When Bruce Wayne's parents were gunned down in front of him, he swore he would avenge their deaths. After many, many years of training and discipline, Bruce tried to fight crime. Unfortunately, the punks he was trying to stop were fighting back. Barely making it home alive after his first attempt, Bruce realized he needed a disguise. When a bat crashed through the window to land atop a bust of his father, the Batman was born. Within a few months, he would win the trust and friendship of a newly appointed commissioner, James Gordon. (Batman #404-#407 "Year One")

While attending the circus one night, Bruce witnessed the death of two performers and the grief of their son, Dick Grayson. After much training, Bruce would adopt Dick as his partner and a new team was formed: Batman & Robin.

At first, Batman fought mostly street-level criminals. Eventually, though, new criminals appeared that would test him: the Joker, the Penguin, Catwoman, Two-Face, and the Riddler, to name a few.

Batman & Robin managed to escape all the criminal's traps, but the stress was taking its toll. In an encounter with Two-Face, Bruce decided that the life was too risky for Dick. They parted ways, with Dick attending college in New York, as well as re-forming the New Teen Titans. (Batman #410)

As time went by, Bruce became accustomed to working by himself on cases. He hadn't even thought about another partner until the night that he found a young kid trying to steal the wheels from his Batmobile! (Batman #366) With much training, and some attitude adjustment, this young boy (Jason Todd) would become the second Robin. Jason was always impulsively jumping into situations that he could barely handle, even when Batman was there! In fact, when Jason discovered that his biological mother was stationed in the Middle East, he rushed out to find her. Instead, he ran into the Joker. Jason tried to rescue his mother as Robin, but was instead beaten to death by the Joker. (Batman #428) Batman finally caught up with the Joker, but was unable to bring him to justice.

After Robin's death, Batman became more and more unstable without a partner. He violently beat criminals and was taking too many risks. When a young boy concluded that Bruce Wayne was Batman and Dick Grayson was Robin (now Nightwing), it was time for a third Robin (Tim Drake). (Batman #436) This time, both Bruce and Dick trained him not to take unnecessary chances. This Robin would be here to stay and even have adventures of his own.

About the time Robin was settling in, two new people would enter Gotham City. One was a member of an ancient religious order of vengeance (Azrael) and the other was an ex-prisoner who swore revenge on Batman (Bane). To test Batman's skill, Bane freed all the prisoners of Arkham Asylum! (Batman #491) Batman & Robin, with some help from Azrael, managed to capture the criminals, but Batman was left exhausted. It was then that Bane struck. After a fierce fight from the Batcave to Gotham City, Bruce was left with a broken back, almost no hope of recovery, and a broken spirit. (Batman #497)

At this time, Azrael, dressed as Batman, continued appearing in Gotham. As Bruce recovered, he realized he would no longer be Batman. He then gave the Batman duty to Azrael. As soon as Azrael took over, he changed the Bat-suit to become more armored and sharper-egded. This Batman was much more violent than Bruce ever was. But, it was this Batman who defeated Bane. (Batman #500)

At the same time this was happening, Bruce led a quest to find Tim's father and their personal physician, Shondra Kinsolving (who had been captured by Bane's men) (Justice League Task Force #7). The search led them to an island where it was discovered that Shondra had special healing powers. Bane's men wanted to turn this power to evil, but were stopped by Bruce and his team. In the end, Shondra cured Bruce of his broken back.

Now that his back was healed, Bruce had to concentrate on the mental part-could he ever go back to being Batman? He trained harder than he ever before and was finally back into physical shape. Except for one thing: Azrael was still Batman. In a chase that led across Gotham and onto Wayne Manor, Bruce convinced Azrael that he was not the "avenging angel", but just a person. Bruce had then reclaimed the Batman persona. (Batman #510)

Batman's abilities include a super-high degree of training in all forms of martial arts and an expert knowledge of detective and investigative skills. He has no super-human powers beyond his own training and learning.

First Appearance:

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