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Lance Bruner was the ward of Bruce Wayne. His tragic past would lead him to discover Bruce Wayne's secret identity as Batman and briefly join his efforts as a substitute Robin the Boy Wonder.

Origins

When Lance Bruner's father died, Bruce Wayne agreed to become Lance's legal guardian. Bruce's father Thomas had been a friend of Lance's father and had agreed many years earlier to take Lance in if anything happened to his parents. Bruce decided to respect his father's promise, on a trial basis. Lance turned out to be a juvenile delinquent, and Bruce took Lance in to keep him from going to juvenile detention.

Lance kept testing Bruce's patience until he was ready to send him to juvenile detention and get rid of him. However, this threat made Lance reveal that he had a neglected childhood with no real father figures. Lance's mother died when he was two and his father's career as a professor of archeology meant that he was absent during Lance's formative years. With this new information brought to light, Bruce began to seriously try to make an effort to mold and make Lance a better person. This included making him work at charity shops and helping Bruce's butler Alfred with household chores.

But Lance decided he wanted revenge on Bruce. After accidentally ending up in the Batcave, Lance decided to use this information to make a deal with the international criminal, Grantland Stark. He claimed that he could monitor Batman and Robin's movements and ensure that they did not interfere with illegal oil hijacking in exchange for money.

Lance finally realized the mistake of taking this path when he saw Robin get shot aimed at Batman after Lance told Grantland Stark that the dynamic duo was at one of his oil factories. Changing his perception of what it means to respect and love someone, Lance took Robin's outfit and tried to avenge his injured adopted brother. Tragically, despite tracking down and jumping on the international criminal, Lance would suffer a gunshot wound to the stomach. This would result in his death in Batman's arms after Stark was incapacitated.

Death

In Lance's last moments, he tried to reconcile with Batman and apologized for the mistake he made. Lance Bruner's death was tragic lesson for Batman that despite his best efforts to see the best in people, it can sometimes be too late for them to see the best in themselves. This prompted Batman to place a small memorial to Lance in the garden outside Wayne Manor to remind him of this lesson.


Abilities


  • This version of Robin, including all history and corresponding appearances, was erased from existence following the collapse of the original Multiverse in the 1985–86 Crisis on Infinite Earths event and later restored following the rebirth of the infinite Multiverse during the Dark Crisis of 2022-2023. Even though other versions of the character may have appeared, this information does not apply to those versions.

Related

Footnotes


Batman Allies
Batman Family member
DC Bullet 2024

This character is or was an incarnation of or an ally of Batman, and a member of the Batman Family. This template will automatically categorize articles that include it into the "Batman Family members" category.

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