Batman (Arkhamverse)/Synopsis

Past
Bruce Wayne was born with Gotham City's most powerful people, Thomas and Martha Wayne, and the two parents were soon murdered by a criminal called Joe Chill. Chill spared Bruce's life and robbed his parents, but it seemed he wasn't apprehended by the Police and Bruce was taken into the GCPD. He first met and befriended James Gordon there and then Alfred Pennyworth raised Bruce since he was left with no parents.

Second Year
''"I am the reason the criminals breathe easier when the sun rises."

- Batman to his butler, Alfred Pennyworth ''Heading into the second Christmas Eve of his vigilante career, Batman made his way to Blackgate Prison to cease a riot caused by Black Mask and save a kidnapped Commissioner Loeb. Loeb was executed and Black Mask escaped, as Batman was too late to save the corrupt cop, but he did get information from a now imprisoned Killer Croc that he was being hunt down by a group of eight assassins hired by Black Mask himself, them being Killer Croc, Deathstroke, Lady Shiva, Deadshot, Electrocutioner, Firefly, Copperhead, Bane. He found out more info on the bounty by a memory card of a broken drone he discovered in the prison and assumed the drone was sent by the Penguin.

After saving a group of hostages in a radio tower, meeting the Riddler (who, at the time, was self-entitled "Enigma), and interrogating a Penguin thug to find his boss' location, the Caped Crusader headed to the Penguin's ship, The Final Offer, where he defeated the Electrocutioner and Deathstroke and squeezed a bit of information out of Penguin before he escaped. The info was that, according to both Cobblepot and the cops, Black Mask was murdered at Lacy Towers. This was, of course, impossible, as Black Mask was seen just a few hours ago. So, the Dark Knight studied the crime scene and found nothing more than that someone present during the murder was an anon named the "Joker".

Bruce needed more data on the crime, so he infiltrated the GCPD building where he met Commissioner Gordon (who was just Lieutenant at the time) and saw how a corrupt SWAT unit was trying to collect the Black Mask bounty. He also met Gordon's daughter, Barbara (who later became Batgirl and Oracle) and befriended the young female. The data of the crime was finally discovered and Batman pieced together that whoever the Joker was kidnapped Black Mask, forced Black Mask to murder his wife, and the Joker and/or Black Mask was currently at the Gotham Merchant Bank.

Following a run in with the Mad Hatter, it was revealed the Joker, who seemed to be an insane clown, dressed up as Black Mask, constructed the entire operation of executing Loeb, hiring the assassins, and had the real Black Mask tied up, barely alive from his several beatings. Batman followed his new enemy to Sionis' Steel Mill, accidentally let the real Black Mask escape, and defeated a beautiful yet dangerous Copperhead. The final location traced to the Joker was the Royal Hotel. Once he finally encountered the Joker, the mental clown saw a spark between the two and knew that it was destiny for them to meet.

Though Wayne locked up the Joker, he escaped almost immediately after, where he forced the Bat to fight Bane (who knows that Batman and Bruce Wayne are one of the same and nearly killed Alfred when he discovered the Batcave). The Joker devised a plan where he had a mobile heartbeat monitor hooked to Bane and every beat powered an electric chair the Joker was strapped to, so Batman was forced to either kill Bane to stop his heart or let the Joker die to test Batman's one rule to not kill nor let anyone be killed.



Batman used the pair of electrical gauntlets he stole from a deceased Electrocutioner to stop Bane's heart, trick the Joker into leaving and thinking the superpowered beast was dead, and performed CPR on him to bring him back to life. Bane wasn't too happy to see the first thing after his resurrection was his arch-enemy looming over him, so he used the most powerful drug of all (which fortunately wiped his memory of the knight's true identity) and was defeated for a final time. The Dark Knight befriended the police force and finally confronted the clown, face to face. Batman brutally beat him to near death and locked him back up into Blackgate, right after the dawn of December 25.

Joker vs. Bane
Batman and his new partner, Robin, discovered that the gang members led by both Joker and Bane are fighting each other in several locations. The two heroes attempted to stop the killing and the gang wars by taking out each gang members especially their Captains in order to put fear into their hearts and triumph over both gangs.

Hunt for Joker
After the Joker's escape from Arkham Asylum 2 months earlier, Batman had been on a constant search for his arch enemy throughout Gotham City. During his second month of searching, Batman was notified of an anonymous tip left in Dr. Sarah Cassidy's Office at the asylum which revealed that she had been captured by Victor Zsasz and taken to the Old County Hospital. Batman managed to take down Zsasz by suprise and saved the kidnapped doctor from his clutches. In the same month, a second tip came in the form of a note attached to a test tube. Unsurprisingly to Batman, the tube contained an extremely potent fear gas similiar to the one of Scarecrow but much more stronger.

Whilst experimenting with it in the Batcave, a few molecules escaped from it and is released which forces Batman to fight his way out of a series of fear and hallucinations. Batman was able to develop and create an antidote from the formula and ambushed Scarecrow, recapturing him by returning him to his cell and cured his helpless victims. The GCPD recieved the third and final tip in the form of a 911 call, moments before the Clown Prince of Crime raided the Gotham City Hall and took the city's Mayor hostage.

Joker strapped the Mayor to the side of a large pillar on the roof of the building, attaching a Bomb to his waist. Batman destroyed Joker's detonator and removed the Bomb before it finally detonated and exploded. Joker attempted to escape the Dark Knight via parachute but Batman easily apprehended him. Whilst escorting the homocidal criminal back to Arkham Asylum, he spoke with Oracle via radio, vocalizing his suspicions on the 3 tips and whether they came from the same source, as well as the easy nature of Joker's capture. Despite these suspicions, he drove Joker to Arkham via Batmobile, hoping they would disappear once he was brought to justice again.

Battle in Arkham Asylum
''"There's no escape, Joker! I will find you!"

- Batman to Joker ''



About five years later, half of a decade of battling the scum of Gotham, Batman was escorting the Joker to Arkham Asylum, suspicious on how easily he surrendered. His plan was later revealed after he broke out literally seconds before he was put into his personal cell. He needed to take over Arkham Asylum so he can find Dr. Young's, one of the many doctors employed by the institution, notes involving the making of a powerful steroid much like the kind Bane uses, planning to make an army of mindless monsters to trample over Gotham. In the process of the chaos spawned by the escaping inmates, Frank Boles kidnapped Commissioner Gordon and was delivering him to the Joker.

Boles was killed when the Joker found out he was what was leading the crusader to them, so Harley Quinn took over Gordon's kidnapping and took him to the Medical Facility. Following the saving a few guards, doctors, and beating the Scarecrow, Batman saved Gordon and sent him to Gotham after running over an escaping Bane into the asylum's docks. Dr. Young and her notes were being hunted down by Joker's men, so Batman went over to the island's mansion to assure her safety.

Young was killed and the Joker was already trying to recreate the drug, however, so Batman apprehended Harley and tracked the clown down to his secret hideout in the gardens. Of course, the Joker escaped, but a nonchalant Poison Ivy informed the knight that the only cure for the drug was a spore in Killer Croc's lair. Both the Scarecrow and Croc was defeated yet again in the deepest undergrounds of the sewer, and a small amount of the cure was formed, which the drug was just given to Ivy's plants, making them extremely hostile and dangerous.

Yet again following the defeating of Ivy and her plants, the Batman was invited to a final party hosted by the Joker, which he "spoiled". The Joker pumped himself and Batman with the drug and they had a fight to the death. Batman injected the rest of the cure into him to stop him from turning into the insane monster Joker was, and took down the beastly clown down to his normal size once and for all, saving Gotham City and the remaining residents of Arkham Island.

Before Arkham City
Shortly before the events of Professor Hugo Strange's Arkham City, inmates from Arkham Asylum have escaped once again. As Mayor Quincy Sharp declares that this was their last chance and begins to work on the Arkham City project through Gotham City Hall, Batman ventures to hunt down and recapture the villains before deaths occur.

On Gotham's streets, Batman fights thugs led by Two-Face and then finally chased down Dent before finally capturing him. Batman then travels down in the sewers and takes down Penguin's thugs before escaping a brutal Solomon Grundy.

At the Steel Mill, Batman battles against Deathstroke's henchmen who used them as bait for the masked vigilante. Batman then faces Deathstroke himself in a fair fight before finally defeating and capturing the world's deadliest assassin.

Finally, Batman takes down Joker's goons across the city's rooftops before encountering the crazed clown, who sets off explosives which destroys various buidings. Batman then defeats him and this thugs to finally end the destruction.

At the Industrial District, Harley Quinn kidnaps a reporter to use a hostage in order to get Joker freed, Batman fights Quinn's minions through the District before encountering her, as she attempts to murder the reporter, Batman knocks her out with a Batarang and then defeats Mr. Hammer.

At the Business District, Poison Ivy uses her pheromons to take control of the police force, the hero then knocks out the infected officers and then encounters an mind-controlled Robin. Spraying Robin with an antidote, Batman then apprehends Ivy.

Events of Arkham City
''"How does it feel, Wayne? To stand on the very stones that ran with you're parent's blood. Do you feel sad? Full of rage? Or does that outfit help bury you're feelings. Hiding your true self."

- Hugo Strange ''

Arkham Asylum, obviously too damaged beyond repairs and too unstable to hold any other mentally deranged criminals, was tore down and was replaced with a chunk of Gotham gated off, having the criminals thrown into the isolated area to mindlessly roam in the now entitled Arkham City. The Penguin, Two Face, and Joker already got into a major gang war, so Bruce Wayne, during a political debate, attempted to have the prison shut down by showing the public how bad of an idea it was. Though the idea  of the prison seemed to have been the mayor's, who was the former warden of Arkham, it was really Hugo Strange pulling the strings to start construct the prison. He had his TYGER soldiers sent out and had Wayne thrown into the prison so there would be no distractions to activate Protocol Ten, as Strange knew that Batman was really the billionaire Bruce Wayne. Bruce escaped the clutches of the guards and had his gear sent to him via the Batwing. Batman knew he had to find out what Protocol Ten was, cease Arkham City's opening, and stop Strange. But first, he was led over to the Joker's Steel Mill after a sniper shot meant for Catwoman caught the vigilante's attention. The Joker's plan was then revealed, as the drug that he injected himself in Arkham Asylum poisoned his blood and was slowly killing him. Not only that, but the clown shipped his blood all over Gotham hospitals and injected it into Batman, poisoning the entire city.

The only one who knew a cure was Mr. Freeze, who was imprisoned by the Penguin. After fighting his way through Penguin's ranks and through Cobblepot himself, Batman was informed by Freeze the only cure was a compound in Ra's Al Ghul's blood. The Bat followed one of Ra's assassins back to his headquarters where he met up with his former love and Ra's daughter, Talia. He got a sample of Ghul's blood before forcing Freeze to make a cure only for it to be secretly taken out of the clutches of Batman by Harley Quinn. Back to the Steel Mill for the knight, seeing how the Joker was cured from the drug's disease. Protocol Ten was then put into action. TYGER choppers violently bombed all of Arkham City, destroying several buildings and killing many inmates.

The clown then escaped the mill with a tied up Talia and told Batman to come to the Monarch Theater. Batman forcefully obeyed, almost dead from the poison, but Talia stabbed and killed the Joker with her sword the moment he arrived. Putting the pieces together with his master detective skills, Batman realized at the last moment that the cured Joker and the one who was just killed was not the real Clown Prince of Crime. Batman was correct, as the real Joker was still sick and barely alive as well as right behind them with a loaded pistol aimed at Talia's heart. A shot echoed throughout the room, and Talia was dead after choking up her last words.

The false Joker was really an acting Clayface hired by the Joker to play him because it was the "role of a lifetime." With the very sword his fallen lover wielded, Batman "killed" the immortal Clayface and had the thwarted Joker to his knees. Batman then realized how saving the Joker with the cure, after the vigilante drank it and restored his life, would only repeat the cycle, as if the Joker continued to live, he would just break out and cause this chaos all over again. The Joker just called it a running gag and stabbed the Bat right in his shoulder.



As the cure vile was dropped and destroyed when it fell onto the ground, the Joker only a few seconds from death. Batman then tells the Joker that, despite the fact this would all happen again if the Joker's heart continued to beat, he still would have given him the cure, meaning technically, the Joker killed himself. The Joker, finding that funny, begins the hysterically laugh seconds before the drug reaches his heart and stops it. Batman carries the Joker's lifeless body out of the theater, his henchmen and the police in utter shock. Wayne placed the corpse on the hood of Gordon's car and walked away, all without speaking a single word.

Scarecrow's Revenge
Nine months after Joker's death and the shutdown of Arkham City, Gotham has entered a state of peace without Joker's presence and crime has dramatically declined. On the night before Halloween, Scarecrow comes out of hiding and threatens Gotham with his newest and deadliest toxin. The next day, the entire city of Gotham is evacuated, leaving only rioters, Gotham's villains, Gotham's police and fire departments, Batman's closest allies, and Batman himself. As Batman begins his work, he stops a military vehicle, takes a sample of Scarecrow's toxin, uploads it to Barbra Gordon (aka Oracle) for analysis, and traces Scarecrow's location to safehouse in the Chinatown section of Gotham. At the safehouse, militia men hold Poison Ivy hostage for not joining Scarecrow's plan. Batman rescues Poison Ivy and learns that Scarecrow has been planning a huge attack against Gotham and himself. Batman takes Ivy to GCPD and heads to the clocktower to meet with Oracle on the status on the toxin. Oracle reveals that the source of the toxin is at the Ace Chemicals manufacturing plant. Batman goes there and is attacked by a mysterious figure known only as the Arkham Knight and his heavily armed militia.

Once inside the factory, Batman heads out to rescue some of the factory workers and find Scarecrow. After saving the workers, Batman heads into the central mixing chamber and discovers that Scarecrow is planning to use the factory as a gas bomb for his toxin to cover the entire Eastern Seaboard. As Batman begins to fight Scarecrow, Scarecrow reveals that he has captured Oracle. Forced to let Scarecrow go, Batman begins to reduce the blast radius of the toxin spread while suffering the effects of the toxin. Just as he is about to finish the job, Batman is confronted by none other than the Joker.

A flashback reveals that before the Joker died, he sent his infected blood to all the hospitals throughout the city, but the police managed to get Mr. Freezes cure to all the patients just in time. Unfortunately, four blood transfusions went unrecorded and the four patients have been infected with Joker's blood and didn't get the cure. The four infected people are Christina Bell, a financial banker, Johnny Charisma, a famous singer, Albert "Gotham Goliath" King, a mixed martial artist, and Henry Adams, a principal of a prestigious school. Batman as take the infected to an abandoned movie studio and treats them there. One day, Batman has Commissioner Gordon taken to the movie studio and see the infected in their isolation chambers. Batman reveals that Henry has no signs of infection and that he could unlock a potential cure for the other infected. As Gordon looks around, he mentions that there is a fifth chamber without anyone. Batman responds by saying "He'll be here."

In the present day, a mixture of Scarecrow's toxin with Batman's infected Titan blood causes the Joker to appear via hallucinations. As Batman escapes the exploding chemical factory, he goes to Gordon and admits that Barbra has been kidnapped by Scarecrow because she was working with him. Feeling betrayed by Batman, Gordon abandons Batman and goes out in search of his daughter. Meanwhile, Batman heads to a group of Airships owned by Simon Stagg, a business man who owns a pharmacutical company. Inside the airships, the Arkham Knight's militia attack Stagg. After doing some searching, Batman discovers that Scarecrow recruited Stagg to make a weapon codenamed "Cloudburst."

Personality
Bruce Wayne is troubled to say the least, he was left completely traumatised by his parents being gunned down before his eyes in a mugging, so much that it sprouted a tremendous fear of bats. Worse still Bruce felt that their deaths were his fault and, now an orphan, Bruce was left in the care of his butler, Alfred Pennyworth whom he began to saw as his own father.

Unable to cope with the guilt of his parents, Bruce left Gotham and went to the ends of the Earth and located the training ground of Ra's al Ghul, one of the greatest assassins in the world and the leader of the League of Assassins who took him under his wing and trained him in the ways of the League. After months of intense training, Bruce became a living weapon, trained and mastered every martial arts imaginable however he remained strict to his morals and never killed which was looked down on his trainer. He despised guns as well, thinking that they were the coward's weapon and the same thing that stole his parents from him. Despite the League taking him in Bruce did not agree with Ra's Eco-terrorist methods of helping the world and left to return to his city to clean it from crime and corruption.

Years have passed since he left Gotham and it is in a worse state then ever, the politicians and police are all corrupt and crime runs rampant in the streets. The media all believe that Bruce Wayne is nothing more than an irresponsible, fun-seeking playboy living off his parents trust fund. However he is anything but, a vigilante known as Batman who prowls the rooftops of Gotham cleaning up crime, without taking a life. He also does good as Bruce Wayne, making very sizeable donations to charities and even launching numerous campaigns. There has also been one occasion where he shows interest in politics, specifically in the closing down of Arkham City.

Using his training from the League of Assassins and unimaginable resources from his parents company, Batman used high-tech gadgets and indomitable skills to do good in Gotham, with the help of his loyal butler, Alfred and over the years have created a team of highly trained vigilantes, and creating even more protégés such as Barbara Gordon (Batgirl), Dick Grayson (Robin, later Nightwing), Jason Todd (Robin, later Arkham Knight, then Red Hood) and Tim Drake (Robin) whom he began to see as his own sons. Despite having these allies, Batman is fiercely individualistic preferring to work by himself than actually use his friends this was also specific when Scarecrow threatened the entire city of Gotham with his Fear Toxin and he was being confronted by an entire army and although many people urged him to bring in Robin to help him, he refused with Batman needing Tim to create a cure for the Joker-infection, claiming that it was more important than fighting the Arkham Knight's Militia (which in a way it was).

Eventually, over the years of his crusade Batman eventually became obsessed with fulfilling his parents promise of making Gotham crime-free which is an obsession that he himself has come to terms with. Despite this obsessive nature, Batman was incredibly moral and never once broke his ethics that people can be good and constantly restricted himself to never killing an enemy, only non-fatally injuring them. Even Joker, a psychotic crime lord who led a reign of chaos and death across Gotham for nearly 10 years he refused to kill the man which also put him on edge with his second Robin, Jason Todd who ended up getting kidnapped and tortured for a year by the latter.

Although he has never taken a life, Batman's conscious is also completely racked with guilt, which can all be traced back to his childhood where he believed that Thomas and Martha dying was his fault. This was also contributed by the factor that if he had never become Batman then the Joker would never have been created and as such could have been spared. He also felt the guilt of Jason Todd being kidnapped, tortured and murdered and Barabra Gordon being shot in the spine by Joker and causing her paralysis. Batman's beloved Talia al Ghul was also killed by Joker and when the mad clown died of the same poison that was killing him, he felt as it was again his fault and wouldn't even talk to anyone about it.

Despite wanting to do good, Batman can also be intimidating, brutal and cold to his enemies. Although he never killed, Batman was also capable of torturing his enemies for informations however he only limited himself to broken bones, bloody gashes or at the very least intimidation (such as throwing a thug from a clock tower and threatening to throw him off if he didn't give the location of Penguin). Because of Bruce's miserable childhood he has difficulty trusting another person, even people he has known for a long time such as Alfred whom he definitely cared about but could even be cold and antisoctal towards. Even his students, Dick, Jason and Tim whom he sees as his children yet can share the same treatment towards. Batman was a master of scare tactics, such as threatening to crush a man's head underneath his Batmobile or breaking every bone in a man's body.

As a younger man Bruce certainly differs from when he was later in his career as Batman. Two years into being a vigilante, Batman is presented as being rasher, aggressive and reckless normally charging head-first into battles than actually laying out a strategy however he was still intelligent enough to think stealthily while confronting enemies armed with weapons. This Batman was more prone than attacking with brutal force than calculated skill. His recklessness was also shown while interrogating a street thug, Ricky "Loose Lips" LeBlanc he accidentally chokes him into unconsciousness. He took absolutely no pity on the GCPD and was alright with viciously beating them as they were "corrupt as they come and in (his) way."

Batman's emotions were also incredibly difficult to read. He was capable of being a level-headed pragmatist and yet emotionally blinded although these traits seemed to happen more when he was a younger man, this was specifically the case when Bane, a mercenary who was hired by Black Mask (the Joker) broke into Wayne Manor and severely injured Alfred, causing him to scream in panic and rage. This was the same case while hunting down a murderer who killed a wealthy rich couple and literally screamed at the criminal (as the situation was nearly the very same to the one where was his parents were killed, it was even the same location where they were shot, Crime Alley).

Over the years of Batman's career Batman developed into a more, calmer, composed, pragmatic and calculated detective. Despite his retained brutality Batman's affable love of humanity always stayed the same unbendable morals, even willing to commit suicide or at the very least fake his death so that Gotham and his allies could be saved. However there was one occasion when he acted on sheer emotional impulse, as he chose to save Talia, his beloved from the Joker instead of stopping Protocol 10 which would have killed thousands of Arkahm City inmates but fortunately Alfred was able to get Bruce to force the right decision on him and he was able to end Protocol 10 but sadly Talia was killed by the Joker before he could rescue her.