The Untold Legend of the Batman
Encyclopedia
The Untold Legend of the Batman is a three-issue Batman
comic book
miniseries
published by DC Comics
in 1980. It was written by Len Wein
, and drawn by Jim Aparo
and on the first issue, also John Byrne. The primary plot elements of the story are retellings of the origins of several Batman characters. It is only the second miniseries
published by DC Comics
as well as the very first starring Batman
.
As a marketing tool, each issue of the series was available in a special "MPI Audio Edition", accompanied by an audio cassette
containing a performance of the text of the issue, with musical cues. The series was later republished as a single 160-page paperback. In 1989, the series was reprinted in smaller format as a premium for Batman breakfast cereal
.
The issues were smaller than standard DC comic books, at nine inches tall and six inches wide. Inside the front and back covers of each issue were black-and-white reprints of classic Batman covers, with a caption of "Great Moments in Batman's History". The covers included Batman
#104, 107, 109, 110, 113 and 120. The second and third issues also had more of these on the last few pages of the issues, including Batman #9, 11, 20 and Detective Comics
# 27 and 38.
The first issue contained a section after the main story called "Secrets of the Batman", with a visual tour of the Batcave
, utility belt
, and Batman's flying equipment.
Batman reminisces about the time when his father, Dr. Thomas Wayne, wore the costume to a charity costume party and was taken hostage by a group of thugs looking for a doctor. He was taken to see their boss, bank robber Lew Moxon, who had been shot and needed the doctor to remove the bullet. Instead, Dr. Wayne attacked the thugs and defeated them. He turned them over to the police, including then-Lieutenant James Gordon
. Wayne testified against Moxon, who was convicted. However, years later he was released and threatened to have his revenge against Wayne. Several weeks later, Dr. Wayne and his wife Martha were shot dead in front of their son Bruce (Batman) by an apparent mugger named Joe Chill. Batman also recalls those who looked after him following his parents' deaths – Leslie Thompkins, and Mrs. Chilton, housekeeper of Bruce's uncle, Philip Wayne (who had been appointed Bruce's guardian, but was seldom at home as his work required him to travel quite a bit). Unbeknownst to him, but known to his butler, Alfred
, Mrs. Chilton was also Joe Chill's mother.
Young Bruce dedicated his life to bringing his parents' killer to justice and waging war against all criminals. He studied and trained hard, and followed the career of a police detective named Harvey Harris. Bruce created a costume (that of the original Robin
) to hide his identity and set out to meet Harris. Bruce happened upon a criminal waiting to attack Harris, and managed to thwart the would-be attacker. To repay him, Harris taught Bruce everything about the art of detecting, and gave him the name "Robin".
Bruce continued training and went on to college to study criminology. A lesson learned in a law class – that the law and justice are not one and the same – dissuaded Bruce from becoming a police officer as he had intended, feeling that he would be too hampered by the law. While trying to decide what kind of symbol to become in order to strike terror into the hearts of criminals, a bat flew through his window of his study, inspiring him to become Batman.
After years of crimefighting and failure to locate his parents' killer, Batman happened upon a smuggling enterprise run through a trucking company owned by Joe Chill. He confronted Chill with his story, and revealed his identity to him. Batman let Chill run scared; he ran for help to his henchmen at his garage and told them what had happened. But after they learned he was responsible for creating Batman who had plagued them for years, the henchmen shot and killed Chill before he could reveal Batman's identity.
Several months later, Bruce happened upon his father's costume and journal. He learned from the journal that Chill had not been a mugger, but was working for Lew Moxon
. However, Moxon had been in a car accident and suffered from amnesia. He did not remember Thomas Wayne or what he had done. With his own costume torn during a fight with Moxon's henchmen, Batman decided to wear his father's costume instead when he confronted Moxon. The costume jogged Moxon's memory, and he ran in fear from Batman right into the path of an oncoming truck, which killed him.
In trying to understand Batman's anger, Robin recalls his own origin. He recalls the night in Newtown where his parents, the Flying Graysons, performed their trapeze
act for the final time, as the ropes snapped, sending them plummeting to the ground. Later that night, Dick Grayson
(Robin) learned that the trapeze had been rigged by mobsters looking to extort protection money
from the owner of the circus
. Dick was prepared to go to the police when Batman approached him and told him of "Boss" Zucco
, a mobster who controlled the whole town. Bruce Wayne took legal guardianship of Dick, and taught him the arts of crimefighting. He gave Grayson his old Robin costume, and the name to go with it.
They set out on Zucco's trail, and found him throwing one of his henchmen off of a scaffolding. Robin took a photo that led to Zucco's arrest, and apparent execution. After that, he became Batman's sidekick. He found it hard to deal with the taunts of his classmates, but eventually graduated and left Wayne Manor
to attend Hudson University. That's when Bruce and Alfred moved to the penthouse atop the Wayne Foundation Building in Gotham City, and built a new Batcave in an abandoned subway tunnel beneath the building to go with it. Robin has returned to Gotham City
now at the call of Alfred, worried about Batman.
Alfred also struggles to understand Batman's painful memories by recalling his own past. He remembers in the closing days of World War II
when he helped refugees escape the Nazis, and regrets needing to kill enemy soldiers. After the war, he turned to the London
theatre as an actor. But as his father lay dying, he swore that he would carry on the family tradition of being a butler. Alfred got on a boat to America and sought out Bruce Wayne, whose father, Thomas Wayne, had employed his own father.
Alfred tended to Bruce and Dick, unaware of their alter egos, until one night when they returned from crimefighting, and Bruce had been injured. Dick needed Alfred's help to attend to him. From that point on, Alfred was entrusted with the duo's secrets.
Meanwhile, sorting through headshots of his rogues gallery
, Batman points out that many of his enemies hate him enough to do this to him. He recalls The Joker
's origin as an example. In their first meeting, at the Monarch Playing Card Company, The Joker was a masked criminal known as the Red Hood
. To escape Batman, he dove into a basin of chemical waste and swam through a drainage pipe to the river. The special oxygen
system in his helmet helped him survive, but the chemicals disfigured him and transformed him into the Joker.
Another villain, Two-Face
, was once Harvey Dent, Gotham's youngest District Attorney. During the trial of "Boss" Maroni
, who was being charged with the murder of "Bookie" Benson, Batman was testifying. While Dent presented Maroni's lucky piece, a two-sided silver dollar, as evidence, Maroni threw a container of acid at him. Batman dove to block the container, but only deflected it enough for it to hit one side of Dent's face, disfiguring him and turning him into Two-Face.
Robin suggests that they go see Commissioner Gordon for help, but as he starts the Batmobile
, an alarm sounds, indicating that the ignition has been tampered with. Everyone dives safely for cover as a bomb goes off, destroying the car. Another threatening note is discovered in the wreckage: ONE BY ONE, I WILL DESTROY THE THINGS THAT MADE YOU WHAT YOU ARE -- AND THEN I WILL DESTROY YOU!
Batman searches the city, asking every informant he has about the case, but with no luck. He finally goes to see Commissioner Gordon at Gotham City Police H.Q. The Commissioner suggests that Batman doesn't want to find any clues because the suspect is someone close to him. Batman suddenly leaves Gordon to reminisce about the first time he met Batman; how Batman initially only left scrawled notes on the criminals he tied up and left for the police, until one day he caught a man about to attack Gordon with a knife. Batman quickly left, but later that night, he came to Gordon's office. Gordon pulled a gun and prepared to shoot him, but Batman explained that they were two of a kind, and that he was able to bend the law that Gordon couldn't in order to achieve justice. Gordon grudgingly accepted Batman.
Gordon also recalled how Batman had influenced his daughter, Barbara
. She fell madly in love with him at first sight of him and she began studying martial arts
alongside her library science Ph.D
. She wore a Batgirl
costume one night to a policeman's masquerade ball, but on the way to the ball, she noticed Bruce Wayne being kidnapped by a gang of Killer Moth
's henchmen. She promptly attacked the men and freed Bruce, helping to bring Killer Moth to justice.
The next morning, Bruce cancels all his appointments. His friend and associate, Lucius Fox
tries to talk to Bruce, but Bruce doesn't want to talk. Lucius reminds him of their first meeting, back when he was in the Wayne Foundation's finance division, and brought a portfolio suggestion to Bruce, who liked the idea and started Lucius on the path that made his entire career.
Bruce continues to try to figure out who is behind the attacks, until he comes to a realization. He hurries back to Wayne Manor as Batman. He sees visions of himself and his parents when he was a child. He enters the Batcave at Wayne Manor and realizes that the person behind everything is himself: Bruce Wayne has attempted to destroy Batman because of how it's ruined his life as Wayne. As the walls of the Batcave begin to close in on him, he sees his father in the original bat costume. He explains that a warehouse explosion Batman had recently been caught in has temporarily affected his mind. His father begs Bruce to leave the Batcave while he holds the walls apart, but Bruce won't let him die again. Bruce dives, carrying both himself and his father out of harm's way.
Once they are safe, his father removes his mask to reveal that he is in fact Robin. Batman reveals that he knew all along, but that the important part is that he has come to his senses. Batman says that he needs to be alone, and heads for a rooftop to look over Gotham City.
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
miniseries
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
published by DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
in 1980. It was written by Len Wein
Len Wein
Len Wein is an American comic book writer and editor best known for co-creating DC Comics' Swamp Thing and Marvel Comics' Wolverine, and for helping revive the Marvel superhero team the X-Men...
, and drawn by Jim Aparo
Jim Aparo
James N. "Jim" Aparo was an American comic book artist best known for his 1960s and 1970s DC Comics work, including on the characters Batman, Aquaman and the Spectre....
and on the first issue, also John Byrne. The primary plot elements of the story are retellings of the origins of several Batman characters. It is only the second miniseries
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
published by DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
as well as the very first starring Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
.
As a marketing tool, each issue of the series was available in a special "MPI Audio Edition", accompanied by an audio cassette
Compact Cassette
The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...
containing a performance of the text of the issue, with musical cues. The series was later republished as a single 160-page paperback. In 1989, the series was reprinted in smaller format as a premium for Batman breakfast cereal
Batman (1989 film)
Batman is a 1989 superhero film based on the DC Comics character of the same name, directed by Tim Burton. The film stars Michael Keaton in the title role, as well as Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger, Robert Wuhl and Jack Palance...
.
Features of the comic books
- This section describes the Audio Edition books, and may not represent the original issues
The issues were smaller than standard DC comic books, at nine inches tall and six inches wide. Inside the front and back covers of each issue were black-and-white reprints of classic Batman covers, with a caption of "Great Moments in Batman's History". The covers included Batman
Batman (comic book)
Batman is an ongoing comic book series featuring the DC Comics hero of the same name. The character first appeared in Detective Comics #27, published in May 1939. Batman proved to be so popular that a self-titled ongoing comic book series began publication in the spring of 1940...
#104, 107, 109, 110, 113 and 120. The second and third issues also had more of these on the last few pages of the issues, including Batman #9, 11, 20 and Detective Comics
Detective Comics
Detective Comics is an American comic book series published monthly by DC Comics since 1937, best known for introducing the iconic superhero Batman in Detective Comics #27 . It is, along with Action Comics, the book that launched with the debut of Superman, one of the medium's signature series, and...
# 27 and 38.
The first issue contained a section after the main story called "Secrets of the Batman", with a visual tour of the Batcave
Batcave
The Batcave is the secret headquarters of fictional DC Comics superhero Batman, the alternate identity of playboy Bruce Wayne, consisting of a series of subterranean caves beneath his residence, Wayne Manor.-Publication history:...
, utility belt
Batman's utility belt
Batman's utility belt is one of the most characteristic portions of Batman's costume. Similar belts are used by the various Robins, Batgirls, and other members of the Batman family.-History:...
, and Batman's flying equipment.
Issue 1: In The Beginning
Checking through Bruce Wayne's mail, Batman opens a package to find the shredded remains of a bat costume once worn by his father. He investigates to find the costume missing from its display case in the Batcave, with a threatening note left in its place: THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING, BATMAN! BEFORE I'M DONE, I WILL DESTROY YOU!Batman reminisces about the time when his father, Dr. Thomas Wayne, wore the costume to a charity costume party and was taken hostage by a group of thugs looking for a doctor. He was taken to see their boss, bank robber Lew Moxon, who had been shot and needed the doctor to remove the bullet. Instead, Dr. Wayne attacked the thugs and defeated them. He turned them over to the police, including then-Lieutenant James Gordon
James Gordon (comics)
James Worthington Gordon, Sr. is a fictional character, an ally of Batman that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and was created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane...
. Wayne testified against Moxon, who was convicted. However, years later he was released and threatened to have his revenge against Wayne. Several weeks later, Dr. Wayne and his wife Martha were shot dead in front of their son Bruce (Batman) by an apparent mugger named Joe Chill. Batman also recalls those who looked after him following his parents' deaths – Leslie Thompkins, and Mrs. Chilton, housekeeper of Bruce's uncle, Philip Wayne (who had been appointed Bruce's guardian, but was seldom at home as his work required him to travel quite a bit). Unbeknownst to him, but known to his butler, Alfred
Alfred Pennyworth
Alfred Pennyworth is a fictional character that appears throughout the DC Comics franchise. The character first appears in Batman #16 , and was created by writer Bob Kane and artist Jerry Robinson. Alfred serves as Batman’s tireless butler, assistant, confidant, and surrogate father figure...
, Mrs. Chilton was also Joe Chill's mother.
Young Bruce dedicated his life to bringing his parents' killer to justice and waging war against all criminals. He studied and trained hard, and followed the career of a police detective named Harvey Harris. Bruce created a costume (that of the original Robin
Robin (comics)
Robin is the name of several fictional characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics, originally created by Bob Kane, Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson, as a junior counterpart to DC Comics superhero Batman...
) to hide his identity and set out to meet Harris. Bruce happened upon a criminal waiting to attack Harris, and managed to thwart the would-be attacker. To repay him, Harris taught Bruce everything about the art of detecting, and gave him the name "Robin".
Bruce continued training and went on to college to study criminology. A lesson learned in a law class – that the law and justice are not one and the same – dissuaded Bruce from becoming a police officer as he had intended, feeling that he would be too hampered by the law. While trying to decide what kind of symbol to become in order to strike terror into the hearts of criminals, a bat flew through his window of his study, inspiring him to become Batman.
After years of crimefighting and failure to locate his parents' killer, Batman happened upon a smuggling enterprise run through a trucking company owned by Joe Chill. He confronted Chill with his story, and revealed his identity to him. Batman let Chill run scared; he ran for help to his henchmen at his garage and told them what had happened. But after they learned he was responsible for creating Batman who had plagued them for years, the henchmen shot and killed Chill before he could reveal Batman's identity.
Several months later, Bruce happened upon his father's costume and journal. He learned from the journal that Chill had not been a mugger, but was working for Lew Moxon
Lew Moxon
Lew Moxon is a fictional character in the DC Comics Batman series. He is most famous for hiring Joe Chill to murder young Bruce Wayne's parents in early versions of Batman's origin story, thus making him indirectly responsible for Batman's existence....
. However, Moxon had been in a car accident and suffered from amnesia. He did not remember Thomas Wayne or what he had done. With his own costume torn during a fight with Moxon's henchmen, Batman decided to wear his father's costume instead when he confronted Moxon. The costume jogged Moxon's memory, and he ran in fear from Batman right into the path of an oncoming truck, which killed him.
Issue 2: "With Friends Like These..."
Batman goes to a bar to find someone who can give him information about the package. However, after he's attacked he almost beats his informant to death, until Robin arrives to bring him back to his senses.In trying to understand Batman's anger, Robin recalls his own origin. He recalls the night in Newtown where his parents, the Flying Graysons, performed their trapeze
Trapeze
A trapeze is a short horizontal bar hung by ropes or metal straps from a support. It is an aerial apparatus commonly found in circus performances...
act for the final time, as the ropes snapped, sending them plummeting to the ground. Later that night, Dick Grayson
Dick Grayson
Dick Grayson is a fictional superhero that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger and illustrator Jerry Robinson, he first appeared in Detective Comics #38 in April 1940....
(Robin) learned that the trapeze had been rigged by mobsters looking to extort protection money
Protection racket
A protection racket is an extortion scheme whereby a criminal group or individual coerces a victim to pay money, supposedly for protection services against violence or property damage. Racketeers coerce reticent potential victims into buying "protection" by demonstrating what will happen if they...
from the owner of the circus
Circus
A circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...
. Dick was prepared to go to the police when Batman approached him and told him of "Boss" Zucco
Tony Zucco
Anthony "Tony" Zucco is a fictional character in the DC Comics universe. He was introduced in Detective Comics #38 and is best known for his connections to the origin of Robin.-Pre-Crisis:...
, a mobster who controlled the whole town. Bruce Wayne took legal guardianship of Dick, and taught him the arts of crimefighting. He gave Grayson his old Robin costume, and the name to go with it.
They set out on Zucco's trail, and found him throwing one of his henchmen off of a scaffolding. Robin took a photo that led to Zucco's arrest, and apparent execution. After that, he became Batman's sidekick. He found it hard to deal with the taunts of his classmates, but eventually graduated and left Wayne Manor
Wayne Manor
In DC Comics, Wayne Manor is a fictional setting, the personal residence of Bruce Wayne, who is also Batman. The residence is typically depicted as a huge stately mansion on grounds outside Gotham City, maintained by the Wayne family's servant, Alfred Pennyworth...
to attend Hudson University. That's when Bruce and Alfred moved to the penthouse atop the Wayne Foundation Building in Gotham City, and built a new Batcave in an abandoned subway tunnel beneath the building to go with it. Robin has returned to Gotham City
Gotham City
Gotham City is a fictional U.S. city appearing in DC Comics, best known as the home of Batman. Batman's place of residence was first identified as Gotham City in Batman #4 . Gotham City is strongly inspired by Trenton, Ontario's history, location, atmosphere, and various architectural styles...
now at the call of Alfred, worried about Batman.
Alfred also struggles to understand Batman's painful memories by recalling his own past. He remembers in the closing days of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
when he helped refugees escape the Nazis, and regrets needing to kill enemy soldiers. After the war, he turned to the London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
theatre as an actor. But as his father lay dying, he swore that he would carry on the family tradition of being a butler. Alfred got on a boat to America and sought out Bruce Wayne, whose father, Thomas Wayne, had employed his own father.
Alfred tended to Bruce and Dick, unaware of their alter egos, until one night when they returned from crimefighting, and Bruce had been injured. Dick needed Alfred's help to attend to him. From that point on, Alfred was entrusted with the duo's secrets.
Meanwhile, sorting through headshots of his rogues gallery
Rogues gallery
A rogues gallery is a police collection of pictures or photographs of criminals and suspects kept for identification purposes...
, Batman points out that many of his enemies hate him enough to do this to him. He recalls The Joker
Joker (comics)
The Joker is a fictional character, a comic book supervillain published by DC Comics. He is the archenemy of Batman, having been directly responsible for numerous tragedies in Batman's life, including the paralysis of Barbara Gordon and the death of Jason Todd, the second Robin...
's origin as an example. In their first meeting, at the Monarch Playing Card Company, The Joker was a masked criminal known as the Red Hood
Red Hood
Red Hood is the alias used by several fictional characters, usually antagonists for Batman in the DC Universe.-Joker:The Red Hood first appeared in Detective Comics #168 "The Man Behind the Red Hood" . In the original continuity, the man later known as the Joker was a master criminal going by the...
. To escape Batman, he dove into a basin of chemical waste and swam through a drainage pipe to the river. The special oxygen
Oxygen
Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
system in his helmet helped him survive, but the chemicals disfigured him and transformed him into the Joker.
Another villain, Two-Face
Two-Face
Two-Face is a fictional comic book supervillain who appears in comic books published by DC Comics. and is an enemy of Batman. The character first appeared in Detective Comics #66 , and was created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger....
, was once Harvey Dent, Gotham's youngest District Attorney. During the trial of "Boss" Maroni
Sal Maroni
Salvatore "The Boss" Maroni is a fictional character appearing in comic books published by DC Comics, usually as one of Batman's first enemies, and among the toughest gangsters in Gotham City...
, who was being charged with the murder of "Bookie" Benson, Batman was testifying. While Dent presented Maroni's lucky piece, a two-sided silver dollar, as evidence, Maroni threw a container of acid at him. Batman dove to block the container, but only deflected it enough for it to hit one side of Dent's face, disfiguring him and turning him into Two-Face.
Robin suggests that they go see Commissioner Gordon for help, but as he starts the Batmobile
Batmobile
The Batmobile is the automobile of DC Comics superhero Batman. The car has evolved along with the character from comic books to television and films. Kept in the Batcave, which it accesses through a hidden entrance, the Batmobile is a gadget-laden vehicle used by Batman in his crime-fighting...
, an alarm sounds, indicating that the ignition has been tampered with. Everyone dives safely for cover as a bomb goes off, destroying the car. Another threatening note is discovered in the wreckage: ONE BY ONE, I WILL DESTROY THE THINGS THAT MADE YOU WHAT YOU ARE -- AND THEN I WILL DESTROY YOU!
Issue 3: The Man Behind The Mask!
Batman goes off on his own to take vengeance on the person behind what's going on. Meanwhile, Robin calls Jack Edison, a stunt driver who has built the latest Batmobile for the dynamic duo, and commissions him to build another one at his usual fee with a bonus for the inconvenience. He does so because once Batman saved his life by pulling him from a flaming wreck.Batman searches the city, asking every informant he has about the case, but with no luck. He finally goes to see Commissioner Gordon at Gotham City Police H.Q. The Commissioner suggests that Batman doesn't want to find any clues because the suspect is someone close to him. Batman suddenly leaves Gordon to reminisce about the first time he met Batman; how Batman initially only left scrawled notes on the criminals he tied up and left for the police, until one day he caught a man about to attack Gordon with a knife. Batman quickly left, but later that night, he came to Gordon's office. Gordon pulled a gun and prepared to shoot him, but Batman explained that they were two of a kind, and that he was able to bend the law that Gordon couldn't in order to achieve justice. Gordon grudgingly accepted Batman.
Gordon also recalled how Batman had influenced his daughter, Barbara
Barbara Gordon
Barbara Gordon is a fictional character appearing in comic books published by DC Comics and in related media, created by Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino...
. She fell madly in love with him at first sight of him and she began studying martial arts
Martial arts
Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....
alongside her library science Ph.D
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
. She wore a Batgirl
Batgirl
Batgirl is the name of several fictional characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics, frequently depicted as female counterparts to the superhero Batman...
costume one night to a policeman's masquerade ball, but on the way to the ball, she noticed Bruce Wayne being kidnapped by a gang of Killer Moth
Killer Moth
Killer Moth is a fictional character in the DC Comics universe. He first appeared in Batman #63 published in 1951. Killer Moth originally wore a garish costume with striped purple and green spandex, orange cape and a moth-like mask....
's henchmen. She promptly attacked the men and freed Bruce, helping to bring Killer Moth to justice.
The next morning, Bruce cancels all his appointments. His friend and associate, Lucius Fox
Lucius Fox
Lucius Fox is a fictional character appearing in Batman comic books by DC Comics. He was created by Len Wein and John Calnan, and first appeared in Batman #307 . As a supporting character, he acts as Bruce Wayne's business manager who supposedly unknowingly runs the business interests that supply...
tries to talk to Bruce, but Bruce doesn't want to talk. Lucius reminds him of their first meeting, back when he was in the Wayne Foundation's finance division, and brought a portfolio suggestion to Bruce, who liked the idea and started Lucius on the path that made his entire career.
Bruce continues to try to figure out who is behind the attacks, until he comes to a realization. He hurries back to Wayne Manor as Batman. He sees visions of himself and his parents when he was a child. He enters the Batcave at Wayne Manor and realizes that the person behind everything is himself: Bruce Wayne has attempted to destroy Batman because of how it's ruined his life as Wayne. As the walls of the Batcave begin to close in on him, he sees his father in the original bat costume. He explains that a warehouse explosion Batman had recently been caught in has temporarily affected his mind. His father begs Bruce to leave the Batcave while he holds the walls apart, but Bruce won't let him die again. Bruce dives, carrying both himself and his father out of harm's way.
Once they are safe, his father removes his mask to reveal that he is in fact Robin. Batman reveals that he knew all along, but that the important part is that he has come to his senses. Batman says that he needs to be alone, and heads for a rooftop to look over Gotham City.