Bruce Wayne

"Bruce gave me a great piece of advice once. Grow into the person you needed as a kid."

- Kate Kane

Bruce Wayne (born February 19) is a well-known billionaire, philanthropist, and former owner of Wayne Enterprises. He is the son of the late Thomas and Martha Wayne, the nephew of Jacob Kane and the cousin of Kate and Beth Kane.

Sometime after his parents' murder, he became Gotham City's vigilante known as Batman, or simply the Bat, stylized as the "Dark Knight". In 2015, he suddenly disappeared for unknown reasons. This led to the local crime rate rising higher than ever before. His iconic symbol, the Bat-Signal, was finally switched off in 2018 by the Gothamites to represent the permanence of his absence. His cousin Kate eventually discovered his secret identity and took on the mantle in his place as the new vigilante known as Batwoman.

Early life
Bruce was born on February 19 in Gotham City to his parents Thomas and Martha Wayne. At some point, his parents were murdered.

Becoming Batman
Sometime after his parents' murder, Bruce committed himself to being the protector of Gotham City becoming a vigilante and crafting himself a bat-inspired persona to fight crime and strike terror into the hearts of his enemies. He eventually became known as Batman, though his existence is considered a sort of urban legend.

Over the years, Bruce began working as the CEO of his family company, Wayne Enterprises. In his office, Bruce kept the necklace his mother wore on the night of her death in a square pyramid-shaped glass container. The case also functioned as an entrance into an elevator that lead to an underground base where Bruce kept his Batman suit and gadgets. His maternal younger cousins Beth and Kate Kane, with whom he was very close to, often went visiting his place of work or tried to sneak into his office.

Kane family car crash
After having been Batman long enough for the public to be aware of him, Bruce was in pursuit of a school bus that had been hijacked by the Joker in January 2003. Through happenstance, the bus impacted a car that contained Bruce's two cousins and aunt, which caused the car to to crash on a bridge. He tactically shot two hooks with his grapple gun at his family's car, which was about to fall off of the bridge, securing it at the bridge and allowing Kate to escape, then he quickly left to save the 34 children on the bus that crashed into the Kanes' car. However, the part of the car his grapple was attached to separated from the rest of it, causing Beth and his aunt to fall into the river below. Bruce searched for their bodies, but was only able to find his aunt's. Due to Kate thinking that Batman didn't care about the rest of her family, Bruce took it upon himself to comfort his cousin as himself, which Kate greatly appreciated. Despite the two being family, Bruce never told her his secret identity.

Hiring Luke Fox
Eventually Bruce employed Luke Fox as the head of Wayne Security and shared his secret identity with him. However, presumably due to a violation of his trust, he once fired Luke, but eventually reinstated him.

Disappearance
Around 2015, Bruce left Gotham City for unknown reasons, also leaving behind his identity as Batman. His cousin, Kate Kane, was left in charge of his properties in Gotham, while Luke remained responsible for watching over the Wayne Enterprises building.

Legacy
Batman's existence was never fully confirmed to the public, making him a myth. While most individuals (including Barry Allen) believed that he did exist, other individuals (like Oliver Queen) believed that Batman was never real, but in fact an urban legend created by the GCPD in order to scare the criminals of the city.

Personality
According to Kara Danvers and Kate Kane, Bruce Wayne is a very heroic but deceptive individual, constantly pretending to be a self-centered individual, when in reality, he is anything but egomanical.

Bruce is a no-nonsense and blunt individual. As Batman, he is very stoic and committed to helping Gotham City.

According to Luke Fox; Bruce is a very caring and selfless individual, as he not only cares about protecting the citizens of Gotham from criminals, but also members of his family as well, possibly due to the death of his ow parents. Bruce also has a very close relationship with his cousin, Kate Kane, as he provided her with emotional support; following the death of her mother and the apparent death of her sister, Beth Kane respectively, which she appreciated despite the latter's stoic personality.

According to Luke and Jacob Kane, Bruce achieved a lot with his life, and shares many traits with Kate.

Abilities
"I would never compare myself to a total badass like Batman."

- Barry Allen to Kate Kane

"Sitting at that desk, staring out that window, watching this city that we grew up in rot at its core, you find a way to not break. Bruce didn't leave Gotham without a fight."
 * High-level intellect/Great business acumen: Bruce is very intelligent; despite his part-time vigilantism, he managed to run Wayne Enterprises very successfully for many years without any perceivable difficulty. Bruce can perform calculations in his head during missions, such as when he tried to save Kate, Beth, and Gabi Kane from a car accident.
 * Expert of deception: Bruce has managed to successfully keep his identity as Batman a secret for many years. The only known individuals who are aware of his identity are Kate Kane and Luke Fox. Furthermore, even the highly intelligent Oliver Queen doubts the existence of his Batman alter-ego, dismissing him as an "urban legend concocted by the Gotham City Police Department to scare criminals." The former continued to believe he was a myth even after seeing the Bat-Signal and hearing a confirmation of his existence by Kate. By day, Bruce puts on the impression of a careless and selfish individual, as Kara Danvers doubted Bruce would be the one to bail her, Barry and Oliver out of jail, when in reality he is selfless and caring.
 * Skilled gadgeteer: Bruce is a skilled user of gadgets, carrying tons of them to fight crime.

- Kate Kane to Kara Danvers


 * Indomitable will: Bruce has a tremendous force of will. He remained in Gotham, fighting crime even as he witnessed the putrefaction of the city he grew up in.
 * Intimidation: As Batman, Bruce is as just as intimidating to criminals as to those he protects them from.
 * Peak of human physical condition: As a vigilante, Bruce is in top physical condition from fighting crime in Gotham City for over a decade.
 * Network: According to Luke Fox, and Kate Kane, Bruce had the best tech on the planet. Due to heading Wayne Enterprises, it is conceivable he possessed technology very few people on the planet had access to, which is backed up by his own equipment, which greatly aided Kate in her crusade as Batwoman.

Former equipment
"Guy had the best tech on the planet."

- Kate Kane to Luke Fox


 * Batman suit: Whilst fighting crime in Gotham, Bruce wore a protective black suit stylized like a bat that also hid his identity from his enemies. After his disappearance, he abandoned the suit and it was later redesigned by Luke Fox and utilized by Kate Kane as Batwoman.
 * Batarang: Batman uses a roughly bat-shaped throwing weapon.
 * Grapple gun: As Batman, Bruce uses a length of monofilament wire attached to a spool.

Trivia

 * Given that Bruce began his career as Batman before 2003 and continued for 12 years, he is the first known vigilante on Earth-1 and is one of the most experienced superheroes in the known multiverse (aside from J'onn J'onzz).
 * Other challengers for this title are Clark Kent of Earth-38, who was Superman for around 12 years and Oliver Queen of Earth-1's 7 years.
 * However, Bruce made his debut as a superhero before the other challengers.
 * Bruce doesn't have a middle name.
 * Bruce owns a plethora of books: The Joys of Wine, Degas, The Golden Bible, and many more. He keeps them in a bookshelf in his office at Wayne Enterprises

Behind the scenes

 * In the DC comics, Bruce Wayne is a vigilante hero known as Batman, the protector of Gotham City, a man dressed like a bat who fights against evil and strikes terror into the hearts of criminals everywhere. He is also a former mentor of Dick Grayson/Nightwing, who is the protector of Blüdhaven. He is also an occasional ally of Oliver Queen/Green Arrow, Barry Allen/Flash, and Clark Kent/Superman, the latter third of whom is his most frequent ally.
 * From what Luke and Kate have discussed, Bruce doesn't have a middle name. This also lines up with the comics in which the character doesn't have one.
 * In the original script for, it was not Bruce Wayne but some other unrelated person's name on it. Stephen Amell himself suggested Bruce Wayne's name on the script after receiving approval from Warner Bros. Entertainment CEO Kevin Tsujihara, Greg Berlanti and DC Entertainment executive Geoff Johns.