The following story and photos are from Giant Panda King's book,
Gotham 1919-1939 by Russall S. Beattie, available from www.giantpandaking.com.
Viewer discretion is advised.
The Bat-Man; a figure of controversy, and a hero to some. The man behind the mask, Bruce Wayne,
was at the direct center of the masked vigilante phenomenon in Gotham City from 1919-1939.
Being born into the wealthy Wayne family, Bruce was considered Gotham royalty.
His family had been one of the founding ones in Gotham’s earliest days.
The Waynes also contributed majorly in Gotham’s economic structure;
they owned the largest manufacturing company in the city and also employed thousands of citizens.
Bruce’s parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne, were very loving and nurturing.
Bruce had a happy childhood, until one fateful night.
While out at the theater, the Waynes were held up by a man with a gun.
Whether it was by murderous intent, or merely the mugger’s inexperience, the gun went off.
Bruce was the only survivor of the attack, and was found crying next to his parents’ lifeless bodies.
It was the last time Bruce allowed himself to cry. The last time he would be helpless.
Bruce fell under the care of the family butler, Alfred Pennyworth. Alfred was very loyal to the
Waynes. Thomas and Martha wished him to be legal guardian to Bruce upon their deaths.
An Englishman by birth, Alfred had served in His Majesty’s Royal Forces from 1879-1881.
He originally only intended to serve the Waynes for a short time.
With time, he realized he enjoyed the role of being a gentleman’s gentleman. Alfred’s
military background made him a perfect fit for the strict regiment of buttling. He became a
trusted friend and confidant to the Wayne parents, and after their deaths, a consolation to Bruce.
The teenage years of Bruce Wayne were a tumultuous time. Bruce convinced Alfred to train him in basic
combat. The boy made the case that he needed something to cope with the death of his parents.
Alfred reluctantly agreed to help him train, thinking Bruce might grow out of it.
He was dead wrong. Instead, Bruce continued to train both mentally and physically.
He wanted to be as formidable as he could in every sense of the word. Bruce called on teachers from
all corners of the globe. He received training for many different martial arts and combat methods.
Vacations abroad were spent delving into other cultures and learning of ancient and modern
teachings alike. Bruce also investigated the circumstances of his parents’ murders,
convinced that some powerful person or group was behind it.
Upon Bruce’s 18th birthday, he gained access to his full inheritance:
the Wayne family holdings and majority ownership of Wayne Enterprises Inc.
He had the help of his late father’s allies in the company, such as Lucius Fox. Lucius’ family were
old friends with the Waynes, and Thomas made sure his friend got the same education that he did.
While Thomas went into the medical field, he left the care of his money investments to Lucius.
Lucius’ friendship with Thomas extended to Bruce as well,
and Bruce grew up knowing that he could trust and rely on Mr. Fox to support him.
Upon reaching adulthood, Bruce was the face of Wayne Enterprises, but Lucius was the backbone.
Lucius was later instrumental in helping Bruce fund and build his arsenal for the
Bat-Man’s crusade. With the help of Mr Fox and others, Bruce began to diversify the
company’s interests into developing fields such as communications, sciences, media, and
transportation. Many naysayers called him naive, thinking he would run the company into the ground.
Bruce proved them all wrong as Wayne Enterprises Inc. became one of the biggest and most
diversified in the entire world. It also saved the company during the stock market crash years later.
Bruce’s reasons for taking the company in different directions wasn’t solely
business strategy. Even then, he was laying the foundation - the infrastructure - for his plans.
Even then, he wanted to become Gotham’s protector.
He wanted to expand his training and take more steps in that direction, but he was limited
by his celebrity status. Everywhere he went, Gotham’s citizens knew his face and his name.
He was at a loss for how to deal with that dilemma, until the Great War broke out in 1914.
He enlisted with his friend, Harvey Dent. Public opinion of the young Wayne was that
he was throwing his life away to go play war hero. Bruce utilized this as well. In the very
first battle he and Harvey fought in, Harvey was grievously injured, and Bruce disappeared,
declared Missing-In-Action. Most presumed him dead or captured.
Without his butler, his money, or his fame, Bruce finally felt free for the first time.
He spent the next two years finishing his training in hiding.
He would barter, work, or stowaway across the globe, training with various groups and masters.
During his early training in his teen years, his teachers had told him rumors of an especially
mysterious group. Some were terrified of them, others considered them saviors.
They were called the League of Assassins. The group was spoken of in ghost stories, but Bruce
was convinced there was truth to the tales of the League of Assassins and their mysterious
leader. He wanted to learn to inflict fear like the League did. After searching for them enough,
they eventually found him. The details of his training with the League are lost to time.
The only mention of that time is in the journals Bruce kept throughout his years of crime-fighting.
In 1919, Bruce made a return to Gotham. His years of training had resulted in numerous scars,
and he used this to spin a story of being injured and held as a prisoner of war.
The city he returned to was worse than when he had left it.
Gotham’s politicians and police force were full of corruption,
greed, and criminality. Many of the shattered men returning to Gotham from the Great War
were also evolving into something new; criminals of which Gotham had never seen the likes.
It was at this time that the Bat-Man appeared, seeming to take on crime, corruption,
and oppression single-handedly. Many thought the masked vigilante merely an urban legend at first,
and even the police tried to discredit the rumors of his existence,
but eventually the evidence became indisputable.
The Bat-Man consumed much of Bruce’s life, and it is still debated whether
his presence in Gotham from 1919-1939 actually brought the crime rate down, or made it worse.
He helped bring down mob bosses, monsters, and costumed criminals,
but he also may have caused some of the threats he fought. We may never know if he was a force for
good, but what we do know is this: Gotham would need the Bat-Man for what was going to come next.
The threat looming on the horizon was one deeply rooted in Gotham’s infrastructure,
it’s economy, it’s every facet. The Bat-Man had recently fought in Gotham’s battle for Chinatown,
but this new danger dwarfed that one in comparison. This threat was one spoken
of only in nursery rhymes. “Beware the Court of Owls that watches all the time,
Ruling from their shadowed perch behind granite and lime,
They watch you at your hearth, they watch you in your bed,
Speak not a word of them, or the Talon will strike you dead.”