Unlike Super-man, Batman possessed no superhuman powers, relying instead upon his own wits, technical skills, and fighting prowess. Batman's motives were initially obscure, but after a half-dozen issues readers learned the disturbing origins of his crime-fighting crusade. As a child, Bruce Wayne had witnessed the brutal murder of his motherand father. Traumatized but determined to avenge his parents' death, Wayne used the fortune inherited from his father to assemble an arsenal of crime-fighting gadgets while training his body and mind to the pinnacle of human perfection. One night when Wayne sits contemplating an appropriate persona that will strike fear into the heats of criminals, a bat flies through the window. He takes it as an omen and declares, "I shall become a bat!"
Kane and Finger originally cast Batman as a vigilante pursued by the police even as he preyed upon criminals. Prowling the night, lurking in the shadows, and wearing a frightening costume with a hooded cowl and a flowing Dracula-like cape, Batman often looked more like a villain than a hero. In his earliest episodes, he even carried a gun and sometimes killed his opponents. The immediate popularity of his comic books testified to the recurring appeal of a crime-fighter who appropriates the tactics of criminals and operates free of legal constraints.
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