Eddie Nygma is a childhood friend of Bruce Wayne and a genius with electronics.
History
Eddie grew up in the impoverished neighborhood Crime Alley, alongside his friends Bruce, Ozzie, Harvey, Selina, and Waylon. He was considered the "nerd" of their group. Eddie and Bruce would often study together.[1] Eddie and the others went on the ill-fated field trip to Gotham Zoo where Thomas Wayne, their teacher and Bruce's father, was killed.[2]
As an adult, Bruce occasionally uses Eddie's expertise with electronics to help him in his activities as Batman.[3]
After Bruce was almost killed by Black Mask, he revealed his secret identity to his friends and asked for their help stopping the Party Animals gang who were attacking the city. The rest of their friends were furious to learn that Bruce had kept such a secret from them, but Eddie claimed to have figured it out weeks ago. Eddie determined that Black Mask's network was too big to be brought down, but the local server for Gotham City could be crashed. Bruce tracked the server to the Party Animals' yacht and destroyed it.[4]
Bruce disappeared after foiling the Party Animals, and his friends believed he was dead. However, a month later Bruce approached them at a memorial for Matches Malone, another Crime Alley kid they had grown up with. He told them that he had been investigating Ark M, a private prison being built on an island just off the coast of Gotham. He had asked Matches, a forger, to make him papers so he could sneak onto the work crews building the prison. Matches did so, but also snuck onto the crews himself, taking pictures and videos and discovering that the prison had inmates already despite still being built. He had delivered his findings and the phony papers to Bruce, and then dropped dead, killed by a mysterious biological weapon that made him sweat blood.
Bruce told them that he just wanted to tell them he would get the person who killed Matches and then tried to leave, but they stopped him and told him they needed to talk about Batman. Bruce refused and said he should have kept them out of it; however they each pointed out that he had used their skills and knowledge to help him even before he revealed his identity to them. Bruce tried to leave, saying they just needed to stay out of his way; but Waylon grabbed Bruce to stop him leaving, warning him that he would die if he continued on his current path.[1]
Bruce shook Waylon's hand off, saying "Don't make me hurt you", but Waylon was unafraid. He told Bruce that if he left now he would be a coward, no better than Matches. Bruce tackled Waylon and they fought, with Waylon quickly gaining the upper hand and knocking Bruce to the ground. He told Bruce that he was trying to get himself killed as Batman, just like Matches had with his reckless behaviour because they both blamed themselves for Thomas' death. Waylon helped Bruce up and told him that it had been Thomas' life that made him a hero, not his death; and that making it through life was what was really hard, not dying for a cause. He said that the people of Crime Alley were survivors and Batman would need to be one too. He asked Bruce if he wanted to die, and he yelled "No!"[2]
Powers and Abilities
Abilities
Notes
- Edward Nygma was created by Bill Finger and Dick Sprang, first appearing in Detective Comics #140. However, the Absolute Universe version of Edward Nygma first appeared in Absolute Batman #1 by Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta.
Related
- 8 Appearances of Edward Nygma (Absolute Universe)
- 3 Images featuring Edward Nygma (Absolute Universe)
- Quotations by or about Edward Nygma (Absolute Universe)
- Character Gallery: Edward Nygma (Absolute Universe)
Footnotes