With the release of The Dark Knight,you'll read about the previous Batman movies and you'll also read about the Batman serials and the 60's tv series.However,you'll not probably read about the planned but not aired series:Bruce Wayne.
Series Outline
The Bruce Wayne TV project got far enough that a series bible mapping the program out had been prepared by Tim McCanlies. The series bible set out most of what would have been the "plan" for a five-year long series. Here are some highlights:
As detailed in the information about the pilot, Bruce Wayne begins with the lead character only days away from his 18th birthday. Him and his faithful manservant
Alfred Pennyworth return to Gotham City so Bruce can sign Waynecorp over to the corporation's trustees. Of course, he gets there, and it seems that his family's company might not only be responsible for the decline of Gotham City and corruption within, but they may also be trying to kill him.
Bruce's #1 ally among the Gotham Police Department, then as he is now, is Detective Jim Gordon. Aside from Det. Gordon, the police force is full of corruption going all the way up to Gordon's boss, Lt. Flass.
Harvey Dent is Bruce Wayne's best friend. Harvey's a few years older; rich, spoiled, selfish, and bored. Harvey's studying corporate law, but his friendship with Bruce and the excitement therein might lead him to take a different route later in life. Harvey "has no shame," and is always trying to get Bruce to lighten up a bit.
Bruce has a number of interests in the show's first season, including the Gotham City Youth Shelter. Barbara Gordon hangs out there, but another woman who runs the shelter really catches Bruce's eye. She is Susan Dent, the very attractive sister of Harvey, and of course, with it being the WB, love interest for young Bruce Wayne. Also vying for Bruce's attention is a young TV gossip reporter named Vicky Vale, and a psychology student named Harleen Quinzel may also be in Bruce's future...
A few other folks from Batman's future make their way through. There's the mysterious "consultant" Selena Kyle, a would-be comedian (described as "Sam Kinison but angrier") named Jack Napier, and a kid from Smallville, Kansas named Clark Kent. Bruce meets Clark as he is in town for a WayneCorp sponsored conference of high school journalists. Bruce dismisses Clark at first as a nice kid from the sticks, but then he starts to realize there's something odd about this farm boy.
"There's a newspaper editors convention in Gotham City," writer McCanlies himself explained in a 2004 interview, "and this kid Clark Kent shows up. Bruce wants nothing to do with him, but for some reason they're thrown together. He keeps trying to lose this kid but he can't. You have to know who Clark Kent is to get the joke. I never reveal who this guy is. He's just this very surprising 16-year-old from Smallville, Kansas."
As the series progresses, Bruce becomes more and more intrigued and fascinated by the criminal element. He spends time at Arkham Asylum, observing the felons within. He restores Wayne Manor, and brings in a series of Martial Arts trainers. He buys sleek racing motorcycles, and realizes that in the helmet and leather, speeding through late at night, that it is quite a pleasure to be completely anonymous.
Towards the end of the first season, Bruce would find a large cavern underneath Wayne Manor. He and Alfred bring in Polish workers in blacked-out planes and buses to set up what ultimately becomes the Bat Cave. (What, you thought he built it all himself?)
In later seasons, Bruce would take bigger steps, and we'd finally get an answer to such burning questions like "Why didn't he just become a policeman?" He joins the GCPD; it doesn't last. He then goes to the FBI academy; that, too, is a bust.
Bruce's skills grow as the series progresses. His skill in martial arts, already there when the show begins, is being perfected. He learns more about car racing, helicopter and airplane flying, gymnastics, and more. The world thinks that he's a fickle rich kid living it up and experiencing all that he can, but all of this work does lead to a purpose.
Once Bruce gains control of WayneCorp, he uses those resources to help him in his cause. Certain WayneCorp R&D in special weapons, prototypes, vehicles and such manages to disappear.... and of course, later ends up in Batman's arsenal. WayneCorp wins the bid to build the FBI's computer criminal database... and of course, Bruce has access.
Each episode would be framed with bookend scenes of an older Alfred telling the tale through his "memoirs" - an element that would later be seen to some extent with Birds of Prey.
Bruce starts off the series as an immature 17 year old, but Bruce Wayne ends where all of the previous Batman stories would begin, at that moment where Bruce figures out the best way to stop the criminal element in Gotham City, by becoming... a bat.
Source:Gotham Clock Tower
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Bruce Wayne:Series Outline
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