Who is Bruce "Batman" Wayne?

Created in 1939 by Bob Kane and Bill Finger(first appearing in Detective Comics #27), Batman is one of DC comics' most popular superhereos, with several comic series, live action films, animated films, animated series, live action series, video games, and one of the largest fanbases of any comicbook character. He can be characterized by his constant seriousness and brooding mood, as well as his immense fighting and detective abilities.

As the story goes, Bruce was a very cheerful kid born into one of the wealthiest and most respected families in the city of Gotham (the Wayne family), and sheltered from the rampant crime that characterizes the city. But one night as he and his parents left a movie theater, they were stopped by a mugger in Crime Alley. Hearing the pearls of his mother hit the ground, Bruce saw both of his parents senselessly shot and killed, and watched the mugger run from the crime scene. Bruce was left standing next to his parents' bodies, utterly traumatized, and soon swore to spend the rest of his life warring on crime.

As he grew up, he used his parents' wealth to train in every existing martial arts, develop nearly every kind of conceivable skill, and study to become a master detective(soon becoming known as the world's greatest detective). This training took him throughout the globe, finding many different teachers, and developing all kinds of knowledge. All until he was in his early twenties and he retured to his family's mansion near Gotham (Wayne Manor), accompanied by his childhood butler, Alfred Pennyworth. Still, he hadn't come up with the concept of Batman just yet: until one afternoon, he sat in his father's study unsure of what to do next and found a bat crashing through the window, and he declared,

"I shall become a bat".

Now, Bruce spends his days as the wealthy, philanthrophist, playboy CEO of Wayne Enterprises--"Bruce Wayne"--and his nights as the vigilante crime fighter Batman--fighting the never ending war against crime with his sidekick, Robin, and a growing number of Gotham vigilantes, which he's come to see as his (bat)family.