During his time in the DC Universe, Batman has faced off against many threats but none have challenged him like Cthulhu, the greatest evil.
The beauty of Batman as a character is how versatile and adaptable he really is. His origin, skillset, and background can be applied to virtually any number of alternate world stories. It's a flexibility that characters like Superman and Wonder Woman lack due to being firmly routed in a very specific narrative related to their powers and origins. But the concept of Batman can be applied to virtually any scenario. A Victorian Era Gotham City, a futuristic one, and almost two decades ago, a '20s Gotham City where Batman faced off against a Cthulu-like entity.
In Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham by Mike Mignola, Richard Price, Troy Nixey, and Bill Oakley, Bruce Wayne has been away from Gotham for about 20 years. He traveled the world acquiring skills much like his main continuity counterpart, he even picked up alternate versions of his first threeRobins along the way. But what prompted Bruce to leave Gotham for all this time is a little different from his usual origin story in Crime Alley.
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As usual, young Bruce was out with his parents when they were accosted by an armed assailant. But the man who killed Thomas andMartha Wayne wasn't Joe Chill and he certainly had no intention of stealing pearls. Their murderer was fueled by pure rage towards Thomas Wayne and his family. Bruce managed to flee into a nearby church, but upon climbing to the top of the bell tower, he was met by a hanged man that warned him of "The Thing" and that it was coming and how Bruce was the only one who could stop it. The experience traumatized Bruce, but also informed his decision to leave Gotham to train. He would train, not for a war on crime, but to one day do battle with whatever force had robbed him of his parents and seemed to be behind the supernatural forces hidden within the city. And20 years later he finally donned the cape and cowl to search for answers, but what he discovered was even more bizarre and disturbing than he could have imagined.
In a unique spin on Ra's al Ghul, he was not an immortal eco-terrorist but a deranged cultist, bent on freeing Iog-Sotha, a Lovecraftian horror, from its prison. The reason Bruce was dragged into the supernatural proceedings was that his father was directly involved in making Gotham the site of its return. The Thomas Wayne of this universe was in fact centuries old, having been involved in a ritual with one of Iog-Sotha's followers that granted him immortality. But recognizing what would happen if they went through with the ritual, Thomas and his cohorts built Gotham over the temple that Iog-Sotha would return through.
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Batman Fought Lovecraftian Horrors in The Doom That Came to Gotham - CBR - Comic Book Resources
Recommendation and review posted by G. Smith
