DC Electric: Batman

**DC Electric: Batman** is a series of comics taking place in Earth-EM.

## Issues

### #1 - Batman Begins

Plot: After convicted killer Joe Chill escapes prison, Bruce Wayne, CEO of Wayne Enterprises, has recurring nightmares of the night his parents died. Young Bruce Wayne watched in horror as Joe Chill broke into his family's mansion and gunned down his parents, Thomas and Martha. They never discovered who hired Joe to do so. Bruce decides to take the law into his own hands, with help from his butler Alfred Pennyworth and Wayne Enterprises scientist Lucius Fox. Lucius hacks into the GCPD's files and sees all the evidence they have on Chill, and where they suspect his hideout might be. As the police arrive at Chill's warehouse hideout, Bruce also arrives dressed in all black with a cheap Halloween bat mask on. He sneaks in through the back as officers Jim Gordon, Renee Montoya, and Harvey Bullock enter through the front. Bruce sneaks up behind Chill, and grabs his gun out of his hand. Chill is shocked and asks Bruce not to kill him, and Bruce has a flashback of the night his parents were shot. He decides not to stoop down to Chill's level, and instead drops the gun. Chill picks the gun up from off the ground and shoots at Bruce, seemingly killing him. Officer Gordon breaks down the door and guns down Chill. Gordon sees the masked man on the ground, and before he can unmask him, he gets up. Bruce runs off, and jumps out the window. Gordon looks out the window and sees that Bruce is gone. Back at Wayne Manor, Bruce tells Alfred and Lucius that he wasn't able to do anything, because the police arrived and killed Chill, however, the bulletproof vest worked, as it saved him when Chill shot him. Bruce decides he needs to be more prepared next time, and needs upgrades to his suit. He also asks Lucius to make non-lethal weapons for him. The next morning, Bruce is in his office at Wayne Enterprises reading the newspaper. He sees an article titled "The Batman of Gotham", about the mysterious masked figure Jim Gordon saw.

Characters introduced: Bruce Wayne/Batman, Alfred Pennyworth, Lucius Fox, Joe Chill, Jim Gordon, Renee Montoya, Harvey Bullock, Thomas Wayne (flashback only, dies), Martha Wayne (flashback only, dies)

Deaths: Thomas Wayne (flashback), Martha Wayne (flashback), Joe Chill

### #2 - The Enigma

Plot: Bruce goes on nightly patrols in an upgraded Batsuit that includes a mask and a cape. He now has an arsenal of weapons that includes a tranquilizer gun, a grappling gun, and smoke bombs. His mask has built in infrared goggles that allow him to see in the dark and in smoke. The GCPD are still investigating the Batman story. Meanwhile, Gotham Gazette reporter Vicki Vale is heading to Wayne Manor to interview Bruce Wayne. During the interview the two hit it off, and Bruce asks Vicki on a date. Meanwhile, the GCPD arrive at the scene of a crime, where a man's house was blown up. The man survived but is severely injured and has lost the lower half of his body. Officer Gordon talks to him in his hospital room, and finds out that the man received a call on his phone. The caller asked him a series of morbid riddles that progressively got harder and harder. He solved the first two but struggled on the third one, until the caller said "Time's up", and then the house exploded. The man describes the caller as "some sort of messed up... Riddler". The next night, Bruce is getting ready for his date with Vicki, when Alfred tells him that a group of people are being held hostage at a bank. Bruce arrives at the bank as Batman and breaks in, but discovers there is no one holding them hostage. Instead, the bank has been put under lockdown, and the bank teller is being asked riddles over the phone by a man threatening to blow them all up if she can't answer the riddle. Batman takes the phone and asks the caller who he is. The caller calls himself "the Riddler". The Riddler asks Batman several riddles, all of which Batman can answer easily because of his intelligence. When he answers the last riddle, the Riddler gets upset, and decides to play "one last game". He tells Batman the location of the bomb, and challenges him to defuse it in one minute before he lets it explode. Batman struggles to defuse it, and contacts Lucius Fox to help him. Lucius explains to him how to do it and Batman is able to defuse the bomb at the last second. Batman helps everyone get out and takes off. Back at Wayne Manor, he gets a call from Vicki who asks him why he was late. Unable to tell her the truth, Bruce says "He forgot". Vicki calls Bruce a jerk and hangs up. Meanwhile, as Lucius Fox is leaving from Wayne Enterprises, he asks his co-worker Edward Nashton about the mysterious Riddler. Nashton says some things will always remain mysteries, and after Lucius leaves, he takes out his phone, which has a question mark on it, and calls someone, saying "Riddle me this..."

Characters introduced: Vicki Vale, Edward Nasthon/Riddler

### #3 - Riddle Me This

Plot: After the bank incident the GCPD trace the Riddler's phone call back to the Wayne Enterprises building, and they begin to investigate the building. Bruce Wayne becomes their top suspect, much to his dismay. Vicki hears about this news and she calls Bruce about it. Bruce says he would never do those things. Vicki begins to become more suspicious of Bruce after realizing that the bank incident occurred at the same time as their date he didn't show up to. She decides to go over and have dinner at Wayne Manor with Bruce so she can look into it. When Bruce goes to the restroom she sneaks off and looks around. She bumps into Alfred, who asks her what she's doing. Vicki tells Alfred that she's worried about Bruce, and thinks he might be the Riddler. Meanwhile, Edward Nashton is cleaning out his workspace at Wayne Enterprises and removing all the evidence before the GCPD find out that he is really the Riddler. Lucius Fox sees him and asks him what he's doing. Suddenly, Officer Gordon and Officer Montoya enter the building. Nashton is worried and quickly runs out of the room with all his things. Montoya goes to stop him as he drops his phone, which has a green question mark on it, similar to the green question mark that was discovered on the Riddler's bomb at the bank. They take Nashton in for questioning, and he is found guilty. Nashton is arrested, but gets one phone call. He calls a number which activates a bomb he planet in Wayne Enterprises, which blows up the entire building, killing everyone inside. Bruce finds out about this and calls Lucius Fox to see if he is still alive. Thankfully, Lucius went home before the bomb went off, but some unfortunate police men were still inside. Elsewhere, we see a muscular man in a mask watching the news. He sees the report on the explosion and says to himself, *"It's time"*.

Characters introduced: Bane

### #4 - The Dark Knight

Plot: In a flashback, we see Edward Nashton hire a steroid-using hitman named Bane to break him out of prison once he sees the Wayne Enterprises building explode, as a back-up plan in case Nashton ever got caught. In modern day, Edward Nashton is sitting in his cell in Blackgate Prison, grinning deviously. Outside, a guard is sleeping on the job when suddenly a loud noise wakes him up. He turns around and sees Bane, standing before him. Bane punches the guard in the face, instantly knocking him out, and steals his keys. In his cell, Nashton hears tons of commotion, when suddenly Bane burst into the hall outside his cell, fighting off some guards. He grabs the bars of the cell and pulls them out. He grabs Edward and gets away. Bruce Wayne sees this on the news, and heads to the prison to investigate as Batman. He sneaks into the building and heads into a storage room where evidence against Edward is being held.