Batman (Nolanverse)

"Its not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me."

- Batman

Batman a.k.a. Bruce Wayne is the main protagonist of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Trilogy

Personality
Bruce Wayne is a brooding, troubled man, but he is also extremely brave and willing to put his life on the line to defend the lives of others. His sense of justice prevents him from killing criminals, though he clearly grapples with this belief as it often leads to the deaths of countless others. He's been known to get extremely aggressive when interrogating his enemies, going as far as to drive one insane and cripple several others.

Bruce's sense of grief can lead him into very extreme bouts of depression. When his parents died, at first he thought it was all his fault. Later on, he directed his rage towards his parent's killer. After losing his childhood friend and love of his life Rachel Dawes, he became more and more reclusive. He also becomes more suicidal at this point, rushing headfirst into fights that might very well kill him.

Despite his faults, Bruce is still a decent human being who believes in the goodness of others and strives to make life better for everyone. He has a dry sense of humor and has fairly convincing acting skills which help draw suspicion away from himself. Despite his daytime image as a reckless playboy, he invests in several charitable contributions and fundraisers, his philanthropic nature being a trait his parents taught him. This makes him stand out among the other socialites of Gotham who care only for themselves.

Childhood
When Bruce was just a boy, he fell into a pit that was linked to a cave full of bats. The bats traumatized him within an inch of his life, making him see them as the ultimate symbol of fear and power.

Shortly afterwards, Bruce and his wealthy parents were in the city seeing an opera, when they were accosted by a homeless man with a gun. He shot Bruce's parents and ran. Bruce was then taken to the police station and comforted by a police officer named Jim Gordon. From that small gesture, Bruce saw Gordon as his own personal hero.

Training Years
14 years later, Bruce attended the court hearing of the man who killed his parents, fully prepared to kill him. His friend Rachel Dawes convinced him that revenge wasn't the answer. Bruce then went into a self-imposed 7-year exile.

Bruce was later found in an oriental prison by Henri Ducard, an agent of the assassin known as Ra's Al Ghul. Ducard took Bruce under his wing and trained him in the art of the ninja. When Bruce's final test came: executing a well-known murderer, he realised he couldn't bring himself to do it. When urged by Ra's Al Ghul into killing this man and then leading an assault on Gotham, Bruce destroyed their hideout and ran, making sure that Ducard survived whilst Ra's Al Ghul was killed by the debris.

Battle against Fear
Upon returning to Gotham, Bruce conspires with his butler Alfred and his technician Lucius Fox into developing a persona that would be powerful enough to influence the people of Gotham into standing up for themselves whilst simultaneously fighting the criminals that were above the law. Remembering how afraid he was of bats, Bruce develops his new image on the one thing he knew would inspire fear in his enemies. He then stops a drug run and attacks a mob boss, declaring himself Batman.

The next night, Batman encounters more drug runners, lead by the mad scientist Jonathan Crane, who drugs Batman with a gas that would cause him to have terrifying hallucinations. Batman escapes and is able to develop a cure to this with the aid of Lucius. He then attacks Crane, who had drugged Rachel, and cures Rachel's hallucinations. At Bruce Wayne's birthday party, Bruce runs into his old mentor Ducard, who is then revealed to be the real Ra's Al Ghul. Ra's burns Bruce's manor to the ground and uses Crane's fear gas to cause mass panic in Gotham.

Batman teams up with Gordon and Rachel and they manage to stop the majority of rioters. Batman then goes after Ra's Al Ghul, fighting him into submission. Ra's allows Batman to kill him, but is disappointed when Batman decides to leave him stranded in a train on a collision course, saying I won't kill you, but I don't have to save you. Ra's dies in the ensuing explosion.

Afterwards, Rachel finds out that Batman was Bruce Wayne and admits that she loves him. Unfortunately, Rachel tells Bruce that his secret life was too much for her to peruse a relationship with him and they decide to stay friends. Gordon and Batman become secret partners and talk about how his presence is about to launch a whole new level of criminal activity, particularly one killer who leaves a Joker cardat the scene of his crimes.

Joker Incident
Batman has cleared up the worst of the organized crime syndicates, but still cannot catch up to the Joker, the new anarchistic criminal that the mob has hired. He teams up with Harvey Dent, the new district attorney in an attempt to arrest the remaining mob bosses. This is met with retaliation from the Joker, who promises to start killing innocents if Batman doesn't unmask himself.

The Joker targets Dent and is promptly arrested after a high-speed chase. Its then revealed that the Joker's henchmen had kidnapped Dent and Rachel, left them in abandoned warehouses rigged with explosives and had left it to Batman to decide which one he should save. Batman goes to save Rachel and leaves Dent to the police, only to find out too late that the Joker had given him Dent's address while the police had Rachel's. Rachel died in the explosion and Harvey Dent sustained horrific burns on the left side of his face.

Batman, deciding that the Joker was too big a threat, secretly manipulates Fox into developing some new technology to help him track down the Joker. Fox is astounded that Batman would go as far as invading the privacy of the people he was trying to protect, but was reassured that this technology would only be used once and then destroyed. Batman tracks down the Joker and is tempted to kill him out of vengeance, but decides at the last minute to let him live. The Joker tells Batman that he got to Harvey Dent and convinced him to go rogue. Batman then goes after Dent, who was now holding Gordon's family hostage. Batman is shot, but musters up enough strength to stop Dent from killing Gordon's son, accidentally killing Dent in the process. In order to keep Dent's acts of crime secret, Batman decides to take the blame. He then retires out of shame for breaking his no-kill rule.

Bane Incident
8 years later, Bruce Wayne has become a recluse. His attempt to create a new energy source that would run on clean energy consumed most of his inheritance and was scrapped after it was discovered that it had the potential to be a nuclear explosive.

A master thief named Selina Kyle manages to steal his mother's necklace and obtain Bruce's fingerprints, which she gives to a rival businessman as part of a conspiracy to destroy what's left of the Wayne family's image. Its then revealed that this was all part of an even bigger plot by a terrorist leader named Baneto destroy Gotham. Bruce comes out of retirement at the behest of a young police officer named Blake to stop Bane, only to find that his money has been stolen and that Alfred has now left due to the angst of watching his master go out and risk his life. Bruce leaves his company in the hands of his business partner, and later lover, Miranda Tate. Batman teams up with Selina Kyle to track down Bane, who effortlessly defeats Batman, breaks his back and leaves him in a prison to rot.

Bruce recovers from his injuries and retrains himself so that he can escape the prison which only the child of Ra's Al Ghul had done before. Despite his best efforts, Bruce was not strong enough to leap from the final precipice to freedom. One of the prisoners told Bruce that the reason he couldn't make the leap was that he didn't have the fear of death to motivate him. Bruce then made the climb once again, without the aid of a safety rope as he had done before. While on the precipice, he had a vision that a swarm of bats was flying to freedom. Remembering how afraid he used to be of bats, Bruce makes the leap and reaches the exit.

Bruce returns to Gotham through unknown means and recruits Gordon, Selina, Fox and Blake to help him put a stop to Bane's tyranny. While his allies help protect the innocent civilians, Batman fights Bane once more. Batman fights at a more strategic level this time, breaking Bane's mask and weakening him. Batman is then stabbed by Miranda, who reveals her true name to be Talia, the daughter of his old enemy Ra's Al Ghul. Talia then uses the nuclear reactor that they had built as an explosive, ready to set it off and destroy Gotham, but is defeated by the combined efforts of Batman and his allies. Realizing that the bomb was about to go off regardless now, Batman decides to tow it out to sea in his new aircraft. As he is about to leave, Selina kisses him and Gordon asks who he really is; Batman just reminds him of the time he comforted Bruce Wayne and how a small gesture like that can make anyone a hero. Gordon then realizes who he really is as Batman's aircraft explodes over the ocean.

Life After Death
As Batman and Bruce Wayne have now been declared dead, Batman has had a statue erected in his honor and Bruce's remaining assets are divided between Alfred, and a local orphanage, while Blake inherits Batman's hideout and technology under his legal name: Robin.

Alfred travels to Italy as a way of easing his pain. While dining at his favorite café, he sees Selina Kyle sitting with Bruce Wayne, alive and well.