Well, I actually write superhero comics every once in a while as requests to my friends (I have friends in the art academy of my school and this huge project where they have to present their portfolios is coming up that's worth 50% of their final 9 weeks' grade) and I had to make sort of a "Batman timeline" in order to keep track of the continuity in my "universe", 'cause I really hate continuity errors, especially when they're by the same writer. It takes elements from the films, comics, and animated series, and Batman actually ages in it. No floating timelines...Batman and the Robins and all their ages and such is all worked out. I also re-worked some ages and origins and things like that from the comics/films/animated series, because in the end it is my own personal Batman universe and I decided to do what I wanted with it while keeping true to the character. BYO stands for Before Year One.
Here's part of it:
25 BYO - Bruce Wayne is born.
17 BYO - Bruce meets Harvey Dent and becomes best friends with him.
15 BYO - Bruce's parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne, are killed in Crime Alley. The perpetrator is never caught.
13 BYO - Little Edward Nygma accidentally sets a deathtrap for his mother, the only person in the world whom he loves. She dies and the police call it an accident, with no one ever suspecting that Edward was responsible for anything. Because of his guilt over this incident, he would spend the rest of his life designing death traps with ALWAYS one possible way out (which Edward was aware of) and devising riddles and puzzles that, once solved by law enforcement, would lead to his arrests for crimes large and small.
10 BYO - Bruce achieves a degree (a milestone he had promised his parents he'd achieve) in criminology through private educating by the age of fourteen; After making a promise to right Gotham's wrongs at his parents' grave, Bruce leaves the comfort of Wayne Manor and travels the globe in order to transform himself into a man-made superhuman.
5 BYO - Superman begins.
4 months BYO - Jack Napier gets a job at Axis Chemicals. He had always grown up around the mafia and had been a juvenile delinquent in his youth but falling in love with his current wife in high school helped him straighten out and his genius level IQ helped him pursue his favorite subject: chemistry. His dream was to create an efficient, cheap, legal and altogether perfect "anti-depressant".
Year One - At 24 years old Bruce returns to Gotham; events similar to "Batman Begins" take place starting in March, minus Rachel Dawes. At the end of the "Begins" ordeal, Ra's Al Ghul is presumed dead, Jonathan Crane is missing, and Carmine "The Roman" Falcone is recovering from his mental breakdown in Arkham.
- One month later, chemist Jack Napier loses his job at Axis Chemicals after creating faulty make-up. He tries to succeed as a comedian but can't earn enough money to support his pregnant wife. He turns to his deceased cousin's old mob boss, Carl "The King" Grissom, for help, not knowing that the mob boss had a grudge against Jack's cousin Marvin (for getting Carl's nephew killed) that he felt he would never settle now that someone else greased him. Having inside knowledge of Axis Chemical, Jack offers to rob it with a crew of Grissom's men and turn over the profits to Grissom for a small (though relatively large for Jack) cut. During the heist, Napier receives a call from the police informing him that his wife has been murdered and that a "King" playing card was left near her body (Grissom's trademark). Distraught, he can barely react when SWAT breaks in (he has been set up by Grissom). Napier manages to almost slip away as most of his men are apprehended before The Batman comes along and accidentally scars his face with a batarang and drops him into a vat of chemicals that were scheduled to be drained at midnight that night. The chemicals turned out to be the same chemicals he got fired for, and were drained into the ocean only a minute or so after the drop in, allowing him to survive. He makes it to the shore and upon seeing the reflection of his face in the water, he goes completely insane, laughing hysterically. He kills Grissom, leaving a "Joker" card at the scene, causing the media to dub him "The Joker".
- A few weeks after the Joker's first murder (Grissom), the events of "The Man Who Laughs" take place. The Joker has been spending the intervening time between his "birth" and the MWL events perfecting his Joker Venom ("Smylex") and forming his own gang. His plot to poison the city's water with laughing gas is thwarted by The Batman and he is sent to Arkham Asylum for the first time.
- Carmine Falcone is released from Arkham and begins running his criminal empire once again.
- Around Halloween, events similar to those of "Nothing to Fear" take place. Scarecrow has now gone completely insane and liberally gases anyone who gets in his way while dressed as an actual scarecrow. He runs into Batman while robbing a bank overnight in order to fund his latest plot (gas the city from a blimp overhead). Not prepared for the return of Scarecrow and a more powerful fear gas, Batman fails in apprehending him and has visions of his father telling him that he is a failure and a disappointment. Hanging for his life from the blimp after deducing Scarecrow's plan, Batman overcomes his fears, puts away the visions, and foils Scarecrow's plot sending him, ironically, to Arkham. Bruce turns 25 in October.
- The events of "Joker's Five Way Revenge" take place shortly after Bruce's birthday.
- Elsewhere, Victor Fries uses the resources and equipment of CryoTech, Ferris Boyle's company, to put his wife into cryo-stasis in order to give her husband more time to find a cure for her disease.
- Christmas comes along and events similar to those in "Batman Returns" take place, only without Max Shreck, and with Penguin surviving the end. Selina Kyle is an olympic-level athlete who uses her skills and looks to con men and women out of money and is inspired to become Catwoman after seeing Batman in action and is never thrown out a window by anyone. The Penguin's origin in this universe is similar to "Returns", only Penguin is simply captured by Batman and sent to Blackgate at the end after thwarting his plot to become mayor and, later, to kill all the first born sons of Gotham. Bruce never learns Catwoman's identity or vice versa. Selina Kyle informs Bruce Wayne that she doesn't think it'll work out, as he appears to have no time for her, and that she is moving to Italy to do some reserach on her past.
- On Christmas Day, Victor Fries is doused in CryoTech chemicals in a confrontation with Boyle over his use of CryoTech's resources. Though his body temperature is lowered to temperatures in which he could not survive at room temperature, the Gotham winter allows him to survive long enough to piece together his Freeze suit, which is completed in January (Year Two).
Did he ever actually serve a purpose at all?
