daledoesdrafts-blog

[daledoesdrafts-blog]

Batman: Usurper Cast of Characters (WIP)

After a long period of deliberation, I’ve finally come up with the list of characters I want to use in my fanfic. It took a while because I needed to figure out which characters were around at the time of Knightfall, and if they weren’t around, would it be feasible that they’d show up during the events of my fanfic? I’ve separated them into Heroes, Villains, and Anti-heroes.

Heroes Tim Drake/Cal Corcoran/Redbird -- The story centers around Tim as Jean Paul Valley continues to disgrace the name of Batman. Bruce once described Tim as the world’s greatest strategist, and my intent is to show him beginning to develop that strategist’s mind. In many of the comics throughout his career, Tim also displays a lack of confidence, believing he has to prove himself to Bruce. Above all else, this is a story about Tim confronting his failures and beginning to realize what he can learn from them.

Bruce Wayne -- I really want to show Bruce struggling to adjust to a life where he can no longer be Batman due to his broken back. The original Knightfall trilogy did this to some extent, but not enough for us to get a feel for how difficult that might be for him, particularly when the people he cares about are still in the fight.

Dick Grayson/Nightwing -- some of my favorite Tim Drake comics are those that have him teaming up with Nightwing. They have a beautiful brotherly relationship that Chuck Dixon repeatedly made better and better. Dick trusted Tim to be Robin long before Bruce did, which is a compliment I imagine Tim didn’t soon forget. Dick also went through a bit of an identity crisis during the events of Knightfall where he began to question whether or not he was mentally fit to be Nightwing or to lead the Teen Titans. Like Tim, I think there’s a lot of opportunity for Dick to confront his demons.

Helena Bertinelli/Huntress -- Tim Drake had developed a partnership with Huntress during the events of the first few Robin comics, helping him take down King Snake and other villains. While Batman didn’t trust her due to her connection to one of Gotham’s crime families, Tim saw her as someone whose knowledge of organized crime would prove invaluable time and again.

Stephanie Brown/Spoiler -- The relationship between Tim Drake and Stephanie Brown is one I’ve come to love, despite Bruce’s initial disapproval of Stephanie. As Tim and Stephanie grew older, their witty banter back and forth as they took down Gotham’s thugs became one of the things I loved best about Robin comics. And like Tim, Stephanie felt the need to prove herself as a crime fighter. Though I enjoyed her time as both Robin and Batgirl, I always loved Stephanie best as Spoiler. Particularly in some of the newer comics, she’s realized she doesn’t need Batman’s approval to fight crime, and I think it’s important that her hero persona reflect that independence.

James Gordon, Harvey Bullock, and Renee Montoya -- For my fanfic, Mayor Krol has stripped Gordon of his job as police commissioner. Justice in Gotham is handled solely by Jean Paul Valley/Batman, which is to say there is no true justice in Gotham anymore. Bullock and Montoya are unwilling to serve under such excessive force, so they turn in their badges to follow Gordon in a vain attempt to restore order to the city.

Alfred Pennyworth -- Alfred doesn’t make much of an appearance in my fanfic. While I don’t think his absence his permanent, he’s become more than a little frustrated with Bruce’s decisions during the events of Knightfall and has decided a break is in order. As much as he cares for Bruce, Dick, and Tim, however, I can’t imagine he’ll be completely out of the picture. I’ve also always liked the Earth One version of Alfred a bit more than the typical depictions of him. Earth One depicts him as not only Bruce’s caretaker, but one of his mentors as well--a man who has seen war and can just as easily kill a man as save his life.

Barbara Gordon/Oracle -- Babs is another one of my favorites. I especially wanted to have her in this story because I’ve always felt like Bruce and Barbara were never very close in the comics. I think Barbara would be an obvious person for Bruce to turn to as he adjusts to his life without the cowl. She’d be someone who could teach him how to continue the war on crime without being an active participant.

Dinah Drake/Black Canary -- Dinah has a small cameo in the story, since I wanted her, Oracle, and Huntress to be in the initial stages of forming the Birds of Prey.

Cassandra Cain/Batgirl -- Although Cassandra wasn’t around during the events of Knightfall, my fanfic takes place a few years after Jean Paul Valley takes up the cowl, so it’s feasible that she would have appeared by then. Each of the Batgirls has a special place in my heart, but Cassandra always struck me as intriguing because she was raised by an assassin, yet of all the Batgirls she seems to have the biggest heart.

Clark Kent/Superman -- I had to do some research on this because the Knightfall and Death/Return of Superman comics take place around the same time. I wasn’t sure if Superman would have returned by the time my story takes place, but multiple sources claim that there was a comic in which Superman checked in with Jean Paul after his return. Jean Paul, however, had lined his cowl with lead so Superman couldn’t see who was wearing the Batsuit. This obviously raised some suspicions for Clark, but apparently not enough for him to investigate further. “Usurper” would have Superman taking a more active role in deposing Jean Paul. I’ve also mentally replaced Superman’s black-and-white, mullet-wearing Return costume with the blue, red, and black costume of Kingdom Come. 

Villains

Jean Paul Valley/Azrael/Batman -- The idea of Batman as a villain excites me to no end, and while Jean Paul isn’t the true Batman (however much he might wish it were so), he represents what Bruce might become if he ever breaks his rule not to kill. It’s also going to be interesting to explore Batman from the perspective of those he hunts--how terrifying that would be, especially knowing that this Batman kills. Jean Paul strikes me as somewhat of a tragic villain--he’s a man who believes he’s doing good, but ultimately is no better than the criminals he kills. He fears that without the brainwashing of the Order of St. Dumas, he’ll be nothing, which sadly is what he ultimately becomes.

The Order of St. Dumas -- The Order is responsible for Jean Paul’s brainwashing into becoming Azrael, and their influence on him is always present as he continues to have hallucinations of his father and St. Dumas throughout the Knightfall trilogy. The purpose of this brainwashing, however, is never quite explained. Presumably, the Order wanted Azrael to become an avenging angel of Gotham--one who would deal with its criminal element in a permanent fashion as opposed to Batman’s temporary one. “Usurper” takes it a step further, with the Order revealing themselves to be a fascist organization bent on placing Gotham under their martial law.

Victor Zsasz -- From the time I first read the Knightfall trilogy, I always loved how creepily realistic Zsasz seemed compared to a lot of Batman’s other villains. The concept of a man who carves tallies of the number of people he’s killed into his skin fits into the grittiness of Gotham perfectly. Even the fact that his eyes in Knightfall were merely dark slits from which two white specs stared hungrily drew me towards wanting to write a Batman story with Zsasz in it.

Joker -- Like Alfred, I don’t think Joker will show up very much. If anything, I feel like Joker is better in small doses, rather than in long story arcs. Part of what makes his character so good is the mystery behind him, and the longer he’s around, the less mystery there is and the less creepy and unpredictable he becomes. That being said, I’m interested in showing a darker Joker here than what appears in the Knightfall comics. In Batman and Son, Grant Morrison suggests that Joker goes through periods in which his personality changes, making him even more unpredictable, and currently I’m thinking we’ll get to see Joker go from a campier character to the grittier villain we see in comics by Brian Azzarello and Scott Snyder.

The Court of Owls -- This secret society appeared in the first two volumes of Scott Snyder’s run of Batman comics in 2011, yet Snyder suggests that the Court has existed in Gotham since its creation. Again, I don’t intend for the Court to show up much (or, perhaps, at all), but Tim and the rest of the Bat-family will start to hear hints and rumors of their existence.

Anti-heroes Bane -- Bane has little more than a cameo appearance in my story. Rather than turning Bane over to police custody, Jean Paul gives him an almost lethal dose of the super-steroid called Venom. He’s rushed to the hospital where he remains in a comatose state. His gang, however, remains active in both Gotham and Santa Prisca. Tim contacts them to learn more about how Bane managed to defeat Batman and take over Gotham.

Edward Nigma/Riddler -- For a brief period, some of the Batman comics featured Riddler as a detective who solved Gotham’s most puzzling crimes. The idea intrigued me, so I’ve revitalized it for “Usurper.”

Harvey Dent/Two-Face -- This rendition of Harvey is greatly inspired by Scott Snyder’s All Star Batman 1: My Own Worst Enemy, in which Batman is forced to work with Harvey while his Two-Face persona works against them. For “Usurper,” I imagined Harvey’s deep desire to save Gotham from corruption, which might lead him towards working with Tim and the rest of the Bat-family. Two-Face, however, still holds a deep hatred for everything Bat related, and would simultaneously seek to foil Tim’s plans.

Selina Kyle/Catwoman -- Selina had a fairly large role in Knightfall, partly due to the fact that she was one of the few people who immediately knew that Bruce was no longer wearing the mantle of the Bat. Jean Paul also had a disgustingly crude lust for Catwoman that Selina was able to exploit in order to escape his grasp. As much as Selina cares for Bruce, I can only imagine she’d want to aid in removing Jean Paul from the role of Batman.

Shiva -- Shiva was one of Tim’s biggest mentors while he was learning to be Robin, but was frequently disappointed by his refusal to kill. Although their relationship started as one of mutual respect, Tim’s regard for her soured after she convinced King Snake to hold a personal vendetta against him. Shiva is also one of the martial artists Bruce turned to while he learned how to be Batman again.

Pamela Isley/Poison Ivy -- While Poison Ivy was still very much a villain during the events of Knightfall, ultimately her character has always had Gotham’s best interests in mind (even in those interests meant the genocide of humanity). She’s gradually become less of an eco-terrorist and more of an anti-hero, working with Harley Quinn and Catwoman as the Sirens. “Usurper” introduces her to the idea that, while she’s not wrong in wanting Gotham to be a more eco-friendly city, her methods are unjust.

Victor Fries/Mr. Freeze -- Freeze is by far one of my favorite anti-heroes. He’s a man who will do anything if it means saving his wife, Nora. “Usurper” has him teaming with Tim after the Cataclysm leaves him desperate to fix the machines which keep his wife in cryostasis.

Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow -- This is probably one of the characters I’m most excited to work with. “Usurper” has Crane rethinking his ways after a recent pummeling by Bruce/Batman. He begins to see that his obsession with fear was born out of his own personal demons, which he hopes to overcome in order to become the true Master of Fear. During this process of rediscovering himself, Tim approaches Crane under the alias Cal Corcoran with the idea of employing his toxins as a new weapon in the Bat-arsenal. While working together, Tim introduces Crane to the concept of using fear for a good purpose rather than for one’s own pleasure. While Crane’s psychosis isn’t entirely cured, his life is given new purpose as he begins a life preying on Gotham’s criminals.

Ra’s al Ghul and the League of Assassins -- Ever since I read Red Robin 2: Collision by Chris Yost, I’ve loved the idea of Tim Drake and Ra’s al Ghul teaming up/fighting against each other. Both are incredible strategists who utilize all of their assets in order to win the fight. “Usurper” has Ra’s realizing Bruce is no longer Batman and making a move on Gotham while he believes it to be weakened. When he discovers that Tim is attempting to depose Jean Paul, however, he proposes an alliance that he hopes will lead towards Gotham’s destruction. Talia al Ghul and Damian Wayne also make appearances. 

[daledoesdrafts-blog]

Tim Drake’s Timeline (WIP)

I’ve been going through Batman and Robin comics trying to figure out how Bruce and Tim’s timelines fit into each other. The easiest way to do that is to list the Batman/Robin comics in chronological order, with a brief explanation of why they’re significant.

1. Batman: Year One - The start of Bruce’s career as Batman. 2.  Batman: Zero Year/Dark City/Savage City - Batman takes on the Red Hood gang (which presumably results in the creation of Joker) and meets the Riddler for the first time. 3. Batman: The Man Who Laughs - Batman encounters Joker for the first time. 4. Batman: Haunted Knight - A good introduction to Scarecrow and Mad Hatter as characters. 5. Batman: The Long Halloween - Harvey Dent becomes Two-Face. 6. Batman: Dark Victory - Dick Grayson becomes Robin. Tim Drake is in the circus audience when Dick’s parents are murdered by mobsters. 7. Robin: Year One - Dick Grayson takes on Killer Moth, Two-Face, Firefly, and others. 8. Batgirl: Year One - Barbara Gordon becomes Batgirl after proving herself to Batman. 9. Batman: Tales of the Demon - Introduces Ra’s al Ghul as a character. 10. Batman: Son of the Demon - Damian Wayne is conceived. 11. Nightwing: Year One - Bruce fire Dick as Robin, and Dick becomes Nightwing. (Somewhere in here Jason Todd becomes the second Robin.) 12. Batman: The Killing Joke - Barbara Gordon is shot through the spine by Joker. She’s paralyzed from the waist down, but still helps Batman as the computer hacker, Oracle. 13. Batman: A Death in the Family - Joker kills Jason Todd. 14. Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth - Joker takes over Arkham Asylum. The story shows Batman during the dark phase of his career where he’s mourning Jason’s death. 15. Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying - Tim Drake becomes the third Robin. 16. Robin: Reborn - Tim travels overseas to be trained by Lady Shiva, and takes on one of Batman’s old enemies, King Snake. The encounter teaches him how to fight without the use of his eyes. 17. Robin: Triumphant - Tim strikes up an alliance with Huntress to fight King Snake again. While Batman is away overseas, Tim manages to defeat Joker single-handed. 18. Batman: Knightfall - After breaking many of Batman’s villains out of Arkham Asylum, Bane watches as each fight wears Bruce down before finally breaking his back. Bruce appoints Jean Paul Valley (aka Azrael) as Batman. Jean Paul doesn’t believe he needs a Robin, and ostracizes Tim. 19. Robin: Solo - Tim takes on the villains Jean Paul can’t be bothered with, forming an alliance with Stephanie Brown (aka Spoiler). Together, they take down Stephanie’s father, the Cluemaster. 20. Robin: Turning Point - Tim and Dick team up to fight the villains Jean Paul ignores. 21. Batman: Knightquest - Jean Paul brings down more of Batman’s villains, becoming more violent and eventually killing Abattoir. Bruce returns to Gotham to take back the mantle of the Bat. 22. Batman: Knightsend - Bruce defeats Jean Paul. While he trains to regain the strength he had as Batman, he appoints Dick as Batman. Tim and Dick fight Two-Face, giving Dick the chance to confront a mistake he made while facing the villain as Robin. Bruce returns when he’s prepared to be Batman again. 23. Batman by Doug Moench and Kelley Jones - takes place directly after Knightsend and shows Bruce struggling with his identity as Batman. 24. Robin: War of the Dragons - an Asian gang war breaks out in Gotham, resulting in Bruce and Tim fighting King Snake again. Bruce scolds Tim for putting too much trust in Huntress. 25. Batman: Contagion - a deadly strain of the Ebola virus hits Gotham and Batman, Nightwing, Robin, Huntress, a reformed Azrael, and Catwoman team up to stop it. 26. Batman: Legacy - another strain of the virus emerges, this one controlled by Ra’s al Ghul. 27. Batman: Cataclysm - already damaged by the virus, Gotham is further crippled by a deadly earthquake. 28. Batman: No Man’s Land -  Gotham becomes a lawless wasteland that is divided into territories held by its most powerful figures. Cassandra Cain appears as Batgirl. 29. Robin: Unmasked! - After finding his costume, Tim Drake’s father requests that he retire as Robin. Stephanie Brown becomes the fourth Robin, but is later fired by Batman after she disobeys one of his orders. A romance develops between Tim and Stephanie. 30. Batman: War Games - Stephanie Brown returns to her career as Spoiler. Tim Drake breaks his promise to his father and becomes Robin again. Stephanie is “killed.” 31. Robin/Batgirl: Fresh Blood - Tim Drake trains Cassandra Cain to be the second Batgirl. 32. Batman: Hush - Batman goes up against Hush, aka Thomas Elliot, once a friend of the Wayne family. 33. Batman: Under the Hood - Jason Todd returns as Red Hood after being resurrected by Ra’s al Ghul. 34. Identity Crisis - Tim Drake’s father is killed by Captain Boomerang. 35. Robin: To Kill a Bird - Tim moves to Bludhaven while mourning the deaths of Stephanie and his father. 36. Infinite Crisis - Tim’s friend, Superboy, dies. Tim changes his costume from red and green to red and black to honor his friend’s memory. 37. Robin: Wanted - Bruce adopts Tim as his son. Tim is framed for Cassandra Cain’s murder and has to find a way to clear his name. Later, it’s revealed that Cassandra snapped after discovering that she had a sister that her father loved while he abused Cassandra. This lead her to join the League of Assassins in the attempt to murder her father. Tim is hurt by her betrayal after they formed such a strong friendship. Tim is also forced into a temporary alliance with Captain Boomerang Jr., the son of his father’s killer, in order to find and disable a nuclear bomb hidden by Joker. A wannabe superhero, Dodge, begins interfering with Tim’s crime fighting, insisting that Robin needs a sidekick. 38. Robin: Teenage Wasteland - It’s revealed that Dodge has the ability to teleport via a special belt, but when the belt is damaged by a stray bullet, Dodge falls into a coma. Later, his body goes missing after he absorbs the belt’s teleportation powers. He vows he’ll get revenge on Robin, who he blames for his condition, and sells deadly metahuman drugs to Cassandra Cain. 39. Robin: The Big Leagues - After assembling a gang of metahumans, Dodge takes over a hospital, demanding the police hand Robin over to him. There’s a disagreement among the gang, however, as to whether or not Robin should be killed or just “taught a lesson.” Dodge ends up taking down the rest of the gang before fading into nothingness, and Robin hails him as “the real hero.” After a series of murders, Tim finds himself becoming increasingly moody and violent as Robin, and realizes that it’s the anniversary of his father’s death. He swears that he’ll no longer use his father’s death as an excuse for violence. 40. Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul - Ra’s al Ghul’s disciples attempt to restore him by transferring his mind into a new body--Damian Wayne’s.  41. Robin: Violent Tendencies - Stephanie Brown returns as Spoiler and helps Tim take down a vigilante known as Violet. 42. Batman: R.I.P. -  43. Final Crisis - Bruce Wayne “dies.” 44. Robin: Search for a Hero -  45. Batman: Battle for the Cowl - Dick Grayson becomes Batman and “fires” Tim as Robin. Damian Wayne takes Tim’s place as the fifth Robin. Stephanie Brown becomes Batgirl, and Tim becomes Red Robin. 46. Grant Morrison’s Batman and Robin series -  47. Red Robin: The Grail - Convinced that Bruce is still alive, Tim launches a quest to acquire solid evidence that he’s right. In order to gain that evidence, however, he’ll have to work alongside the agents of Ra’s al Ghul. During his search, Tim discovers a cave in which an ancient Bat-symbol is painted on the wall. 48. Red Robin: Collision - Continues Tim’s search for evidence that Bruce is still alive. After a betrayal by Ra’s, Tim vows to take down the entire League of Assassins from within. 49. Batman: The Black Mirror - Dick Grayson’s solo adventures as Batman, where he goes up against Joker, Great White Shark, and Barbara Gordon’s sociopathic step-brother, James Gordon, Jr. 50. Red Robin: The Hit List -  51. Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne -  52. Red Robin: 7 Days of Death -  (Somewhere in between here Red Robin is presumed dead. Tim Drake effectively retires from crime fighting, allowing everyone--including the Bat Family--to believe he’s dead.) 53. Future's End - When a supercomputer from the future known as Brother Eye threatens the present day, Terry McGinnis (aka Batman Beyond) is sent back in time to kill its designer. However, Brother Eye uses the bodies of Joker and Bruce Wayne to create a cyborg that kills Terry before he can complete his task. Because Tim Drake is touching the Batsuit at the time, he’s temporally displaced into Terry’s future, where he becomes the new Batman Beyond. 54. Batman Beyond: Brave New Worlds - Tim goes up against the cyborg versions of Earth’s greatest heroes and teams up with an older Barbara Gordon to take down Brother Eye. 55. Batman Beyond: City of Yesterday - Still stranded in the future, Tim follows Terry’s brother Matt to the ruins of Metropolis after they discover the last Green Lantern power ring. With it, Matt hopes to resurrect Earth’s fallen heroes. 56. Batman Beyond: Wired for Death - One of Terry’s old nemeses, Rewire, shows up in Neo-Gotham. The problem is, the original Rewire is dead. As they uncover this new Rewire’s identity, secrets about Bruce Wayne’s past are revealed. Eventually, it’s revealed that after Brother Eye was defeated, Terry McGinnis showed up in Neo-Gotham alive, but confused as to his identity. This made him easy prey for Spellbinder, who brainwashed Terry into believing he was Rewire. After defeating Spellbinder and reversing the brainwashing, Tim’s temporal displacement ends, leaving the reader to speculate as to whether he was returned to a timeline in which Brother Eye no longer exists, or if he simply faded into nothingness. (Note: the current run of Batman comics depicts a future Tim Drake as having become Batman, but eventually turning to guns and killing criminals as a vigilante known as Savior. It’s made pretty clear, however, that this is an alternate universe Tim Drake and not the same one described above.)

[daledoesdrafts-blog]

Usurper -- Building an Elseworlds Batman Story

I’ve been talking about writing a Batman fanfiction on my Facebook for a while now, but obviously that’s a huge undertaking. There are so many characters in the Batman stories that it can be difficult to figure out how to write for them.

The idea came to me a while back when I first read the Batman: Knightfall trilogy of comics. For those unfamiliar, Knightfall is the series in which Bane breaks Batman’s back and Bruce appoints Jean Paul Valley (AKA Azrael) as Batman. The story came out in the early 90s, so those were the comics I read as a kid. Chuck Dixon, Alan Grant, and Doug Moench wrote the kinds of stories I expected from a Batman comic, and Kelley Jones’ depiction of the Dark Knight came to be what I still imagine the Batman to look like.

But there were things that bothered me about Knightfall--things I couldn’t put my finger on until very recently. For one, Bruce’s back injury is cured almost by magic so that he can make his return as Batman. As a kid, I honestly believed having your back broken was just about the worst thing that could happen to you (possibly because it was the worst thing that had ever happened to one of my favorite superheroes). For Bruce to just get up and walk it off...it didn’t seem realistic.

Then there was the fact that my absolute all time favorite character in any comic, Tim Drake (AKA Robin III) was treated poorly by both Bruce and Jean Paul. After losing the second Robin (Jason Todd) at the hands of the Joker, Bruce became extremely protective of Tim and frequently made him stay home or gave him easy assignments for fear of him getting hurt. Yet in his first year as Robin, Tim took on a vast amount of Batman’s rogues gallery relatively unscathed. This is made even more remarkable when one considers the fact that Tim was 14 when his career as Robin started.

Jean Paul casts Tim aside because he doesn’t believe Batman needs a Robin, which results in Tim striking out on his own and basically becoming the vigilante Gotham deserved at the time of Knightfall, allowing his own personal life to crumble for the sake of the city.

But even after Bruce takes up the mantle of the Bat again, he pushes Tim away because he’s in a state where he’s learning how to be Batman again. In brief, Tim is in a perpetual state of flying solo--the Dynamic Duo is broken.

I wanted to write a story that strengthened the relationship between Bruce and Tim, and in order to do that I realized I would have to write my own take on the Knightfall story.

“Usurper” sets up an alternate universe that begins after Jean Paul takes up the mantle of the Bat. Shondra Kinsolving, the woman who heals Bruce’s back, has been murdered by Bane’s men, meaning that Bruce never recovers and falls into a depression. While Nightwing is still active, troubles in Bludhaven prevent him from giving much attention to Gotham, and the Gotham City Police Department is overwhelmed. Jean Paul becomes more and more brutal in dealing with Batman’s foes, ostracizing Robin and eventually killing criminals they encounter. Realizing that something must be done to stop this vengeful Batman, Tim begins working on a plan to remove Jean Paul from his position as Batman. In order for it to be successful, however, he’ll have to leave Gotham in a time when it needs him most. And he’ll have to recruit the help of some of Batman’s worst enemies.