Batman is a fictional superhero appearing in the american comic books published bydc comics.the character was created by artist bob kane and bill finger, and first appeared in detective comics #27 (may 1939). originally named "the bat-man", the character is also referred to by such epithets as "the caped crusader", "the dark knight", "the world's greatest detective", or simply as "the bat."
How did he become a hero?
in batman's first appearence in detective comics #27, he is already operating as a crime-fighter. batman's origin is first presented in detective comics #33 (november 1939) and is later expanded in batman #47. as these comics state, brucewayne is born to dr. thomas wayne and his wife, martha two very wealthy and charitable gotham city socialites. bruce is brought up in wayne manor, and leads a happy and privileged existence until the age of eight, when his parents are killed by a small-time criminal named joe chill while on they way home from a movie theater. that night bruce wayne swears an oath to spend his life fighting crime.
he engages in intense intellectual and physical training; however, he realizes that these skiils alone will not be enough. "criminals are a superstitious cowardly lot," wayne remarks, "so my disguise must be able to strike terror into their hearts. i must be a creature of the night, black, terrible...." as if responding to his desires, a bat suddenly flies through the window, inspiring bruce to take on the persona of batman.
flashpoint
barry allen wakes up to discover everything and everyone around him had changed. citizen cold is central city's greatest hero; his mother nora (deceased in his own timeline) is alive; his father, henry, died of a heart attaack three years ago (instead of being in prison.) and the flash,the justice league, and even superman don't exist. in gotham city, batman throws a criminal off a building before being confronted by cyborg. cyborg and batman have a conference with a group of superheroes to discuss how the battle between aquaman's atlanteans and wonder woman's amazons has caused massive death and destruction in western, europe with america similarly endangered. these heroes can not cooperate to find a solution, and the meeting is disbanded. barry allen runs to the batcave where batman, who is revealed to be thomas wayne, attacks him.
in this continuity, thomas became a crime-fighting vigilante after joe chill kills bruce wayne in front of him and martha wayne. when barry allen enters the batcave, batman attacks allen, but is surprised to hear bally call him bruce. allen reveals to the alternate batman that the timeline has been altered. batman stops fighting and asks barry the details of his son's life after his own death. willing to change history and ready to sacrifice his own life to restores his son's, batman helps barry build a device to recreate the accident that gave barry his speed.
gotham by gaslight
in 1889, bruce wayne is in a tour of europe. his trip to europe ends in vienna, where he has come to learn from dr. freud, bruce tells freud that he has a recurring dream in which he recalls the murder of his own parents and decides he must return to gotham city. on the return trip, bruce meets jacob packer, an old family friend who he calls uncle jake, who also returned from a trip to europe. shortly after arriving, inspector gordon informs wayne about criminal gangs currently operating in gotham. gordon also shows bruce the case of a man who poisoned his wife and tried to commit suicide with the poison, which left him alive with a permanent grin. bruce takes up the mantle of the batman to fight criminals on the street.
at the same time, a series of murders of women take place and some people begin to suspect that batman is the murderer. it is soon discovered that jack the ripper has come to gotham, as the murders in gotham city seem to resemble the ripper murders.
batman beyond
in 2019, an aging brucewayne continues his role as batman in a high-tech batsuit. in the rescue of a kidnaped heiress, batman suffers a mild heart attack and, at risk of being bitten to death by one of the kidnappers, is forced to betray a lifelong principal by threatening to use a gun. ultimately, bruce reluctantly decides that his time as batman is over and vows "never again" as he shuts down the batcave. by this time his allies, alfred, pennyworth lucius fox, leslie thompkins and harvey bullock have died. his partners, dick grayson, barbara gordonand tim drake have grown up and left or had fallings-out with bruce.all of his enemies are either retired, in prison or dead and he has severed his ties with the justice league. the story fast-fowards 20 years later to 2039 in neo-gotham, a futuristic megapolis featuring high rises and flying vehicles. bruce is now a recluse living in bitter isolation in wayne manor, with no companion but his guard dog ace. terry mcginnis is an athletic 17-year old high school student and reformed troublemaker with a deeply ingrained sense of personal justice. living on poor terms with his father warren mcginnis, terry disobeys his curfew one night to meet up with his girlfriend dana tan, omly to incur the wrath of a group of the jokerz gang harassing them. a high-speed motorcycle chase between terry and the jokerz leads them to ground of wayne manor, where they run into elderly bruce wayne. bruce and terry fend off the jokerz side-by-side, but the exertion aggravates bruce's heart condition. terry helps bruce back to the manor and, while exploring the manor, stumbles upon the entrance to the batcave and thus discovers bruce's secrets, only to be chased by a recovred and angered bruce wayne. terry returns home to discover that his father has been murdered, apparently by the vengeful jokerz. soon after, though, he discovers that his father had stumbled onto information about the production of illegal chemical weapons by derek powers' wayne-powers (wayne enterprises now emergerd powers' company) and the man actually responisble for his father's murder is wayne-powers' personal assistant/bodyguard mr. fixx.terry goes to bruce for help but he refuses, feeling he is too old and too weak to be of any use. terry subsequently steals the batsuit, intending to bring powers to justice. bruce initially opposes all of terry's efforts and vehemently demans him to return the suit but terry convinces bruce to let him take on the batman mantle, partially by drawing the fact that they both lost a parent to criminals, and subsequently defeats mr. fixx. during the battle, fixx is exposed to the chemical and forced to flee into hiding to receive treatment which subsequently mutates him into a radiation-emitting entity, though he uses artificial skin to hide the accident. realizing that crime and corruption are running rampant in gotham without batman's presence, bruce offers terry the chance to assume the role of batman.
the new batman soon develops his own rogues gallery. terry also makes allies in neo-gotham, such as the 17-year-old computer genious maxine "max" gibson discovering batman's secret identity and helps terry with everything from computer hacking and babysitting, and police commissioner barbaragordon initially unhappy about another person following in bruce's dark and dangerous steps, though she admits that the city needs batman and that terry could not be deterred from being batman any more than she could have being from being batgirl.
batman: earth one bruce wayne is the eight-year old son of dr. thomas wayne, a mayoral candidate of gotham city, and martha wayne. after receiving death threats, thomas contacts his friend alfred pennyworth to become the head of security of wayne manor. during an outing with his parents, bruce is taken hostage by a mugger. he demands that the waynes pay a ransom for their return of their son and attempts to remove martha's pearl necklace. thomas tries to intervere and the criminal shoots them both in front of bruce. following bruce's return to wayne manor, alfred learns that he has been named bruce's legal guardian by the wayne parents in the vent of their absence. alfred agrees and presents himself to bruce as his butler. as a teenager, bruce befriends his classmate, jessica dent, and develops a rivalry with her twin brother, harvey dent. he also learns about arkham manor, where martha lived as a child. martha's mother suffered a mental breakdown when martha was 12 years old, murdering his husband with a sledgehammer, and committing suicide by jumping off a balcony. arkhm mnor is believed to be cursed due to martha's mother, causing all members of the arkham members to become insane. bruce is suddenly inspired following a teenage experience at wayne manor and shortly after words convinces alfred to train him in various forms of martial arts and acrobatics. bruce also learns investigative techniques. following this training, he discovers evidence that mayor oswald cobblepot was involved in his parents' assassination. in his mid-twenties, bruce dons a bat-themed costume as a disguise, inspired by his pre-training at the wayne manor. meanwhile, detective james gordon of the gotham city police department is investigating a string of disappearances involving young girls between the ages of thirteen and fifteen. the case is shortly put on hold, so that gordon can meet his new partner, harvey bullock, an experienced lapd detective who has come to gotham to solve the wayne murders in order to revive a fading career.
following an altercation between cobblepot's bodyguards and bruce at a function organized by the mayor, bruce's alter ego is named "batman" by the press and the topic becomes a public sensation. ,copplebot infuriated by batman's actions at the event, orders one of the henchmen, a serial killer named "birthday boy", to take care of jacob weaver, a former policeman who is employed by cobblepot and a subject of a search by batman.
superman: red son
in the 1950's, the soviet union reveals its new asset to be superman. the sudden revelation of a super powered alien under soviet control causes panic in the united states, shifting the focus of the cold war arms race from nuclear weapons to.superhumanscia agent james oslen recruits lex luthor, a scientist employed by s.t.a.r. labs, to destroy superman. lithor's first act is to cause sputnik 2 to plummet towards metropolis. after superman diverts the satellite away from the city, luthor retrieves his genetic material and creates a monstrous clone of superman whom lex luhtor officially names superman 2 when he is unveiled to olsen.
luthor's second plans involves batman, who was the boy orphaned by pyotr roslov, the head of the nkvd. batman joins forces with luthorcorp and pyotr, now head of the kgb. they capture wonder woman (whom superman met in a diplomatic party) and use her as a bait, hoping to sap his powers with rays that imitate the light of superman's native sun. the plan works, but wonder woman breaks free and rescues superman, seriously injuring herself. rather than face capture and lobotomization, batman commits suicide, and pyotr is turned into a superman robot.