Batman

Bruce Wayne, A.K.A. Batman, is one of the secondary protagonists of Mutatron: The Maestro Of Mayhem! He was the masked vigilante who that formerly battled crime and corruption in Gotham City before he was revealed to the world as billionaire playboy philanthropist, Bruce Wayne, the owner of Wayne Enterprises. This Batman is technically not the primary version of Batman, but one from an alternate Earth. He was voiced by Kevin Conroy in the Arkham Games and will be voiced by Thomas Haden Church in the movie.

Bruce Wayne's Origin Story
When he was 8 years old, Bruce watched helplessly as his parents were gunned down in front of him. The first person to talk to him after the tragedy was a kind police officer named James Gordon. He offered the boy what little comfort he could. The family's faithful butler, Alfred, became Bruce's legal guardian and tried to help. Bruce forever had his childhood stolen from him. Bruce became obsessed with avenging his parents' murder and created a plan for the rest of his life.

For the next several years from his childhood to young adult life, Bruce trained extremely extensively to the height of mental and physical perfection. He studied various detective techniques, criminal psychology, invention, computers, disguise, escape arts, tracking, acrobatics, weapons, and marksmanship to name a few.

Bruce went on a journey to learn and master the many highly refined forms of Asian martial arts and eventually traveled to North Korea. There, Bruce discovered a secret Korean monastery where he met martial arts master, Kirigi of the League of Assassins. At first nothing more than servant and a foreigner, Bruce was eventually allowed to train with his students in Tokagure-Ryu and other Shinobi arts similar to the Japanese Ninjutsu. Mastering all of them, and even managing to defeat Kirigi's best student Shiva, Bruce earned the sensei's respect and was allowed access to the knowledge that he had been seeking as well as more advanced training.

The Rise of The Dark Knight
Returning to Gotham after several years abroad, ostensibly to reclaim his inheritance and become the CEO of his family's company, Bruce realized that he needed to become a symbol to fully utilize everything he'd learned on his journey. He chose the image of a bat, an old childhood fear, and began crafting an identity to prey on both of the superstitions and the cowardice of criminals. He confided this plan to Alfred, who did not initially approve but faithfully stood by his charge and helped him renovate the caves beneath Wayne Manor into a base of operations: the Batcave. Bruce befriended Lucius Fox, though he didn't share his plans with him at first, and used his position to develop or "borrow" custom-made items that could be useful in his crusade. He assembled his first armored Batsuit and Utility Belt out of various materials from the Batcave and Wayne Enterprises, and re-purposed a prototype stealth jet to act as the "Batwing", a means of transport and an aerial delivery system, with plans to develop the future Batmobile. He also undertook an investigation into a brutal serial killing incident around the time of Halloween of his first year, which Alfred later referred to as "a long one".

For over two years, Batman waged a covert war on Gotham crime, and focused on everything from typical muggings and robberies to powerful figures such as Carmine Falcone, his rival Sal Maroni, and up-and-coming crime lords, Black Mask and the Penguin. He also solved several cases beyond the police's capability to handle, such as the holiday themed killer named Calendar Man and a crime wave perpetuated by the mysterious Red Hood, which Batman suspected of being a cover identity assumed by more than one person. His first and only confrontation with the Red Hood ended in disaster during a break-in at the Ace Chemicals Plant. The villain fell into a vat of chemicals, either by accident or on purpose to escape justice, which marked the first failure in the young vigilante's career. The Red Hood's body was never found.

Batman continued his war, gained more confidence with each victory and continued to develop his arsenal. Most criminals believed him to either be an urban legend or some kind of supernatural entity, both of which gave him a psychological edge to exploit as they began to realize that someone or something out there was an active threat to their stranglehold on Gotham. Batman avoided media attention for as long as possible, and added to the power of his chosen symbol. As a new year drew closer, Batman believed himself to be the only thing that stood between the innocent and the predatory, and that he could handle any opponent. But he was about to take that to the test.

Batman's First Greatest Challenge
On Christmas Eve, Batman intervened in a breakout at Blackgate Prison that was led by Black Mask. There, Black Mask executed GCPD Commissioner Gillian B. Loeb and then escaped while Batman confronted Black Mask's hired assassin, Killer Croc. After defeating Croc, Batman learned that some of the world's deadliest assassins were in Gotham to claim the $50 million bounty that was put on Batman's head by Black Mask. Batman made his way to Jezebel Plaza to interrogate an arms dealer named Ricky 'Loose Lips' Leblanc and saw Loose Lips and Penguin's Gang make an arms deal with an unknown criminal gang. Upon beating the thugs at the arms deal and capturing Loose Lips, Batman attempted to interrogate him by stranglehold. However, Batman's attempt unintentionally knocked Loose Lips unconscious instead.

After Loose Lips awakened, Batman started to interrogate him up on the roof of the Gotham Merchants Bank, then Batman got his phone and dropped Loose Lips off the roof and straight into the Christmas Tree. Batman tracks down the Penguin aboard his ship, the Final Offer, and believed that he knew Black Mask's location. After he arrived, Batman was forced to overcome the assassins, Deathstroke and the Electrocutioner, before he learned from Penguin that there was a murder at Black Mask's Safehouse at Lacey Towers. Batman discovered that Anarky had placed bombs all over Gotham, so he decided to deactivate the bombs. Batman traveled to Lacey Towers, investigated the murder scene, pieced together that the victim was not Black Mask, and that the murder may have involved a new criminal calling himself the Joker.

After Batman decided that he needed more information to solve the case, he infiltrated the GCPD to access the National Criminal Database. In the midst of his escape, Batman encountered the newly promoted Captain James Gordon, and the corrupt SWAT team who hoped to eradicate him and collect Black Mask's bounty money for themselves. With advice from Gordon's daughter, Barbara, Batman entered the sewers beneath the GCPD to secure permanent access to the database. There, he found Black Mask's men planting explosives. The database helped Batman uncover that Black Mask was kidnapped by the Joker, and whom Batman believed intended to use to access the Gotham Merchants Bank.

After he exited the sewer, Batman encountered The Mad Hatter's mind-controlled henchmen, who sang a nursery rhyme and invited him to a “party” that was hosted by the Mad Hatter. The Mad Hatter then contacted Batman, explained that he had a business proposal, and a girl then cried for help, before the Hatter silenced her. At the bank, Batman encountered Black Mask, who was revealed to be the Joker in disguise: The Joker had replaced Black Mask days earlier, seized his criminal empire, and placed the bounty on Batman. Leaving the bank into Jezebel Plaza, Batman heard a baby crying in a carriage, but it turned out to be a recording. He was then encountered by one of the assassins, Shiva. Batman then pursued the Joker to the Sionis Steel Mill, where he freed Black Mask, and defeated the poisonous assassin, Copperhead. Batman discovered an S.O.S and the helicopter was shot down by Deadshot, who was one of the assassins.

After he tracked the Joker to the Royal Hotel, Batman found that Joker and his men took control of the building, filled it with explosives, murdered the staff, and took the guests hostage. Joker gathered the remaining assassins about their failure to kill Batman, and threw the Electrocutioner out of a window to his death: Batman recovered his Shock Gloves. The assassins departed except for Bane who believed that Batman was coming for the Joker. Batman worked his way through the building, eventually encountered Joker, and fought Bane.

Concerned that Batman was outmatched, Alfred alerted the GCPD for help, who arrived and interrupted the fight. As Bane escaped by helicopter, he fires a rocket at Joker, and the concussive force sent Joker falling from the hotel. Batman leaped after and saved the Joker before he left him with the GCPD. The Joker was left intrigued by the events as he was imprisoned at Blackgate, and placed in the care of Dr. Harleen Quinzel. While he talked to Dr. Quinzel, Joker explained that he had believed that it was fate for he and Batman to have met.

In the Batcave, Alfred implored Batman to abandon his crusade, and feared that he would die, but Batman refused to listen. Batman entered the GCPD Morgue and scanned the body of a Venom Henchman. After he located Bane's hideout, Batman heard the GCPD Dispatcher that the Venom shipment was behind by Bird, Bane's lieutenant. Batman located Bane's headquarters and discovered that Bane knew that Batman was Bruce Wayne. Firefly launched an assault on the Gotham Pioneers Bridge, which forced both Batman and Gordon to work together to overcome the assassin and his bombs. Meanwhile, Bane broke into the Batcave and beat Alfred nearly to death. Batman returned to find the Batcave in ruins: Alfred died after requesting that Batman not feel guilty over him. Batman managed to resuscitate Alfred by using the Electrocutioner's Shock Gloves. Elsewhere, the Joker took over Blackgate after he launched another riot.

After he finally accepted that he needed allies, Batman worked with Gordon and the GCPD to retake Blackgate. Batman was forced to fight Bane to the death when Joker placed himself in an electric chair that would automatically kill him unless Bane died: Batman used the Shock Gloves to shock Bane to death. Satisfied, the Joker left, and intended to detonate the bombs that were placed all around Gotham. Batman resuscitated Bane, but Bane became enraged and injected himself with a prototype of Titan, that was known as TN-1, which transformed him into a hulking beast: Batman managed to defeat him, and the steroid's side effects damaged Bane's memory.

With Gordon's help, Batman fought his way to the Joker in the Prison Chapel. Dismayed to learn that Batman saved Bane, Joker tried to goad Batman into killing him, but Batman subdued him. Gordon decided to let Batman go, and believed that he could help Gotham. Batman then spent the rest of his time solving various murders throughout the city and cleaning up. Eventually, after he solved some murders that hit too close to home, as well as barely restraining himself from killing the murderer in anger over the deaths, Batman was contacted by Gordon with the request to bring in 20 escaped Blackgate Prisoners who escaped from Blackgate earlier due to the Joker's riot. After he successfully subdued all twenty of the Blackgate Prisoners, Batman requested to Gordon in exchange, that he tell the GCPD to back off so that he could do things his way, and also told him not to wait for too long, as he suspected that a similar event to what they quelled would occur in the near future.

New Year, New Villains
A week later, on New Years Eve, Bruce Wayne hosted a cocktail party that honored Ferris Boyle, the CEO of GothCorp for winning the Humanitarian of the Year Award. Bruce, when told by Alfred that Boyle was likely to be competition for Gotham's most philanthropic industrialist, simply stated that Gotham needed more people like Boyle. They then greeted each other, with Bruce telling Boyle that he'd change the world before Boyle was escorted out by Alfred to meet with the news reporters.

Shortly afterwards, just as they were about to count down to the New Year, an cryogenic-based explosive occurred in the Ballroom, which froze several of the guests, and several members of the Penguin's Gang did an armed takeover of the Ballroom. Shortly afterwards, an enigmatic, blue-skinned, armored individual entered the Ballroom, and, after he ruthlessly threw a trapped guest and froze him, demanded Boyle. Bruce then tried to contact Alfred with this development.

However, Bruce left the Ballroom due to Alfred not responding, only to be ambushed by one of Penguin's Henchmen with an assault rifle butt to the face. Meanwhile, Alfred tried to fend off against several members of Penguin's Gang, although he ended up knocked out by one of the thugs who smashed a vase into him. Seizing the opportunity, Bruce managed to knock out his assailants before he attended to Alfred, who merely stated that he's "been through worse." Bruce then told Alfred that, although he didn't know why Penguin's Gang wanted Boyle, he did know that there was an enigmatic armored man who lead them.

Deciding that Batman was needed once more, Alfred discreetly informed Bruce that he should access the Batcave to don the Batsuit. Bruce originally planned to go directly to the Batcave through the clock via the Study. However, because the reporters were in the Study, Bruce and Alfred decided that the former should access the Batcave via the Wine Cellar. While he talked to Vicki Vale, Bruce learned that Boyle never made it to the interview.

While following the path to the Batcave, Bruce passed through the Library, where he had to dispatch several of the Penguin's Henchmen as the entire mansion was overrun by the gang. Bruce also did this stealthily as they were armed and he was ill-equipped to do direct confrontation with them. Bruce then accessed the Wine Cellar, beat up more thugs, before he accessed the Batcave entrance in the Wine Cellar's Tasting Room by pulling down the barrel portion of a statue and then used hand-scanning equipment to access it.

Bruce also had to be very careful while accessing the underground path to the Batcave, as the path still suffered extensive damage from Bane's earlier attack on Wayne Manor. Upon accessing the elevator, Bruce was contacted by Alfred, was informed that the mechanized man's identity was "Mister Freeze," and suggested that he don the Extreme Environment (XE) Batsuit.

However, because the XE Suit wasn't fully tested, as well as learning that helicopters were arriving and delivering more of the Penguin's Gang, Bruce instead donned his regular Batsuit for the time being, while he decided to have Alfred put the finishing touches on the XE Suit. In addition, Batman's Glue Grenade was unavailable because the formula that was used a week earlier was unstable, and the remaining doses were decomposed by that time. While making his way back, the power unexpectedly went out, with Alfred telling Batman to hurry as the manor was being set ablaze by the Penguin's Gang (the Penguin had earlier ordered his men to torch the manor) before he ended up caught by the Penguin's Henchmen. Batman then rushed to get to Alfred, and also fought several of Penguin's Henchmen. Batman eventually discovered Alfred and the reporters being held hostage in the Library, with the Wayne Crest blocking the exit. After he dispatched Penguin's Henchmen, Batman led the hostages to safety to the Study, with Boyle's secretary telling them that Penguin's Henchmen had cornered Boyle, and that they were most likely trying to kill him.

Batman then told Alfred to use the sprinklers to put out the fires (although because of the presence of the guests nearby, both Batman and Alfred had to talk in a way that indicated they were total strangers to throw off suspicion about Bruce Wayne and Batman being the same individual). Batman then encountered Penguin's Henchmen and managed to subdue them. However, Freeze interfered shortly thereafter and froze Batman in place with enough cryogenic fuel to stun him, and told the caped crusader that he had no quarrel with him and that he only wanted Boyle.

Boyle then recognized Mr. Freeze as Victor Fries and protested as he was dragged away. Batman then burst free of his icy constraints, pursued Freeze to the Ballroom, and also took out some of Penguin's Henchmen. However, Freeze anticipated Batman's pursuit, and had one of the Penguin Henchmen use a cryogenic weapon to freeze the door into the Ballroom shut, which forced Batman to enter via the balcony, and Batman discovered Penguin's access to cryogenic weapons.

Batman then entered just in time to see Freeze getting away with Boyle in a chopper. Batman then attacked the henchmen in the Ballroom as they were preparing to account for the loot they acquired, and left one conscious in order to interrogate him regarding Freeze and Boyle's destination. However, none of the henchmen at Wayne Manor knew where Freeze was headed, but he did point to an arms dealer of Penguin's who was responsible for selling the cryogenic weaponry to the Penguin via Freeze operating in South Gotham. Batman then used the Batwing once again to travel to South Gotham. Batman expressed disgust that Freeze would target Boyle, and vowed to place him into Blackgate on a gurney.

Batman eventually arrived in South Gotham in Coventry. While making his way down, Batman overheard a police dispatch that Anarky's Henchmen were taking advantage of the lack of police enforcement in South Gotham and caused several riots. Batman decided to delay on dealing with Anarky's followers until after he tracked down Penguin's dealer and got the location of Freeze out of him. Batman eventually located a frozen police officer after he dealt with several of Penguin's Henchmen. Setting up a crime scene, Batman deduced that the officer had stumbled upon the weapon's dealer by chance and attempted to take him in, but ended up frozen because he was ill-equipped to deal with him.

Being unable to save the officer with his current equipment, Batman was forced to leave him be for the moment. Batman also discovered a trail that potentially lead him to the dealer, as the dealer's cryogun was leaking when he froze the officer. Batman then informed Alfred about the Penguin and his gang using cryogenic weaponry to encase innocents in ice for various crimes, and cited that he'd find out where they got the weaponry after he found the dealer. He then followed the trail, and also stopped several members of Penguin's Gang while they were doing cryogenics-based crimes, including one that somehow resulted in the building that they raided catching on fire from their use of a cryo weapon.

After tracking down the dealer during a weapons deal, Batman managed to attack him and his men, and proceeded to interrogate the dealer. He then learned that Freeze and Penguin made a deal: Cryogenic weapons in exchange for capturing Boyle, and their destination was GothCorp's corporate headquarters. Batman believed that he was lying because GothCorp didn't make weapons, much less cryogenic weapons, but the dealer insisted that it was indeed GothCorp, and offered the access codes for GothCorp as proof.

Batman then took the codes before he knocked him out. He then decided to investigate GothCorp's possible involvement in weapons development. Upon arriving at GothCorp's headquarters and taking out opposition both outside the premises and within (with Penguin having earlier ordered the latter to "come runnin'" if things went sideways), Batman learned that Boyle was being taken to the Propellant Research Wing of GothCorp by Penguin and Freeze from one of the security guards.

The security guard also directed Batman to his superior, who was being held hostage in the Organics Lab, as he himself did not have the access codes to the Propellant Wing yet his superior did. After he told the guard to get to safety, Batman then went to the Organics Lab, dispatched Penguin's Henchmen, saved the guard, and got the codes before he told the guard to get to safety. Alfred then reported that the XE Suit's progress was slow, but he was working as fast as he could, with Batman informing him that ice formations were currently impeding his progress. Batman then dealt with several waves of Penguin's Henchmen in the Lobby before he proceeded to the access of the Propellant Lab.

Because the main door had been frozen shut (presumably by Freeze to prevent Penguin from calling for backup), Batman instead had to access elevator shaft D-17 to access the main lab, and also evaded various cryogenic blasts from the pipes. Upon making it there, Batman discovered Penguin and Freeze arguing, as Freeze demanded Penguin to supply him with Boyle, but Penguin was more interested in the weapons that Freeze had promised, with Freeze informing him that the contents of the room that he was trying to access were not of any interest to Penguin. Batman then knocked out two snipers, with Penguin ordering for his men to attack Batman, and was angered at his interfering with his plans again.

Freeze also noticed Batman's arrival and froze Penguin and his men in enough ice to restrain them. Because of the Penguin's aim being forcibly locked onto the latches of a coolant tank and the gun locked on fire mode, he was forced to have the tank's locking mechanism destroyed, with Batman being forced to dodge the tank. Freeze then yanked Boyle out of the frozen mass, and told him that he belonged to him. Batman then told Freeze that he had one chance to let Boyle go, but Freeze was unmoved, and told the caped crusader that his threats meant nothing to "a man who has lost everything." Freeze then overloaded the cryogenic tanks with his freeze gun to create an icy barrier to deter pursuit.

Batman then interrogated the Penguin (who was trapped in the ice barrier save for his face), learned that they had a cryodrill that was the only thing that was capable of breaking the ice barrier, and that it was located at My Alibi. Batman then left, although not before he told Penguin that his current status was the only thing that prevented Batman from giving the mobster a beatdown. Batman eventually discovered cryogenic vapors of enough quantity to instantly kill him in his current state, which forced him to evade the fumes. After he took out several henchmen who attempted to escape the compromised Propellant Wing, Batman then escaped by disabling a propeller above, and also evacuated a security guard who was caught in the cryovapor-flooded Organics Lab. Batman then told the guard that he'd return once he managed to recover the cryodrill, and confirmed that Freeze would try to stop him "with any luck."

Batman then made his way to My Alibi, learned from Alfred that the XE Suit had not only been completed, but had also just been loaded into a drop container, and told him to drop it off at My Alibi. However, Batman discovered various armed guards at the nightclub's premises, which necessitated that he needed take them all out before Alfred could drop off the XE Suit. After doing so and donning the XE Suit, Batman then proceeded to enter the nightclub. After he saved some of the cops with the XE Suit's Thermal Gloves and took out several members of Penguin's Gang, Batman proceeded to interrogate Loose-Lips about the location of the cryodrill that Penguin stole.

Loose-Lips confirmed that he stole it, but that Penguin ordered him to dismantle the drill and split it up into different parts of South Gotham, and gave him the locations under the request that the Dark Knight not drop him off a roof again. Batman then tracked down the drill pieces, although he discovered that it lacked fuel. Alfred then revealed that the organic superconducting fuel it used was developed by Mr. Freeze's original identity, Dr. Victor Fries.

Batman then realized that Freeze must have been a disgruntled former employee at GothCorp, and that he may have wanted revenge due to his lab being shut down and quarantined due to an accident. Upon returning to GothCorp, and also taking out several of Penguin's Henchmen, Batman then removed the cryovapor clouds by restarting the vents as well as fixing the generators. Upon accessing the lab, he noticed that things were out-of-place for it to be a mere accident, and noticed that the lab did research on weapons development. Batman then set up a crime scene. He noticed that the guard had the same skin as Freeze, and that he died from heat stroke despite it being room temperature.

He then noticed hand prints on the window that contained Victor Fries' fingerprints on it, a guard flash-frozen from a discharged cryogenic cannon, as well as signs of a struggle and pistol-whipping of Fries. Batman eventually found a handgun and discovered that the handgun had belonged to Ferris Boyle, which indicated that he was indeed aware of the weapons development at GothCorp. Upon analyzing gurney tracks that were frozen on the floor as well as the machine that Fries had been working on, he discovered that he had in fact been working on a cure for Huntington's Chorea, and that the subject had been his own wife, Nora Fries. Batman then deduced that Mr. Freeze, then known as Dr. Victor Fries, had entered a deal with Boyle to work on cryogenic weapons development in exchange for funding to research a cure for Huntington's Chorea.

However, Batman eventually learned that Boyle had absolutely no intention of meeting his end of the bargain, as he was more interested in how Fries had managed to successfully place his wife in cryostasis, so Fries then proceeded to take matters into his own hands and divert research towards a cure behind Boyle's back. Boyle eventually discovered this, had Nora confiscated, had several guards beat Fries, and also pistol-whipping Fries himself. During the struggle, Fries accidentally knocked over a prototype cryogenic cannon which destroyed a cryogenic generator. Boyle quickly left the room and left them for dead. Fries was knocked down by the remaining guard, but then witnessed the guard's death from heat stroke. After he realized that he'd die in his current condition, Freeze developed a suit to ensure his core subzero body temperature was retained so that he could walk outside the lab.

Batman then realized that Freeze's violence was out of desperation to save his wife and began to feel sympathy for Freeze, that he only intended to use Boyle's security clearance to get his wife out, and not kill Boyle. Batman also developed a newfound disgust towards Boyle for his actions. He then had Alfred transmit the evidence to the GCPD. Batman also told Alfred that, although he sympathized with Freeze's motives, he nonetheless had to stop him. Batman proceeded to return to the Propellant Lab as Penguin's Henchmen attempted to free Penguin from his icy prison with their boss issuing threats. After he knocked them out, Batman then proceeded to use the cryodrill, and left Penguin trapped.

Batman eventually entered the Cryogenics Lab, attempted to tell Freeze to stop his actions, told him that Boyle would face judgment for his crimes, and that Freeze's actions of harming innocents would not have been what Nora wanted. However, he was forced to fight Freeze and disable the cryogenerators. After subduing Freeze, Batman got in the way of the cryogenic blast that was directed at Freeze by Boyle, and was frozen solid. However, Batman broke out and proceeded to subdue the sociopath CEO as he was sadistically beating Freeze, proceeded to restore functions to Freeze's Suit and Nora's cryogenic chamber, and also promised Freeze that although he couldn't give him peace, he could at least give him justice.

Honor Among Thieves
Three months later, while patrolling, Batman encountered a thief stealing something from a high-tech building. The thief, who called herself Catwoman, escaped and left Batman to deal with Department of Extra-Normal Operations Guards who were stationed in the building and on the surrounding rooftops. After a long chase, Batman took down Catwoman and left her for the police to arrest.

Two weeks later, Batman received an urgent message from Captain Gordon. Another riot had broken out at Blackgate and it was under the prisoners' control. Batman approached the prison by the river and made his way inside. After he saved Catwoman from several thugs, Batman learned that Joker, Penguin, and Black Mask had taken over three separate areas of Blackgate: the Administration Offices, the Cell Blocks, and the Industrial Area. Catwoman offered to team up and helped him navigate the prison. She also mentioned that several hostages were being held in the Arkham Wing, that Joker had cut the air supply to the area, and left them with only a few hours of oxygen.

Batman began with the Cell Blocks. He discovered that Penguin was hosting a fighting arena, which he attempted to break up. He was forced to fight Penguin's reigning champion, Bronze Tiger. Batman quickly defeated Tiger, but refused to kill him. As Penguin's thugs closed in, Tiger held them off, which gave Batman a chance to go after Penguin.

Penguin managed to escape to the Lighthouse and cut off the path. Batman returned to the Administration Offices to acquire the recently completed Line Launcher in order to proceed. He then encountered Joker, who had captured Warden Joseph and had him rigged to several bombs.

After he acquired the Line Launcher from the offices, Batman went back to the Lighthouse and continued to pursue Penguin. He was finally able to catch up to him and defeat him. Then he learned that Black Mask was attempting to overload Blackgate's power generators and cause a chain reaction that would destroy everyone and everything in the building, which included Batman and Joker, whom he blamed for his downfall three and half months earlier. While making his way to the Industrial Area, Batman encountered a large undead being in the sewers that called itself Solomon Grundy. Batman defeated the creature, confronted Black Mask, and foiled his plan.

With Black Mask taken care of, Batman returned to the Administration Building to stop the Joker and rescue the Warden. He was intercepted by Deadshot, who had made a deal with all three bosses, tripled his commission, and was eager to kill Batman for the great prize. After he defeated the assassin, Batman rescued Joseph, then proceeded to his office, and confronted the Joker. After taking down the Clown Prince of Crime, Batman acquired the set of codes that he needed to shut down the gas that was about to be released on the hostages, but noticed that the Arkham Wing's air supply hadn't been cut off at all, contrary to what Catwoman had told him.

Having finally defeated all three of the villains, Batman proceeded to the Arkham Wing, where he discovered that there were no hostages at all. Instead he found a weak, and skinny Bane. Catwoman revealed that she had been using Batman to get to Bane, who was the target that she was hired to recover to pay off a debt. Batman pursued Catwoman to the docks and fought her again. Before he could learn her employer's identity, a special forces team that was led by Captain Richard Flag intervened and arrested Catwoman. Though questioning the team's actions, Batman said nothing about it and flew off into the night. The Blackgate Riot was contained, though Black Mask, Penguin, and Joker had managed to escape custody in the aftermath.

Throughout the night, the riot had been secretly monitored by Amanda Waller. The breakout might have been staged by her department in an attempt to acquire Bane, who was one of several potential candidates for the Suicide Squad. While Catwoman had failed in her mission, since Captain Flag had to leave Bane behind to waylay suspicion, Waller did manage to retrieve Deadshot and Bronze Tiger. As Waller and Flag's helicopter flew off, they were unaware that one of Batman's tracers had been placed on its underbelly, implying that he secretly placed it there to follow Waller back to her headquarters, as he is suspicious of her motives.

Batman Vs. The Suicide Squad
At some point, after he discovered that the Joker had stolen a dirty bomb with enough explosive power to wipe out half of Gotham City, Batman tracked down one of Joker's accomplices in the plot, the Riddler, to his hideout in the Gotham docks in an attempt to track down the location of the Joker's dirty bomb. However, by the time that Batman got to the hideout, it was raided by black ops soldiers from A.R.G.U.S., led by Amanda Waller, who were to take Riddler out for theft of data relating to the Suicide Squad. He then blacked out the hideout, and, after neutralizing all of the soldiers, attempted to interrogate the Riddler on the location of the bomb. However, as the Riddler lacked any knowledge of the bomb's location, Batman then sent him to Arkham Asylum.

Later, Batman caught Harley Quinn raiding a toy shop for a Cutie Boo Boo doll, and, after he fought her, Batman interrogated her regarding the location of the bomb under the assumption that she was still in league with the Joker, although she genuinely lacked any knowledge of the bomb either. After verifying that she was indeed being truthful, Batman then had Harley sent to Arkham Asylum. However, he was still suspicious about Harley Quinn wanting to get caught, and eventually discovered that a yellow-alert occurred at Arkham. Batman also deduced that the "live footage" was actually recorded footage that was being played of the Thursday shift, not the Friday shift, which caused him to deduce there was indeed a situation at Arkham. Batman then encountered the Suicide Squad, fought with them in the storerooms, eventually dispatched Black Spider, and disguised himself as the vigilante assassin.

Eventually, he witnessed the Suicide Squad subjecting themselves to electroshock therapy at the hands of the Riddler, although the Suicide Squad eventually deduced that he was Batman when they learned that "Black Spider's" head wasn't blown off (and Joker likewise deduced that the "Batman" whose head was blown off wasn't actually Batman due to his face being different). After he unveiled his identity, Batman then removed the active electroshock devices from Deadshot (having been inadvertently activated by the Riddler after he got hit with one of Batman's Batarangs), interrogated him, and learned Waller's involvement of sending them to kill Riddler. Before Batman could get more answers, however, Joker made an explosive arrival and intended to kill everyone in the room.

While the Suicide Squad escaped, Batman fought off the Joker and eventually attempted to flee via the window, although he ended up shot by the Joker. Before a confrontation could ensue, when they reconvened, however, the surviving members of the Suicide Squad and Batman saw a message from the Joker (who had been freed by Harley earlier), which revealed that he intended to give Gotham a lethal dose of "tainted love", and that he was going to instigate a riot at Arkham in order to slow Batman down. Batman managed to deal with several escaped foes, including knocking out Victor Zsasz by breaking a wall behind him, kicking Bane into the Gotham Bay, and stopping Poison Ivy when she placed the Arkham Staff under her control. Batman eventually tracked down Joker and Harley on a hijacked helicopter and fought off Harley while Deadshot fought the Joker. Batman, after he defeated Harley, managed to disarm the dirty bomb, which had been hidden in Harley's mallet.

Afterwards, Batman tried to warn the Suicide Squad handler, Waller, against such gambits in the future, although she ignored him. However, her ignorance would eventually lead to the future mission where she sent the Suicide Squad to kill Batman's Justice League allies.

Welcome To The Madhouse
After the escape of the Joker from Arkham Asylum two months prior, Batman had been on a constant search for The Clown Prince of Crime. During his second month of searching, Batman was notified of an anonymous tip left in Dr. Sarah Cassidy's office at Arkham which revealed that she had been kidnapped by Zsasz and taken to the Old County Hospital. Batman took Zsasz out by surprise and rescued Cassidy from his clutches. In the same month, a second tip came in the form of a note that was attached to a test tube. Unsurprisingly to Batman, the vial contained an extremely potent, odorless Fear Gas.

While experimenting with it in the Batcave, a few molecules escaped from the vial, and caused Batman to fight his way out of a series of fear induced hallucinations. Batman was able to create an antidote from the formula and ambushed Scarecrow, attacking his psychologist, took him back to his cell, and cured his victims. The GCPD received the third and final tip in the form of a 911 call, moments before the Joker raided Gotham City Hall and took the Mayor hostage.

The Joker strapped the Mayor to the side of a large pillar on the roof of the building, and attached a bomb to his waist. Batman destroyed the Joker's detonator and removed the bomb before it exploded. The Joker attempted to escape via parachute, but Batman easily thwarted the villain. While he escorted the Joker back to Arkham in the Batmobile, Batman spoke with Oracle via radio, and vocalized his suspicions on the three tips and whether they came from the same source, as well as the easy nature of the Joker's capture. Despite these suspicions, Batman drove the Joker back to Arkham, and hoped that they would disappear once he was back behind bars.

Batman arrived at Arkham Asylum in the Batmobile, and took the Joker to the Intensive Treatment Center. The Joker remained in high spirits, and was pleased that he was back in Arkham. Joker was strapped to a prisoner movement gurney and wheeled through Intensive Treatment by a variety of security guards, including Frank Boles, with Batman following close by due to him sensing something amiss about his capture of Joker and returning him to Arkham, as the Joker had never let him capture him that easily before.

The Joker commented on all the brand new security at Arkham and how it was rather funny that a fire at Blackgate had sent over a hundred of his goons to Arkham (to which Boles reacted angrily and reminded Joker that he was supposed to keep quiet about it, before Joker implied that Bole's mouth should remain quiet for his own good). During the escort, the Joker made snide remarks to many of the Arkham Staff including Warden Quincy Sharp, Officer Aaron Cash and Dr. Penelope Young before he was taken down the elevator. In addition, when scanning the Joker for carrying weapons, the scanners also inadvertently detected multiple prohibited weapons on Batman.

During the elevator journey, a blackout occurred, and caused the Joker to laugh hysterically before he had his neck clutched by Batman as the lights turned back on. As the Joker was moved into the lobby area, he was unstrapped and escorted by a guard and an orderly while Batman and Commissioner Gordon looked on. Unknown to all but Joker, Harley Quinn was already in the security control room, waiting. Joker soon took the opportunity to break free at Harley's signal.

Pretending to stumble and trip, the Joker bashed his guard in the face with the back of his head as the guard demanded him to get up. Joker then used his handcuffs to strangle the guard, which forced the doctor to unhook him to save the guard. Joker strangled the guard to death before the doctor could save him, and when his cuffs were finally off, kicked the doctor down, and killed him as well.

The Joker then coldly said to the dead guard: "The choke's on you!", imitated a playful laugh, and pointed at the security door with a "Ta-da!". Joker looked up at the security camera and told Harley he was home. Harley then let him in by opening up the adjacent electrical doorway, and allowed the Joker to access the cell controls. He ran behind the energy screen just as Batman managed to break through the viewing window and into the room. Joker taunted the Dark Knight for springing his trap and released his followers from Blackgate out of their cells, and said: "Now let's get this party started!". As Batman battled the thugs, Joker said over the monitor system that he was originally going to kill everyone in the room and watch cartoons, but he decided to take a captive audience instead. After Batman defeated a round of thugs, the Joker left the room and made his way to the Patient Transfer Unit.

Batman told Gordon that he would find them a way out, but Joker told Batman not to make promises that he couldn't keep, as he was in control of the asylum and therefore where Batman was able to go. As Batman told Joker that he wouldn't let him run, Joker cut off his "hero speak" and goaded him to just pursue him. Batman followed the Joker through the depths of the Intensive Treatment Center, and found deceased Arkham security guards in his wake of destruction. Batman halted briefly to defuse a hostage situation in the Patient Pacification Chamber, where an escaped Zsasz took a security guard, Mike, hostage and had strapped him into the electroshock pacification chair.

Batman then eventually followed Joker's trail of smiles and arrows drawn by spray paint and dead bodies and found the villain in the Secure Treatment Transfer area. The Joker opened up a large patient transfer cell, and released a large experimental monster (bearing resemblance to Amygdala). The monster attacked Batman before he died of biological causes, much to the Joker's annoyance, who murmured: "Note to self: Need stronger test subjects!". As a result, the Joker allowed Batman one free shot at him, which would cause him to fall to his death and end the madness. Batman drew a Batarang, but hesitated and was unable to willingly kill his enemy, which caused the Joker laugh at him and say that he was becoming "too predictable".

Joker escaped via the Patient Transfer System and told Batman that he was organizing a "party" with the villains all over Arkham. Whilst Batman tried to get the transfer unit working again, the Joker appeared on a monitor and showed Batman an image of a treacherous Boles knocking out Gordon, taking him hostage, and ready to kill him should he follow.

Joker claimed that he helped Boles out of a situation a while back in which Boles owed him. Batman attempted to track down Gordon anyway, by detecting the alcohol that Boles had left in the air. Along the way, Joker left traps with Joker Venom as well as many gag chattering teeth. The Joker soon caught onto Batman's attempt, and, as a result, had Boles killed, and no longer needed him.

The Joker took control of Arkham's intercom system, and told his goons to destroy the Batmobile as he took over the West side of Arkham Island. Joker's next target was the Medical Facility where he ordered his goons to round up all of the doctors in the area, most importantly Dr. Young, whom he needed the Titan Formula from.

To the Joker's annoyance, Batman defeated his goons and rescued the captive doctors. The Joker drew up a "Party List" which contained the individuals who would help take care of Batman. He enlisted the help of Scarecrow, who proceeded to attack Batman at the Medical Facility. After he escaped from Scarecrow's Nightmare, Batman made his way to Gordon, who was conveniently placed near Bane's holding cell.

After Batman rescued Gordon from Harley, the Joker pumped a large amount of Titan into Bane, and caused a fight with him and Batman. Joker was disappointed with Bane's inability to kill Batman, so he ordered his goons to assist him, though Batman defeated them all. The Joker's next order of business was to search the Arkham Mansion for Dr. Young's formula, and Dr. Young herself, who had gone looking for said formula. After he found Zsasz at the Botanical Gardens, the Joker enlisted his help to deal with Dr. Young. Zsasz held Dr. Young by knife-point in Warden Sharp's Office and threatened to kill her if he saw Batman approaching.

Joker told Zsasz to just kill her, as she was useless to him since he had gotten both Venom and Titan anyway. Batman incapacitated Zsasz and rescued the doctor, though an explosion set by Joker in the Warden's safe killed Dr. Young anyway. Harley then entered and had her thugs prepare Batman for the "Party". Batman defeated them, followed Harley, and rescued Sharp by tracking his DNA. Harley was shown releasing Poison Ivy from her cell, despite Ivy not being on the "Party List", much to Joker's apparent pleasure. He then unleashed the more violent, insane inmates all over the island.

Batman went after Harley, who sent her thugs after Batman again, though he managed to defeat them all.

Harley's failure prompted Joker to remove her from the "Party List", and Batman defeated her, locked her up, and used her DNA traces from around the island to track Joker to the Botanical Gardens, where he found Joker forcing him to play a deadly game in the Aviary: Joker strung a pair of orderlies, Luke Curtis and Robert Stirling, in birdcages over a deadly chasm and was challenging Batman to rescue them as his men patrolled the area.

Batman was successful in taking down the cage operator while dodging the other henchman. The threat removed, Batman rescued the two orderlies, and Stirling informed him of a secret entrance to the Titan Production Facility. Once there, Batman watched as Joker demonstrated the successful Titan strain that he had managed to create by injecting two of his thugs and had them attack Batman before he escaped. The Titan Henchmen attempted to hit Batman with their huge hands and resorted to hurling at him the corpses of deceased Arkham security guards that littered the area.

Batman defeated the monsters, pursued Joker, and passed the bodies of Robert Stirling and Luke Curtis on his way back through the gardens. Batman swore to avenge their deaths: "They're all dead. Joker was busy while I fought his monsters. He'll pay for this.". As Batman continued in his pursuit of the Joker, the villain revealed over the intercom that he had teamed up with Ivy, injected her with Titan, caused her to become far more powerful, and took control of the island surface with her evolved plants.

Batman defeated Scarecrow and Killer Croc down in the Sewers and successfully harvested the spores that were needed to make an antidote for the Titan Formula in Croc's Lair. Batman then went down further into the Sewers and found that Joker was trying to pump Titan pollutants into the Gotham River, and told his men to stop Batman from preventing that in a threatening, and serious manner. After Batman shut off the pumps, Joker sent a Titan Henchman as a token of his disapproval.

Batman defeated the monster and escaped the Sewers. Driven by more power hunger, Ivy betrayed Joker and swore to go after him once Batman was killed. Joker assured her that he would be prepared for her with an army of Titan monsters, and said the she could "bring the wine" and he would "make the salad". Batman managed to defeat Ivy in the gardens. With all of the enemies on Joker's "Party List" defeated, Joker had his men set off several fire works to direct Batman, the "guest of honor", to the "Party" at the Visitor Center by the Penitentiary.

Rather than fight Batman, upon his arrival and confirmation of being on the "Guest List", the goons acted friendly, cheered him and allowed him safe passage. Batman found a bomb planted by Joker in the Visitor Center, and, upon its explosion, discovered the Joker's Lair: a throne room atop various plastic toys from which he had been broadcasting to the island. Joker was holding Scarface and took out his frustration on him by having a fictional argument before he threw him away. Joker then sent two more Titan powered thugs at Batman, who defeated them both.

Joker then revealed that he had recaptured Gordon. Firing a Titan strain at Gordon, Joker was overjoyed when Batman took the shot himself. However, he was angered when Batman resisted and fought off Joker's attempts to make him give in. Joker then claimed that he had nothing to live for, as Batman would not allow him victory, and shot himself in the neck with the Titan injection gun, and comically acted as if he committed suicide.

Joker quickly awoke and mutated into the most horrific Titan monster, while still retaining his regular intelligence due to already being insane. Joker then directed the circling Gotham News helicopters and Jack Ryder to the rooftops of Arkham so that they could watch his final fight with Batman. After he strapped Gordon to an electric chair above a makeshift fighting arena (making him the "referee"), the mutated Joker goaded Batman to give into his injection, as it was the only way that they could be on even fighting terms. Batman refused and used the only antidote injection on himself, which the Joker found hilarious. The two, with assistance from Joker's henchmen, then fought a brutal battle, with Batman knocking Joker into the electrical generator that was used to torture Gordon. The Joker got up from the attack and said that he could take anything that Batman threw at him, and asked if the Dark Knight was ready for the next round. After he sprayed Explosive Gel onto his glove, Batman declared that he would never let Joker win and would always be prepared for his tactics. Enraged, Joker prepared to kill his relentless nemesis as Batman charged him.

The gel on Batman's fist fiercely knocked Joker down as he was punched in the face. The GCPD then retook control of Arkham Island, imprisoned all of the inmates back in their cells, and watched over the Titan injected thugs as they returned to normal. Joker's transformation back to humanity was quite painful compared to others, and culminated with the severe injuries that he received in his battle with Batman. Joker was then securely locked back up, his plans having ultimately failed.

Outside the Visitor's Center, Gordon told Batman that the effects of the Titan were starting to wear off the Joker and his men, and that they were being taken back to their cells. Batman was informed that Two-Face was raiding The Second National Bank of Gotham, and flew away into the night in the Batwing to the scene of the crime.

Arkham City. Population: Every last murderer, thief, rapist, cannibal, psychopath and drug dealer in Gotham City
Six months following the Joker's rampage, Commissioner Gordon informed Batman that Joker's Titan Formula had found its way into Gotham and had turned up in the form of brother-sister team, T&T. Wasting no time, Batman correctly suspected Two-Face to be T&T's previous employer, based on the fact that a pair of mirror images like T&T working together would be prime candidates for recruitment into Two-Face's Gang.

After he tracked Two-Face down to one of his old hideouts, Batman discovered him beaten, battered, and broken. Two-Face revealed information about T&T in exchange for a 30-minute head start. Two-Face explained that shortly after the Joker's rampage, crates full of Titan washed up at the docks where he bought them. Two-Face made the mistake of having T&T bring the crates into storage in his cellar.

Over the past six months, T&T experimented with the drug in small doses, and thereby gained control over themselves in their Titan forms. Two-Face also stated that T&T slaughtered his gang and that the rest of Gotham was next. At Mayor Sharp's new town hall dedication ceremony, T&T attacked, and Batman arrived to stop them. Perhaps getting the idea from his last fight with the Joker, Batman had installed gel sprayers on his costume, which gave his strikes extra power.

During the fight, Batman overheard T&T being given orders over their radio. Before Batman had the chance to apprehend and interrogate the duo, they committed suicide via surgically implanted explosives, killed hundreds in attendance of the press conference, and destroyed the rebuilt Gotham City Hall. Batman began to believe that T&T were working for someone who conspired with Mayor Sharp, and thus infiltrated his mansion, which doubled as a temporary City Hall.

There, Batman used Sharp's personal files to check in on his past, which revealed that Sharp was essentially a schizophrenic blank slate, who was extremely vulnerable to suggestion to the point that he had to be told to hang up a phone in order to do so. At that point, Batman was assaulted by non-lethal weaponry, which lead him to conclude that this was a trap that was meant to study him.

Choosing to deny his opponent his triumph, Batman fled the mansion. Meanwhile Harley successfully broke the dying Joker out of Arkham Asylum, and despite Batman's best efforts, they successfully escaped into Arkham City.

Later on, Batman disguised himself as a small time street thug who was named Lester Kurtz, and, with the added help of Oracle, who planted a criminal record into the GCPD database, infiltrated Arkham City where he learned of a rising gang turf war between the Joker and the Penguin who were willing to slit the other's throat to be the top dog in Arkham City.

As a test of the Lester Kurtz identity, Batman infiltrated and temporarily joined both gangs and was assured that the Lester Kurtz identity was safe because neither Joker nor Penguin, two of his old enemies who knew him best, had figured out the Lester Kurtz identity. In the process, Batman destroyed an arms shipment that was meant for TYGER Security that they were both after.

Unfortunately, it seemed that in a matter of hours, the Lester Kurtz Identity was compromised when Batman walked into a trap that was set by Mayor Sharp's accomplice by using the TYGER Guards. Batman discovered that the TYGER Guards had been extensively working out specifically to match him in a fight and were given impact-absorbing armor in order to lessen his super charged punches.

Batman was only saved by the timely arrival of Catwoman, and it's revealed that she had already hijacked the weapons shipment and had freed Poison Ivy from TYGER custody. Batman left Catwoman to her business and went to get some answers. He captured and interrogated a TYGER Captain into revealing the identity of the one who was pulling the strings in Arkham City: Hugo Strange!

Mere hours after this discovery, Batman instructed Robin and Alfred to dig up all that there was to know on Strange so that he, as Bruce Wayne, could publicly reveal it. Strange was a step ahead of the Dark Knight, however, as he had Sharp announce his involvement in the Arkham City Project so that he could paint a positive image of it and also give him an alibi for his actions. Thus, Arkham City opened on schedule and went unopposed.

One year had passed since the Joker's takeover of Arkham Asylum and Quincy Sharp had been elected Mayor of Gotham City for his actions in helping to end the Joker's control of the island. Shortly after assuming the role, Sharp declared both Arkham and Blackgate uninhabitable and ordered the construction of Arkham City on the southern banks of Gotham against the better judgment of both Batman and Commissioner Gordon. Batman believed that this was a ticking time bomb and had been keeping a watchful eye on Arkham City for months, and looked for any excuse to break into the well-guarded prison city.

As Bruce Wayne, Batman lead a protest and spoke out against Arkham City in a television press conference that was covered by both Vicki Vale and Jack Ryder. Immediately after it began, the TYGER Guards stormed the press conference, dragged Bruce into Arkham City, and Strange revealed to him that he knew that Bruce Wayne was Batman. Bruce was locked in with the inmates, and Penguin quickly found and kidnapped him. Bruce was able to escape with ease and headed to the Ace Chemicals Building to recover his Batsuit and equipment, that were delivered via the Batwing under automatic pilot by Alfred. Batman immediately went to the Solomon Wayne Courthouse to rescue Catwoman from Two-Face, who planned to execute her in order to gain both fear and respect from the prisoners of Arkham City, and to join his gang in order to be the ruler of Arkham City.

After Batman rescued Catwoman from Two-Face, Joker attempted to assassinate her to keep Batman from learning the secrets of Arkham City. After he traced the trajectory of the bullet, Batman was able to deduce that the shot had originated from Bell Tower at the Gotham City Cathedral, which had been transformed in the Arkham City Medical Center. After he rescued the members of the staff (including Aaron Cash), Batman went to the Bell tower to investigate the scene to determine the Joker's location and get answers that regarding Protocol 10. The Dark Knight traveled through Arkham City until he reached the abandoned Sionis Industries Steel Mill, which became the Joker's hideout. After he infiltrated the Steel Mill, Batman eventually came face to face with Joker, who he believes to be dying, but in reality, unbeknownst to him, Joker's faking his sickness. Batman fell for the ruse, and the Joker infected him with an earlier batch of his tainted blood, which poisoned the Dark Knight with the same disease that thought to have affected him. Joker told Batman that he had contracted Mr. Freeze to work on a cure and sent Batman to find him, and cited that Joker had also sent samples of his own blood to hospitals all around Gotham. 80 people were already reported as being infected. Soon after, Batman found Freeze's hideout in Arkham City at the old GCPD Building, however, Penguin and his henchmen took Freeze captive. Batman went to the Museum to face the Penguin, but first had to disable the security systems that Penguin had established that interfered with Batman's equipment and uplinks to Alfred at the Batcave and Oracle at the Clock Tower. Batman also had a chance encounter with Bane who suggested the two team up in order to eliminate the last traces of Titan in Arkham City. After he disabled the jammers, Batman fought his way through the Museum, and rescued the undercover GCPD officers that were sent in to investigate Arkham City in the process, as Gordon was unaware of what happened inside Arkham's walls, while he tried to find and rescue Freeze.

Penguin had other plans and took Freeze's equipment for use against Batman and deployed a Titan Henchman to protect the Museum. With Freeze's help, Batman was able to disable Freeze's Gun, fought Solomon Grundy, and stopped Penguin. Nonetheless, Freeze revealed to Batman that there was no cure for what was affecting both he and the Joker as the cure broke down quickly after it was created. After Freeze showed a specific DNA strand to him that the cure lacked, the Dark Knight quickly realized that the DNA was a match for Ra's al Ghul's blood and set out to find him in Arkham City.

Fortunately, Ra's had set up a base in Arkham City. After he left the Museum, Batman was attacked by assassins from the League of Assassins and Talia al Ghul's personal guard. He pursued them, and, during a fight, covertly implanted a tracer on one of the ninjas. Batman allowed them to defeat him so that he could track them to Ra's, but that was interrupted by Tim Drake, the third Robin. Robin vowed to stay and help, but Batman sent him away and went after Ra's on his own. After he went into the abandoned Subway following a brief encounter with Killer Croc, Batman eventually found the compound of the League of Assassins in the abandoned Wonder City.

After a near death experience from his affliction, Batman agreed to pursue the Trials of the Demon so that he could continue to live. Batman drank the blood of the Demon and joined the spirit form of Ra's where he was tested to see that if he was worthy. During the last trial, Batman refused to go forward to kill Ra's. Talia, was betrayed as her father threatened her life, relented that Batman and Ra's deserved each other, and left. Batman took the sample of Ra's blood to Freeze, and discovered two murdered victims while on his way that had their faces removed. A nearby witness reported that Bruce Wayne was behind it.

Upon returning to Arkham City, Batman delivered the blood sample to Freeze who quickly refused to give Batman the cure as Joker had Nora. After a fight, Freeze agreed to give Batman the cure, but Harley had managed to steal the cure from Freeze's safe. Batman pursued her to get the cure, but was diverted when the Joker shot down Vicki Vale's news helicopter. After he rescued Vale, Batman received word from Alfred that Lucius Fox had synthesized a cure from the blood sample that Robin had smuggled out of Arkham City. This was a trap by the Mad Hatter, who took Batman prisoner. Batman was able to free himself and pursued Harley back to the Steel Mill. While on his way back to the Steel Mill, Batman encountered Azrael, who informed him that he had been identified as a person who would face a great trial in the future.

With increased security including snipers and guards using ultraviolet goggles to detect him, Batman was able to break into Joker's Funland after he rescued Nora and gave her coordinates to Victor. While he made his way through the Steel Mill, Batman eventually came face to face with Harley, who was tied up and gagged by Talia. Batman went to the Funhouse where he was quickly attacked by Joker's goons and a Titan powered goon and found that the Joker was healed. After fighting with Joker, the ceiling gave way and Batman was trapped under the rubble. Joker was about to kill Batman when Talia appeared and offered him immortality in exchange for Batman's life. The Joker took the deal, let Batman live, and left with Talia who had reactivated the tracking chip that Batman had previously placed on the League of Assassins Ninja. Batman briefly reunited with Bane, who double-crossed him, and the Dark Knight was forced to destroy the remaining Titan containers on his own.

While Batman pursued Talia, Strange activated Protocol 10, and TYGER began to systematically destroy Arkham City. At both Oracle and Alfred's pleading, Batman decided not to pursue Talia and instead went to stop Strange by penetrating Arkham City's defenses at Wonder Tower. Batman fought his way through the TYGER Guards and learned that Arkham City was merely the first step in a larger plan for Strange and his benefactor to eliminate crime with new cities expected to be completed in both Keystone City and Metropolis within the next year.

Batman was able to stop Strange and hacked into the computer network alongside Oracle to stop the attack on the city. Strange struggled and gloated about how he had proven himself better than Batman in his ability to end crime, only to be stopped by Ra's who had revealed that the League had used Strange to take over the city. Strange, after he knew that he was defeated, activated Protocol 11: setting off charges that destroyed Wonder Tower. Ra's and Batman both escaped; however, Ra's was impaled on nearby debris when he hit the ground. Nearby, Batrman discovered the final crime scene, which lead him to the Identity Thief Killer.

After he activated the tracker after Arkham City was safe, Batman discovered that Joker and Talia were at the Monarch Theatre. After he took down the patrols that guarded the entry, specifically snipers who were armed with weapons that were capable of penetrating the Batsuit, Batman infiltrated the theater and found Talia and Joker in the main room. After a brief stand down, Batman learned that Talia had intercepted the cure from Harley, and also seemingly killed Joker in the process by stabbing him with her sword. However, Batman then deduced from various things that he heard throughout the night that the Joker that he had seen was actually a double and attempted to warn Talia, but she ended up shot in the back by the real Joker. The stabbed "Joker" was revealed to be Clayface, who quickly attacked Batman. With Clayface defeated, Batman took the cure and Joker came for it. Batman struggled with the decision to give the Joker the cure, was stabbed in the arm, and quickly dropped the cure which shattered and was absorbed into the ground. Joker tried frantically to ingest the cure, but failed. Batman revealed that he would've given the Joker the cure despite everything that he had done in the past and knew that he'd probably do it again in the future. With a final laugh and a smile, the Joker made it look like he died from the toxin as he lied down and remained motionless. As the days passed since his horrific night in Arkham City, Batman fell into a deep depression over the loss of Talia and the guilt of the Joker's "death", and refused to speak of what really happened that night. After two weeks, Batman returned to the condemned Arkham City to apprehend Harley who had taken over Industrial District and redesigned the Sionis Industries Steel Mill in her own image. Gordon summoned Batman at the bridge entrance of Gotham Dock Yard where he informed Batman that Quinn had kidnapped several GCPD officers and brought them to the Steel Mill as a part of some elaborate trap that was set just for him.

Batman headed directly to the Loading Bay Office at the Steel Mill and saw a police officer who was held captive by a group of Harley's Thugs. Batman quickly dismantled the gang and rescued the officer who revealed that the other remaining officers were being held hostage deep within other section of the Steel Mill. Batman continued his search for the remaining officers by using a blood trail that he found at the gate entrance of the Steel Mill which lead him to a secret TYGER entrance that required three code keys to access.

Upon entering the Shipyard, Batman found the second cop and took out the thugs who were guarding him, but fell into a coma when Quinn arrived, shot him in the chest, and imprisoned him in an airtight, glass ball for two days. When Robin arrived and stole Harley's key code to the ball and freed Batman, Harley revealed three bombs that were stolen from the GCPD Lockup that were placed around the shipyard for the Dark Knight to detonate, before she unveiled her final plot of revenge by activating the Wonder City Mechanical Guardians and pitted them against him.

After he destroyed them all, Batman took Quinn out, but not before she revealed that she intended on blowing up the entire Shipyard with Robin, Batman, and even herself inside. However, Batman escaped with Harley, who attempted to stab him from behind with a knife, but was knocked out cold by Robin using one of his Shurikens. Batman then quickly left without another word to Gordon who arrived on the scene.

This...Is How It Happened. This...Is How The Batman Died
In the Batcave, a message was sent from the Joker himself to Batman, and revealed a twisted joke that would tear Gotham apart, even if everyone fell for his "being dead" trick. Joker stated that during the events of Arkham City, he sent his men to the Gotham City Radio Tower within the prison to take control of the broadcast frequencies and implant a message from him into them. That message was soon broadcasted to all of Gotham over the next couple of weeks as Joker confirmed his faked death to the people of Gotham, but promised them that whoever found his body and gave it to Harley would be rewarded with millions of dollars. Gotham soon went into chaos as members of Joker's Gang, the GCPD, and the citizens began to tear apart the city and looked for Joker's body. After he cruelly asked Batman to abuse Harley for him in his absence, Joker then revealed a special surprise for him: the bombs that were still rigged to the Arkham City perimeter walls, were set to detonate within the hour. While the prison was still in the process of being shut down, the remaining, rampaging inmates were given notice of this plan and prepared themselves for their escape.

With the GCPD too busy to contain the inmates within Arkham City and the chaos in Gotham, Joker informed Batman that he was the only one who was capable of stopping the bombs. Joker left off his message by stating that the bombs would go off if they were tampered with and informed Batman that he would find the device that was needed to deactivate the bombs within Arkham Asylum, in a room of personal significance to the both of them from a "Day of Independence" many years ago.

While en route to the Asylum, Batman relived in his memories a particularly brutal plot by the Joker that he orchestrated on the Fourth of July by firing off toxin induced fireworks all over Gotham, and murdered hundreds of men, women, and children. Batman remembered that he took Joker to a a cell in Extreme Isolation that night and deduced that this was where Joker hid the code that was needed to deactivate the bombs based off his clue.

When Batman entered the room there, he found no such code, but a book that Joker wrote underneath a loose stone tile that contained the names of every single person that he had ever murdered in it with Batman's name on the last page. Unknown to Batman, Joker had sensors installed within the room, which tripped security and activated another message from the murdering psychopath.

Joker's voice was suddenly heard on the security monitor in the room, which revealed to Batman that he never had any intention of blowing the walls of Arkham City and had simply used it as a ruse to lure Batman to that room. The door suddenly locked as Joker laughed and revealed to Batman that the room itself, instead of the Arkham City walls, had been rigged with dozens of explosives by Clayface during the events that took place in the mega prison, one of which was triggered when Batman grabbed the book. Joker bid farewell to his eternal enemy, promised on seeing him in Hell and believed that this was the only way to set things right in their psychotic friendship.

As the bombs went off, Arkham Asylum was nearly completely destroyed in the explosion as the entire message from Joker was broadcasted to Arkham City through the security monitors along with one last image: R.I.P. with a Batman Symbol above it. As the inmates cheered at the message, Detective Harvey Bullock gave the order to have medical units over at Arkham Island and ordered the news team outside Arkham City to fly him over to the island. When Bullock and his forces arrived at the ruins of Arkham Mansion, all they found was Batman's Batsuit, which forced them to believe that the Dark Knight had finally perished.

As Gordon found out, he ordered Bullock to make sure that the news did not get leaked to Gotham. As Gordon lost hope of protecting his city, he received a phone call from none other than Batman, though he never revealed how he had survived such a chaotic explosion. Batman and Gordon finally met at the Morgue where an exact replica of the Joker's body was being kept and came to a mutual solution on how to ensure that his body was never recovered and that the people of Gotham stop fighting for it: cremation.

As Batman took one last look at the man who caused him years of tragedy and misery, he gave Gordon the order to cremate the replica. The replica of Joker's body was sent into the inferno as Batman walked away, thinking that all of Joker's plans had finally ended, and, for the first time in years, there would be no more laughs...until after what happened on Halloween. 9 months since the incident at Arkham City and dealing with what he thought was the Joker, Batman appeared shortly after Scarecrow had warned Gotham with a demonstration of his new Fear Toxin. Gordon explained to the Caped Crusader that they had lost a military vehicle through Chinatown, so Batman went to investigate. Batman found Officer Kevern being threatened by several Thugs and he took them down before saved the officer from being struck by a military truck.

Batman summoned the Batmobile, pursued the truck and stopped it before it got away. Batman began interrogating the driver, and was almost injected with Crane's new toxin. The driver told him Crane was working out of a penthouse in Chinatown, which was where Batman headed after he broke his arm. Upon his arrival, the Caped Crusader found Poison Ivy held hostage by Crane's men whom he took down before he confronted Ivy. Ivy told Batman that she was invited by Scarecrow to kill him and takeover Gotham, however she was imprisoned due to her refusal of his offer. Batman was suddenly ensnared by Ivy's Plants, however, he got out of them quickly before his green-thumbed foe gave him the slip. Batman took Ivy into custody after he took on the militia forces, brought her to the GCPD Lockup, and put her in an isolation cell.

Once Ivy was in custody, Batman headed for the Clock Tower where Oracle was working on the chemical analysis to Crane's new toxin. Barbara showed him her progress in analyzing the toxin, however there was no way of tracing it. Batman then looked at the manufacturing process to trace the substance instead of the core elements that were needed to make Crane's toxin. They found that the toxins had emitted a unique radiation which they could trace, so Batman headed to Panessa Studios where he would repurpose the antennas. Once he left the Clock Tower, Batman contacted Gordon, let him know that he had a way to track down Scarecrow, and to prep his men for the location that he gave him.

Batman arrived at Panessa Studios where he activated the first antenna with the help of the Batmobile and a remote access device. He then headed for the second antenna at the Falcone Shipping Yards where he found that it was already occupied by armed thugs. After he took out 2 of the thugs, Batman contacted Lucius for his new suit. Fox sent the suit and Batman put it to the test, by taking out the remaining thugs and saved a hostage that they took. When Batman activated the second antenna, he sent out the Batscanner and found that Scarecrow was manufacturing his toxin at Ace Chemicals which was where he told Gordon to go with his men in hopes of stopping Crane.

Arriving at the scene, Batman encountered the Arkham Knight for the first time who manned a helicopter while his forces shot at Batman and the police. The Dark Knight headed in on his own to rescue a skeleton crew at the factory and was contacted by Barbara to the identity to the militia's leading commander. Batman also managed to get the Batmobile into the factory to combat the militia's unmanned vehicles and forces before he went after the workers. Batman found one worker nearby and was almost killed by a squad of militia soldiers if it hadn't been for the Batmobile saving him at the last minute. Batman rescued Mark Cheung who explained to him that Crane was working on a way to disperse his new toxin over the Eastern Seaboard. Batman then contacted Gordon, warned him of the threat, and who took the people who Batman helped in for medical treatment and care.

Going deeper into the factory, Batman saved Adam Brewer from a small battalion of troops, brought him up via the elevator, and placed him in the Batmobile. The Arkham Knight sent his helicopter to confront Batman, only for the Caped Crusader to destroy the aircraft before it took out the Batmobile. Once the remaining workers were out, Batman headed into the factory to confront Scarecrow. Batman found Scarecrow in the Central Mixing Chamber preparing to disperse his Fear Toxin via the explosion that he would cause. On the way in, Batman took on several troops who were set there by the Knight and Crane. Batman then arrived in the Central Mixing Chamber where he found himself taking down armed troops and sentry turrets before he confronted Scarecrow. Crane realized that his foe was in the room, so he allowed Batman to try and apprehend him, and revealed to the Dark Knight that he had sent troops to kidnap Barbara.

The Caped Crusader contacted Barbara, but spoke to her for a brief second before the connection was severed. Crane escaped while Batman was distracted and it was up to him to stop the blast before the toxin was dispersed. Batman contacted and ordered Alfred to find Barbara while he stopped the explosion. Against his faithful butler's protests, Batman activated the neutralizing agent to reduce the blast radius, however, upon getting the final agent, Batman witnessed before his eyes a hallucination of the Joker holding him at gunpoint. In his mind, Batman contacted Gordon to meet him at Panessa Studios where he had several people who were infected with Joker's blood were held in hopes of curing them. Batman awoke to see Joker's incorporeal form standing over him, but got up and escaped with the aid of the Batmobile before the factory came down on top of him.

After he realized that he would have to break the news about Barbara's kidnapping to Gordon, Batman headed to the GCPD and told Gordon that Scarecrow had her. He and Gordon then took to the streets and were pursued by the militia forces who were on a mission to capture the Commissioner. Batman stopped them, then told Gordon to get into the Batmobile and they made their way to the Clock Tower. Upon their arrival, Batman ordered the Commissioner to stay in the Batmobile while he took down the militia forces. Batman gave Gordon the all-clear as soon as the troops were dealt with and they entered the Clock Tower, where he showed him that Barbara had been secretly working for him.

Gordon was angered by that and told Batman to stay away from his family, then they both went their separate ways. Using the Batcomputer at the Clock Tower, Batman found that the Arkham Knight had taken Barbara in a military truck which he traced the tire tracks, only to be stalled by the militia and an armored mine. After he took out the mine and the tanks, the Caped Crusader continued following the tire tracks until he got to the bridge that lead to Miagani Island which was raised due to the militia. He headed over the other side on foot to take down the troops and lower the bridge.

Batman was then contacted by Riddler who recently kidnapped Catwoman. Batman went to save her and, together, take on Riddler's newly designed robots, only to discover that Nigma had placed a bomb around her neck to which he would need the keys in order to free her. Upon following the tire tracks, Batman found that the truck had crashed and so he set up a crime scene which led to him finding a microchip. Batman contacted Lucius to decrypt the chip's contents and then headed for Wayne Tower to continue his investigation. Batman then continued onward, only to be stalled by Man-Bat before he continued over the bridge to find Barbara. Finding a crashed vehicle, he reconstructed the crime scene to discover that she had purposely crashed it to hand him a connection to the militia's communications grid.

Batman arrived at Wayne Tower where he met up with Lucius and pinpointed the location of the Arkham Knight's last known transmission in the Miagani Tunnel Network. While he made his way through the tunnels, Batman was ambushed by the Arkham Knight, and then took on several of his troops. Batman then found himself against the remaining tanks and pursued the Knight. Upon stopping the APC, Batman discovered that the Arkham Knight was not actually in the APC, as the driver had been using a voice synthesizer that was programmed with the Knight's voice to act as a diversion to ensure that the actual Arkham Knight had got away. Nonetheless, Batman interrogated the driver by having the Batmobile's tires nearly crush the driver's head as clear sign of how desperate Batman was to try and find the Arkham Knight and Barbara, and the drivers revealed that Penguin was supplying the Knight with weapons via his front company, North Refrigeration.

After asking Alfred to find out all he could about North Refrigeration, he learnt that Nightwing had also been looking into the company. Meeting at Ranelagh Ferry Terminal, Nightwing revealed that Penguin had been using it as a front for smuggling weapons into both Bludhaven and Gotham. Revealing a deal going on between Penguin's men and some other street thugs, he gave Batman a new version of the disruptor created by Fox. After engaging the criminals, Batman used the disrupter to attach a tracking device to the van and used it to locate Penguin. Finding him in a warehouse, he interrogated Penguin to find out that Scarecrow and the Arkham Knight had gone after Simon Stagg, the CEO of Stagg Enterprises. When Penguin's men caught him off guard, allowing the criminal the chance to escape, Nightwing came in and helped Batman take down the guards. After destroying Penguin's weapons cache with Explosive Gel, Batman left Nightwing to locate another one of Penguin's shipments whilst he went after Stagg.

Locating his airships on Founder's Island, Batman, after retrieving a remote hacking device, broke into the airship and found Stagg being assaulted by the Arkham Knight's men. Saving, he tried to find out why they had attacked, only for the Joker's hallucinations to prevent him from learning anymore. Breaking through, he found that the militia had recaptured Stagg and taken him to the other airship. After destroying the air turrets and using opening the doors, using a recreation of Stagg's handprint, Batman was able to follow them to the second airship. Whilst exploring the R&D labs, he discovered that Stagg had been working with Scarecrow on a project called "Cloudburst". However, Stagg had betrayed Scarecrow and terminated their partnership, earning him the villain's wrath. After defeating the men guarding Stagg, Batman interrogated him to learn more about the Cloudburst. He then went after Scarecrow, who was in the process of stealing the Cloudburst, but the hallucinations of the Joker deceived him, causing him to be once again injected with fear toxin. As the Joker took over his body, Batman was able to break through, but Scarecrow escaped before he could be captured.

Scarecrow then revealed the location where Barbara was being kept, his penthouse in Chinatown. Though Batman was able to get there in time, Scarecrow doused her in fear toxin and she apparently committed suicide. Distraught over what he had seen, Batman almost relinquished control to the Joker, only for him to be reassured by Alfred and realize that Ivy had been able to nullify the toxin. Confronting her in GCPD lockup, Ivy revealed that she revealed that she had actually manipulated spores to create a counteragent to the toxin, allowing her to cure herself. Enlisting her help, Batman took her to Gotham's Botanical Gardens, where she used an ancient plant at the gardens, hoping to use it to nullify the toxin. Batman also located another one of these plants deep under Miagami Island, using the Batmobile's pulses to awaken it.

Deciding to locate the Cloudburst, Batman found that the militia's weaponry set up on Founder's Island prevented him for searching for the device. Using the Batmobile, he took down the militia's defenses, during which he encounter the Arkham Knight once again. Whilst running a scan over the city, Batman was contacted by Henry, who revealed that Harley Quinn had broken into the Quarantine Cells and released the people affected by Joker's blood. With help from Robin, they were able to recover the infected, during which Joker's hallucinations showed him visions of Jason's torture and execution. After gathering the last of the trio and defeating Quinn and her men, they returned to find that the other people had been murdered and that Henry had been faking his immunity this entire time. Henry revealed himself to be the one who had let Quinn know of the infected and given their location. After he shot the last of them, he turned the gun on Batman, only for the Dark Knight to prepare to engage Henry and Quinn. Seeing his eyes glow green, Henry realized that he was the final person infected with Joker's blood and committed suicide. After Robin realized the truth, he tried to lock Batman in his cell, only for the Dark Knight to do so, fearing that Scarecrow could capture and kill him.

After an encounter with Thomas Elliot, Batman was able to locate the Cloudburst on the Arkham Knight's personal tank. When the device was activated, Batman found that the Batmobile's power supply had been damaged in the attack and replaced it with one of Stagg's Nimbus Cells. Batman then searched out another one of Ivy's plants on Founder's Island and awakened it to help dissipate the toxin. After taking down a number of the Arkham Knight's tanks, Batman was challenged by the criminal to a fight on Bleake Island. After taking down some Cobra tanks, he was able to overload the cloudburst and crippled the tank, defeating the Knight. Though he managed to escape, Ivy managed to neutralize the Fear Toxin cloud over the city, but died in the process. With the Cloudburst destroyed, the fear toxin nullified and Arkham Knight defeated, Scarecrow's plans were seemingly stopped. However, Batman learnt that the GCPD had received a signal over the SWAT channels and returned to the headquarters to decrypt it.

After doing so, Batman discovered that Gordon had sent the signal, having located Scarecrow at an shopping mall that was under construction. Following the signal, Batman discovered that Gordon had been captured and was being held to lure him out. After slipping by the militia, Batman used the underground tunnels to access the building, but came under attack by the Arkham Knight in a mining vehicle. After a tense cat-and-mouse chase through the tunnels, the Knight was able to corner Batman and revealed that he had given Scarecrow information on his allies and knew his identity. Forced to abandon the Batmobile to be destroyed by the Knight, Batman located Gordon, but was confronted by the Knight.

At his insistence, the Arkham Knight revealed himself to be Jason Todd, having been spared by the Joker and had his views on Batman made antagonistic during the torture. Jason revealed Batman's identity to Gordon and engaged the Dark Knight in the room. Using his skills at stealth, Batman defeated the former Robin and offered him the chance to recover, only for Jason to refuse and flee, leaving his damaged mask behind. Freeing Gordon, the two took the elevator to the top of the building to confront and capture Scarecrow, the two openly acknowledging his identity. Upon reaching Scarecrow, Gordon turned his gun on Batman and revealed that Barbara was still alive, her death having been faked by Scarecrow in an effort to torture Batman. Knowing no other options to save them, Gordon shot Batman in the chest, to which Scarecrow responded by throwing Barbara off the building. Batman saved her and the two fled in a new version of the Batmobile. Taking her to GCPD, Batman was able to prevent the militia, now under Scarecrow's control, from destroying the systems in the Clocktower. Using her reestablished connection, Barbara began locating her father.

During this, Scarecrow and Deathstroke, who Jason had hired to help train his men and defeat Batman, launched the blunt of the militia to destroy the GCPD. With help from Oracle and the Batmobile, Batman was able to stop them and defeat the best of the army. Afterwards, Oracle revealed that Gordon's voice had been used to access the quarantine cells at Panessa Studios. Upon arriving there, Batman discovered that Scarecrow had captured Robin from his cell and threatened to execute both him and Gordon if he didn't surrender himself. At Barbara's urging, Batman agreed, handing himself in and surrendering his utility belt. As he was transported to an unknown location, Alfred told him that someone was following him, which he had expected. During the transportation, Joker made him hallucinate that they crashed at Crime Alley and he was fighting an endless wave of Jokers, which ended when he "killed" one of them. Having made Batman break his "no killing rule", Joker prepared to take over his nemesis' body, now knowing that he had finally won.

Arriving at the long abandoned Arkham Asylum, Batman was taken to the mansion by Scarecrow. After getting Gordon to unmask the vigilante live on television, revealing his identity of Bruce Wayne to the public, Scarecrow injected Batman with his fear toxin, causing the Joker to finally take control. As he witnessed Joker murder both allies and enemies alike, Batman finally broke through and took control, revealing the Joker's greatest fear; being forgotten. After finally cornering Joker in his mind, Batman locked the villain away in his mind and took control once again. Revealing his immunity to the toxin, having been able to fight through the illusions and combat his fears, Batman was freed by Jason and injected Crane with is own toxin. After Gordon subdued Scarecrow, he shared some final words with the commissioner and left in the Batwing, leaving the criminal at GCPD.

Having had his identity revealed to the world, Batman asked Alfred to activate the Knightfall protocol. He then explored the city, defeating and rounding up the criminals in the city. He also defeated the last of the militia and fought Deathstroke one final time. Batman was also contacted by Azrael, who wished to take over the role, but later discovered that this was a ruse to kill him. After offering Lane a chance to prove himself, he either relented his attack, going after the Order of St. Dumas, or attacked Batman, only to be subdued and taken to the GCPD's holding cells. After helping Nightwing destroy the Penguin's weapons cache and capture the criminal, he said his goodbyes and encouraged him to protect Bludhaven. After freeing Catwoman from the Riddler's traps, he then completed the last of the puzzles and confronted him at the Cyrus Pinkney Orphanage. With Catwoman's help, they were able to defeat Nigma and said their final goodbye, during which Selina acknowledged his identity and shared one final kiss.

After the last of his enemies were captured, Batman activated the Knightfall protocol, destroying the Batsignal, leaving his cowl on the roof of the GCPD headquarters and left for Wayne Manor in the Batwing. Arriving to a crowd of reporters, Bruce entered Wayne Manor, where he was greeted by Alfred. When asked whether he still wanted to go through with this, Batman said he did and entered the manor with his butler. As the doors shut behind them, Wayne Manor exploded and collapsed. After Batman's death, Gotham City finally gained uninterrupted peace and calmness and was made a better place to live in. However, that would not last long.

Gotham In A Terrible, New World
After the deaths of most of the Justice League at the hands of the Suicide Squad, the Justice Society of America resorted to merciless means to bring order to the world. Their brutal intentions left the entire world scared and in ruins. Gotham was one of the many cities affected by this horror. The people of Gotham hope for a day when someone will come and save them from this awful nightmare...and bring hope back to their desperate city.

Personality
Bruce Wayne is a very aspiring character; by definition he is extremely complex due to his traumatic past and great hatred for criminals but this is abstracted because of his high morals, idealistic desire for justice and indomitable will. Witnessing his mother and father being gunned down in front him, traumatised him greatly and he swore he would end the injustice and evil that took his family from him. Moreover, Bruce has strong feelings of guilt for what he perceives as his inability to act in the situation and stop the shooter, unable to cope with said anger and guilt he would travel to the farthest regions of the world to forge these emotions into a weapon so he could do genuine good to Gotham.

As his alter-ego, Batman, Bruce is very reliant on theatricality and appearances to fool his enemies, showing the willingness to use deception and fear as well. He achieves this by being more than a man, once claiming to Gordon that criminals, although a cowardly and superstitious pack, can only become this way if they have something to fear and must be given something to be afraid of. Due to his ability to perform near-superhuman feats, Batman is often referred to as a creature or force of nature rather than a man by many of the criminals he encounter. He reflects his childhood fear of bats to his enemies by turning it into the insignia of his crusade and is master of intimidation, interrogation and scare tactics (a famous display of such skill was when he threatened to crush the head of a man with the Batmobile).

Perhaps, the most famous characteristic of Batman is his utter refusal to take a life. He knows that if he crosses that line, he will become an equal level of a monster that murdered his parents but has been pushed to break his moral code at times, especially while dealing with ruthless or psychopathic enemies with no regard of human life. This can specifically be seen with his archenemy the Joker whom constantly attempts to break his ideals and prove that he is no better than the villain himself. Likewise, he seems to have a strong empathy for mentally ill opponents and a deep love for humanity, aside from refusing to take a life, he will put his own wellbeing on the line to save people, even if they don't deserve it. In later activities, following the repeated emotional and physical loss he has suffered, Batman has shown the willingness to create a series of events in a situation or inside of an environment that may or may not be fatal to his enemies. Nonetheless, he will not allow them to die if he feels there is something he could have done to prevent it, he admits to Joker that he would have given him the cure anyway, instead of allowing him to die of his Titan poisoning, despite Joker never actually dying from his illness Although, he has a strong distaste for firearms (the weapons that killed his mother and father), it should be noted that the Batmobile became strongly more militaristic as it progressed, adding a cannon and rifle to its design (both of which were non-fatal). In addition, although he has ultimately kept to his rule against killing, there have been times where he came extremely close to violating this rule either out of anger or desperation. Notable examples of this are when he proceeded to electrocute Bane enough to temporarily stop his heart in order to trick the Joker into thinking he killed him (and then proceeding to restart Bane's heart afterward), proceeded to throttle the Joker at the Blackgate Chapel when the latter insinuated that Batman should kill him shortly after this (only barely stopping himself to simply punch Joker out cold), and when proceeding to nearly use the Batmobile's wheels to crush the lieutenant of the Arkham Knight's militia's head as interrogation to gather information on where the Arkham Knight and the abducted Barbara Gordon were heading.

In most regards, Batman is fiercely individualistic. He originally viewed his crusade to bring order to Gotham as a burden that he should deal with on his own, aside from Alfred, he disregarded the need for allies (which might be due to his incapability to fully open up or express trust to another person after his parents murder). However, he became more open-minded in these regards, after assistance from Alfred to defeat the Joker on Christmas Eve, he began branching out and increasing his Bat Family to assist with his goals. Batman's loner ways have not entirely changed, though, as he utterly refused help from Robin and Nightwing during Scarecrow and the Arkham Knight's siege on Gotham, even though he obviously needed their help. While Batman clearly loves all of his students as if they were his children, his relationships with them have been cold, awkward and occasionally non-existent at times.

Despite his pragmatic, grounded and calculating nature, Batman can be prone to being emotionally blinded. He equates himself responsible for every tragedy that occurs and is willing to take drastic and personal action out of fear of another loss; because of this he almost ignored Protocol 10 to save Talia from the Joker, imprionsed Tim Drake inside of a cell out of fear he would get himself killed otherwise and focusing more on rescuing Barbara from Scarecrow rather than stopping Scarecrow's master plan. Batman's emotional outbursts are usually seen in his earlier activities, a famous spectacle of such was when he confronted the murderer of a wealthy couple whom he knew and became extremely aggressive while pinning him down, so much that he almost suffocated him. Because of the similar backgrounds, lifestyle and the fact that they were killed in the same place of Thomas and Martha; losing another person he knew in the same manner at the same area, brought back as if they were being killed all over again and vents so much stress and emotion that he comes close to killing the suspect.

Beyond a terrifying demeanor, expansive skill, knowledge and experience, Batman is in reality full of self doubt and is not above fear himself. He held a tremendous terror that one bad day or false move could plunge into a level as, or even exceed the level of a monster, that which the Joker was, something that was specifically underlined when he was exposed to the Fear Toxin from Scarecrow whilst he was infected by the Joker-Virus. Although he has never taken a life, Batman does also have disturbing feelings towards some of his enemies and has come close to breaking his moral code at times. This is evident when Joker presents another opportunity to take his life after taking control of Arkham Asylum, he genuinely considers, unsheathing a Batarang and preparing to take his life before restraining himself. This was again displayed where Joker forced him to break his neck in a hallucination. Although this was the Joker's doing, it may also reflect Batman's subconscious desire to end the Clown Prince's life.

Capabllities

 * Immense Human Physical & Mental Attributes/Naturally Enhanced Physiology: Batman's bodily functions are enhanced to the very pinnacle of human potential and perfection through an extensive lifetime of rigorously intense training, meditation, and a strict-nutritional diet. Due to Bruce’s physiology being naturally augmented since his youth without the need of any special drugs, radiation or genetic engineering; his strength, speed, stamina, reflexes, agility, durability, senses, intelligence, and healing time are greatly heightened as much as possible for a normal human being. Despite being biologically human his physiology and athleticism is comparable to low-level superhuman conditioning.
 * Immense Human Strength: Batman’s strength was at the very highest peak of human potential and is easily one of the strongest humans alive. Having intensively and extensively trained his body to its utmost limit he is said to have the strength of 10 men, possibly a dozen or more. While biologically human; Batman can apply practically superhuman force in his attacks by using highly effective strength and muscle control, which can send humans flying with one punch or kick. He can effortlessly snap steel handcuffs and chains with ease, slam through solid walls, overpower well over a dozen men with brute strength, pry open large heavy steel doors, and KO an enemy with one strike or impact. Batman has also demonstrated enough strength to instantly bend, break, or rip nailed fastened metal bars/structures apart, dismantle machines barehanded, rag doll Thomas Elliot hard enough to shatter a large table, kick Joker over 30 feet back, lift a full-grown man over his head with one arm and even throw them several meters. His highest feats of his strength were physically overpowering Killer Croc (who weighs 850+ lbs) then dragging him, lifting Bane while on TN-1 (who is well over 500 lbs) with his grapple gun and breaking out of the grips of the monstrously strong Solomon Grundy. With the Batclaw he could pull down a Titan enhanced Joker without tiring. He was also able to engage King Shark in hand-to-hand combat as well as punch through his superhumanly dense hide.
 * Immense Human Speed: Batman can run and move at exceptional speeds, comparable to the finest human athletes. Batman is extremely fast with incredibly sharp reflexes, able to avoid destructively dangerous attacks such as Bane's Titan enhanced physical attacks, explosive firearms as well as simultaneous assaults from several enemies at once. Trained to be extremely nimble, his movements appear as a blur during fights, he could even match the superhuman master assassin, Deathstroke's speed in combat.
 * Immense Human Stamina: Batman’s highly trained and developed body musculature generates considerably less fatigue toxins and is highly resistant to the build-up of fatigue toxins compared to an ordinary human, allowing him to be physically active for considerably long periods of time without rest. He could exert himself at peak capacity for several hours without slowing down or showing any sign of fatigue. This allows him to run for dozens of miles and fight for extremely long periods. Additionally, he can hold his breath underwater for several minutes and will not lose breath or get exhausted due to his stamina extending to his lung capacity.
 * Immense Human Agility: Trained to be extremely agile he can coordinate his body with flawless balance, flexibility, and dexterity allowing him to walk on a small tightrope effortlessly, do a handstand on the edge of a building or cliff and not worry, and even walk across a dangerous bridge with ease. His amazing gymnastic and acrobatic prowess, performing feats that would be extremely difficult for a normal human. Batman also has top-notch leaping and climbing agility able to use freerunning and parkour to outmaneuver several enemies at once. The most prominent feat of his enhanced agility is his ability to perform inverted takedowns.
 * Immense Human Reflexes: Batman's reflexes were at the highest peak of human potential and perfection; this means that he has advanced reactions that were far superior to normal humans and are seemingly superhuman. He could catch a fired arrow in midair, dodge fast-paced offensive attacks, and perform amazing physically defensive feats. He could even evade strikes from beings with super speed and dodge multiple gunfire at point-blank range with ease. His immense reflexes can also be used to attack and counter instead of just defensive purposes, allowing him to instantaneously react with devastating counters when fighting extraordinary quick opponents. He has dodged shuriken and throwing knives knives from behind without looking on multiple occasions, blocked several of Professor Pyg’s butcher knives being thrown at him, and evaded two rockets shot at close-range.
 * Immense Human Durability: Batman’s muscles and bones are vastly harder and much more denser than a normal person, making him extremely durable by normal standards due to his training. Enhanced by superior body armor of the Batsuit, Batman can survive being hit by attacks of dangerously powerful/supernatural impact such as Killer Croc's violent assault, Bane's Titan enhanced punches, withstanding highly lethal amounts of electricity from Solomon Grundy, surviving a massively high fall from his fight with Clayface with no damage, and being sent flying through a concrete/brick wall on separate occasions. He seems resistant enough to withstand nearby explosions, gunshots & puncture wounds as well as beatings and still stand on his feet.
 * Immense Human Intelligence: Batman’s mental performance is at the peak of human potential, thus considerably superior to normal humans, able to use his brain more efficiently thanks to both being naturally gifted and mentally trained himself for the needed shortcuts. His mind is greatly enhanced through years of mental training; granting him perfect recall, accelerated learning aptitude, parallel processing, and eidetic/photographic memory. Becoming one of the most brilliant geniuses’ humanity has ever known. He could perform feats of mind comparable to computers: storing limitless amounts of information flawlessly, performing complex calculations or other similar tasks. He can master a variety of knowledge and combat skills in a few days to weeks, which would take a normal person many years to achieve mastery over. Batman could also use 100% of his concentration and highly intense focus, allowing him to push his physical and mental capabilities to their maximum potential; obstacles become minor problems while objectives grow significantly easier to accomplish.
 * Immense Human Senses: Batman's five senses were naturally enhanced to the highest limits of human perfection; making his sense of sight, touch, hearing, smell and taste extremely precise and accurate by human standard. He can concentrate his senses to see accurately from moderately far distances, acutely touching ink on a page, hear and distinguish small sounds, have a smell capability similar to a primate and tasting more accurately than normal members of the human race. From his honed senses, Batman has great instincts, awareness, and of his surroundings and is extremely alert to danger.
 * Immense Human Healing: Batman's natural healing efficiency and speed were at the absolute highest level of human potential. He has a greatly enhanced metabolism, immune system, and vitality that runs several times faster than average humans, allowing him to heal much faster than an average human. Due to extremely intense training regimen and specialized nutritional diet his body was efficient enough to fight off any microbe, foreign body and others from his body keeping him immensely healthy and immune to most infections, impurities, drugs, illnesses, sicknesses, he was genetically perfect. His immense healing ability allow him to heal multiple broken bones, torn muscles, gunshot & knife wounds and other major injuries all within a few days to weeks, and minor injuries like cuts, scrapes, and burns all within a matter of hours to days. Bruce also developed an extremely high resistance to Scarecrow's new fear toxin after being injected twice, almost borderline immunity.
 * Immense Human Longevity: Batman aged slower than normal humans due to having extremely healthy cells, without any superhuman degree. In addition, this power would activate when Batman was in his young-adult years and he'd look twenty-years old. Finally, Batman could easily live well over 100 years old since this quality was at peak-human level.
 * Master Martial Artist: Bruce had rigorously trained himself in martial arts since childhood and in his young adulthood went on a journey for many years to China, Japan, Thailand, and Korea to learn and intensively trained in many highly refined forms of Asian martial arts. As a master in all known forms of martial arts, he’s fully mastered dozens of disciplines and tactics, but his main combat style is a uniquely fused brand of Boxing, Taekwondo, Kung Fu, Karate, Krav Maga, Ninjutsu, Muay Thai, Savate, Aikido, Jui-Jitsu, Judo, and Capoeira. Bruce is an extremely skilled and proficient master combatant. Practically a one-man army, in his years as a crime fighter Batman defeated countless enemies. Batman could perform punches and kicks to blocking moves, counters and throws. He could defeat extremely dangerous master fighters, such as Shiva, Deathstroke, Ra´s Al Ghul, Bane etc. Bruce can even hold his own against numerous Arkham City prisoners and Penguin's henchmen even though he's handcuffed. Bruce's immense martial arts abilities allow him to survive even the most dangerous battles.
 * Expert Swordsmanship: Though he prefers not to use them, Batman is skilled with a blade as shown during his battle with Clayface.
 * Expert Marksmanship: Batman is extremely skilled in marksmanship able to wield the batarangs with supreme accuracy and quick precision. Batman has advanced precision and can achieve smaller and distant targets depending on the location. It's said by peers that Batman's accuracy was near-impossible to miss single/multiple targets. He managed to easily hit the very small button on Killer Croc’s shock collar in Arkham Asylum, even when it was a time sensitive matter.
 * Genius-Level Intellect: Batman is as smart as he is strong, and has honed his mind to be just as powerful as his body if not more. Using his inquisitive mind he has outsmarted his rogues gallery, the police and most, if not all, of his opponents
 * Master Tactician & Strategist: A strategic mastermind, Batman is an extremely clever and insightful man, skillfully employed deception and tactics to defeat his enemies in the most effective ways possible. He has shown being able to outsmart Joker, Riddler, Bane, Scarecrow, Deathstroke, Penguin, all who are notorious for cunningness and intelligence. Batman can plan out strategies that would work a situation in his favor, in conjunction with [Detective Mode]. If a room has objects or devices he could use to knock out enemies, he will use them first before attempting hand-to-hand combat. He is the one of the greatest tacticians on the planet, if not the greatest.
 * Master Scientist: Batman was a master scientist, who was highly well versed in every known field in physics, chemistry, biology, and mechanics, but particularly applied science.
 * Master Inventor: Batman's tremendous scientific knowledge grants him the capability to invent numerous useful gadgets to assists himself as a crime fighter. He personally assembled the first Batsuit as well as devised the creation of the Batmobile. Using keen intellect and his profound understanding of science and technology, Batman can make highly improved versions of different devices and machines such as the Batwing from a prototype stealth jet, different types of Batarangs - high tech improvisation of the Australian hunting tool Boomerang - and the extremely advanced custom made Batcomputer that could perform technological functions beyond that of ordinary computers.
 * Master Detective: Hailed as the “World's Greatest Detective”, Batman has no equal when it comes to forensic investigations and solving crime mysteries, able to use even the smallest clues and slightest details to solve extremely difficult cases and accurately deduce the identity of unknown criminal masterminds. Batman can figure out what his enemies will do based on their habits and past actions, often getting the jump on them. Batman was also an expert of criminology, for example, if there is a bird-related crime, he knows Penguin was behind it; if the number 2 was involved, Two-Face was behind the crime. The one criminal this usually fails with is Zsasz, as he had no patterns.
 * Master Physician: Batman understands the workings of the human body, which comes in handy in fights; he can injure someone without much permanent damage to them. This is also useful for when he or an ally is injured in a fight; Batman would be able to administer first-aid on the spot. He also understanding of human biology to reverse engineer a cure for Dr. Langstrom’s Man-Bat mutation.
 * Expert Computer Hacker: Batman can hack into almost any computer and learn what he needs from its database. Batman is at times, often helped by Oracle or Alfred with computer-related matters; however, this usually frees up his time to focus on other problems.
 * Master Spy: His advanced and extensive Ninjutsu/Togakure-ryu training has made him a master in espionage, stealth, escape arts, infiltration, sabotage, guerilla warfare and unconventional methods. He is capable of breaching very high-level security facilities without being detected and escaping the most impossible traps. He could flawlessly infiltrate the maximum security Blackgate Prison and the high alert GCPD Jail Station with numerous armed guards with relative ease. Batman is also able to skillfully utilize his gadgets, immense physical prowess and extremely quick thinking to escape from the most dangerous environment and deadliest booby traps, he can cleverly avoid ingeniously well-planned traps due to Ninjutsu and Togakure-ryu mastery. Batman can anticipate enemy’s movements and accurately predict attacks, combine with Detective Vision Batman can locate hidden enemies and identify potential route for advance and escape.
 * Expert Interrogator: Batman is a master interrogator, able to scare criminals into giving up information. Some techniques he uses are primarily dangling someone from a great height, threatening to leave them with a broken jaw, lies, badly beating them, and so on. If someone is already scared of Batman, he will take out any imposing figures in the immediate area to insure the snitch will talk.
 * Expert Tracking: In conjunction with Detective Mode, Batman can track objects or people of interest.
 * Multilingualism: Along with English, Bruce can also understand Spanish.
 * Expert Acrobat: Batman is a superior master of Parkour and Freerunning styles of acrobatics and gymnastics, combined with his immensely trained physical strength, speed, endurance, flexibility, dexterity and reflexes, Batman is able to jump wide distances and tall heights, flit through rooftops, run on high walls, climb the tallest structures and vault through various types of obstacles, with the aid of the Grapnel Gun and parachute like cape of the Batsuit, Batman can scale the most complex terrains and freefall from immense heights safely completely unharmed.
 * Indomitable Will: Batman had practiced intense meditation for many years, training his mind to attain immense willpower and unbreakable determination, which drives him to be able to face the most horrendous terrors and brutality ever brought upon by the most dangerous Gotham Criminals with complete calmness and composure, he has an absolute refusal to give up; he will see his goals to the end. His powerful will enable him psychologically resist being exposed to an overdose of Scarecrow's Fear Toxin, effects of Titan formula, the mind controlling technology of the Mad Hatter, Poison Ivy's pheromone seduction. He was able to not only resist the transformative effects of Titan formula, but was able to resist being fully debilitated by the Titan Disease Joker infected him with when transfusing his blood to Batman.
 * Trained in an Arsenal of Gadgets, Vehicles, and Advanced Technology

Trivia

 * Batman's defeat of Zsasz mirrored how he had dispatched the Stungun Clown from the Red Triangle Gang in Batman Returns.
 * Batman's design in Arkham City was available as an alternate skin for those who pre-ordered Injustice: Gods Among Us at Walmart.
 * In Batman: Arkham Knight, there were several references to Superman. One such reference being a message that Bruce could listen to on his phone at Wayne Tower from Lex Luthor, the hero's arch-nemesis. Criminals can also be heard talking about t invading Metropolis next, but another advices against it, stating "No way man. You think the Bat's tougher to kill? You don't want to go up against the other guy in a cape." (in other words, Superman).
 * On a similar note, the same game also featured at least one reference to The Flash: Some of the enemy chatter has them mentioning that Gotham's better than Keystone since "at least [the criminals] can see Batman coming", alluding to The Flash and his famous superhuman speed.
 * Bruce also had a dog's water bowl in his office with the name "Ace" on it, which obviously meant Ace the Bat-Hound.
 * Batman's affirmation of his identity to Joker is a direct quotation from the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Nothing to Fear". Kevin Conroy also voiced Batman in the show.
 * Batman is exactly, and indirectly, responsible for Mutatron's rise to heroism, since his death is what inspired Harry Cavatica to follow in his hero's footsteps.