaged in a violent tussle that led outside the Arctic display, ending with the Penguin crashing through the glass of the display and plummeting into the water below, where he soon bled out and died.

Entering the Arctic display, Batman found Max and Catwoman fighting, Catwoman bent on kill him for trying to kill her and his other atrocius actions. After Shreck tries to kill both her and Bruce, Selina sacrifice herself to protect Bruce, electrocuting Shreck with a powerline, and causing a generator to explode. Bruce found out that Selina survived, but he remained lonely once more.[5]

Batman '89

The Batman '89 comics are a continuation of Tim Burton's films, picking up after the events of Batman Returns. They ignore the events Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, and instead draws from ideas that were planned before Burton stepped down from directing the Batman films.
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Shortly after Catwoman's disappearance, a war breaks out in Gotham between the Joker's followers and a group of vigilantes inspired by Batman. District attorney Harvey Dent then vows to defeat the real Batman, whom he blames for the current state of the city. One night, Dent and Lieutenant Bullock bring in the National Guard and attempt to lure the Bat into a trap using the Bat-Signal. Batman eventually encounters another vigilante confronting a burglar while patrolling the Burnside neighborhood,[6] but while trying to help his sister, the burglar is killed by a stray bullet as Batman tries to escape the National Guard, leaving Bruce feeling guilty.

The next day, Bruce is inspired after seeing Dent's televised speech and decides to meet with the Burnside Council and Dent at the Otis' Auto Shop, offering to pay for an education at Gotham University for all the neighborhood kids. After the meeting, the store is attacked by Batman impersonators. When Bruce tries to stop them, he realizes that they have already been defeated by Catwoman. Meanwhile, Dent enters the burning store to save the young Drake Winston and collapses near leaking sulfuric acid car batteries.[7] Bruce and Drake then rescue Harvey just before the store explodes. He survives, but is burned on the left side of his face and is taken to the hospital.

[8]

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Batman and Catwoman

Bruce is then hailed by the press as a hero, and learns that Drake saw him fight the arsonists. That night, Batman and Catwoman meet, and she tells the hero that she is back in Gotham to stop wealthy criminals. Later, Bruce invites Drake to visit him at Wayne Manor to talk about the arsonists. Before the meeting, Bruce learns that Preston Wayne; his great-grandfather has acquired a company from Drake's ancestors in a forced buyout. Drake then fights Bruce and deduces that he is Batman from his fighting style, and reveals himself as the Burnside's masked vigilante. So he proposes that they form a partnership to fight crime in the city.[9]

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Batman and Robin

When the Joker's gang destroys four subway tunnels in the vicinity of the GCPD headquarters and ambushes the police, Batman helps Jim Gordon stop them while Drake catches the snipers in the streets. They then confront district attorney Dent, who is in the evidence room stealing a suitcase from Lincoln's work case after shooting Lt. Bullock. Batman attempts to shoot Dent with a tranquilizer dart, but accidentally shoots Gordon instead, allowing the DA to steal the suitcase and kidnap the commissioner while Batman stayed behind to save Bullock and deal with the police.

Batman and Drake track him down to the park where he meets up with Barbara Gordon, who tries to arrest Dent but is knocked unconscious by Catwoman, who encourages Batman and Drake to follow Dent while she takes care of the police. Batman later confronts Dent after he shoots Jim Gordon.[10] The former district attorney then blows up the station, injuring Batman and discovering his secret identity in the process. Drake and Catwoman later rescue Bruce and take him back to the Batcave for Alfred to tend to his injuries.

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When Bruce wakes up, Selina tells him about the Lincoln Job case she is investigating. The suitcase Dent stole contains incriminating documents against them, giving him control over all of the city's top politicians. After Dent kills Carmine Falcone, Jerome Otis, and frames Drake for the crime, he goes to Wayne Manor and finds Bruce in the Batcave. He tries to blackmail Bruce into joining him, but the hero refuses and allows Dent to flip his coin to give him two options; kill Bruce or allow him to help return him to normal so they can work together to save the city. As the villain flips the coin, Catwoman cuts the Giant Penny hanging in the cave and makes it land right next to Dent, causing his death.

Bruce then discovers that he actually gave Dent his own coin back, meaning that Selina actually saved his life. Two days later, Bruce manages to exonerate Drake and gives him the Batcycle. The young vigilante later tells Bruce that he has an older sister who would be willing to adopt the late thief's sister. That night, a remorseful Bruce dreams Selina and decides whether to patrol the city or not, flipping Two-Face's Coin as the Bat-Signal glows in the sky.[11]

The Riddler and Two-Face's Attack

In the following years, Batman developed a growing feud with the criminal mastermind Two-Face, Gotham's former district attorney who had been driven insane when half his face was scarred by acid, and now uses coin flips to make his every decision. After he escaped from Arkham Asylum in 1995, Batman began squaring up against him regularly once again, which led him to being introduced to the flirtatious psychoanalyst Chase Meridian at one of the crime scenes.

Soon after meeting Chase, Bruce was introduced to a scientist working at Wayne Enterprises, the energetic and obsessive Edward Nygma, who introduced Bruce to his latest invention: the Box, a device that creates realistic images by beaming television signals into a person's brain. However, Bruce refused to fund the project due to the ethical questions raised by the device's tampering with the mind, and Nygma became obsessed with perfecting his machine no matter what.

The next day, Bruce was informed that a suicide note was found, supposedly written by Fred Stickley, Edward Nygma's supervisor, along with a card addressed to Bruce containing a riddle inside. Concerned, Bruce took the card to Chase's office for a professional analysis. She concluded that the sender of the riddle likely had a psychotic fixation on him and may wish him harm, but also noted that Bruce may have more going on in his head than he's letting on. Deflecting the question, Bruce merely began flirting with her and asked her out to Haly's Circus.

The following night, Bruce and Chase went to the circus, where they witnessed the trapeze artists known as the Flying Graysons, spearheaded by the young Dick Grayson. Unfortunately, Two-Face appeared with his gang, announcing a time bomb would go off and kill everyone unless Batman came forward and revealed himself in his true identity. While Bruce tried to reveal himself, he was drowned out by the panicking crowd, and was forced to slip away and don his Batman suit to battle Two-Face's henchmen. Meanwhile, the Flying Graysons worked together to try and stop the bomb before it detonated, and while Dick managed to roll it down into Gotham River, where it exploded harmlessly, Two-Face gunned down the other Flying Graysons, leaving the young Dick an orphan.

Bruce, feeling responsible for Dick's loss, decided to offer shelter to the young acrobat and act as a surrogate parental figure while he got back on his feet. Dick was reluctant at first, but eventually agreed when Bruce showed him a garage full of motorcycles and cars he'd collected after seeing Dick's love for motorbikes. As Bruce attempted to build up his relationships with both Dick and Chase, meanwhile, as Batman, he continued to investigate the riddles, which he discovered were from a new criminal in league with Two-Face known as "The Riddler", all as Edward Nygma started his own company, NygmaTech, and began marketing his Box to millions across Gotham City.

Batman later had to deal with Dick when he found the Batcave and stole the Batmobile for a joyride, forcing Batman to confront him and reveal his identity, explaining that revenge against Two-Face wouldn't solve anything and would only make him obsessive and cold, just as Bruce had after killing the Joker.

Soon after, Bruce and Chase attended a gala party thrown by Nygma to showcase the latest updates to the Box. Curious, Bruce tried out one of the Boxes in a special booth, which read his mind and recorded his memories, revealing him as Batman. Suddenly, Two-Face barged into the party with his men, who engaged in another battle with Batman. Two-Face managed to lure Batman into an underground tunnel during the fight, and managed to bury him in sand in an attempt to suffocate him. He was rescued at the last minute by Dick, wearing his Flying Graysons costume and a domino mask.

Bruce scolded Dick for rescuing him and fueling his anger towards Two-Face, but Dick argued Bruce needed him and stormed off. Too tired to deal with him, Bruce instead turned his attention to his relationship with Chase, and came to the conclusion that she needed to learn the truth about him, and that his identity as Batman needs to end. This disappointed Dick, who was still looking to get his revenge on Two-Face, and realized he'd have to seek it without Batman's help.

On Halloween, Bruce invited Chase over to his house, intent on telling her the truth, but they were attacked by the Riddler and Two-Face, who kidnapped Chase and knocked Bruce unconscious. When Bruce came to, he and Alfred discovered that the Riddler had destroyed the Batcave, and that he was in fact Edward Nygma, using his Box to learn Batman's secret identity.

Upon learning his sonar-equipped Batsuit, the Batwing, and the Batboat had survived the attack, Bruce prepared to go after the Riddler and Two-Face, before Dick arrived in an armored version of his Flying Graysons suit, and using the codename Robin, insisting he come along and promising not to kill Two-Face. Bruce reluctantly agreed, and Batman and Robin took off in pursuit of the villains.

They located the Riddler's island headquarters and made their way there, where Robin was captured along with Chase. Batman entered the lair where the Riddler and Two-Face lay waiting, and they attempted to force Batman to choose between saving Robin or Chase, or they'd both be dropped down hundreds of feet below to the rocks. Batman managed to distract the Riddler with his own riddle long enough to throw a Batarang at the Box receptor above the Riddler's head, blowing it up. As the feedback from its destruction scrambled Nygma's brain, he dropped both Chase and Robin from their cages, who Batman was able to save using his cables, and landing them safely on a ledge.

Two-Face arrived on a ledge across from Batman, Robin, and Chase, and prepared to shoot them, but before he could flip his coin to decide whether to kill them or not, Batman flung dozens of silver dollars from his pocket in the air, causing Two-Face to panic as he tried to grab the right one, and making him lose his balance and plummet to his death on the rocks below.

Nygma was imprisoned in Arkham Asylum, now having forgotten that Bruce Wayne was Batman thanks to the Box receptor scrambling his brain. Knowing the Dark Knight's secret safe, Chase and Bruce then said their goodbyes and parted ways, Batman taking Robin up as his permanent partner in his never-ending war on crime in Gotham City.[4]

War with Ivy and Freeze

Bruce Wayne as Batman is given the call that Mr. Freeze is at the Old Gotham Museum with his gang to steal a very valuable diamond. Batman shows up with his partner Dick Grayson as Robin to stop Mr. Freeze from making off with the diamond, but he makes trouble for the Dynamic Duo by freezing the floor of the museum with his freeze gun and then sending his goons armed with hockey sticks to contend with them. Batman enters into a rocket that Mr. Freeze takes off in and is pinned to the wall by hard frozen ice as the rocket takes off. Robin clings unto the side of the rocket and enters it after Mr. Freeze departs from it using butterfly-like glider wings, melting the ice around Batman's wrists and then helping him set the rocket to detonate in mid-air instead of crash-landing into Gotham and turning it into a giant crater. They both escape the rocket before it detonates by riding the hatch doors like air surfers until they catch up with Mr. Freeze at ground level, with Robin getting the diamond from the criminal. However, a false move by Robin enables Mr. Freeze to freeze him in his tracks and retake the diamond, sealing up a door with hard ice before he escapes. Batman heats up a pool of water and sticks the frozen Robin in it to thaw him out.

As Bruce reviews the tapes from the laboratory that Dr. Victor Fries used to work at, that showed how he became Mr. Freeze in the first place, he realizes that the villain's special ice suit requires diamond-enhanced lasers to keep him at a comfortable subzero temperature. Bruce decides to use the Wayne family diamonds in order to trap Mr. Freeze, but tells Dick he will have to spend 10 hours in the simulation chamber. Dick promises that his slip-up willnot happen again, but Bruce does not trust Dick's judgment and gets called by his partner upon it. Alfred concurs that his master does not trust Dick, not wishing to take sides but hoping that the two would work together despite their differences in actions and decisions.

Bruce gets a visitor in the form of Alfred's niece Barbara Wilson, who says is currently on break from Oxbridge Academy (Alfred's old alma mater) in England to see her uncle again. Bruce chooses to let her stay at the Wayne Estate simply because she is family.

Bruce with his girlfriend Julie Madison attend the unveiling of a giant telescope at the Gotham City Observatory that, through a complex series of satellites that reflect sunlight, will allow observers to see the sky from anywhere on Earth. During the press conference, a somewhat deranged scientist named Pamela Isley interrupts with the proposal of a project that could help the environment, but Bruce declines her offer, as it would kill millions of people. Isley makes a fierce charge that one day the plants will reclaim the environment from those who dare to destroy it, and that there will be no one to save them -- a charge that only elicits laughs from those gathered at the conference. Bruce gives Isley an invitation to a charity ball where the benefits will go to preserving the rainforest, showing some "mammals" still care for the environment. She accepts, but only to secretly plot for the demise of Batman and Robin, who will show up at the charity ball.

While the Dynamic Duo stand in wait at the charity ball for Mr. Freeze to take the bait of the Heart of Isis diamond necklace, an unexpected female visitor by the name of Poison Ivy makes her grand entrance. Blowing around a wisp of pheromone dust in order for the males to feel attraction to her, she makes her way to the stage and takes the necklace, offering the auctioneers present a night with her. Batman and Robin, also hit by the pheromone dust, get in on the auctioning action themselves.

Soon Mr. Freeze shows up with his goons and his freeze gun. While Batman and Robin contend with his goons, Mr. Freeze swings onto the stage and tells Poison Ivy to hand over the jewels. Ivy simply responds by blowing some pheromone dust in his face, but it does not work on him as his heart is ice-cold. After allowing Mr. Freeze to take the necklace, she lets him go and tells her assistant Bane they have work to do.

Batman and Robin chase after Mr. Freeze and his goons across town, where on a high bridge held by a giant statue the villain decides to make an exit through the statue and across his arm to jump onto a nearby building to escape. The Dynamic Duo continue to chase him across the arm. Batman tells Robin to pull back, but Robin tells him he can make the jump. Batman quickly disables the engine on Robin's motorcycle, causing him to stop while Batman in the Batmobile completes the jump. Mr. Freeze reaches the building first and freezes the Batmobile, hoping to trap Batman in it, but he escapes and knocks out the villain, ready to send him to Arkham Asylum.

Dick is getting increasingly disgusted by the way Bruce does not trust him, accusing his mentor of wanting Poison Ivy all for himself and reminding him that they have a partnership. Bruce tells Dick that it is his rules that keep his partner alive, and if he wants to continue working as a partner, he will abide by them. Dick just simply walks off, not listening.

Bruce later talks with Alfred, asking if his butler thinks he is so pigheaded on insisting things to be done his way. Alfred candidly tells him yes, for Batman is simply a way for Bruce to control what he was unable to do years ago with his parents: to stop death from happening. But Bruce realizes that even he cannot stop death from happening.

Bruce Wayne has Julie Madison over for a dinner date, where she hopes he will pop the question of whether he will marry her or not. As the two of them get close enough to kiss, Bruce sees Poison Ivy standing inside the dining room, taking his mind off Julie, who then gets puzzled when Bruce calls her Ivy. "Who's Ivy?" she asks. Bruce simply answers that he wishes he knew.

Bruce overhears Dick and Barbara talking as they enter Wayne Manor from a night of escaping death from a motorcycle ride. Barbara says she quit school because of her motorcycle racing and that she is been trying to earn enough money to get Alfred out of the butlership that is killing him. Dick tries to assure Barbara that Alfred has never been happier doing what he has done, but Barbara can only see that her uncle is sick. Bruce tells Dick that he is more than sick; he is dying -- something Alfred will not tell anyone, but Bruce somehow simply knows.

Bruce soon gets the news that Mr. Freeze has escaped Arkham. He as Batman and Dick as Robin show up at his gang's hideout where they find no trace of Mr. Freeze, but they do find a cryogenic chamber that his wife Nora Fries was put in while he was searching for the cure for MacGregor's Syndrome. He has already found the cures for earlier stages, but his wife is at a more critical stage that would possibly take years to discover.

Soon the Dynamic Duo find themselves inhaling the pheromone dust again, which means that Poison Ivy must be around. They go down to the basement, where instead of the beauty, they find the beast, which is Bane. He alternately fights with one of the heroes while Poison Ivy focuses on the other, primarily Robin whom is more easily swayed by her charms. After Bruce takes down Bane, he tries to get Robin to come to his senses about what Poison Ivy is doing to the both of them, but Robin refuses to listen, believing that Batman is jealous and just wants Ivy for himself. Poison Ivy uses this fighting among themselves as a distraction for her and Bane to leave. After being pushed into a vat of green sticky stuff by Batman who then soon after pulled him out, Robin says from now on he is going solo.

Bruce has a doctor give Alfred an examination, who then says he has Stage One of MacGregor's Syndrome, the very same illness that Nora Fries has. Alfred is laid up in bed, where the only thing anyone can do for him is just to make him comfortable. Bruce will figure out what to do about Alfred, but now he needs to attend the dedication ceremony for the new telescope at the observatory. He tells Dick that he will handle Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy alone. Dick at this point is getting tired of living under the Batman's shadow and tells him that.

At the dedication ceremony at the Observatory, Bruce shows up with his girlfriend Julie, but so also does Poison Ivy, disguised as Pamela Isley. She gives him a tantalizing whiff of her pheromone dust to distract him for just a little bit before Julie pulls Bruce's attention back to her and the telescope.

Bruce and Dick watch in the sky as a red Robin signal replaces the normal black Bat signal in the sky. Dick says it is Ivy's signal for him to come to her, a signal of love. Bruce tells him that Poison Ivy is Pamela Isley, a former scientist working in a South American laboratory that was recently destroyed, and that she killed guards at the airport by using deadly toxins transmitted from her lips. Dick still thinks that Bruce is simply jealous that Ivy is calling for Robin, not Batman. Bruce tells Dick that he is simply looking out for him, not just as a partner, but also as part of a family. All he wants from Dick right now is to trust his judgment.

Robin shows up at Poison Ivy's hideout, where she lures him to her private plant-like throne to kiss her. Robin will not make a move on her until she tells him what Mr. Freeze is up to. Ivy tells him that Mr. Freeze is going to turn the Gotham City Observatory's telescope into a giant freeze gun to freeze all of Gotham City. Robin realizes he has to stop Mr. Freeze, but Ivy gets him to kiss her before he takes off, assuming that he will die. Unfortunately, the kiss has no effect, as Robin wore a protective sheath on his lips. Then Batman shows up, ready to take Poison Ivy in. But she surprises the two crimefighters as she has them tangled up in living vines while she tries to make her escape.

Her escape is cut off by a blond-haired girl wearing a Batsuit, telling Ivy that she is going to be compost. The two women engage in hand-to-hand combat, with Batgirl prevailing and Poison Ivy being captured by her own plant creations while Batman and Robin cut their way through the vines. She tells the heroes that she is Barbara and that she has found the Batcave, where a virtual Alfred has already prepared a suit for her. Batman decides he will deal with Barbara later as they now head toward the observatory.

Mr. Freeze is already at work at the Observatory, freezing all of Gotham City with the telescope turned into a giant freeze gun. As he does this, the Bat team travel to the Observatory in other vehicles, dealing with Mr. Freeze's goons along the way. Batman notices that there is 11 minutes to thaw out the whole city before the people become ice cubes forever. Upon reaching the Observatory, Batman, Robin, and Batgirl discover that Mr. Freeze is not there at the controls, so they get to work on how they could get the sunlight on one side of the earth to be beamed directly into the telescope. Batgirl sees that the reflector mirrors need thawing out, so she and Robin choose to melt the ice on the mirrors while Batman works on reconfiguring the satellites. No sooner do they start, though, does Mr. Freeze make an unwelcome return, shaking Batgirl and Robin off the telescope and causing two of the Observatory astronomers to get caught holding onto the telescope while fighting with Batman.

Soon Batman prevails against Mr. Freeze by sticking one of his portable Bat heaters on the villain's cold suit, enabling him to knock his opponent off the control platform. He gets the satellites to beam the reflected sunlight into the telescope and uses it to heat the ice off buildings and people in Gotham. But Mr. Freeze is not finished yet; he activates a series of bombs that Bane set up around the telescope, causing it to collapse to the ground. Batman rescues the two astronomers before they fall to their deaths, and picks up Robin and Batgirl after they finished taking down Bane to return to the Observatory.

With the telescope destroyed, and the time now being midnight, the Bat team now needs a new way to thaw out the city. Batman says they can reconfigure the satellites to beam down the sunlight directly, but it would take a computer genius to do that. Batgirl says she could do it and gets right to work. Soon with the satellites in position, all of Gotham City is soaked in heat beams from the deflected sunlight.

Batman is ready to take Mr. Freeze into custody, but he does not want to be taken back to Arkham; he wants Batman to kill him like he did his wife. Batman shows a recording made by Batgirl of Poison Ivy's confession of pulling the plug on Mrs. Fries, and also tells him that they found her alive and reconnected her. He reminds Mr. Freeze that taking lives is not real power, but saving lives is -- the power he once had as a scientist. Batman promises to have Mrs. Fries' body moved to Arkham so Mr. Freeze can continue his research to cure her stage of MacGregor's Syndrome, but all he wants right now is to save a life of someone suffering from an earlier stage. Mr. Freeze pulls two vials containing the cure from his suit and hands them to Batman, trusting him in good faith.

After a long night of watching and waiting for the cure Mr. Freeze developed for an earlier stage of MacGregor's Syndrome to have any effect on Alfred after they hooked up the vials to the IV machine, Bruce, Dick, and Barbara slept in the living room, only to be awakened by a slightly disgruntled but now revitalized Alfred in the morning. All three of them are happy to see him cured and healthy. Bruce decides to take in Barbara not only as part of the family, but also as his second partner Batgirl. All Alfred could say to that is that they would now need a bigger Batcave.[12]


Abilities

Equipment

Transportation

Weapons


Alternate versions

Earth-89

 Main article: Bruce Wayne (Arrowverse: Earth-89)

In the first part of the Arrowverse crossover "Crisis on Infinite Earths", a version of the Batman, inspired by the Burtonverse version, was pictured in the Gotham Gazette, along with the captured Joker (despite his death in the first Burton movie).[13]

Flashpoint Timeline

 Main article: Bruce Wayne (DC Extended Universe: Flashpoint)

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Batman in the Flashpoint Timeline

In The Flash, Michael Keaton portrayed another version of Batman, this one hailing from an alternate timeline created by the Flash of the DC Extended Universe when he went back in time to prevent his mother's murder. It has been confirmed by director Andy Muschietti that the events of Batman and Batman Returns are canon to this timeline. This Batman and his timeline were eventually erased from existence when the Flash went back in time again and undid his timeline alterations.[14]

DC Extended Universe

 Main article: Bruce Wayne (DC Extended Universe)

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Bruce Wayne in the current DCEU timeline

At the end of The Flash, after the DC Extended Universe's timeline was rewritten yet again, Batman was once again altered by the timeline, with this new Bruce Wayne being portrayed by George Clooney instead of Ben Affleck, as in the original timeline. This implies the events of Batman & Robin occurred in this timeline, but this has not been confirmed.[14]

Related

Footnotes


Batman Allies
Batman Family member
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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.

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This is an in-universe article with out-of-universe material.

This article covers information about something that exists within the DC Universe, and should not contain out-of-universe material. Please remove all out-of-universe material, or include it in a separate section at the bottom of the article. And take off that silly costume.
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