I am vengeance!
Arkham Knight is set to release on consoles and PC on June 23rd, so to celebrate the game’s upcoming release, here are 5 facts about Batman you probably didn’t know.
1. Batman has a younger brother
It was revealed at the end of the Court of Owls arc that Bruce Wayne actually had a brother. Thomas Wayne Jr. was born with some kind of disability and placed in the Willowwood home for children. When the Waynes were killed, Thomas was left alone and forgotten at the hospital. The Court of Owls soon abducted and trained him into becoming one of their assassins. After several years of training under the court, Thomas resurfaced when the Court of Owls rose up to destroy Gotham and Batman with it. He blamed Bruce for the death of his parents and would see to it that they would be avenged.
What followed this was an action packed Owl on Bat fight. Read more in “The Court of Owls”
2. Batman has had 5 different people become Robin
Left to right: Huntress, Batwing, Cassandra Cain, Tim Drake, Batwoman, Damian Wayne, Batman, Nightwing (Dick Grayson),
Barbara Gordon, Jason Todd, Stephanie Brown, Terry McGinnis, Alfred
By Philip Cho
On the note of Bruce Wayne’s family, ever since he put on the cowl and became Batman, Bruce has built up a wide array of allies. The majority of them started their tenure as Robins before joining the Bat Family as their own alter egos. But during the course of Batman’s super hero campaign there have been 5 different Robins to help him.
Dick Grayson was the first Robin and was born into the circus. His parents were killed in acrobatic act gone wrong, which lead Bruce Wayne to adopt Grayson and turn him into Robin. Eventually, Grayson left his mentor and started up his own superhero business as Nightwing.
The next Robin was Jason Todd. Jason was headstrong and grew up in poverty; he was barely scraping a living off the streets of Gotham City. His first encounter with Batman was after Bruce caught him stealing the wheels from the Batmobile. Unfortunately, Jason would eventually be killed by the Joker and reborn through the Lazarus Pit as the gun wielding vigilante, the Red Hood.
The third Robin was Tim Drake, the only child to volunteer to be Batman’s sidekick. As a child, Drake deduced the identities of Batman and Robin and joined Bruce after Jason’s death. He reasoned that Batman needed a Robin and that he was the best candidate for it.
These are the main characters of the Bat Family that most people will care about
By Philip Cho
Stephanie Brown would become the fourth Robin after a stint as the Spoiler. While in costume, she succumbed to the wounds she received from being tortured by Black Mask and supposedly died. Stephanie’s death was later shown to be a ruse, and the young blonde would later become the third Batgirl.
Finally, the fifth and most recent Robin is Damian Wayne, the son of Talia Al Ghul and Bruce Wayne. Damian spent the majority of his life training under the League of Assassins before joining with his father to fight crime.
3. Batman once created an international company dedicated to fighting crime
After surviving a blast from the God of Evil (Darkseid) that sent him spiralling across all of time, Batman creates a solution to travel back to his original time, dispels the trap Darkseid had him into, and then figures out how to fight crime on an international scale. Bruce was a busy man that day.
His first step in accomplishing this plan was to have Bruce Wayne publicly declare that he would be funding Batman to create an army of superheroes in every nation that would answer to only Batman. This lead to the birth of Batman Incorporated, an international company dedicated stopping crime on a global scale. People from all over the world joined its ranks to become a superhero like Batman to defend and take back their cities.
This comic book line would eventually lead to the death of Damian Wayne and set up later arcs for the Bat Family to mourn their fallen member.
An army of Batmen trained to protect the world. Sounds like an awesome plan to me.
Image from Batman Wikia and the Batman Incorporated Comics
4. The Hellbat
Avengers 2: Age of Ultron showed us the glory of having additional suits of armor dedicated to fighting one specific enemy. Tony Stark may be known best for this, but Bruce Wayne has his fair share of different armors. The strongest of these suits is the Hellbat.
The Hellbat was an armor designed by Bruce Wayne and built by the Justice League to help Batman fight against the Gods. The suit enhances Batman’s physical abilities, can withstand incredible amounts of heat and force, and shoot an energy beam from the chest port. The suit’s wings seem as though they can operate similarly to the venom symbiote in that it can turn into a liquid that becomes anything Batman desires. But all of these perks come at the cost of draining Bruce’s metabolism (his life) as he uses it.
Regardless, this is one of the few times Batman has “superpowers,” so forget the costs; every panel featuring the suit practically drips with awesome.
This suit had its best showing when Bruce donned it to fight Darkseid over the body of Damian Wayne. Remember how Darkseid sent Bruce spiralling through time? Well, Batman doesn’t appreciate threats on his life, especially when you also turn his son into a giant gun that can destroy planets (Batman has an extreme hate for guns).
Batman then proceeded to grab his kid and run for his life. Darkseid is scary when he's angry.
Scans from Comic Newbies and comic from Batman and Robin #37
5. Batman's dead son came back to life with super powers
After the events of the Batman and Robin issue where the Bat family helps Bruce reclaim Damian’s body, Bruce is able to revive Damian who comes back with super powers.
What we know is that Damian has enhanced strength, and invulnerability. At least Batman no longer needs to worry about his son dying again.
I sense a "with great power, comes great responsibility” theme coming soon.
Scan from AVclub and comic from Batman and Robin #38
I am the night!
While there are probably plenty of facts that you may or may not have known (depending on how many comic books you read), what remains certain is that Batman is one of the world’s favorite super heroes for a good reason. If you haven't started reading Batman comics, I highly recommend you pick one up as soon as you can, because recent events in DC's universes have made them an amazing read.
Of course, I also recommend playing through Rocksteady Studios' Arkham Knight. Hopefully, Rocksteady Studios will be able to create a faithful send off to their version of the Dark Knight.
Batman: Arkham Knight is set to release on June 23rd.
(Disclaimer: All rights, scans and everything related to Batman is property of DC comics. We do not own anything related to the character)
