#eldritch batman

The Wayne Family goes missing after the death of Bruce Wayne, the cause of the childs death is unknown as well as his body.

The Wayne's were never seen burying his body yet his grave appeared like it has always been there before.

Jim Gordon investigated the manor after all the maids and butlers are fired, if any of them are questioned. They remained silent. The Wayne's money are suddenly withdrawing a larger amount of numbers yet there is nothing to prove for all the media to see are a grieving parents who deeply cared for their child. His suspicion towards the Wayne's are high though he can't prove it due to the fact that the family has remained unresponsive from all his calls.

————

The last of the Wayne's died, their death had seen wars from the state of the room had been; bloody, ripped curtains, smiling faces till death took their souls forever nothing but a ghost.

Jim has never seen such a gruesome state. He turned to look away before he could keel over from their dead smiling faces.

He was the only available person to investigate the manor at the moment though the eery chills of the halls gave him no mind for he has a goal in mind. Finding the child's body. Jim had suspicion that the little Wayne is somewhere preserved from a far away basement for the grieving parents to look at.

After a few hours of investigation he was empty handed—In frustration he knocked a bottle towards the wall of a random office he found that used to be Thomas' office. 'Thunk!', it sounded hollow which meant there was something on the other side. The office has no other rooms from the side other than an empty hallways so he concluded that there must be a hatch.

He searched in frenzy until he found a hatch that leads to a password towards a grandfather clock. He went down till his eyes widened in disbelief. . . "A Cave?", he was awed by how big the cave is. He walked slowly taking in the scenery of the cave— A giant monitor is seen with numbers and numbers about a health monitors.

He heard a loud crash inside a large glass chamber— Jim squinted his eyes yet found nothing due to the darkness inside the chamber. Until he saw 2 pairs of glowing orbs staring right back at him.

Bear with me for a moment.

Those familiar with the Batman fandom are likely aware of the concept where the people of Gotham believe Batman and Batkids to be this cryptid-demon-bat-creature thing that sprouted out of the ground one day to beat up criminals. And they grow to accept it because why wouldn’t they? Gothamites are built different. #onlyingotham

And I would love to see an alternate universe where Batman hears these rumors… and embraces them. Making Batman appear even more like a Creature™.

He’s not actually supernatural, he’s very much still human. But people don’t need to know that.

Let his costume have claws, give him a full mask that obscures his human features. Have him construct gadgets that allow him to cling to walls, give him shoes that let his feet stick to the ceiling like a genuine bat. Some iterations give him a voice modulator to disguise his voice; take that a step further and have it copy and mimic sounds and voices. Let him use smoke pellets or something to subtly create a fog to confound and jumpscare people.

I mean, come on. Bruce has picked up a lot of niche skills and knowledge when training abroad all those years. In the DCAU, he trained under Zatara to become an escape artist. There must be so much more he could pick up from a magician.

And honestly, this would arguably strike more fear into the hearts of criminals. Correct me if I’m wrong, but people tend to have a different fear response if they believe they are being hunted by an unknowable eldritch horror compared to something more tangible and familiar like a man in a bat costume. We got to remember that Batman isn’t just a vigilante, he’s also a symbol. A living reminder to the city’s crime and corruption that, as long as he’s around, their actions will now have consequences.

Eldritch Abomination Bruce Wayne, secretly very proud that all of the lessons Alfred (also an Eldritch Abomination) taught him about cloaking are finally paying off and the humans think he’s One Of Them: “Hn.”