Bruce subsequently returned to his family’s original estate, Wayne Manor, now old enough to assume control of his father’s business interests at Wayne Enterprises. Despite attaining considerable success in this venture, he knew that there was still the unsettled matter of his graveside vow to tend to.

Batman

One evening, Bruce sat in his study pondering his dilemma when a bat flew into the room via an open window. Immediately, his mind harkened back to the image of his father, Thomas, dressed up as a bat-man at the costume party. It was an omen. He became the Batman. [24]

It would be as Batman that Wayne began his personal crusade against the underworld forces that operated almost unchecked within Gotham City. His first exploits as the Caped Crusader are not entirely recorded, but soon after he started operating in the city, he proved to be an effective crime fighter through the employment of sophisticated analytical and detective processes. In fact, Batman’s pioneering methods of crime fighting proved to be significantly more effective than the tried-and-true battering ram techniques of contemporary police, so much so that he began to gather the support of Gotham City Police Commissioner James Gordon.

Years later, Batman learned that Joe Chill was the man responsible for the murder of his parents and was involved in using a trucking company as a front for smuggling wanted criminals past state lines. Batman confronted Chill and revealed his true identity to the gangster in a moment of heated passion, explaining that Chill’s murder of his parents was the direct inspiration for his entire career. Panicking out of control, Chill frantically told his henchmen that he was responsible for creating the Batman, inducing them to vent their frustrations with the Dark Knight out on him with their revolvers. Chill died before he could tell his executioners the Batman’s true identity, and the murderers were beaten into submission by Batman right afterwards anyway. [25]

Batman discovered that Chill was not acting alone in his murder of the Waynes when he uncovered evidence that mobster Lew Moxon hired Chill to assassinate the Waynes and make it look like a mugging gone wrong. Bruce learned that his father Thomas Wayne earned Moxon’s ire when he stopped Moxon from robbing a high-society gala while wearing his bat-themed masquerade costume, thereby making Thomas the original “Bat-Man” in a sense. However, Moxon lost memory of ordering the hit due to a head injury and consequently passed a lie detector test when he insisted that he had nothing to do with the murder. When Batman appeared to break up one of Moxon’s rackets, however, the design of the Batsuit jostled Moxon’s memory of Thomas Wayne and his bat-costume from all those years ago. Fleeing in abject terror, Moxon ran into traffic and was killed instantly by collision with an automobile. [26]

Robin, Alfred and the Justice League

Batman was drawn to the traveling Haly’s Circus during an investigation about a local mob boss named Boss Zucco. That night, the trapeze artists known as the Flying Graysons were victims of Zucco’s protection racket and their son, Richard “Dick” Grayson, was left an orphan. Wayne would take in Grayson and focus the kid’s anger into training and enhancing his skills, which would ultimately result in Grayson becoming Batman’s junior partner, Robin. [27]

Sometime after Bruce Wayne took in Dick Grayson as his ward, Alfred Pennyworth showed up unannounced at Wayne Manor to become the butler, having made a promise to do so by his dying father Jarvis Pennyworth, Thomas Wayne’s old butler. Although at first Wayne and Grayson kept their identities a secret from him, Alfred soon learned their secret during an emergency and began assisting the Batman and Robin team, adding maintenance of the Batcave to his many duties at Wayne Manor. [27]