Bruce Wayne

**Bruce Wayne** was the CEO of Wayne Enterprises, heir of the Wayne family fortune, and the creator of the superhero identity of Batman. As Batman, he patrolled Gotham City in a war on crime and participated in world-changing crises from 1939 to his death in 1954.

## Childhood and Adolescence (1916-1934)

Bruce Wayne was born on February 19, 1916  into the Wayne family, one of the oldest and richest in Gotham City. His father, Dr. Thomas Wayne, was an esteemed physician and surgeon who inherited the industrial corporation Wayne Enterprises, and his mother, Martha Wayne (née Kane) was the heiress to the Kane Chemical fortune, a relative of newspaper mogul Charles Foster Kane,  and a famous socialite. Both were renowned for their philanthropic efforts, stemming from a deep-seated belief that the upper classes should use their wealth to improve the lives of the lower classes. Thomas and Martha loved and indulged their only child.

On June 26, 1924,  the Wayne family caught an evening screening of the George Valentin swashbuckler *The Mark of Zorro.*  Shortly after leaving the theater, a mugger, later identified as Joe Chill, leaped out of an alley and demanded Martha Wayne's pearl necklace. Chill shot Thomas when he tried to defend her, killing him instantly; he then shot Martha when she screamed for help, and she perished from blood loss exacerbated by a weak heart. Chill, himself a father, left Bruce alive and escaped. The child was then placed in the care of Alfred J. Pennyworth, the family butler.

In the days after the double murder, Bruce proved to be inconsolable. As a veteran of the Boxer Rebellion living in a time before treatment for psychological trauma became common, Pennyworth took a traditionalist view of Bruce's suffering and chose to let the child learn to live with his grief. One night, Bruce privately dedicated his life to fighting crime as a way of avenging his parents. To this end, he committed himself to intensive studying on a myriad of eclectic subjects, especially in the sciences, and developed an extraordinary intellect by the time he was a teenager. He also took up athletics and bodybuilding with similar excellent results. Pennyworth encouraged Bruce, and trained him in combat and medic skills, which he learned in his time as a Royal Marine, and in the art of acting, based on his brief stage career in London under the stage name Alfred Beagle.  Due to his outstanding intellect, and with some help from his notable inheritance, Bruce was able to attend college at a younger age than normal and earned a Diploma of Law from Yale University's satellite campus in Gotham City in May 1934.

## Travels and Training (1934-1939)

Bruce Wayne considered embarking on a career in law or law enforcement, but concluded that Gotham City's legal institutions and police force were both corrupted by mob influence. He came to believe that the only way one could exact justice without a fair justice system was to work outside it, which spurred him to travel the world for several years to develop his skills and find a different approach.

Perhaps not surprisingly, he Initially desired to be a traditional detective. He had admired world-famous detective Sherlock Holmes  since childhood and sought to receive training in private investigation from him - despite Holmes being 80 years old, retired, and in hiding. Though his whereabouts were unknown to the public in 1934, Wayne still commissioned aerial adventurer Jock Lindsey to ferry him to London by biplane.  There, he spoke with Harry Dickson, the detective then residing in 221B Baker Street,  and Dr. John Watson, former assistant and biographer of Holmes. He eventually tracked Holmes to his remote beachside apiary in East Sussex,  only to be received by Mary Russell, Holmes's partner and later wife in an unpublicized second phase of his career.  She stated that her husband did not want uninvited admirers, sparking an argument loud enough that Holmes, supporting himself on two canes,  hobbled to the door and demanded an apology from Wayne. Holmes proclaimed that Wayne was emotionally stunted and too entitled from his bourgeois upbringing, and demanded that he never seek him again.

The first person to give Wayne training was Henri Ducard, renowned on both sides of the law in France as a expert manhunter. In exchange for a large cash sum, he allowed Wayne to assist him and his son Morgan in ongoing cases. Wayne developed the skills of deduction, detection, intimidation, and capturing targets. Ducard also trained him to apply his athletics proficiency to urban environments using the "méthode naturelle" of Georges Hébert. While Wayne learned much from Ducard, they often argued about the morality of their actions - Ducard did freelance work for anyone who could afford his services. Their relationship ended in 1935, after Wayne successfully tracked his first super-criminal, the master of disguise known as Tigris. Leon Rude, the client who commissioned them,  insisted that the criminal was too dangerous to keep alive, and when Wayne insisted that he be tried in a court of law, Morgan Ducard killed Tigris himself.

Wayne also received training from a ninjutsu master known only as Kirigi. The Japanese-born martial arts master came to Korea with the occupation and established a dojo somewhere in the northern end of the Taebaek Mountains. Despite his hatred of Westerners, Kirigi accepted Wayne as a student and trained him in ninjutsu. Despite only arriving at the peninsula to learn more about the masked resistance fighter Gaksital,  Wayne stayed at the dojo for two years, achieving peak physical form and becoming skilled in espionage, intimidation, and guerilla battle tactics.

Throughout his global travels, Wayne also encountered, spoke at length with, and/or developed other skills from many other people. These include:

* Percy Blakeney, British athlete and aristocrat who became Wayne's frequent companion in London following his rejection from Holmes. He was the great-great-grandson of Percy Blakeney, who resisted the Reign of Terror under the alias of "The Scarlet Pimpernel." Wayne was fascinated with Blakeney's methods of feigning ineptitude in daily life to throw off suspicions; and leaving calling cards to strike fear in his enemies.
* Pierre Dupin,  then a medical student and descendant of 19th-century sleuth C. Auguste Dupin.  He was a neighbor of Wayne in the Faubourg Saint-Germain neighborhood in Paris, and he allowed Wayne to learn more advanced medical and forensic techniques through his own coursework.
* Philippe Guérande, a journalist known for working with the masked vigilante Judex  in a campaign against the infamous apache gang known as "Les Vampires" in 1916.  With Wayne's assistance, they tracked the long-unseen vigilante's base of operations to a castle near Paris called "Le Chateau Rouge" (formerly known as "Le Chateau Bleu" for its owner, the aristocrat Bluebeard,  and renamed by locals after they discovered his homicidal record). There, they discovered what remained of a secret underground lair with technologically-advanced gadgetry, space for a getaway vehicle, and a windowless interrogation room with a viewing screen outside.
* Jerôme Fandor, a journalist associate of Guérande whose obsession with the supercriminal Fantômas made him an expert on France's costumed characters. Fandor told Wayne about the notorious Fantômas, who had eluded authorities for thirty years;  Belphégor, a masked thief caught in the Louvre seeking a "Treasure of the Kings of France"  (which she claimed lay under the Cour de Napoléon);  and Nyctalope, a superhuman who used his artificial heart, night vision, and superhuman strength in service of the French government. Wayne never met any of these figures - according to journalist Raymond Rambert (a relation of Fandor),  Nyctalope was putting down a rebellion in the Morocco colony at the time.

*(NOTE: This article is still under construction.)*

## References

1. ↑ *Citizen Kane* (film)
2. ↑ *The Mask of Zorro* is usually given as the movie that the Waynes watched before the murders, switching between the 1920 version starring Douglas Fairbanks and the 1940 version with Tyrone Power. The former is used here because the latter had not been made yet. As for Valentin, he is the main character of *The Artist* (film) and he was based on Fairbanks, with one scene from the movie even splicing Jean Duardin into footage from *The Mask of Zorro*.
3. ↑ *Sherlock Holmes* (short story series and book series). The admiration that the "World's Greatest Detective" has for the "Great Detective" is deeply entrenched in the Batman canon.
4. ↑ Jock Lindsey is the pilot from the opening sequence of *Raiders of the Lost Ark* (film).
5. ↑ *Harry Dickson* (book series). He did live in 221b Baker Street, which may be because the character originated in an unlicensed continuation of the Sherlock Holmes stories. The name of Harry Dickson was given to the character later on in order to avoid lawsuits from Conan Doyle's estate.
6. ↑ *Mary Russell* (book series). When I first heard about it, it sounded like a long-running Mary Sue self-insert fanfic. However, it has been praised as great Holmesian fiction, and it intrigued me enough to include it in the life story of the FM version of Holmes. - RADDman
7. ↑ This detail is taken from *A Slight Trick of the Mind* (book), later adapted as the 2014 film *Mr. Holmes* - though in that version, Ian McKellen's Holmes only walks with one cane.
8. ↑ *Tigris* (series), written by Marcel Allain, the same author behind Fantômas.
9. ↑ *Bridal Mask* (TV series). Given that Kirigi lives in North Korea, I figured finding a 1930s masked hero in Korea would be enough to draw Bruce to the peninsula. I just can't believe I found one at all. - RADDman
10. ↑ *The Scarlet Pimpernel* (book series). In *The Life and Exploits of the Scarlet Pimpernel,* Percy Blakeney states, "To superstitious, half-educated people, the mysterious device ... would reduce many to a state of fear." I could not resist including it after hearing how similar it sounds to Bruce Wayne's famous quote of criminals being "a cowardly and superstitious lot" easily dissuaded by fear. - RADDman
11. ↑ Pierre is taken from the Universal Pictures film adaptation of "Murders in the Rue Morgue." That film is set in 1845, but for the FM, I have transplanted him to the 1930s, when the film was made.
12. ↑ Dupin is the star of a short story series by Edgar Allan Poe. These stories are commonly cited as the first true examples of detective fiction. Bruce Wayne's better known as a fan of Sherlock Holmes, who dismissed Dupin as "a very inferior fellow" in the very first of Conan Doyle's stories. However, in the comic series *Batman Confidential*, he nicknames the Bat Computer "Dupin" after his "hero."
13. ↑ *Judex* (1916 film). Like Batman, the character of Judex is a wealthy vigilante with a secret lair, advanced gadgets, and even his own special car. "Le Chateau Rouge" also comes from this serial.
14. ↑ *Les Vampires* (film). This serial shares some notable crew and cast with the later *Judex*: both were directed by Louis Feuillade and both star Musidora as a criminal mastermind. Édouard Mathé stars as Guérande in *Les Vampires* and as Roger de Tremuse, brother of the eponymous hero, in *Judex*. It seemed natural to conflate them. - RADDman
15. ↑ "Bluebeard" (folklore). "Le Chateau Rouge" originates from *Judex* (film), and here it is combined with the castle home of Bluebeard, which does not have a common name. Besides the wordplay of the names, it made sense to me that a vigilante who did not want to be found would establish his residence in a historically grim location. This is one fairy tale castle that most tourists in the FM would not choose to visit. - RADDman
16. ↑ Fantômas (book series). This character most dangerous of France's costumed villains, and Jerôme Fandor (real name Charles Rambert) is one of his fiercest foes. I considered having Wayne fend off an attack from Fantômas, but decided that the amateur Wayne would likely be killed in such an encounter. - RADDman
17. ↑ *Belphé*gor (book)
18. ↑ This is a reference to *The Da Vinci Code* (book), in which the body of Mary Magdalene is interred under the Pyramide du Louvre. The title character of *Belph*egor (book) is searching for what she calls "The Treasure of the Kings of France," which tied in remarkably well with Dan Brown's depiction of the lineage of Jesus Christ. However, this lineage is not canon to the FM - only the mystery chased by the "Phantom of the Louvre" and, later, Robert Langdon. Note: the Pyramide did not exist in 1927, when *Belph*egor is set. - RADDman
19. ↑ *Nyctalope* (book series). The 1934 book *The Moroccan Sphynx* is set in Morocco.
20. ↑ *The Plague* (book). Jerome Fandor's real name is Charles Rambert, so it doesn't seem like a stretch to connect the French journalists by blood. - RADDman

## Additional Notes

1. ↑ February 19 was listed as Bruce Wayne's birthday in the 1976 DC Calendar, and this also seems to be popularly used online as his birthday.
2. ↑ This date has been consistently used as the date when Thomas and Martha Wayne died. As for the years used for this event and for Bruce's birthday: Detective Comics #33 contains the first telling of Batman's origin story, and it states that the death of Bruce's parents happened "some fifteen years ago." Bruce Wayne's age at this time is usually given as eight, so I concluded that Bruce Wayne was 23 when he first donned the identity of Batman in 1939 and worked backwards from there. - RADDman
3. ↑ "Beagle" was the first last name given to Alfred's character before it was retconned to Pennyworth, and it was Grant Morrison who brought it back as a stage name. Alfred's backstory is inconsistent; he is a former Royal Marine in Geoff Johns and Gary Frank's 2012 *Batman: Earth One* and in the 2013 TV series *Gotham.* His past as an actor comes from the pre-Crisis comics. The mention of his participation in the Boxer Rebellion was all my idea: the Royal Marines were involved in the conflict, and in this timeline I imagine Alfred would have been one of them at the time of the conflict.
4. ↑ The information on his college and degree of choice come from a background detail in the last panel of *Detective Comics* No. 439, from 1974. In 2011, some enthusiastic writers for *Yale Alumni Magazine* caught this detail and wrote several essays about it. There's also a scene in an episode of the 1960s TV series that reveals Bruce's great-grandfather founded the Skull and Bones secret society.
5. ↑ This detail comes from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's short story "His Last Bow."