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Before The Batman: An Original Movie Novel

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Before The Batman: An Original Movie Novel is a young adult superhero novel by David Lewman that serves as a prequel to Matt Reeves' film The Batman. It depicts the origins if the Batman and the Riddler two years before the events of the film. However, much of its information is contradicted by other projects in The Batman Saga, and it can be considered apocryphal.

Synopsis for "Before The Batman"

The story begins in 1997, with Bruce Wayne, who is 6 years old. Bruce and his family are currently getting ready to move from their mansion because his father who is currently running for mayor of Gotham City, to go ahead and let the orphans of Gotham live inside it.

Thomas Wayne turns the mansion into a big ceremonial event where he has press listening in on the donation. And as all this is going off, Bruce goes ahead and looks off to the group of orphan kids that'll now be living in his house and one of those kids does happen to be Edward Nashton, who is just staring down Bruce Wayne. Edward is not very fond of Bruce because he lives this rich lifestyle, gets everything he wants making the latter is jealous of Bruce.

After the Waynes built an orphanage, they decided to go live at Wayne Tower. The family lived at the top of the building in a penthouse, where Bruce grows up and spends the rest of his life, but he misses the mansion and wishes that they stayed there.

Seven years later, Bruce Wayne is now 17 years old. He has lost his parents and is left under the care of Alfred Pennyworth, who becomes his guardian/father figure. Bruce begins attending a private boarding school and has come home to Gotham City for the summer. Alfred is highly involved in Wayne Enterprises, lending a hand there. He is described as a former British intelligence operative who likes to spend his mornings working out with Bruce Wayne and sparring with him for discipline reasons as well, teaching him different mixtures of fighting styles that he's learned over the years. Bruce eventually becomes knowledgeable in Karate, Judo, Taekwondo, and other forms to defend himself in the event something were to happen to Alfred.

Eventually, Bruce, after discovering a muscle car from the 60s/70s underneath Wayne Tower, decides to remodel and tinker with it, and takes it out racing at night several times, to which Alfred is the only one aware of this and warns him to put it to better use with the cave. Under the guise of "Paul", he eventually befriends and develops feelings for Dex Starling, another racer. One night, Edward Nashton, who is Dex's former high school classmate, decides to sabotage Bruce's car out of his continued revenge plan, but what he intended ends up damaging Dex's vehicle instead. Bruce rescues her before the car explodes and flees quickly before she can discover his identity.

Years later, Bruce has grown into an adult, and has spent his time globetrotting, while also becoming an expert chemist and engineer. He eventually returns to Gotham City and to the cave underneath Wayne Tower, where he begins working on a prototype suit reminiscent of a bat. He also uses his company's resources to help him fund and build the suit of armor with flexible speed and durability. Bruce begins his career as Batman, and in one of his early adventures, he discovers a group of criminals are using military-grade explosive gels, and Alfred tells him to trust Lieutenant Janice Dure from the GCPD.

Batman comes across Dex Starling, whom he has not met in many years, and discovers she is helping out with distributing the gel supply. He discovers that Dex is blackmailed by Piggy, one of Falcone's men. After getting secret intel from Dure, he eventually follows Dex to the correctional facility where her father, Bennet, is held. Batman goes undercover there pretending to visit someone named Smitty, and out of sheer luck is allowed to visit by a guard. He tries to talk with Dex, but she leaves quickly, and Bruce keeps on following her. With the information gathered, Bruce suits up again and assists the GCPD in arresting Piggy and other goons. Using his persona as Bruce Wayne, he manages to ask Dure to help release Bennet from the correctional facility, and his name is cleared from being framed. Dex reveals to Bruce that she wanted a new life for herself and her father to move to Metropolis. Bruce leaves the scene quickly before she was able to say goodbye, leaving her slightly upset when she wanted to know more about the hero, which Bruce had to go to keep his identity secure and to keep training with Alfred.

In the aftermath, Bruce, now Batman, gains the trust of Dure where he leaves a bat symbol on a note, and she expresses optimism for the future of Gotham City. Alfred points out that he does not like how Bruce is a vigilante and is using old contacts to help out but decides to join him on his missions by assisting him in the Batcave as long as he was safe and happy.

Appearing in "Before The Batman"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Alfred Pennyworth (First appearance)
  • Dex Starling (Single appearance)
  • Lieutenant Janice Dure (Single appearance)

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

Locations:

Items:

Vehicles:

Notes

  • Before The Batman is technically the first installment of The Batman Saga, despite being written while The Batman was in post-production, and released only a month before it.
  • Includes a section of images from The Batman.
    • Edward Nashton does not properly adopt the "Riddler" identity in the novel's text, but captions within the section with images from the film refers to him as such.
    • Selina Kyle doesn't make an appearance in the novel, but she does appear in a photograph in the section of film images.
      • The image captions refer to Selina as "Catwoman", her moniker in the comics that she doesn't use in the film.

Trivia

  • There are continuity inconsistencies between the novel and other projects in The Batman Saga.
    • Bruce Wayne's company is known as Wayne Industries in Before The Batman, while it's known as Wayne Enterprises in The Batman.
    • Arkham Asylum is referenced in the novel under that name, while The Batman refers to it as the Arkham State Hospital.
    • Piggy Porcello explicitly refers to the Penguin by name as "Oswald Cobblepot" in Before The Batman, while The Penguin clarifies his real name to be "Oswald Cobb".
    • Numerous discrepancies exist between Before The Batman and Paul Dano's comic, The Riddler: Year One.
      • In the novel, Edward Nashton is portrayed as always having been bitter and angry, leading to him eventually lashing out in violence as a teen. In The Riddler: Year One, Edward battles anxiety and suicidal ideation, and doesn't become violent until he learns of the Batman as an adult.
      • Edward's mental state in the novel is implied to be a result of trauma. In the comic, it is clarified to be due to a mental disorder, potentially autism, that was not properly cared for in the orphanage's terrible conditions.
      • Edward's childhood encounter with Thomas Wayne plays out differently in Before The Batman and The Riddler: Year One.
    • Bruce Wayne is stated to be six years old when his family sold Wayne Manor during his father's mayoral campaign. In the film Bruce was eight years old when his parents were killed, which was during his father's campaign.
    • Salvatore Maroni is stated to have been arrested recently when Bruce returns to Gotham in 2020, but William Kenzie states in the film that it happened twenty years ago in the same year Thomas and Martha Wayne were killed.
      • In addition, Falcone is shown wearing Maroni's ring in 2012 when he framed Sofia Falcone for his crimes.

Links and References

  • None.
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