Batman Spoilers: What Major Change Happens To Batman?

Spoilers

The Court of Owls had called for death across Gotham, only to fail due to the work of the Bat family shutting down their Talons. Batman discovered where the Court was located, and arrived to bring them all down…only to find them all dead. Poisoned.

 

The pieces fitting together in his brain, the mystery unfolding, Batman realizes who has been behind it all. Lincoln March, the mayoral candidate that debuted in the first issue, and who was seemingly killed by a Talon a few issues ago.

Lincoln March doesn’t exist. He’s an identity crafted by the Owls for one of their members in order to seat him in a position of prominence. He also is the one who killed the table with poison. He was taken as a boy from the Willowwood Home for Children, a place where children afflicted by mental issues and disorders were sent. An asylum for kids that sank into the ground, and then closed down when people discovered just how inhumane the treatment was.

The part of March’s story that put Batman on his case was mentioning that his mother was wearing a certain pin, one that can be seen on Martha Wayne’s collar in pictures of her. A pin given to the parents of those children given residence at Willowwood. Born premature and injured, a baby was left at Willowwood to heal out of the public eye. Forgotten there when his parents died, and claimed by the Court of Owls. The name, Lincoln March, comes from the intersection where a car crash led to his early birth.

His name was Thomas Wayne Jr., Bruce’s younger brother, and now he’s Owlman. Just in time for the final Bat vs Owl showdown.

This is the sort of reason I love the concept behind the New 52, because you can actually fit this pretty seamlessly into Bruce’s origin without raising the question of how Bruce wouldn’t know. Bruce was just a boy when it happened, three years old. Alfred wasn’t the family butler, rather, his father Jarvis.

A lifelong reader and self proclaimed continuity guru, Grey is the Editor in Chief of Comics Nexus. Known for his love of Booster Gold, Spider-Girl (the real one), Stephanie Brown, and The Boys. Don't miss The Gold Standard.