Bruce Wayne

Character: gonnaloveme

Player: Aisu

Name: Bruce Wayne AKA: Batman Age: 28 Gender: Male Species: Human Sexuality: Heterosexual

Appearance: Bruce Wayne is a handsome young man with the money and time to make everything appear perfect in his life. He wears designersuits most of the time and everything about him is usually in exact place. He has dark brown hair that is slicked back, liquid brown eyes, weighs about 190lbs, stands at a nice 6’1’’ height, and appears slim and unimposing in his clothes. Beneath the fancy clothes lies a finely toned body of someone who works out obsessively. This would be because when he’s not being the utterly handsome playboy billionaire, Wayne is playing at being the big black Bat. Batman is deceptively “larger” than his counterpart if only due to the full body armor, concealing cowl, and billowing black cape. On the black armor he wears a utility belt with numerous pouches. Two obvious markings would be: one, on the chest piece is a stylized bat symbol; and two, the distinctive bat ears on top of the cowl. His entire body is covered in the black armor leaving only his mouth/chin area open and small slits for his eyes to be seen.

Personality: Bruce Wayne is seen as a flippant, superficial playboy billionaire that is irresponsible with his time, life, and especially his inherited money. He comes off purposefully dimwitted and self-absorbed in his playboy façade to throw off any possible suspicion of his secret identity. The real Bruce is caught somewhere between a vengeful adolescent seeking the means to fight injustice and an older, more mature yet angry man set on a path to finding his true purpose in life. And in the middle of all this inner turmoil and indecisive personality set is the Batman, a rage-filled void bred distinctively for inspiring fear and dread into the criminal element that he hunts down.

Abilities/Strengths: Bruce Wayne is skilled in many various martial arts forms, especially in those focusing on extreme close range and fluidity to maneuver an opponent to open himself up to attack at the key weak points along the body. He works out periodically even as much as he runs around town doing extraneous actions, and is very strong as well as has a high performance endurance rate. As part of his mental training he knows several meditation techniques; he can force himself to ignore to most forms of pain and to overcome his fears at will (most of the time). He is extremely focused and determined when it comes to performing his self-appointed tasks as Batman. Wayne is very intelligent when it comes to solving crime investigations. He would make one hell of a detective on the police force, but his skills will just have to suffice serving Batman to track down his prey. It can also be noted that Bruce has a photographic memory--he barely has to scan over an object to have it completely memorized for just about life. Being as “Bruce Wayne” is just a mask for Batman, the man is a fairly good actor--he can get people to love and hate him with little to no effort. I don’t really know why this is a strength; it probably isn’t to him.

Weaknesses: Bruce is afraid of bats. He is afraid of them to the point of freezing up and being unable to move much less defend himself when within a swarm of the creatures. However, due to his training he can overcome this fear except under extreme conditions. If Bruce has any real fear left it is the fear of failure; fear to protect the city, fear to protect those he loves, and fear to do what is right. Bruce may be strong and fast and enduring, not to mention protected by his armor, but he is still simply mortal and he will push his body to the utmost limits. It’s possible one day he will simply push himself too far and pay for being only human. His extreme focus on a task can impede his other assets, and Ra’s would testify to the fact that he sometimes forgets to “mind his surroundings.” Living a dual life takes its toll out on him, too. Especially the fact that it is hard to tell which persona is the real man--Bruce Wayne, the flippant playboy; or Batman, the righteous vigilante. One is a petty man with shameful actions and the other is a rage-filled void that barely keeps itself in check to do what is right.

Notable Possessions: Bruce comes equipped with his infamous “Batsuit”--the costume his alter ego, the Batman, wears when he’s running around the darkened city streets of Gotham and menacing the criminal elements of the city. The most notable elements of the suit is that it is a very high-tech suit of body armor (low caliber bullet-proof), supports a cape capable of turning into a glider for limited amounts of “flying,” has a cowl that covers most of his face that includes a set of “bat” ears that hide antenna for various communication components, a set of gauntlets with retractable razors on the edges that can be fired out, and a utility belt that holds several miscellaneous high-tech gadgets. A few of the gadgets include his famous grappling gun and batarangs, gas mask/rebreather components, and various hand-held “CSI” type gadgets. There’s probably some vials of anti-toxicants and the such-like in there, too. And maybe some other stuff. Who can really name all the things Batman has stuffed into that belt of his? Really.

'''Did you think there wouldn't be spoilers for both Nolan Batman movies here? Think again! Plus the in between cartoon-movie, too. Sorta. Anyway! Spoilers be-warned!'''

History: When Bruce was eight years old he tragically watched his parents being murdered in front of his eyes. This was shortly after he developed a fear of bats, and because the play the family was watching that evening featured bat-like creatures he asked to leave; it was outside the theatre that his parents were shot in front of him and he blames himself for the incident. At the age of seventeen Bruce leaves Gotham City in search of meaning for his life. Along the way he encounters many teachers, learns many different types of martial arts and ways of life, mediation techniques and methods of conquering fear and pain. But he never finds his true calling until he meets Ducard, a man who speaks for a man known as Ra’s as Ghul, the leader of a group known as the League of Shadows. By the end of his training Bruce feels confident in his endeavors of finding his way in life, and has pretty much conquered his fears, but as a last test of his loyalty to the group’s cause he is asked to kill a criminal for his crimes. Bruce refuses. During the disagreement he kills Ra’s, burns the encampment to the ground, and leaves Ducard, whom he saves from the fire, in the care of some nearby local residents.

Returning to Gotham after the incident with the League of Shadows, now realizing his purpose in life to seek justice but without the total disregard to life and a fair trial, Bruce seeks out old and new friends to start his new life of crime fighting. But it’s been just over seven years since he left and, apart from practically being declared dead, he has a lot to catch up on and adjust to when he gets back home. Still, he soon finds his calling to become “the Batman” and fights crime with new armor and gadgets borrowed from his family’s company, Wayne Enterprises, with the aid of Applied Sciences director Lucius Fox. Long time friend, mentor, and butler Alfred Pennyworth helps Bruce in his nightly endeavors as the masked vigilante. As well, Bruce seeks out Gordon, the cop on duty when his parents died who tried to comfort the young Bruce and now one of the cleanest and incorruptible cops on the force, for information and aid. Gordon reluctantly helps out in the beginning, but slowly begins to let the Batman grow on him. The only other person to find out who the Batman is besides his butler is old time friend Rachael Dawes, whom Batman recruits to help “rattle the cages” of the criminal elements before revealing himself.

To make a long plot short (it’s a bit late for that!) Bruce Wayne as the Batman foils the endeavors of the likes of Carmine Falcone, Dr. Jonathan Crane aka the Scarecrow, and a reappearing Ducard who reveals himself to be the real Ra’s al Ghul. Notably Crane was working for Ra’s, shipping in and distributing into the waterways of Gotham a hallucinogenic that was to cause mass fear and panic into the citizens of the city and ultimately destroy the city. With the aid of Gordon, Batman stops Ra’s’s plan and leaves the man for dead, although not before the League of Shadows releases the inmates of Arkham Asylum.

Months pass by and Bruce continues to fight for Gotham, most notably in the attempt to reacquire Arkham’s released patients to place them back in the asylum. By the end of the year he has fought the likes of Killer Croc, an inmate with an unusual skin condition as well as having been manipulated horribly by Dr. Crane; the Scarecrow himself, who takes control of many of the city’s homeless trying to turn them into an army and attempting to murder a Cardinal of the city for ‘interfering with his plans;’ Deadshot, an assassin hired to kill a local campaigner for charity building projects, as well as many other people around the country, and who attempted to assassinate both Gordon and Batman; and mafia bosses such as the Russian and Sal Maroni.

Previously Gordon had asked Batman for help in a set of new cases preformed by a criminal own only as “the Joker.” This criminal’s death count and disruptive nature begins to escalate exponentially, but Batman has other worries in trying to catch the mob bosses in their crimes. This he finally succeeds by capturing a money-keeper of the crime lords and forces him to testify. However the Joker had anticipated this and already offered to the bosses to kill the Batman. They accept the offer after the money-keeper’s capture and the Joker threatens the city if they don’t reveal who the Batman’s real identity to him. When several people die, including Commissioner Loeb and the judge presiding over the mob trials, Bruce decides to reveal himself to the public. Before he can, however, Dent announces himself as the Batman. Instead of speaking up, Bruce allows Dent to be taken in. Dent trusted the Batman to protect him and, as his police escort is attacked while on the streets of Gotham, Batman does not disappoint. Again with the help of Gordon, Batman protects Dent and captures the Joker.

Later that night Dent and Dawes go missing and Batman interviews the Joker down at the police station. After the Joker teases Batman into beating him up a bit he finally reveals the locations of the two missing people. Batman heads off for Dawes leaving Dent to Gordon and the police. However, the Joker lied and Batman arrives just in time to save Dent although half of Dent’s face is burned in the explosion meant to kill him. Dawes is unable to be saved and perishes in the simultaneous explosion where she was being held, Gordon arriving just barely too late. In the meantime the Joker has escaped from jail with an aid of a pre-planned explosive device hidden in a very unlikely place.

While Dent is at the hospital the Joker pays him a visit and, in the D.A.’s grief-ridden state, the Joker convinces Dent to extract his own justice on those that aided in Dawes’s death. The Joker again threatens the city, this time to tell everyone tonight he’ll be “in charge” and anyone left in the city will have to “play by his rules.” With threats to the usual means off the city, the police begin to evacuate the citizens (and a boat-full of prisoners) by ferry. However, the Joker has actually placed bombs on the two ferries. Batman finds him, stop his plot, and takes him into custody.

All this time Dent has been running loose and killing various people directly or indirectly responsible for Dawes’s death. Gordon’s family are kidnapped and the newly appointed Commissioner races to their rescue. To make another long plot short (too late for that--again!) Batman shows up and helps save the day and to let Dent be the hero Gotham needs (but not deserves) Batman offers himself up for the awful deeds Dent committed in his insanity, running away from the scene as a murderer for the police to hunt. It’s during the end of this man-hunt for Batman that Bruce is taken from Gotham and placed unceremoniously into Econtra, still bruised and battered from his previous endeavors.

After Econtra's final, weary victory its inhabitants were allowed to return home. Bruce was only too happy to do so. From there, however, little time passed before he was unexpectedly taken from his home again, spirited away into the Ringworld to start all over again. His memories of his past life in an unknown world are fuzzy and limited at best. The most he really remembers is meeting certain people whom he will vaguely recognize upon meeting again in Phase. (As thus.)

((Full bibliography originally found here. Character journal here; lj profile here.))