Backstory until 1989

Witness to his parents' murder in the late 1970's, the young Bruce Wayne became obsessed with combating injustice to avenge the murder of his parents. Having trained his mind and body to become a relentless crime fighter, he used his multi-billion dollar fortune and company's involvement in the military industrial complex to gain access to an arsenal of high-tech equipment and useful gadgets to fight crime. Donning a cape and cowl, Batman is born!

The 1990s

Debonair billionaire playboy by day, vengeful vigilante by night, both sides of Bruce Wayne's life quickly rise to prominence in Gotham City. Bruce Wayne is loved and adored by the media and the socialites, whereas Batman quickly becomes feared in the seedy underbelly of Gotham City.

The search for his parents' killer begins in the crime ridden streets and his focus on street crime and his nonlethal vigilante tactics disrupt primarily small time distributers, pimps and burglars. Slowly, vague clues lead Batman up the food chain of crime.

Having committed himself to fighting guns with non-lethal means, Batman is frequently injured and barely escapes numerous missions when faced with overwhelming firepower. Broken ribs and bones just don't heal that fast in the real world and Batman realizes (with the seasoned advice of his loyal butler Alfred Pennyworth and trusty Wayne Enterprise surrogate Lucius Fox) that he has to fight smarter, not harder.

With an IQ of 192, Batman quickly figures out that his youthful dreams of being a caped brawler in the mean streets were slightly less than realistic. Increasing his reliance on the technological tools at his disposal from Wayne Enterprises R&D, Batman begins using a full array of advanced surveillance devices and nonlethal weaponry to disable his foes from a distance while remaining concealed until the last possible moment. Although he misses jumping in with improved body armor and doing some ass-kicking judo moves in the midst of exploding smoke bombs from the beginning of a mission, he still affords himself the luxury of wading into the fray after having established an overwhelming advantage.

Despite the brutal efficiency of his fists, Batman has to admit that his arsenal of military industrial gadgets (the technology of which is ca. 20-30 years more advanced than anything known to the public at the time) is much more effective than acrobatic fisticuffs. Unleashing tranquilizer darts, the speech jammer, the incapacitating flashlight, the Phaser (Personal Halting and Stimulation Response Rifle), weaponized malodorants, Bhut Jolokia grenades, sticky foam, knock-out gas, taser shotguns, concussion grenades, localized EMP grenades, the Medusa and mounting the Active Denial System (ADS), Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRADs) on the Batmobile are a lot less dangerous and much more effective.

This switch in tactics gets the attention of the larger crime families due to his increased success and disruption of their operations. Thanks to his use of experimental technology intended for the armed forces, the attention of the U.S. military and intelligence agencies is also aroused.

Although Batman hopes for a laissez faire approach to his vigilantism by law enforcement, in a world that values the state's monopoly on violence above any benefits derived from criminals being trussed and delivered, it just doesn't happen. Commissioner James Gordon's few minor "slip ups" that enable Batman to escape capture quickly result in his demotion then dismissal. The famed bat-signal never makes it off the Batcave's drafting table, depriving Batman of countless cool backdrops. Whereas Batman used to operate openly yet discretely, hoping in no doubt to earn grudging respect from law enforcement and the public, the heat from both intelligence agencies and the heavy hitters brought in by the crime families necessitate being more careful than ever.

The intelligence agencies however identify the technology used at the crime scenes and place Wayne Enterprises under surveillance. Lucius Fox, the sly old fox he is, is able to discover the surveillance before it blows Bruce's cover. Lucius reports to the police that there was a break-in and property stolen. While this provides a cover story that further distances Bruce Wayne billionaire from the masked vigilante Batman, it also lands Batman on the watch list and he becomes wanted for questioning.

Batman continues his crime-fighting ways with increasing circumspection, becoming a master of surveillance and counter-surveillance while continuing to bust drug and weapon smuggling operations into and out of Gotham City. After a series of undercover and/or corrupt government agents participating in the crimes are taken down by Batman, he is openly declared a domestic terrorist and the accompanying media campaign thoroughly vilifies him in the public eye.

Thinking at first it an unlucky turn of events to be caught between the crime families and the state monopoly on violence, his research soon reveals that it is more complicated than he first believed. While interrogating an undercover agent, Batman finally learns that most of the drug and weapon smuggling is unofficially sanctioned by government agencies and he wakes up to the corruption of the deep state. He comes to believe that the poverty and crime he has been combating is largely manufactured by the crime families that are allowed to operate by the state for a share of the profits...

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Stay tuned for the next episode of If Superheroes Were Real: Batman by Cupid Zero Part 2 in which we will find out what happens with Batman in the 2000s.

Shot with a golden arrow,

Cupid Zero
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