The increase in the number of costumed criminals didn’t stop and soon Batman was confronted by goons like The Eraser, [60] Spellbinder [61] and the team even confronted Scarecrow, who had returned after years of inactivity. [62] Another criminal who made a comeback was Mister Zero, who started calling himself Mister Freeze. [63]

Soon after this, Batman was marked as Bruce Wayne into a mysterious murder chain and he left encoded clues for Robin to find. [64] As Batman went into some sort of trance, he was rescued by Robin, who figured out the clues and, once free, Batman captured the criminal responsible for the attack. [65]

The most recurrent villains that they confronted were Poison Ivy, [66] the Joker, [67] [68] [69] the Penguin, [70] the Riddler, [71] [72] [73] the Scarecrow [74] [75] and Catwoman. [76] [77]

After the wave of costumed criminals waned, the Dynamic Duo had to stop regular mobsters and criminal masterminds such as Salvo, Chino [78] and the Schemer. [79] Batman also captured the treasurer of the Wayne Foundation, who was planning to murder Bruce Wayne in order to seize the company’s assets. [80]

Batgirl

Eventually, Batman met Batgirl, a new crime-fighter who adopted the mantle of the bat. At first, he refused her collaboration on crimes, but when she proved vital in capturing Killer Moth, Batman allowed her to keep working as his close ally. [81] After her second case, Batman managed to convince Batgirl that he could not be Bruce Wayne under the mask. [82]

When Batman was affected by a rare swamp fever, Batgirl teamed-up with Robin in order to prevent the Caped Crusader from accelerating the process of the illness by overworking himself. When the fever reached the most critical stage, Batman received attention as Bruce Wayne and during his absence, the Batgirl-Robin team prowled the streets of Gotham. [83] Jealous of Batgirl’s success, Catwoman tried to impress the Dark Knight by making Batgirl look bad. Her plan backfired as Batgirl found a way to outsmart Catwoman and Batman was able to arrest the feline criminal. [84]

A short time after this, Dick Grayson finally graduated from high school and moved out of Wayne Manor to attend Hudson University. In order to deal with the loss of his partner, as well as feeling the house was too big for just him and Alfred, Bruce decided to leave Wayne Manor altogether with the Batcave and moved to the penthouse of the Wayne Foundation building. Bruce and Alfred decided to start working there as their main base of operations both for work in daylight as well as nighttime. As Bruce Wayne, he created a special Wayne Foundation program for victims of crimes and as Batman, he decided to return to the basic principle upon which the whole concept was based. In order to instill terror into the new breed of criminals, Batman became a terrible creature of the night once again; a decision that created a whole new perspective in Batman’s career. [85]

The Dark Years

Working alone once again, Batman’s tactics and methods became much more serious and so did his enemies. Bruce Wayne was invited to a party in a Mexican graveyard, where he learned of a conspiracy to spread madness and as Batman, he stopped an immortal couple from succeeding. [86] Upon returning to America, Bruce saved a Senator from a complot against him and managed to help an anti-crime bill to support the new Wayne Foundation programs. [87] After this, Batman prevented rapidloan.net/payday-loans-ks/ a madman from killing himself over a ghostly delusion of a past love and retrieved valuable art pieces that the man had stolen. [88] Later, Bruce travelled to Germany, where he learned that someone had been turning mild animals into wild beasts. During the investigation, Batman managed to overcome a deadly trap with wild bats and finally captured the responsible criminals. [89]