Dark Knights, Dark City II: The First of the Batmen

Welcome back for part two. This time with actual Batmen, although maybe not any you’ve heard of
Let’s get to it, shall we?

Wayne Manor stood empty for many years, until in 1858 it was purchased by Darius’ grandsons, Solomon and Joshua, who planned to use the caves beneath the mansion as part of the underground railroad that helped escaped slaves find freedom in Canada1. And from the day they bought it until the end of the Civil War, Solomon and Joshua did just exactly that.

In the year 1860, Joshua was attacked and left for dead by bounty hunters chasing the escaped slaves. Although his death was used to great effect by his brother, and Joshua became a martyr to the cause, he did not truly die. Instead, at the orders of President Lincoln, he faked his death and went underground as a special agent, fighting for justice in the old west.

Joshua Wayne donned the costume of the Bat-Man, and became ranked among Lincoln’s most trusted agents. Joshua recruited a half-Indian boy, known only as “Redbird”, as his assistant, and regularly fought alongside Wild Bill Hickock2. However, the President did not take Wayne’s concerns for his security seriously enough, with tragic results. After the murder of Lincoln, he became despondent, and was eventually caught in a blizzard when he tried to return to Gotham the following winter. Trying to find the entrance to the cave, he became lost and died of exposure a drain pipe beneath the mansion3.

Meanwhile, back in Gotham, Solomon Wayne was unaware of his brother’s activities. He fought in the Civil War alongside his old friend Jacob Packer, and in the meantime become one of the most influential voices in Gotham. For example, it was largely at his insistence that the architect Cyrus Pinkney became the man who designed a vast number of Gotham’s public buildings, giving the city its distinctive, and somewhat scary, look4.

Jacob and his wife would be murdered by a unknown criminal, the first of the Waynes to be struck down. Alan Wayne, their son, witnessed the horrible event, and was plagued by recurring nightmares regarding it. In the decades that followed, the way so many members of the Wayne family died in violent manners that it would be rumoured that the family was cursed. It’s possibe that they were, in fact. Ludwig Prinn’s desire for vengeance was most concentrated on the Wayne name, since it was Thomas Wayne who had convinced the others to betray him, although it extended to the others as well.

When Alan was old enough, he left Gotham to travel and study. Aware of his uncle’s legacy as the Bat-Man, he sought to assume the role himself. In 1888, he was in London, studying under Sherlock Holmes at the time the Ripper murders occurred. The following year, he studied with Holmes’ friend Sigmund Freud in Vienna, before returning to Gotham to debut as the second Bat-Man. When the Ripper resurfaced in Gotham, Wayne himself was a suspect based on his presence in London years before. In the end, he managed to clear his name and bring the true Ripper – none other than Jacob Packer – to justice5. Although shaken by the discovery that a man he considered almost an uncle was actually Jack the Ripper – and the murderer of his parents – Alan Wayne continued to fight as Batman on those occasions his town needed him, wearing the cowl for 15 long years6. His best known exploit occurred in 1903, when he teamed up with the visiting Harry Houdini to battle the first Joker7. His marriage produced a single son, Brutus, who, like his father before him, witnessed the death of his own parents.

Brutus Wayne became a noted arctic explorer, spending many years outside of Gotham. In the meantime, his childhood friends, men like Harold Dent and Oliver Queen, stayed in Gotham and observed its decay with growing apprehension. After unsuccessfully attempting to rescue his mentor, Professor Cobblepot, from the arctic wastes, Brutus returned to Gotham with his aides, Richard Drake, Timothy Grayson and Jason “Jack” Todd. Unknown to all but Brutus, Jason was actually his illegitimate son. Brutus and his allies fought against the demonic Prinn, now serving Ras al Ghul, an immortal sorcerer and madman. The time to pay the debts of the original men who made the pact with Prinn was come – and all four of the sorcerers were killed by Prinn or his allies. The descendents of these men formed the nucleus of resistance to the demon’s plans, and with the aid of the demon Etrigan, they won. The price of victory was very high. Dent, Queen, Langstrom, Manfurd, Grayson and Hunter all gave their lives to defeat the horrid entities that Ghul served, much of Gotham, including stately Wayne Manor, was destroyed by fire, and Brutus himself was be transformed into a giant humanoid bat8.

Brutus understandably retired from public affairs after these events, recognizing Jason’s paternity and naming him heir to the Wayne fortune. He also helped fund Amadeus Arkham’s construction of the asylum that bore his name.9 Now known as Jack Wayne, Jason was under-estimated by many people, who thought less of him for his origins as a bastard. But he was a more capable and determined man than most people gave him credit for – he almost single-handedly rebuilt Gotham City in addition to being the third man to bear the mantle of the Batman. Brutus, on the other hand, became increasingly animalistic, and eventually escaped his bonds, becoming known as the Man-Bat. At the outbreak of World War Two, Jack joined the OSS, becoming one of their best agents, the Bat. He was instrumental in the conversion of the Nazi Ubermensch to the allied side in 194210. But after this incident, Hitler recruited superhumans of his own, including the power-canceling Parsifal. By Presidential edict, all heroes were required to fight only on the home front11. This bothered Jack not at all, since Gotham had always been his main passion.

Jack Wayne fought alongside such heroes as Superman12, Captain America13 and Tarzan14, alongside who he battled Finnegan Dent, Harold’s son. He also adopted young Dick Grayson, grandson of his old friend Timothy Grayson. He also dealt with his young aide, a man known as Brass, who had become more and more of a criminal in running Wayne’s businesses. In an angry confrontation, he threw Brass out of his newly built Manor, and started to devote more time to his own son, Thomas15. Dick Grayson would become Jack’s sidekick as Robin. Later, when Jack retired from active crime fighting, Dick assumed the role of Batman, and Jack’s son Thomas became Robin. In one of their more celebrated exploits, they rescued Captain America from his frozen state, reviving the living legend16. Dick’s career as Batman was cut tragically short at the hands of the Joker, and Jack’s son Thomas, who had served as Robin for some years, took over the role.

To be concluded…

1. Shadow of the Bat #45
2. Batman: The Blue, The Grey, and the Bat
3. Shadow of the Bat #45
4. Batman #474, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #27, and Detective Comics #641
5. Batman: Gotham by Gaslight
6. Batman: Master of the Future
7. Batman & Houdini: The Devil’s Workshop
8. Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham #1-3
9. Batman: Arkham Asylum
10. JSA: The Liberty Files
11. JSA: The Golden Age
12. Superman & Batman: Generations Book One: 1939 – 1949
13. Batman & Captain America
14. Batman / Tarzan: Claws of the Cat-Woman
15. Batman Legends of the Dark Knight #132 – 136
16. Batman & Captain America