Bruce Wayne (Earth-66)

## Bruce Wayne / Batman

* Bruce Wayne
* Batman

> Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb!
>
> Batman, *Batman: The Movie*

**Bruce Wayne**, also known as his alter-ego **Batman**, is the titular protagonist of the *Batman* television series, its tie-in films *Batman: The Movie*, *Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders*, and *Batman vs. Two-Face*, and its comic continuation *Batman '66*. He is the multi-millionaire head of the Wayne Foundation who defends Gotham City as a costumed crime-fighter. Working with his sidekicks Robin and Batgirl, Batman protects Gotham from the forces of evil, specifically infamous supervillains such as the Joker, the Penguin, Catwoman, and the Riddler.

In *Batman: The Movie*, Batman and Robin responded to an anonymous tip warning that Admiral Schmidlapp was in danger aboard his yacht, and uncovered a conspiracy by four of Gotham's most feared super-criminals to steal his brilliant new invention: a device that could completely dehydrate anything. The Dynamic Duo used their arsenal of vehicles to pursue and battle the United Underworld, though they were unable to stop the villains from dehydrating and kidnapping the members of the United World Security Council. Fortunately, they defeated the villains and recovered and rehydrated the victims, saving the world as we know it.

## History

### Past

As a child, Bruce Wayne saw his parents Thomas and Martha murdered in front of him by criminals. As an adult, Bruce trained himself to fight back against the criminals of Gotham City in order to honor his parents' memory, with the help of his loyal butler Alfred. Donning a bat-themed suit in order to strike fear into the hearts of criminals, Bruce took on the identity of Batman, wielding several bat-themed gadgets. Batman found an ally in Gotham's police commissioner James Gordon and became an officially deputized agent of the law. Bruce later took in young orphaned acrobat Dick Grayson as his legal ward, who became Batman's loyal sidekick Robin. Together, as the Dynamic Duo, Batman and Robin battled the criminals of Gotham City, including numerous so-called super-criminals.

### *Batman: The Movie*

When Batman and Robin received an anonymous tip that Admiral Schmidlapp was in danger aboard his yacht, the Dynamic Duo sprang into action. They traveled to the yacht's location aboard the Batcopter, only to discover that it was not really there. Batman was attacked by a shark while trying to descend onto the boat via the bat-ladder, but Robin was able to hand him the bat-shark repellent. Batman used the repellent to free himself from the shark's bite, after which the shark fell into the water and exploded. Batman and Robin then appeared at a press conference at police headquarters, where Batman assured the press nothing was wrong. However, once the reporters had left, Batman discussed the situation with Commissioner Gordon. They determined that the anonymous tip was a set-up planned by the United Underworld, an alliance between four of Gotham's most dangerous super-criminals: the Joker, the Penguin, the Catwoman, and the Riddler.

Batman and Robin used the Batboat to return to the site of the earlier trap, and found a buoy equipped with a holographic projector. However, the two found themselves stuck to the buoy by a magnet, and were targeted by torpedoes fired by the Penguin's submarine. They used a radio transmitter to detonate two of the torpedoes, while a porpoise sacrificed itself to protect them from the third. Bruce was visited at Wayne Manor by a Soviet journalist named Kitayna Ireyna Tatanya Kerenska Alisoff, or Kitka for short, who unbeknownst to him was actually Catwoman in disguise. With an anonymous threat on Kitka's life, Bruce stayed with her on a date while Robin and Alfred kept watch inside the Batmobile. At Kitka's apartment, Bruce was ambushed by Catwoman's allies and their henchmen. Though he put up a fight, Bruce was eventually subdued and captured, and taken back to the United Underworld's headquarters at the Gotham docks. Bruce managed to fight his way free and escape, then returned to Wayne Manor to reunite with Robin. The two traveled to the villains' base to rescue Kitka, finding only a smoking bomb there. Batman struggled to dispose of the bomb safely, ultimately depositing it in the water and taking cover from the explosion behind metal pipes. Batman and Robin were then approached by the Penguin, disguised as Admiral Schmidlapp. While the Dynamic Duo easily saw through the disguise, they decided to take the Penguin back to the Batcave to confirm his identity. While there, the Penguin rehydrated the henchmen he had earlier dehydrated with Schmidlapp's stolen invention, then ordered them to attack Batman and Robin. However, the Penguin had unknowingly rehydrated the henchmen with heavy water used to recharge the Batcave's atomic pile, rendering them highly unstable and causing them to disappear into antimatter upon being struck.