Originally Posted by
godisawesome
...Okay, here me out on this. I like to compile a list of story ideas I would have if I ever had a chance to do a “The Biography of Batman” story - a set timeline with major events adopted in a specific order and tied together, some familiar, and some new, and some juts heavily modified.
And I had a similar idea that I was too shy to share outright previously about how I’d handle Tim coming into his own with the mantle in Gotham and for having Stephanie join him as a partner, all with Batman absent.
Basically, set the story during an extended and more developed portrayal of Bane’s reign in the immediate aftermath of Knightfall.
Bruce is off trying to get his back fixed and recovering with Alfred, Bane has installed Bird as his “steward” over Gotham while he goes off to conquer other cities and make them pay tribute to him, and Tim?
Tim’s basically running a guerrilla campaign against Bane’s underworld hierarchy, having to avoid direct confrontations with most of the big name baddies, and do what he can to help the city as it slips back into corruption, picking off low hanging fruit and trying to contain crossfire from the occasional “court politics” in a city where Bird presides over a “Gotham Commission” that’s divided up neighborhoods and districts and have court politic-style backstabbings and infighting: Black Mask, Penguin, Riddler, the Falcone remnant, Councilman “Boss” Thorne... and Catwoman as a reluctant leader of the East End after she “stole” it from the Falcone’s.
And Tim’s secret weapon? Spoiler. She joins him because she sympathizes with his plight, and so her scrappy, can-do attitude is what’s keeping Tim going in an otherwise hopeless situation. I might also make a joke by having her end up as Catwoman’s de-facto disciple in stealth, sabotage, and flirting with a stoic goody two-shoes.
The main week-to-week villains would be low level hoodlums, C- and D-list Batman rogues, and maybe even Tim and Steph’s own personal enemies in some shape or form - Cluemaster as someone’s bitter second-in-command against the Riddler for Steph, and maybe King Snake as Tim’s personal enemy.
And since Bird is Bane’s representative, the de-facto big bad is another sidekick - just a villainous one.
You could have brief cameos or mentions of Nightwing and Oracle as they seek to stop the expansion of Bane’s empire outside of Gotham. And maybe have Cass appear at some point and join them.