Wayne Bruce

Bruce Wayne is a fictional character created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger as the civilian secret identity of the DC Comics superhero Batman. He first appeared in Detective Comics #27, May 1939. Concept and creation, Finger came up with the name "Bruce Wayne" for the superhero's secret identity. In Jim Steranko's History of the Comics, vol. 1, Bill Finger reveals, "Bruce Wayne's first name came from Robert Bruce, the Scottish patriot. Wayne, being a playboy, was a man of gentry. I searched for a name that would suggest colonialism. I tried Adams, Hancock...then I thought of Mad Anthony Wayne." To the world at large, Bruce Wayne is seen as an irresponsible, superficial playboy who lives off his family's personal fortune and the major private technology firm that he inherits. Bruce creates the public persona to aid in throwing off suspicion of his secret identity, often acting dim-witted and self-absorbed to further the act. Batman makes it clear that he considers keeping his secret identity a top priority; on various occasions, he often risks death rather than exposing his skills in public as Bruce Wayne. However, Wayne is also known for his contributions to charity, notably through the Wayne Foundation, a charity devoted to helping the victims of crime and preventing people from becoming criminals. Publication history, This section requires expansion. The Batman series started in Spring 1940 and has been in publication ever since. In March 2011 it reached issue #708. His debut series, Detective Comics, has reached almost nine hundred issues. He has also spawned numerous spin-off titles including: Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, Batman: Streets of Gotham, Batman Confidential, Batman & Robin, Gotham City Sirens, Superman/Batman, Azrael, Birds of Prey, and Red Robin. Fictional character biography, This section requires expansion. Bruce Wayne is a billionaire industrialist and philanthropist, and the son of Thomas and Martha Wayne. When Bruce Wayne was a child his parents were murdered by Joe Chill, a low level thug in the Black Glove organization, who then was arrested the same night he murdered them, which made Bruce determined to rid Gotham City of crime. After studying at Princeton University, he traveled the world for many years studying and mastering various forms of hand-to-hand combat and martial arts in Asia while studying Criminology, Forensics, and Science in Europe. He returned to Gotham around the age of 25. Wayne found inspiration to become Batman after a bat crashed through the window of his study. He spent his first year of crime fighting battling the corrupt police force and gaining trust from future police commissioner James Gordon, and the help of his first ally, future District Attorney Harvey Dent. He also began to rid the city of Carmine Falcone's mafia. During that period he also had his first encounter with Hugo Strange. He also dealt with Joe Chill. He stalked Chill every night for a month, and on the last day of the month he confronted Chill. After Batman confronted Chill, he realized that he was the one to create Batman (by murdering Batman's parents) and he killed himself. Over the next few years of his career criminals like the Joker and the Riddler started to appear in Gotham. Gordon was also made Commissioner of Police at this point and then they lost Harvey as both a friend and ally when he became Two-Face. Around the fourth year of his career as Batman, he witnessed the murder of acrobat Dick Grayson's parents by the mob, who were extorting money from the circus in which the Graysons worked. Bruce adopted Dick and later Dick became Robin, Batman's new partner in the war on crime. During this time Batman also finally destroyed the remnants of the Falcone mafia. During the following years Bruce joined the Justice League with other heroes like Superman and Wonder Woman. Eventually Barbara Gordon joined the "dynamic duo" and became the first Batgirl. After serving as Batgirl for a few years, she began to feel useless because of her lack of super-powers. In this time Batman encountered Ra's al Ghul for the first time and Dick Grayson moved on from being Robin and became Nightwing. Batman then adopted orphan Jason Todd and he became the second Robin. After retiring from crime fighting for good, Barbara was shot and paralyzed by the Joker. As per Gordon's request, Batman brought the Joker in by the book and did not seek retribution. Even though she lost the use of her legs, she still helped Batman by becoming Oracle. After the Joker escaped from his most recent stay at Arkham Asylum (a result of his capture after shooting Barbara), he killed Jason Todd and was almost killed by Batman before disappearing for some time. After Jason's death Bruce became increasingly more violent and dark. Batman remained Robin-less for a while until Tim Drake discovered that Bruce was Batman and Dick was Robin and tried to re-unite the dynamic duo. Dick suggested that Tim become Robin and after some hesitation from Bruce, he did become the new Robin. Soon after a new villain would appear, Bane. Bane came to Gotham and after releasing the inmates of Arkham, he broke Bruce Wayne's back. Jean-Paul Valley, who had been training with Tim, became the temporary Batman while Bruce recovered. Eventually Bruce fully healed and had to reclaim the mantle of Batman by force, as Jean-Paul had become insane due to being brainwashed from an early age. After dealing with Jean-Paul, Bruce asked Dick to fill in for him as Batman while he prepared himself again. Soon after Gotham was hit by a plague created by Ra's al Ghul. Very soon after that, Gotham City was hit by a massive earthquake and the city was abandoned by the United States government and Bruce went to Washington, D.C. for three months to try and get help from the government, but since he was seen as a "playboy" he was ignored. While he was gone Helena Bertinelli became the new Batgirl to keep the bat family present in Gotham. When Bruce returned to Gotham, he let her keep the identity. Gordon had lost faith in Batman during his absence, and to try and regain his trust Batman offered to show Gordon that he was Bruce Wayne, but Gordon refused the offer. Eventually the city was rebuilt and law was re-established. Bruce fired Helena Bertinelli as Batgirl after she failed him during this crisis, and Cassandra Cain became the next Batgirl. Later on after the earthquake, Bruce Wayne's childhood friend, Tommy Elliot returned to Gotham as the villain Hush and tried to destroy Batman and failed. Soon after Jason Todd as the Red Hood was resurrected, returned to Gotham, and tried to kill the Joker and take revenge for his death. Tim Drake's dad finds out that Tim is Robin and so he is forced to give it up for a while. Stephanie Brown, who is known as Spoiler, tries to show that she can be in Batman's circle and makes her own Robin costume and breaks into the Batcave. Bruce trains Stephanie as the new Robin but she is fired after disobeying orders. During the "War Games" story arc, Tim returns as Robin to help Bruce. Stephanie instigates a contingency plan of Batman's that she found in the Batcomputer that would have him control the underworld from within using the guise of Matches Malone (which she did not know was one of Bruce's disguises), and she is killed. It was later revealed that her death was faked. Cassandra Cain later retired from being Batgirl and passed the mantle on to Stephanie. Afterwords, Talia al Ghul revealed to Bruce that they had a son, Damian Wayne. A little while later, the Black Glove organization started to act on their plan to kill Bruce Wayne and nearly succeeded numerous times. Eventually Bruce seemingly defeated the Black Glove (and their leader Dr. Hurt), but was presumed dead. After re-appearing, Bruce helped the Justice League defeat Darkseid but in the process was sent back in time, although he was presumed dead again. He is currently jumping through time towards the present, unaware that he is now a doomsday weapon. However, thanks to plans Bruce put into action before he lost his memory, the Justice League were able to stop his return to the present in time to stop the creature he brought with him. He confirms to Vicki Vale what she already knows and brings her into the Batman Family. He then announces as Bruce Wayne that he has funded Batman for years. Bruce and Selina Kyle then head to Japan so he can start a world wide version of Batman, Inc. Other Versions, There are several alternate versions of Bruce Wayne that become alternate versions of Batman. In other media, Animation: Bruce Wayne has appeared in many animated series, including The Batman/Superman Hour, The New Adventures of Batman, The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, Batman: The Animated Series, The New Batman Adventures, Batman Beyond (set in the future of earth 12 one of the 52 parallel earths to the original earth 1, where Wayne has retired from being actively Batman and instead serves as the mentor to his successor), Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, The Batman, and Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Live-action: Batman (1960s) Adam West portrayed Bruce Wayne in the live-action Batman TV series. The series ran for 120 episodes between 1966 and 1968, and spawned a full-length feature film. Batman and Batman Returns Michael Keaton portrayed Bruce Wayne in Tim Burton's Batman and Batman Returns. Batman Forever In Batman Forever, Bruce Wayne is portrayed by Val Kilmer, and is the boss of Wayne Enterprises. Batman & Robin George Clooney portrays him as a socialite in Batman & Robin. Batman Begins and The Dark Knight Batman Begins was the first live action film to fully explore the character behind the mask of Batman, rather than depict Batman as more of an enigma. In this film, he was portrayed by Christian Bale, who stated that the previous films had overplayed the villains and did not focus on Batman enough. Bale returned as Batman in the sequel The Dark Knight and is set to reprise the role in the upcoming 2012 sequel, The Dark Knight Rises. Critical interpretations, In his book Unleashing the Superhero in Us All, T. James Musler explores the extent to which money is important in Bruce Wayne's life.

Source: Wikipedia

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