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"When the mugger or the thief stops to think twice, that is fear. That is what I am. That is why they hired assassins - because I am the reason the criminals breathe easier when the sun rises."
―Batman[src]
Batman Pristine showcase
Batman
Personal information
Real name Bruce Wayne
Occupation World's Greatest Detective
Based in Gotham City
Physical description
Eye color Blue
Hair color Black
Height 6 ft 2 in
Weight 210 lbs
Real-world information
Appearances Arkham Asylum
Arkham City
Arkham Origins
Arkham Origins Blackgate
Arkham Knight
Voice actor Kevin Conroy
Roger Craig Smith (Arkham Origins)

Batman is a masked vigilante and the sworn protector of his home, Gotham City.

When his parents were gunned down in front of him, a young Bruce Wayne chose to dedicate his life to ridding his city of the criminal element that took their lives. To this end, he trained extensively around the world for several years, determined to achieve physical and mental perfection, as well as mastering detective techniques and criminal psychology.

Upon returning to Gotham, Bruce decided to fight crime while assuming a persona intended to strike fear into the hearts of his opponents, and eventually chose the motif of a bat. Batman fights crime with the aid of specialized gadgets and vehicles, operating out of his secret Batcave below Wayne Manor.

Throughout his career, Batman has fought everything from simple thugs and mob bosses to fully-fledged supervillains, most notably the Joker. It has been argued by some that Batman's presence has caused more harm to Gotham than good, with Hugo Strange remarking that many of the supervillains that plague Gotham would not exist were it not for Batman.

Batman's legendary status has earned him several different monikers, including the Caped Crusader, the World's Greatest Detective, and the Dark Knight, among others.

Biography

Early life

Childhood and parents' murder

Bruce was born into the wealthy Wayne family, and was the son of doctor Thomas Wayne and Martha Wayne. Bruce's early childhood was peaceful and luxurious, until his parents were murdered by a mugger named Joe Chill[1] after they had seen a movie at the Monarch Theater, while he was only eight years old. This event severely traumatized him, and he swore that he would avenge the death of his parents in his own way by extinguishing crime in Gotham.

Following the death of his parents, Bruce was raised by the Waynes' butler, Alfred Pennyworth, who raised him as though he were his son. Bruce spent the next several years in Alfred's care until he reached his late teens, when he decided to leave Gotham in order to travel the world and receive the training he would need to fight crime.[2]

Training

Bruce spent the next several years training under many different teachers across the globe. He trained in advanced martial arts, detective work, and learned about criminal psychology. As he neared the end of his training, Bruce eventually trekked through the snowy mountains of North Korea in order to find the monastery where the fabled art of Togakure-ryū had been taught since the Oho period. After an exhausting search, Bruce finally arrived at the monastery and met master Kirigi, who agreed to teach him on condition that he proved his worth in a series of challenges.

Bruce demonstrated his skills through a variety of combat and stealth challenges, and Kirigi noticed that Bruce refused to kill his enemies, despite the fact that they would kill him. Although Kirigi admonished Bruce for this, and told him that his unwillingness to kill would only get in his way, Bruce maintained his ethics, and continued to spare the lives of his opponents. Bruce faced Kirigi's final challenge, and ultimately proved himself capable of defeating Shiva, whose skill in combat was legendary. Kirigi admitted that Bruce had impressed him, and agreed to grant him the training he sought, cordially welcoming him into his monastery.[3]

Return to Gotham

After he felt that he had received enough training, Bruce decided to return to Gotham and begin his fight against crime. His return attracted a lot of media attention, and several interviewers asked him about his travels, although Bruce always adamantly refused to tell them where he went or what he did. It did not take Bruce long to realize that merely fighting criminals as a vigilante was not enough, and that he needed criminals to fear him. Bruce eventually chose to take on the motif of a bat, a creature that he had feared in his childhood,[4] in order to inspire fear in the criminal underworld.

Bruce then chose to bide his time and gather resources, setting up a cave beneath Wayne Manor as a base of operations, designing and building several gadgets and tools, and constructing methods of transportation. Bruce also designed a suit that was functional enough to provide protection against attackers, while also protecting his identity and startling criminals. Upon setting out in his new personality, Bruce's war on crime became far more effective, and criminals began to fear what was now referred to as "the Batman".[5]

Early days as Batman

Batman enjoyed success during his first two years of fighting crime. Most of the criminal underworld, however, viewed him as a mere myth and did not believe he existed, while others viewed the chances of Batman actually stopping them in particular were low. Criminals were no match for Batman, and he grew arrogantly sure of his abilities, viewing himself as capable of overcoming any situation with no help.

Batman found himself under the scrutiny of the GCPD, which had grown heavily corrupt under its Commissioner Gillian Loeb. The police viewed him as an outlaw, and as such Captain James Gordon, head of the vigilante taskforce, made it his personal mission to bring Batman into custody. Gordon was one of the very few honest cops in Gotham however, and wanted to apprehend Batman purely in order to uphold the law, unlike most in the GCPD, who viewed Batman as a threat to their operations.[5]

Rise of the Joker

"The more I learn about the Joker, the more I realize... There's something very different about him."
―Batman, shortly after his first meeting with Joker[src]

Riot at Blackgate

On the night of Christmas Eve, Batman learned that Black Mask, the criminal alias exploited by Roman Sionis, was leading a riot in Blackgate Prison and had taken Commissioner Loeb hostage. Viewing this as an opportunity to finally apprehend Sionis, Batman raced there in the Batwing in an attempt to capture him.

Batman arrived at Blackgate to find an entrance ripped open and the hallway devastated, and rescued Warden Martin Joseph from one of Black Mask's thugs. Upon inquiry from Batman, Joseph told him that something "huge" was responsible for tearing the hallway apart, and that Black Mask was at the prison so that he could capture Loeb.

Making his way through the prison, Batman encountered a group of Black Mask's men and defeated them, before interrogating the last man left conscious. The thug revealed that Black Mask was heading to the execution chamber with Loeb, before being knocked out. Batman encountered a drone surveying the devastation, and recognized it as something that did not belong to the facility; Batman attempted to follow it, but the drone was able to slip away. Batman also observed Black Mask's henchman, Killer Croc, a giant two-legged creature that resembled a crocodile more than a man.

Upon reaching the execution chamber, Batman witnessed Black Mask inform Loeb that he was starting a "clean slate" – that the commissioner was not a part of. Loeb was forced into the execution chamber, and Batman's attempts to save him were foiled by the reinforced window inside the viewing area. Once Killer Croc weakened the glass by bashing a thug into it, Batman was able to break through; he was too late however, as Loeb had already died.

While pursuing Black Mask through the prison, Batman arrived at a guard tower and found that Killer Croc had destroyed a staircase and the surveillance drone along with it. However, the memory card was undamaged, and Batman was able to salvage it so that he could recover the data at the Batcave.

Batman made his way to the top of the tower to find Black Mask making his getaway via a helicopter. Croc rejected the opportunity to escape, as he sensed that something was wrong. Batman confronted him, and the two engaged in a battle. As Croc's skin was tough and provided protection, Batman was forced to stun him with his cape and issue beatdowns in order to weaken him. After a lengthy fight, Batman was able to knock Killer Croc through a fence overlooking a cliff. Trapped on the fence and hanging prone over the cliff, Croc was unable to prevent Batman from interrogating him. Croc revealed that Black Mask had hired assassins to kill Batman, though he passed out before he could say more.

Batman dragged Croc to safety before he was confronted by Captain Gordon and a small group of police officers. Gordon attempted to bring Batman in, but he was able to escape with the Batwing. Batman then piloted the Batwing back to the Batcave in order to retrieve the surveillance drone's data.[6]


Hunting the Penguin

"Penguin. Not a dime in this city changes hands he can't tell you about. If anyone knows where Black Mask and his assassins are, it's him."
―Batman reflecting on Penguin[src]

Batman returned to the Batcave to find Alfred waiting for him. As he relayed to him the events at Blackgate, Batman used the Batcomputer to access the drone's data. The drone was used to spy on Black Mask and succeeded in uncovering each of the assassins hired by him. Aside from Killer Croc, the assassins included Deathstroke, Firefly, Copperhead, Deadshot, Electrocutioner, Shiva, and Bane. All of these assassins were supposedly some of the greatest killers in the world, and Batman discovered that Black Mask had also set up a $50,000,000 prize for whoever kills him.

Batman decided that his next course of action should be to find whoever was operating the drone and make them tell him what they knew. Alfred suggested to Batman that, as they were the only two who knew his identity, the assassins would simply fail if he were to just stay in Wayne Manor. Batman immediately rejected this idea, stating that the assassins would put innocent people in danger in order to attract his attention.

Batman concluded that the Penguin was in charge of the drone. The drone's next waypoint was a rendezvous with his men at Jezebel Plaza, so Batman decided to make his way there and find out where Penguin was located.

As Batman used the Batwing's auto-navigation system to travel to Jezebl Plaza, he and Alfred discovered that one of the towers used for the auto-nav system was emitting a jamming signal. Batman assumed this to be the result of storm damage, but decided to investigate and determine what was causing the signal.

Upon reaching the tower, Batman discovered that a group of armed thugs had overrun the tower and taken repairmen hostage. Batman was able to easily dispatch each thug and rescue the hostages, before making his way to the top of the tower to investigate the jamming signal.

Batman found a dead repairman inside the control room, and concluded that storm damage was not responsible for the tower's malfunction. Using his advanced Detective Vision, Batman reconstructed the events that killed the repairman and realized that he had died as the result of sabotage. Someone had rigged the security panel to detonate when swiped with a keycard, and Alfred discovered that that same person had died and had their body recovered from the Diamond District just under an hour prior. Using his Cryptographic Sequencer, Batman bypassed the booby-trapped panel and made his way to the very top of the tower.

Batman found a small broadcasting room that was emitting the jamming signal, and when he attempted to hack it, he was greeted by the hacker himself, who Batman identified as Enigma. Enigma revealed that he has taken control of towers all over the city in order to render the Batwing useless. Once Batman disabled the signal, Enigma stated that Black Mask would not like this, but refused to explain when Batman asked him.

With the tower offline, Batman was now free to use the Batwing in the Coventry district, and discovered that there were several different relays as part of a distributed security system, although he was unsure what they were protecting. Batman also uncovered Enigma's hideout, and decided to "pay him a visit".

Upon arrival, Batman soon found that Enigma was not present, and was instead communicating with him remotely. Enigma told Batman that he was an information broker, and that he had data handlers all over the city who were providing him with blackmail information. He planned to release all of this information in order to bring chaos to the streets of Gotham - Enigma insisted that, unlike broken bones and other injuries, the kind of incriminating damage from his blackmail evidence could never be repaired. Batman attempted to destroy Enigma's server, but received a powerful electric shock that rendered him unable to shut it down. Determined to dismantle Enigma's operations, Batman concluded that destroying all of his network relays would allow him to access his server and shut it down. He also decided to interrogate Enigma's data handlers in order to track down his blackmail data. As the night progressed, Batman would devote time to each of these pursuits in order to foil Enigma's scheme.

Batman later arrived at Jezebel Plaza to find that he was early, and the arms deal had not begun. Assuming a position from which he could wait and observe the deal, Batman deduced who was running the operation, Ricky Leblanc, and leapt down to interrogate him and scatter the men involved in the deal.

Batman dispatched the thugs quickly, and soon began to interrogate Leblanc viciously. However, in his fury, he inadvertently choked Leblanc into unconsciousness, forcing Batman to wait for him to recover. When Leblanc finally awoke, Batman was hanging him upside down from the Gotham Merchants Bank and continued his interrogation. However, by the time Leblanc finally caved in, Batman had already found his cellphone, giving him what he needed to track Penguin down. Seeing no further use for him, Batman cast Leblanc into the street below and into the safety of a Christmas tree.

Upon attempting to read Leblanc's SIM card, Batman discovered that another of Enigma's towers was causing interference on his comm systems. Once he disabled the signal being produced from the tower, he successfully hacked the SIM card and found that Penguin had set up his own private network using laptops as transmitters. Batman located and hacked two of these transmitters and was able to triangulate Penguin's position: on board a ship docked off the Amusement Mile district, the Final Offer.[6]


Boarding the Final Offer

Batman: "Black Mask put a bounty on my head. Where is he?!"
Penguin: "I don't keep tabs on every geezer with a grudge. You're not a popular bloke in this town!"
Batman: "You're running out of time."
Penguin: "Wait! Wait! Lacey Towers... There was a murder. It was supposed to be his safehouse, but ol' Black Mask... He's got problems of his own, I'd say. Someone broke in there and-"
―Batman interrogating the Penguin[src]

Batman wasted no time in finding the Final Offer, and dismantled the group of armed men guarding the entrance. Upon entering, Batman discovered a drone identical to the one he had found at Blackgate, confirming his suspicions.

Moving through the ship, Batman reached the Boiler Deck, an annual fighting tournament that Penguin hosted for his men. After making his presence known, he was greeted by Tracey Buxton, one of Penguin's assistance. She introduced Electrocutioner, who – after making a show of his Shock Gloves and taunting Batman – leapt into the arena and prepared to brawl the Dark Knight. Batman's attempts to extract information were fruitless, so he executed a swift kick to Electrocutioner's jaw, knocking him out instantly.

Frustrated, Tracey ordered her goons to fight Batman, but he was able to defeat them all. As Tracey fled, Batman interrogated a still-conscious thug about Penguin's location. The thug revealed that Penguin was in his office, past the theater and the adjoining casino.

Batman continued through the Final Offer, and learned that Electrocutioner had regained consciousness and left the ship, but swore that he would their fight was not finished. Cursing himself for not tying Electrocutioner up, Batman ordered Alfred to scan the city for the electromagnetic pulse emitted by his Shock Gloves, so that he could be tracked down later.

Batman reached the casino, and locked Tracey in a cell after fighting through more of her thugs. He continued into the theater, and found Penguin's men keeping a Falcone bodyguard hostage. Batman defeated the thugs, and upon speaking to the bodyguard, learned that Penguin was torturing Alberto Falcone in his office.

Once he entered Penguin's office, he observed him torturing Falcone with a cattle prod, pressuring him to convince his father to drop out of the weapons business. Using a batarang, Batman knocked the cattle prod out of Penguin's hand, and put a stop to Falcone's torture.

Batman began to interrogate Penguin about Black Mask's bounty, and learned that there has been a murder at Lacey Towers, his safehouse. Before he could enquire further, Batman was caught by a rope, dragged out of the room, and suspended upside-down over the Boiler Deck. Although dazed, Batman spotted his attacker was Deathstroke. As Deathstroke prepared a killing blow with one of his swords, Batman managed to wrestle it free and cut the rope suspending him, before escaping into the arena.

Deathstroke followed quickly, and the two circled each other, preparing for battle. The two opponents were evenly matched, but Batman was able to avoid Deathstroke's attacks and gain the upperhand. As Deathstroke tired, Batman disarmed him and knocked him back, before hurling his sword into the wall, just millimeters away from his head. Before Deathstroke could react, Batman swiftly knocked him out.

Immediately after the battle, Penguin – who had watched the scene unfold – ordered Batman to leave, and sealed himself in his office, where he could not be reached. Batman contacted Alfred, and asked him to relay any information concerning the murder at Lacey Towers. Alfred informed him that the police were on the scene, and Black Mask was supposedly the victim. With this, Batman left the vessel, taking Deathstroke's Remote Claw with him.

As Batman left, he witnessed the anarchist known as Anarky make a public television broadcast, where he swore to destroy the sources of Gotham's corruption before the night ended.[6]


Dealing with Anarky

As soon as Batman exited the Final Offer, Anarky used a projection to communicate with Batman directly. He said that he had planted three bombs around Gotham, where he felt corruption was strongest, and offered Batman a choice: he could either let them detonate, or stop them. He also added that Batman's actions would determine what Anarky did with him.

An informant that Anarky had left at the site told Batman that the first bomb was located at Gotham Merchants' Bank, and Batman raced there to disarm the bomb. Once he arrived, he encountered a large group of Anarky's supporters guarding the bomb, but he was able to take care of both. With the first bomb disabled, Batman and Alfred located two other projections from Anarky, and Batman decided to move on to the second one.

Batman headed to South Gotham, where he encountered the second of Anarky's projections. In the projection, Anarky spoke of the corruption behind commercialism and advertisement, and an informant directed Batman to the Gotham Casino in North Gotham. Batman made his way there, and just as before, defeated the men guarding the bomb and disarmed it.

The third projection was also located in South Gotham, and was heavily critical of Gotham's police force. Anarky preached about how the GCPD inspired fear, rather than safety, and their motto of "protect and serve" applied to them only. Another informant told Batman that the city would be better off without the police, and Batman took this is a sign that the GCPD building was Anarky's next target. When Batman disarmed the bomb there, he was contacted by Anarky, who expressed joy that Batman was willing to spare the lives of even the corrupt, and proposed a meeting in the Solomon Wayne Courthouse.

Complying with Anarky's request, Batman headed to the courthouse and met with him. Anarky offered an alliance, but Batman refused, citing that he does not work with criminals. Angered, Anarky countered that Batman was a criminal just like him, and when he realized that there would be no alliance between them, attacked him with a group of his followers.

Once Batman defeated them and unmasked Anarky, he found that he was "just a kid". Anarky expressed that this should not matter, and that he only wanted to make a difference, like Batman himself. Batman reprimanded Anarky for putting innocent lives at risk, claiming that they were merely afraid to stand up against crime, but Anarky insisted that they were weak.

Batman left Anarky for the police to collect, and listened to his commentary on the state of Gotham. At first, he suggested that he could learn from Batman, accepting that the bombs may have been a step too far. However, as he continued, he decided that Batman was the reason that Gotham was becoming more dangerous, and that he was too elitist to want to work with.[7]

Murder at Lacey Towers

With Anarky subdued, Batman was free to investigate the apparent murder of Black Mask at Lacey Towers that Penguin had mentioned. Upon arrival at Black Mask's penthouse, Batman doubted that Penguin was actually involved, reasoning that he would not have sent him there if he were the killer.

Batman found a corpse, and deduced that the crime took place days prior, but the fire and exposure to the elements made it impossible for him to identify him. While he was wearing a black mask, without a DNA analysis – which Batman was unable to perform in the field –, he could not be identified as Roman Sionis.

Looking at another corpse hanging from a chandelier, Batman identified her as Tiffany Ambrose, one of Black Mask's mistresses. While she was involved with drug trafficking, and had a long list of prior convictions, Batman doubted that she was the target of this attack.

Upon examination of the room, it became clear that the fire spread as the result of a Molotov cocktail, and Batman speculated that it may have been used to destroy evidence of the crime.

While examining the male corpse again, Batman observed that the bullet that killed him had a low angle of trajectory. From this, it could be determined that the shooter was someone of Penguin's short height. However, there were grooves on the floor which suggested that the shooter was actually someone leaning back in a chair.

Tiffany was killed by a single shot from a revolver. As with the male victim, the shot was fired from low down, which would suggest the attacker was short. But looking at the pattern in the gunpowder residue, Batman found that the shot was fired by someone lying on the floor.

Batman found a set of Penguin's fingerprints, but they were on top of the soot from the fire. While the GCPD were correct in determining that Penguin was in the room, the fingerprints proved that he was there after the murders were made. He was obviously not responsible for the killings.

There were white streaks of shoe polish along the floor, which meant that whoever shot Tiffany was being dragged out of the room. This meant that there were two other people involved besides the victims: Tiffany's shooter, and whoever it was that dragged them along the floor.

Examining the location from which the male victim was shot offered up a sample of DNA that did not belong to either of the victims, though Batman was unsure whose it was. There was a fight that broke out when an intruder startled the shooter, but it was unclear as to who emerged victorious after the scuffle.

Batman found a small piece of fabric that had snagged on the window, and analysis revealed that it was a white suit or sport jacket, and it must have belonged to the intruder. While this offered up some clues as to who the intruder may have been, Batman still had no idea who the shooter was.

On a countertop in the penthouse, Batman found DNA that belonged to Tiffany, and the level of oxidation told him that it had been present for several days. Batman recovered her cell phone that she was using shortly before the attack, and found that she was sending text messages to Black Mask about someone named "the Joker".

With no leads as to who the shooter was, or who the Joker was, Batman decided that he needed to compare the DNA samples he had recovered with those in the National Criminal Database so that he could accurately determine who was present at the crime. The only way Batman could accomplish this would be by infiltrating the GCPD Building, and Alfred urged him to return to the Batcave to collect the Concussion Detonator first, to which Batman agreed.[6]


Personality and characteristics

Equipment and skills

Notes

General
  • Batman's combat style appears to change in each game. In Arkham Asylum, his style generally involves simply leaping to each target as he attacks. In Arkham City, he performs more impressive maneuvers such as flips and spins in the air as he travels from one target to the next. In Arkham Origins, his style is similar to that of Arkham City, albeit much more unrefined; he performs fewer flips as he attacks targets, and performs more straight attacks as well as spins. In Arkham Knight, he performs fewer flips, and uses far more recognisable martial arts techniques; many of his attacks also come from the ground, targeted at the lower body of opponents
  • In Arkham Asylum, Batman grunts with almost every action he makes, especially in combat. In Arkham City, he rarely ever grunts, unless he catches the side of a building from a great height, receives damage, or performs a special combat move that requires him to leap into the air. In Arkham Origins, he often yells in combat as he attacks foes, but mostly maintains his habits from Arkham City. In Arkham Knight, Batman will grunt if he is electrocuted or dies, but will remain silent otherwise.
Batman: Arkham Asylum
  • Batman's design is almost identical to the design used in The New Batman Adventures. Both feature Batman wearing a grey suit, black cape, cowl, briefs, gauntlets, and boots, a golden utility belt, and a large bat emblazoned on his chest.
  • Batman's height and weight statistics are identical to that of Mystery of the Batwoman, an animated movie that takes place in the DC Animated Universe.
Batman: Arkham City
  • In certain promotional shots, Batman appears to have the same face model that was used in Arkham Asylum, rather than the altered face he has in the final game.
    • In addition, Batman's cape and cowl appear to be black in certain promos, rather than the navy blue that appeared in the game.
  • During the opening sequence, Bruce Wayne uses the same combat style seen in Arkham Asylum.
Batman: Arkham Origins
  • Through the use of modding, it is possible to free-roam as Bruce Wayne while wearing his suit from Cold, Cold Heart, or the undersuit he wears in the opening cutscene of the game.
    • Interestingly, the undersuit version of Bruce utilizes the same combat animations as Batman from Arkham City, rather than those of Arkham Origins.
  • Although hard to notice, the photograph of Batman that appears in Joker's assassin contracts seems to have been taken from Arkham City. This is evidenced by the shape of Batman's cowl, and the additional creases on Batman's face.
Batman: Arkham Knight
  • As Batman gives in to Joker's infected blood as the story progresses, his appearance alters slightly to resemble that of Joker: His eyes turn green after exiting Panessa studios, and his lips will turn partially red after the siege at GCPD.
    • However, the lips revert to their natural colour once he is captured and taken to Arkham Asylum.
  • During the final confrontation with Joker's representation in his subconscious, Batman uses a few unique combat animations that are more akin to Joker.

References

  1. Batman: Arkham VR – main story
  2. Batman: Arkham Origins – Bruce Wayne character bio
  3. Batman: Arkham OriginsInitiation DLC
  4. Alfred: "As I recall, there was a time you weren't very fond of bats yourself."
    Batman: "True. But I grew out of it." (Batman: Arkham Origins dialogue)
  5. 5.0 5.1 Batman: Arkham Origins
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Batman: Arkham Origins – main story
  7. Batman: Arkham OriginsAnarky Most Wanted side mission
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