Reboot One Batman 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.

[Vakanai]

Whoops! Sorry man.

No problem. I figured if I didn't make that caveat 90% of the posts here would be "revert it back to before..." posts, and that's just no fun. A little boring, and a little depressing. This way you gotta use your imagination a little.

[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...

And here’s the sequel...

(And an attempted rehabilitation of another part of the Arkham Knight story)

Years after his death, some of Strange’s accomplices and victims begin having visions of him, as does Batman. It’s Batman during the period between Jason’s death and Tim’s arrival, so he’s emotional raw and mentally a little frayed. The Strange Apparition begins trying to manipulate him into breaking his rules, and manages to manipulate the Mayor of Gotham into ordering Batman hunted again.

The frayed Batman eventually manages to trip up the vision and reveal it’s artificial nature, and tracks its source down: Fay Moffit, The Spellbinder... but Bruce determines Mofitt was acting under someone’s direction. Bruce has to do a deep dive into the bowels of the old Arkham building and ends up being injected with a hate plague drug he has trouble fighting off... courtesy of Lady Arkham, Strange’s pupil, favorite test subject, and posthumous heir... who he kidnapped from her parents and reared in isolation, as a kind of mad scientist version of Damian or Cass.

Astrid Arkham sees herself as on a crusade against Batman, in defense of Strange’s “creations,” and is operating under a mad delusion created by Strange that demands she work to reverse any positive progress with the inmates made in Arkham. So she helps trigger a serious relapse by a Harvey Dent who is also the gotten over the Two-Face persona, and assists the Joker in manipulating the Arkham staff into ignoring Harleen Quinzel’s request for a psyche evaluation fo herself.

She’s driven by a “programmed voice” of Strange’s in her head, and would require serious therapy to heal.

[WonderScott]

It’s hard for me to select just one, but my top characters would be:

Jason Bard
Natalia Knight
Magpie
The Wonderland Gang
Calendar Girl
Joker’s Daughter
Flamebird
Cavalier
Captain Stingeree

[jetengine]

Interestingly I was reading Cluemasters first issue and I think he deserves a revamp. Lean less on the "I'm a sad Riddler ripoff" and more of his original issue stuff where the clues were a means to an end. It was never a gimmick, it was never psychological issues ala Nygma its just a weapon to get Batman where he wanted, when he wanted. Plus he was very prudent and didnt allow himself to be sucked into the "Batman scary myth" bullshit.

[Gotham citizen]

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...

Your idea is very close to my idea of how Professor Strange should be rebooted, the only big difference is I would keep the Professor "under cover" in order to can use him every time I need (to me the death should be forever also in the comics), while your is great for a movie or a graphic novel.

[godisawesome]

Cass origin

Here’s an idea for the *best* Batgirl, but trying to actually work with and accommodate some of the other parts of her hotly and marketing dynamic:

Cassandra Cain - I want to blend the stories from pre-New 52, Batman and Robin Eternal, and Shadow of the Batgirl together.

The girl who will become Cassandra Cain doesn’t have a name to start with. She’s the premiere pupil and “product” of her father, David Cain, who is the main enforcer for Mother... but Mother is specifically Ra’s Al Ghul’s servant, acting in concert with the Sensei to train the armies that the Demon desires. Mother trains children, though instead of them just being kidnapped kids outright, she instead has a Big-Boss-From-Metal-Gear type policy of “rescuing kids from the disasters and attacks that Ra’s unleashes.

Cass was a pseudo-eugenics experiment, as in her original comic run, wherein David Cain managed to convince Lady Shiva to bear his child; however, she was already a warrior when she met Cain, and it is explicitly mentioned that she had no idea what kind of training Cassandra would be made to undergo - she presumed her daughter would be raised as a a warrior, yes, but also with the privileges Shiva herself enjoys and that she saw David Cain partake in. This is important for later. David Cain, of course raises her as a weapon in a horrifically abusive manner, though lie in Shadow of the Batgirl, he doesn’t actually deprive her totally of communication cognition - she can understand worlds, and has a smattering she uses herself, but is severely stunted in expressing her own thoughts verbally, reads body language more than anything else, and has severe dyslexia and illeteracy.

Cass enters Gotham shortly before the Cataclysm Earthquake, and kills her first and only victim there as part of Cain’s assistance in one of Ra’s Al Ghul’s schemes. Reading his body language as he dies and hearing his last thoughts about his daughter cause her to breakdown, and she flees into the city, avoiding pursuit and scrounging to survive, like in Shadow of the Batgirl. Her oath back begins when the Earthquake hits, and Cass acts to save others out of compassion, and ends up at the Gotham Library, where Barbara Gordon is operating an emergency sanctuary alongside some side work as Batgirl/Oracle (choose whichever you prefer for now).

Cass ends up staying in the library long after most of the other kid’s have been picked up, and we get the ideas about her yearning to understand the books she sees the kids read, and becoming hyper-protective of the other kids. She uncovers what Babs is doing, and as one of Ra’s former agents, recognizes that Babs is affiliated with Batman. Scared, she flees, but Babs worries about her, and asks Batman and co. to find her. Spoiler finds her first, actually, but Cass’s non-lethal takedown of her and careful placement of her in a safe spot afterwards let’s Bruce know she’s well-meaning. Cass observes Batman rescue Spoiler, and is struck by how caring and so passionate he is. Cass begins following/stalking the other Bat family members, observing who they are, how they interact, and how good they are. She also makes her home in the local diner that shows up in Shadow of the Batgirl.

When she spies David Cain is back in Gotham, she rushes to the library and Babs, and barely manages to communicate the threat, though Babs at first disbelieves her, and nicknames her Cassandra afterwards. Babs gathers the family at the library... and they get ambushed by Mother’s soldiers from the League of Shadows. Cass displays her mettle again, as well as her dedication to avoiding fatalities and quiet death wish when she gets injured saving a ninja from falling to his death. She wakes up in a satellite Batcave with Spoiler and Robin III, who she non-chalantly reveals she knows for their other identity because they’re body language is the same (as well as awkwardly announcing how they’re still attracted to each other even as they deny it). This gets Nightwing to arrive and try to address the issue. Babs calls to inform them that Cass is Cain’s daughter thanks to a DNA test from her injury, and Dick’s disgust at how messed up Cain was in raising Cass let’s skip a mention of how it might be better not to have a father and be an orphan if Cain’s the alternative.

Cass asks Tim and Steph about what Nightwing meant, and we get some very sad scenes where her lack of understanding of what words like “father,” “family,” and “orphan” mean. Cass’s admiration for the family means she takes “orphan” as a good phrase, since Bruce and Dick are really impressive to her.

When they leave her to go and take down Cain’s crew, Cass manages to break out of her confinement (for her safety) and takes one of Spoiler’s suits... but quickly spray paints it black, remembering how proud Steph was of her unique uniform. She dives into the battle, and ends up personally defeating Cain, calling herself “Orphan” when he has the gall to try calling her “daughter,” but with a pause that makes it clear he doesn’t know what it *really* means.

Babs speaks up for including Cass in the family while she tries to help Cass get something like a normal life. The end of Cass’s origin has Shiva visit the diner that Cass lives at, and charming her into sharing lunch, where she quietly ascertains what Cass’s life was like growing up. Shiva displays some confidently assured pride when Cass mentions she won the fight that her bloodied knuckles testify to, but has a moment of confusion when she realizes Cass can’t read, and freezes when she realizes how deprived Cass’s life was at its core.

Shiva visits Mother, who is busily planning how to recapture Cass and free Cain. Shiva gets the story of Mother and Cain’s rearing tactics, and when Mother nervously asserts that Shiva gave up her right to determine Cass’s fate, and even points out it would be rather rich to call herself Cass’s mother. Shiva seems to accede, but as she begins to talk about why she has her code name, it’s implications as creator/destroyer, and why she trains as many people as she kills... and how Cass is a less effective creation because of another and Cain’s negligence... Mother slowly realizes that Shiva is going to kill her for Cass’s suffering, even if she has to work out some twisted reasoning for it that preserves her professional cred... and Shiva kills Mother.

[Godzilla2099]

Cassandra Cain

No contest. She's my favorite member of the Bat Family and in serious need of a make-over.

This new version is a joke. Cassandra doesn't have her special abilities but skill keeps her limitations?

Here's my proposed reboot. She'll be much like her pre-52 version but with a few changes

- Cassandra's Father is still David Cain, but her mother isn't Sandra Woosan (Lady Shiva) but instead, her murdered sister
- David Cain tried training 10 children for his experiment to create the perfect human weapon. 8 didn't make it. 2 survived.
- Cassandra has the body reading abilities and anticipate an opponent's actions. Her strong abilities comes at a sacrifice. She's limited in communication, social, detective, and tech skills
- Give Cassandra a modified version of her Pre-52 Batgirl Costume.
- Yes, Babs is "Batgirl" I loved the "Destruction's Daughter" arc Cass had. Bruce adopted Cass. Change her code-name from Orphan to "The Daughter"
- Cassandra can even operate in a different part of the globe as a different Batgirl.

[mathew101281]

Thanks, very much tired of Quinn as some attempt at an anti-hero so think it would be interesting route given her origins as an aspiring psychologist.

Yes please. So tired of Batman set permanently on dick mode and the "Batman is real guy, Bruce is the mask" interpretation.

the problem with divorcing her origin from the Joker is that t really leaves her visual gimmick as quite a random thing. Having Batman with two unrelated clown themed villains is kind of redundant visually.

[OBrianTallent]

Bette Kane a.k.a. Flamebird. I've written of this direction for the character before as I think its absolutely wonderful and sets Bette up for growth not only within the Bat franchise but potentially outside of it as well.
Bette has graduated from military school and is living on her own, maybe Gotham, maybe not. Anyway, she enters her apartment and recognizes something isnt quite right. In her living room she finds her aunt Kathy Kane. Having enjoyed the life of international espionage, Kathy has set about to rebuild her empire in the wake of Leviathan destroying it all. Bette, or rather Flamebird is to be her first recruit. Think of it as somewhere between Birds of Prey and Charlie's Angels.
I am slightly tempted to call it Birds of Prey but not sure if I would include Canary and without her, I'm not sure its BoP.
The premise would oftentimes include renowned tennis star Bette Kane being somewhere that Aunt Kathy would send her that would actually be some investigative espionage type rundown.