Many years ago, famed Gotham City physician Thomas Wayne, and his wife Martha lived with their two sons, Thomas Wayne, Jr. and the younger Bruce. Thomas was more studious introverted and reserved, while Bruce was outgoing and extraverted easily displaying his affections and emotions more freely than his older brother, Thomas, Jr. It would be their distinctive personalities that would guide how the Wayne sons would react to the the tragedy that would befall their family. When Bruce was a young child, his family attended a costume fundraiser. The theme of the party was creatures of the night. Thomas Wayne decided to masquerade as a bat, and wore a costume consisting of a pointed mask, and large, dark blue scalloped wings. The impressionable Bruce admired his father's outfit and openly asked if one day he might be able to wear such a fearsome costume. Thomas had no idea how prophetic the innocent question truly was.
During the party, several gangsters raided the mansion and recognized that Wayne was a physician. Kidnapping him, they brought him to an old warehouse where he was to perform emergency surgery on mob boss named Lew Moxon who had been suffering from a serious gunshot wound.
Wayne knew that once he removed the bullet from Moxon's body, the gangster would likely kill him. Instead of performing the surgery, Thomas dove into the gangsters and managed to apprehend every one of them. He called the police and handed the thugs over to a young police lieutenant named James Gordon. The courts sentenced Moxon to ten years in prison.
Moxon only served a few years in jail and upon release, he decided to pay a visit to Thomas Wayne. With a menacing sneer, he glibly told Wayne that he would find a way to get even with him – even if he had to use somebody else to do his dirty work.
A few weeks later, Thomas, Martha and young Bruce were walking home from a night out at the movies. A mugger named Joe Chill leapt from the shadows of Park Row and assaulted them, demanding money. Thomas tried to fight back, but Joe shot him directly in the chest, killing him. He then turned his gun on Martha and viciously ended her life as well. Bruce Wayne stared on in horror, as his parents lied murdered beside him. Chill turned on his heel and ran from the alleyway. Bruce made a graveside promise that he would bring the lowly killer to justice and avenge their deaths. Years would pass before Bruce would learn the truth behind Joe Chill's actions.
Thomas upon hearing of his parents deaths at home was instantaneously crushed and sank into a complete emotional and mental collapse that would last for years forcing his Uncle Phillip who took in the angry Bruce to commit Thomas, Jr. to a mental institution.
Bruce would largely forget about his brother due to the trauma and his Uncle Phillip lying that the catatonic Thomas Jr. was dead. Bruce would not meet his brother again until far later in their adult lives
Shortly after the funeral, Social Services handed Bruce over to the care of his uncle – Philip Wayne. He stayed at Philip's estate and became close friends with the housekeeper, Mrs. Chilton. Although he never knew it, Mrs. Chilton was also the mother of Joe Chill – the man who murdered his parents.
As Bruce became a teenager, he dedicated himself towards learning everything he could about police procedure. He decided to track down the city’s most famous private detective, Harvey Harris. Donning a bright red and green costume to conceal his identity, Bruce tracked Harris down, only to find a criminal waiting to ambush him. Bruce used a large advertising display piece to waylay the thug, saving Harvey's life. Harvey was so impressed with the teen's verve that he agreed to take him under his wing. He even provided Bruce with a codename – Robin.
As Robin, Bruce spent several weeks training under Harvey's tutelage. Harris instructed him on the finer points of criminal detection, and trained him in gymnastics, and hand-to-hand combat. Working together, the two became inseparable and in the span of just a few years, they managed to deal a marked blow against the criminal underworld.
When it was time for Bruce to enter college, he parted company with Harvey and threw himself into his studies. He specialized not only in criminology, but in the sciences as well. After four intense years, he was nearly ready to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a law-enforcement agent.
Upon graduation however, Bruce began to re-evaluate his future. He recognized the fact that law enforcement agencies were often the victims of an endless bureaucracy that hampered them from meting out true justice. He could not in good conscious follow such an ineffective path.
Bruce returned to his family's original estate, Wayne Manor, where he reunited with his father's old butler, Alfred Pennyworth. He was now old enough to assume control of his father's business interests at Wayne Enterprises, but there was still the unsettled matter of his graveside vow.
One evening, Bruce sat in his study pondering his dilemma when a bat flew into the room from an open window. Immediately, his mind harkened back to the image of his father, Thomas, dressed up as a bat-man at the costume party. It was an omen. He decided that he would become a living symbol to strike terror into the hearts of all criminals. He became... the Batman.
It would be as Batman that Bruce began his personal crusade against the underworld forces that operated within Gotham city almost unchecked. Batman would prefer to intimidate and threaten rather than actually permanently hurt his opponents usually using nerve pressure attacks to defeat far stronger and larger opponents and outwit more numerous group adversaries.
Proving to be an effective crime fighter through sophisticated analytical and detective processes than the tried and true battering ram techniques of comtemporary police, Batman began to gather the support of largely ineffective Gotham City Police Commissioner James Gordon.
The New Robin
It would be on one of the Batman's investigations that Batman was drawn to the traveling Haly Circus that was being exploited by a local mob boss. Bruce would take in the then-orphaned Richard "Dick" Grayson and focus Dick's anger into training and enhancing Grayson's skills, which would ultimately result in Dick becoming Batman's junior partner, Robin. Together Bruce and Dick would protect Gotham City from many costumed villians as well as many powerful crime lords and mob bosses including the notable and far reaching crime master Ra's al Ghul. Batman and Robin would also begin engaging in many far reaching cases outside of Gotham City, which would involve other heroes, most notably Superman.
Bruce as Batman would later join Superman and the other primary heroes in their attempt to repulse the invading Space alien Starro who planned on enslaving the entire planet Earth and its populace. It would be during this adventure that Wayne along with the other heroes would form the Justice League of America.
Robin was never asked to become part of the Justice League. In response to that exclusion, the Earth-One Robin forms the Teen Titans along with the other teenage "sidekicks" of the elder superheroes including Speedy (partner of Green Arrow), Wonder Girl (younger sister of Wonder Woman), Aqualad (partner to Aquaman) and Kid Flash (sidekick of The Flash).
Batman would continue to engage in many cases protecting Earth-One citizens from many different and exotic threats, but mostly remained a private detective fighting human level criminals. But his most intense personal case would be against the already dead noted anti-hero Deadman. It was during this case that Bruce found out his once catatonic brother, Thomas Wayne Jr., had seemingly recovered and was engaging in a somewhat reclusive live as an arcobat at a traveling circus. Actually Thomas had been manipulated by an undisclosed crime organization into becoming an active assassin and was using the circus as his cover. Batman learned of his existence and exposed the actual mastermind behind Thomas Jr.'s murder assignments and manipulation. Deciding that Thomas had effectively given up his right to life as a willing participant in various murders, Deadman took possession of Thomas's body to resume his career as an acrobat. Determined to give his brother at least a partial chance at recovery and redemption, Batman tracked down Deadman and demanded that the ghost relinquish his hold on Thomas' body and fragmented persona. Deadman fought against Batman and Superman for control of the body but when he lost control over it back to Thomas, Thomas, in a selfless act to protect the unaware Batman, dove in front of shooting gunmen of the same criminal group that Thomas had been part of. Thomas saved his brother's life at the cost of his own.
Bruce would have many of the extreme cases that would directly effect him such as dealing with the Earth-Two Robin and Huntress. While Bruce was almost immediately accepted by the Earth-Two Wayne's daughter who affectionately referred to the Earth-One Wayne as her "Uncle Bruce", Bruce was not so well received by the adult version of his junior partner who felt that the Earth-One Wayne was another pretender to the role that the Earth-Two Bruce had originated. The Earth-Two Dick's feeling was in part from his own feelings of failing as Batman and that no one could really measure up to the Earth-Two Batman, especially not a Batman who was even younger than him. The Earth-Two Dick and Earth-One Bruce would resolve their differences later on and team up on many occasions, though Dick would never again adopt the role of Batman.
The Earth-One Brubce would never actually meet his Earth-Two counterpart who was dying of cancer and was actually killed in battle. But the Earth-One Batman would occasionally venture to Earth-Two and meet with his extended family native to that reality. Wayne would continue on as Batman after his Robin left for college in many solo cases. He would continue on protecting and defending the Earth-One reality when the Crisis on Infinite Earths came to Earth-One. Like all the heroes and other powered beings who fought at the "Dawn of Time", Batman was saved from the erasure that compressed all five of the surviving realities into one universe. It would be in the last Crisis battles on the newly formed Primary Earth that the Earth-One Batman would find the incinerated remains of the Earth-Two Robin and Huntress who were killed by the Thunderers of the Anti-Monitor.
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