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Back in late 1999, flush with our successful collaboration on Astronauts in Trouble: Live From the Moon, artist Charlie Adlard and I thought we might like to pitch a Batman Elseworlds to DC, and I had an idea that was so brilliant, so obvious, but so not-ever-done, that it’d be an easy sell. I wrote up the following, and Charlie did two illustrations to show the mood and feel.

CITIZEN WAYNE

This is the story of Bruce Wayne and how he didn't become Batman.

The story beats roughly follow Citizen Kane, with a dying Bruce Wayne looking out the window from stately Wayne Manor... his hand reflexively grasping at the air, as we witness his last words... "Bat... man..." Figures on the street assemble before a bank of television sets as a news man tells of Wayne’s death: "Potent figure of our century..." "Greatest news paper tycoon of this or any other century..." "Bruce Wayne helped to change the world..." A reporter (that we show only in silhouette and from three-quarters behind, as in the film) speaks to his cronies about a fresh, interesting pitch on the last story of a man who lived his life in headlines. "We need an angle..." "Well, what were his last words?" "Batman?" "What the hell does that mean?" ...and so on. They decide to interview those who knew him best. The reporter, called Pennyworth, goes to see Wayne’s second wife, Selina Kyle. A curator of museum-quality jewelry exhibits, she tells Pennyworth (and us) the story of young Bruce. Thomas and Martha Wayne are shot and killed, just as we know the story, but this time there’s a difference. A petty thief and his muscle do the job this time, armed with a Saturday Night Special and a Louisville Slugger. This time, however, young Bruce does not grow up to be a revenge-filled creature of solitary justice, because he’s not raised in lonely Wayne Manor by his family’s trusted manservant. No, this time, Jonathan and Martha Kent are in Gotham City on holiday, and witness the brutal crime. The killers are brought to justice by the proper authorities, who enact the death penalty, and young Bruce is brought to Smallville where he’s raised by the good and kindly Kents. With such a solid family foundation, Wayne’s peri od of grief is healthily dealt with, and he grows to be a man with firm Mid Western morals and ideals.

When Bruce turns 21, he inherits the Wayne family fortune and returns to Gotham City to reclaim his birthright. In a moving goodbye to his adopted

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