Bruce Wayne : Murderer?



At the end of Batman: The 10-Cent Adventure #1, Bruce Wayne finds the dead body of his girlfriend, Vesper Fairchild in Wayne Manor just as the police arrive. Promptly charged for murder by the Gotham City Police Department, both Wayne and his bodyguard, Sasha Bordeaux, are imprisoned, leaving the Batman Family to work the crime and absolve them. However, the investigation is complicated when evidence is uncovered suggesting that Vesper knew who Batman was, thus giving Bruce a motive for the crime that only the Batman Family would ever be able to see. Driven to near-breaking point by his frustration at being forced to constantly act like Bruce Wayne rather than Batman, Bruce escapes from jail and announces his intention to no longer live as Bruce Wayne, but to be only Batman.

The story runs through Batgirl 24, Batman 599-600, Batman: Gotham Knights #25-26, Birds of Prey #39-40, Detective Comics #766-767, Nightwing #65-66, and Robin (Vol. 2) #98-99.

Bruce Wayne : Fugitive



With Batman free, the Batman Family continues to investigate the circumstances of the crime. Many start to doubt Bruce's innocence. Oracle (with some assistance from Black Canary) recovers a disk proving the journal entries from Vesper's apartment had been altered. This means Vesper did not know Batman's identity.

Meanwhile, Batgirl, upon uncovering Vesper's corpse realizes that Vesper was killed using a nerve strike and careful beatings, whereas the evidence suggests it was a 'spur-of-the-moment' move on Bruce's part. Nightwing and Alfred discover that infiltration of the Batcave is possible and ties in with the police's timely entrance at Wayne Manor. With further assistance from Robin they uncover some evidence in their search. After the group reviews the evidence and Nightwing and Batgirl stage how the murder took place, Nightwing is now convinced that the Bruce he knows wouldn't have committed the murder and decides their next move is to focus on gathering evidence that would not compromise Bruce's secret identity.

At the same time, Batman launches his own, independent, investigation into his framing and steadily uncovers a conspiracy against Bruce Wayne after a run-in with David Said of Checkmate. A confrontation between himself and Catwoman prompts Batman to realize how important his Bruce Wayne identity is; he is moved to protect a wounded criminal because that is what his father, Thomas Wayne, would have done. An earlier meeting with the detective who comforted him after his parents' deaths serves to reinforce the importance of Bruce Wayne in Batman's life; as far as the detective is concerned, it was Bruce Wayne's life that was forever defined by the death of his parents... and the detective is also convinced that, whatever Bruce Wayne became that night, he did not become a killer.

After returning to the Batcave and apologizing for his past actions, Batman reveals to the Batman Family that the murderer is David Cain, which he had deduced based solely on the evidence that Batgirl found earlier. Cain had been hired by then-President Lex Luthor to discredit Bruce Wayne for his stance against Luthor during the No Man's Land storyline. Cain subsequently deduces Batman's true identity, recalling his own acquaintance with a young Bruce when Bruce went to him for training. He was thus able to frame him for a crime where the only motive was Batman's desire to protect his identity. Capturing Cain, Bruce's name is subsequently cleared.

This story runs through Azrael #91, Batgirl #27 and 29, Batman #600-601, 603, and 605, Batman: Gotham Knights #27-28 and 30-31, Birds of Prey #41-43, Detective Comics #768-772, and Nightwing #68-69.