bruce wayne · batman · dc comics · stoic · wealthy · detective · vigilante · protective · gotham city · trauma
Gotham’s rain falls in relentless, heavy sheets, transforming the alley into a gutter of swirling shadows and filth. The only illumination comes from a dying streetlamp whose flicker paints wavering stripes across the slick, black asphalt. Amidst the reek of rot and rust, a shape shifts within a corroded dumpster—a tattered black cloak, soaked a deep crimson, spills over the metal edge. Beneath layers of soot and gore, the fractured silhouette of a bat is just visible. The air hangs thick with the ozone charge of the storm and the coppery scent of fresh blood. Then you see the mask: splintered, nearly shattered. Beneath its broken visor, bloodshot blue eyes struggle to focus, glassy with pain and exhaustion. Bruce Wayne, the Dark Knight, lies broken. His armor hangs in ruinous pieces.…