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02/05/2004: examining Batverse origin stories - a work in progress, post three
The first post, and the second post of this series.
BTW, I should mention that in my notes and eventual comparisons my interest isn't really in establishing a consistent timeline, other sites, like the Unauthorized Chronology of the DC Universe do this much more thoroughly than I ever could, also with special attention paid to Batman and Nightwing. Of course I'll mention the timeline information that is given in an issue, but I won't try and make it all fit to find the "one true sequence of events" as it really happened in the fictional universe, or explore timeline and chronology problems at great length, though I might link to timeline problem analyses/conjectures other people did, in places where I find it interesting.
Anyway, in the last post I looked at Batman's origin story in Year One. Right after Year One (in the publishing order, not in the internal chronology), Batman #408 (Jun 1987) starts the series of stories with Dick retiring as Robin, and Jason taking on that role. I'll look closer at those aspects in the (projected) posts on Nightwing's origin. However, there is also information about Bruce and his past in "Did Robin Die Tonight?", i.e. Batman #408 (Jun 1987), and I'll comment on some Bruce characterization I found interesting, too:
As context, the broad plot of this issue is that Robin I, i.e. Dick Grayson, is shot by the Joker and wounded. A TV crew sees him get shot and fall, and Batman carrying away an unconscious Robin, as a result the press and media, especially the reporter Vicki Vale -- incidentally also Bruce Wayne's current date -- covers the story as if Robin died, and accuses Batman of child abuse. (As a side note, actually Dick is 19 at this time, though his exact age isn't given in this issue, it is in their conversation in Batman #416 (p.14), not to mention that his looks make it quite obvious he's more grown up than Robin's image.)
While Batman makes his annual visit to the place of his parents' murder, Jason Todd steals the tires of the parked Batmobile. Batman catches him of course, but because Jason strongly objects to be placed in an orphanage or foster home, Batman brings him to "Ma Gunn's school for boys" seemingly a new school/shelter for runaway street kids in Crime Alley, which doesn't work together with the official social agencies, but got a lot of positive publicity in the media. Yet as Jason soon finds out, Ma Gunn is really training the boys to be criminals. In the cliffhanger Ma Gunn orders the other boys to kill Jason as an informant.
The second part of story, i.e. the Jason plot, is set some weeks after the shooting (p.7), and takes place on the anniversary of Bruce's parents murder, which he commemorates by visiting "Crime Alley" the site where the murder took place. Some websites, e.g. [2], claim that this issue gives also a concrete date for the murder, June 26th, however I couldn't find any reference to this date in this issue. Since Bruce and Vicki sit outside in a street cafe (p.9) and it is described as a pleasant, sunny afternoon (p.14), it's likely to be summer. The date of the murder was also given in the (pre-Crisis) Batman Special #1 from 1984 [2], and nothing here contradicts the date.
At the time of the murder "Crime Alley" was still "Park Row" but afterwards the neighborhood declined: "A quarter of a century ago, Crime Alley was Park Row--bistros and theaters and townhouses--but like a wino's teeth, Park Row decayed into something foul...into the mean streets called Crime Alley. Some say the decline of this once fashionable neighborhood began when a thief shot down a socially prominent Doctor and his lovely wife--their son, a mere boy, witnessed it, they say... But whatever the case, the area began earning a reputation for being unsafe. Out of these deaths, it might be said, Crime Alley was born--" (p.14)
The flashback on that page, from present day Crime Alley to the murder scene is like in Year One, the man first shoots Thomas Wayne, then Martha Wayne, Bruce who witnessed this kneels between his dead parents under a street light, the pearl necklace also stays intact. The one difference is that in Year One his father's body falls so that it lies to Bruce's left, his mother's body to his right, while it's the other way round in the flashback here. Also here we see Bruce cry after the murder (#408 p.14), in Year One the focus on Bruce face was with a cut from a closeup of the the determined look of the young Bruce (#404 p.21) to the one of the grown-up Bruce (#404 p.22).
Batman comes to Crime Alley each year on this date, for "six or more years" according to what Ma Gunn heard (p.15), something which is known by the criminals as well, who avoid the area on that night. Batman doesn't return during the year, or at least not often, he's busy fighting "larger evils". He contemplates that while walking under a streetlight, presumably the same one under which his parents died: "Why do I feel compelled to return here on the anniversary of that dark night? This pilgrimage, this obsession to rid Crime Alley of crime for this one night each year... Does it really honor my parents' memory? After all, the next day--the next night--crime returns to the alley, while I'm busy fighting larger evils? Ma Gunn is doing more good in Crime Alley than I'll ever do--she's a day-in-day-out combatant in this neighborhood's war!" (p.15)
However hearing this he decides that he may have to do "surprise inspections" as well, he wishes he could come more often "but Gotham is a big place, and cleaning up Crime Alley is a fulltime job." (p.16) As a side note, a more irregular schedule in addition to the annual visit probably wouldn't be a bad idea for protecting his secret identity either, it's not like the date and place of the Wayne murder wasn't public knowledge. Maybe Batman might commemorate the murder for its significance beyond the personal tragedy, but still.
Batman admiration for a more "social work" approach to crime fighting and its longterm benefits also shows in Bruce Wayne's charity work in this issue. During his date with Vicki Vale, when she asks him to chair the "Committee of Concerned Citizens Against the Batman" their dialog is:
"I serve on the boards of any number of socially concerned organizations--"
"And you've invested much of your money in hospitals and free clinics around the city. You're a humanitarian." (in that panel a Dr Thomas Wayne Memorial Hospital is seen)
"Why don't you just say it, Vicki--I'm a classic victim of liberal guilt"
"I think a man who was orphaned by gunfire, only to inherit a fortune built on munitions has a right to feel a little guilty." (p.9)
Further into their date Bruce rejects Vicki's argument that violence only leads to more violence and that they should take a stand against Batman's actions: "Yeah, well, it seems to me that without Batman, this city would be a helluva lot more violent--" (p.10) At that point their argument is interrupted when Bruce witnesses a pickpocket and attempts some crime fighting in his civilian persona, which he however aborts when the thief turns out to have two other accomplices whom he can't all believably fight as Bruce Wayne, so they escape, however Bruce still manages to get he billfold back "somehow in the scuffle" as he explains. (p.11/12)
An interesting character detail is, that even though as Batman, when he was talking to Gordon earlier, as Gordon suggested he might tell the press that Robin is alive, he said, "Would they believe me if I told them? No. Do I care what the press--what anyone thinks of my work? No." he sounds rather bitter later, when Vicki wonders why nobody came to his aid, and he replies, "What, and be called fascist vigilantes by the media?" (p.12) Also, while he calls Dick as Robin "boy" himself as Batman in public (p.4) and "child" (that much to Dick's annoyance) and "son" in private with the cowl off (p.6), as Bruce when defending Batman against Vicki, it sounds quite different. To Vicki's "You're always defending that Halloween hooligan! He's a menace--he even got a young boy killed!" he replies, "The young man known as as Robin has not been proven to be dead." (p.10)
