Batman: Bruce Wayne Has Many Identities, But One Underrated Persona May Be His Most Important

Batman famously has the Bruce Wayne identity, and he's even used others, such as Matches Malone. But there's one forgotten secret identity that he needs to bring back to deal with a villain who has taken over the GCPD.

One of the worst things to ever happen to Gotham City was the massive earthquake that hit the city in the 1990s. Nearly every building was completely obliterated, and the city required 24/7 help from everyone available. This event forced Batman to be more active during the day, which brought out one of his rarely seen identities, as seen in Cataclysm #12 by Chuck Dixon and Scott McDaniel.

While saving people during the day and working closely with the police force, Batman adopts the identity of Detective Hawke, allowing him to easily stand side-by-side with other police officers without drawing any unnecessary attention.

Batman Needs To Bring Back This Rarely Used Police Officer Identity

Batman: Cataclysm #12 by Chuck Dixon, Scott McDaniel, Karl Story, Roberto Tewes, and John Costanza

Batman has always employed different identities to achieve what he needs. While he does the most work to save Gotham as Batman, he's also used his Bruce Wayne identity to manipulate the social elite and to better Gotham City through charity and social programs. When Batman needs information about the criminal underworld, he has the Matches Malone identity that he can fall back on. All of these identities have helped Bruce fight crime and protect Gotham, and now it seems that he needs to bring back his police officer identity to deal with Vandal Savage, who has been plaguing Gotham in recent Batman comics.

In a shocking turn of events, Vandal Savage has recently become the police commissioner of Gotham City. Under Vandal's leadership, the GCPD has become significantly more hostile towards vigilantes. Batman's life has been made significantly harder, but if he was able to get inside the GCPD, he could better see exactly what Vandal is up to and what he's plotting. Neither Bruce Wayne nor Matches Malone would be allowed to enter the GCPD headquarters, but Detective Hawke would have no issues walking through the front door.

Detective Hawke Is Exactly What Batman Needs in 2025

Vandal Savage Would Have No Idea That Batman Is Spying on Him

One of Batman's greatest abilities has always been his skills at infiltration and stealth. As a trained ninja, Batman is an expert at gathering information, especially from enemy headquarters. Vandal Savage has been around for thousands of years, but being a police commissioner is a new role for him. There's no way that he'd be intimately familiar with every single police officer in the GCPD. There's really no reason that Batman wouldn't be able to sneak in as Detective Hawke and reliably spy on Vandal Savage.

It's not unusual for things to be introduced into a superhero's mythos before being forgotten. Batman has been around for almost one hundred years; plenty of his lore just isn't represented in comics anymore.Entire members of the Bat-Family have vanished from continuity. Over the years, Batman has been using his alternate identities less and less. Matches Malone is rarely used these days but still pops up occasionally. But to defeat Vandal Savage, Batman needs to bring back the identity of Detective Hawke.

Cataclysm #12 is available now from DC Comics!

Batman

Created By

Bob Kane, Bill Finger

First Appearance

Detective Comics

Alias

Bruce Wayne

Alliance

Justice League, Outsiders, Batman Family

One of DC's most iconic heroes, Batman is the vigilante superhero persona of billionaire Bruce Wayne. Forged by tragedy with the death of his parents, Bruce dedicated his life to becoming the world's leading martial artist, detective, and tactician. Recruiting an entire family of allies and sidekicks, Bruce wages war on evil as the dark knight of his hometown, Gotham City.

Race

Human

Franchise

D.C.

FIRST APP

Detective Comics #27 (1939)

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