Reboot One Batman Character

[Vakanai]

Let's say DC wants you to reboot/retool just one Batman character. Could be Batman himself, one of his supporting cast, or a villain. Only caveat is you can't just change them back to be like they were in a previous run/era. So, who do you change, and how? Can only be one.

[Westbats]

Personally, I think Harper Row, and I'd remove the portion where her mom Miranda was murdered as a plot against Batman. I'd also like to have her be written by writers other than Scott Snyder and James Tynion. I have nothing against the two, but having the rule that only they are able to write the character really hurts the character's ability to appear (as of writing this, it's been 574 days since she was last seen in a comic).

I'd keep the Bluebird aspect, but develop the suit more too from a design point of view.

[PCN24454]

I would make it so that Azrael is a rival for Damian.

[Jackalope89]

Bruce/Batman himself, at least from Jason's death onward. Mainly, in that he's more emotionally open (and actually has more than anger and cold calculation) and a better father figure to his various kids than he currently is/has been the last several years. This is probably the most frustrating thing about the character for me. It looks as if, so long as everyone follows his orders, no questions asked, he figures everything is great. Should one of his kids act out, they're either alienated or beaten to a pulp. Sometimes both (like Jason).

If Bruce were a better father figure, he would, you know, actually try and talk with his kids. Like ask Damian why he's isolated himself and attacked Jason. Or asked Jason why he brazenly went after Penguin. That sort of thing. But, nope. He avoids/ignores Damian, and beats the tar out of Jason so he can drag him to Arkham (you know, where Gotham's resident clown tends to be).

[Restingvoice]

Bette/Bethy Kane back to be the original Bat-Girl, but cooler. I don't know exactly how. Haven't thought of that. But after she retired I want her to be a mentor figure to subsequent Batgirls or joined Kathy in Spyral, or both.
She can partner with Kate but their relationship will be more like Bruce and Dick than Bruce and Tim or Damian. Mutual respect.

[BruceWayneJr.]

I wanted Jason Todd as a villain with Damian as his Robin so badly, but DC and Morrison had other ideas.

Otherwise I would make Azrael the leader of his own cult who knowingly misleads its members. There's a lot you could mine there with faith and denial.

[Oberon]

I agree with you choice but not your premise. I want Bette's original status as Bat-girl acknowledge but I would like to see her grow or really be in her "Flamebird" role.

I would like to capitalize on her strange relationship with the original Batwoman and as part of the original Batfamily.

[Arsenal]

Bruce/Batman himself, at least from Jason's death onward. Mainly, in that he's more emotionally open (and actually has more than anger and cold calculation) and a better father figure to his various kids than he currently is/has been the last several years. This is probably the most frustrating thing about the character for me. It looks as if, so long as everyone follows his orders, no questions asked, he figures everything is great. Should one of his kids act out, they're either alienated or beaten to a pulp. Sometimes both (like Jason).

If Bruce were a better father figure, he would, you know, actually try and talk with his kids. Like ask Damian why he's isolated himself and attacked Jason. Or asked Jason why he brazenly went after Penguin. That sort of thing. But, nope. He avoids/ignores Damian, and beats the tar out of Jason so he can drag him to Arkham (you know, where Gotham's resident clown tends to be).

If Bruce became a better father figure, it also would've showed that Bruce learned from his past mistakes with his past kids and actively working toward preventing from repeating them in the future.

[kcomics]

Reboot Duela Dent and go with her Pre-Crisis origin story, where she was revealed to be the Joker's daughter from an alternate timeline. Also, bring back her dad, the Jokester from Earth 3, and give him all of the positive traits of the Earth 1 Joker character.

[Stars & Stripes]

Personally, I think Harper Row, and I'd remove the portion where her mom Miranda was murdered as a plot against Batman. I'd also like to have her be written by writers other than Scott Snyder and James Tynion. I have nothing against the two, but having the rule that only they are able to write the character really hurts the character's ability to appear (as of writing this, it's been 574 days since she was last seen in a comic).

I'd keep the Bluebird aspect, but develop the suit more too from a design point of view.

I’d personally start her off as a support ally like she did, but save the Bluebird thing as a “last ditch/in case of emergency” measure that Harper has to use in the event of a big emergency. I’d also have the Bluebird suit be a bit more advanced and give it a more armored look (but not to any excess).

[Lady Nightwing]

I would change Dicks new origin. I don't like the fact that Halys circus is responsible for training recruits for the Owls. It's way too dark. Or that Dick is somehow the chosen one for the court. It needlessly complicates his backstory.

I liked that Bruce and Dick had a connection because their lives were turned upside down by petty crime.

[godisawesome]

Here’ an idea for Harper Rowe:

Bluebird: Her story starts in Dick’s days as Batman, and Dick is the Batman who recruits her, not Bruce, so she belongs to the same “generation” as Damian (still older, for the record)... and since Dick is Batman, her Bluebird suit’s similarity to Nightwing is very intentional and tip of the hat to him. I’d also drop her mother being killed by Cass, and instead make her mother a victim of No Man’s Land.

Here’s a really, *really* weird one...

Huntress II (Helena Wayne): A refugee from an alternate timeline, Helena hails from one of the Hypertime worlds caused by the numerous DC time-line shenanigans that Damian’s Titans team ran into on their own time travel adventure. Helena was raised in a *possible* future where Bruce and Selina got involved in the present day, had a daughter, but Bruce, Damian and others were killed in battle, and Catwoman became the de facto Dark Lady of Gotham alongside the remaining Bat-family. Helena, nicknamed ‘Lena, was thus raised in one of those numerous dystopian possible futures of Gotham.

Her personal mentor was Helena Bertinelli, and thus she sees herself as an inheritor of the Huntress mantle. She was just helping Damian’s team try and get back to their home, but Catwoman became aware of the fact that Damian and the others might be able to avert this timeline, and that her last is better than her presence, so she “steals” a future for her daughter by tricking her into going back with Damian while making it a one-way trip.

Lena thus has a rather unique temperament and perspective: she’s technically Damian’s little sister but acts as an older sister, angrily resists the idea of treating Bruce as her father because of the timeline and because she didn’t know *her* Bruce while also finding this version of Selina aggravating, she wants to get back to her timeline because she feels like she’s abandoned them, but knows that she can make an impact here and now, all while being a very young teenager who has weird memories of people who are now her peers.

Added complication: having to raise this reality’s version of herself if she ever got born

[Vakanai]

I would change Dicks new origin. I don't like the fact that Halys circus is responsible for training recruits for the Owls. It's way too dark. Or that Dick is somehow the chosen one for the court. It needlessly complicates his backstory.

I liked that Bruce and Dick had a connection because their lives were turned upside down by petty crime.

You can't just change something back to an earlier status quo - you can still remove the Owls from Dick's origin, but you also have to add or change something else as well.

[godisawesome]

Here’s some funky ideas:

Professor Strange - I’d actually try to limit his time as a Batman villain, since I’m going to be trying to otherwise make him a Big Damn Villain, and since he just doesn’t seem to have staying power as a latter-day Batman villain. So he’s *strictly* an early days of Batman villain, and his career, and life, is mostly limited to the period from Baman’s first year to the end of Dick’s first year as a Robin.

I’m consolidating as much of Strange’s numerous characterizations as possible, and trying to use him as a bit of an answer-all to a lot of Batman’s Rogues Gallery set-up and occasional redundancy. I’m also picturing him as almost being like a “Typhon” of Gotham - he’s not the father of all monsters, but he is the father of plenty, and an adversary to match Batman.

Hugo Strange is the Director of the Arkham Deviant/Criminal Treatment And Psychology Institute, located in the Arkham Center, a modern building that’s a successor to the classic Asylum, which is located elsewhere. The place is sometimes called the Strange Institute because of how his power over it, and has a public reputation for working miracles on both the criminally insane and on those poor wretched individuals who have parents or guardians who want their behavior “fixed.”

In reality, he’s a pseudo-Mengele mad scientist and egomaniac, equal parts sheer behavioral modification genius and chemical expert, and absolute nut job and quack. He’s also a central part of Gotham’s corrupt system before Batman appears; he’s the guy who ensures that crooks who the mob and elite want found insane can believably flag any psychologist in the world as genuinely insane (he literally tortures and treats them to be so before examination, then “fixes” them when they’re released to his care... though they’re still messed up because he *does not* have anyone’s best intentions at heart.

Strange spends Batman's early years growing monomaniacaly obsessed with Batman and his growing “freakish” rogues gallery, all while hiding in the background; he applies an amateur psychological profiling job to Batman that correctly guesses at some of Batman’s origin, but goes whacko in its presumption about why he wears the costume and what his ultimate motivation is. He also has a crackpot theory that Batman’s presence generates and creates his freak enemies, and comes to enviously covet that “power,” as well as the godlike power that he perceives in Batman’s costume and persona. He wants to be Batman, but a twisted corruption of Batman as he sees him.

Strange begins manipulating events behind the scenes, and his Strange Institute becomes a place of suffering and madness as he begins his “Monster Maker” phase, though not with his Golden Age-style ogres; he’s torturing and mutating victims into facsimiles of Batman’s rogues. Some of his plans succeed in being near copies (Lady Clay as a copy of Clayface, Firebug as a copy of Firefly), while others are twisted mistakes that show where his science was bad or his psychology was (Preston Payne Clayface is a “failure” in his mind, while Magpie is his twisted, overly objectified and kleptomaniac always interpretation of Catwoman.) He also employs Jonathon Crane as one of his assistants he gives almost free reign to on other projects, Lyle Bolton as his security expert, and his former assistant Jervis Tetchbecame Mad Hatter when Strange stopped him from blowing the whistle on how his behavioral modification technology was being used unethically and illegally... by using that same technology to drive Jervis mad as a hatter.

Things come to a head when Batman finally opposes him. Strange manages to trap Batman inside his institute for a while, and Batman is forced to ally with some of his more pitiable and victimized rogues to escape and take down Strange... who has also fulfilled his dream of matching Batman under a new guise he’s hypnotized and modified himself for... as the Arkham Knight.

Strange as the Arkham Knight manages to give Bruce a run for hi money in a physical fight, but Bruce takes advantage of his deteriorating mental state to gain the upper hand, and Strange ends up killing himself in a last ditch effort to beat the Bat.

...However, his story’s not *quite* over yet... nor is the Arkham identity as a title for a villain...

[Lady Nightwing]

You can't just change something back to an earlier status quo - you can still remove the Owls from Dick's origin, but you also have to add or change something else as well.

Whoops! Sorry man.