We're less than a month away from The Batman's arrival in theaters, and Random House just dropped a new tie-in book titled Before The Batman: An Original Movie Novel. Aimed at middle graders, it explores Bruce Wayne's early years and reveals new details about The Riddler's tragic origin story.
It appears young Edward Nashton went to the same high school as Bruce Wayne and sang in the school choir. though he ultimately gave up his love of music for his true passion: riddles. In the orphanage he grew up in, Nashton frequently carried a book of crosswords or puzzles - leading to him being bullied by his fellow orphans - and given cruel nicknames like "Ed-weird."
In the orphanage, Nashton would have to walk past a photo of Thomas and Martha Wayne (pictured alongside their young son Bruce) every day on the way to his food delivery job. As you might imagine, the future Riddler was intensely jealous of the billionaire Bruce's life, particularly when his fellow orphans would frequently joke about how wealthy he was compared to them.
The novel mentions that Nashton hoped to "study forensic accounting" because "it sounded like solving puzzles," but the privileged life of Bruce Wayne is never far from the orphan's mind.
Something tells us The Riddler's origin story takes an even darker turn somewhere along the line as he does ultimately become a serial killer. That's not the sort of content you'd find in a book like this, of course, but we do at least now have a better idea of what informs his apparent obsession with the Wayne family. Perhaps becoming a forensic accountant leads to Nashton figuring out Bruce is Batman?
The Batman is set to be released in theaters on March 4.
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