I wouldn’t alter the Batman franchise too much, because I think it’s currently spot on with the exception of some of the villains and Damien Wayne.
So let’s go ahead and begin with Damien. His origin would stay intact, however I would make him have a hidden agenda. By the time he reaches 18, I would have him turn on the Bat Family and forge his own off shoot of the League of Assassins called the League of Shadows. I would restore Jean Paul Valley as an Agent of the Bat and part of Batman Incorporated. He would be restored to his Red and gold Batman armor, and would act as a spy to the League of Shadows from Batman Inc.
Let’s move on to Stephanie Brown. As her time as Batgirl has ended, I would place her back into her Spoiler persona. Her uniform as Spoiler would incorporate each of her previous personas. She would wear her Batgirl uniform but rather than a cowl, she’d wear her hooded spoiler cape and her green Robin Mask. She would incorporate her green Robin Gloves into the costume and use a retractable staff.
It’s time now to move on to the villains. Let’s begin with the Joker. He would be born albino, into an abusive family. His father, a lieutenant in one of Gotham’s mobs. Ashamed of his son’s appearance, he had his skin tattooed a natural color. As young Jack grew older, his father became more and more abusive, until one night he had enough of it and slaughtered his father as he slept. When the rest of the mob discovered what he had done, he was recruited to be the Head of the Family’s personal hitman. As his reputation grew, he took on another persona, that of the Red Hood. As the Red Hood, he built an army of his own in order to over throw the mob boss and seize control of Gotham. Then his origin begins converging with his accepted origin of a chemical plant. When he fell into the vat of chemicals, the tattoo ink was burned out of his flesh. He was then pulled out of the vat by his boss’ mob soldiers. Realizing he was still alive, and knowing what he had attempted, the group of mobsters lead by the mob Boss, Carl Grissom. Grissom ordered his minions to burn his face as a lesson to those who may try to take up Jack’s cause of over throwing him. Jack’s eyes were branded with round metal irons, and his mouth was sliced open cheek to cheek. Grissom then ordered the execution of Jack’s wife and unborn child right in front of him. These events transformed Jack permanently, forcing him to lose his humanity and become the sinister Joker.
The chemicals in that vat not only burned the ink out of Jack’s albino flesh but also permanently colored his hair green. His first stop after his change, was to Arkham Asylum where he had admitted himself, while also admitting to Commissioner Gordon his crimes. Once there, he was assigned a therapist, that of Harleen Quinzel. He successfully manages to convert Dr. Quinzel’s mind into a version of his own, and together they make their escape. Together, they build a hideout in the old Gotham Carnival and begin searching for others to join them in order to take down Grissom and seize control of his mob family. They discover a serial killer living in Gotham’s sewers who was born with a rare disease that made his appearance similar to that of a crocodile. Finding him, they talk him into joining them and Joker renames him Killer Croc. Joker then locates another mob victim like himself who use to work for crime boss Roland Daggett. The man he comes into contact with is Clay Face, and his origin is identical to that of the animated series. Joker recruits Clay Face into his new organization.
As the Joker was recruiting Clay Face, Harley went back to Arkham and recruited Dr. Jonathan Crain, because of his fear induced experiments with the inmates of Arkham, and dubs him Scarecrow. Together, Scarecrow and Harley release Edward Nigma from suicide watch in Arkham’s medical wing along with the recently deformed Harvey Dent and renames them The Riddle and Two-Face. Eventually, others join the Joker’s army such as; The Mad Hatter, Man-Bat (which the Joker makes into his pet), as well as several others. First, Joker’s organization takes down Roland Daggett’s mob family and Clay Face brutally slaughters Daggett and drops him from the roof of Police headquarters onto the hood of Bruce Wayne’s limo. The Joker merges Daggett’s mob with his own and then continues in the same way with Carmine Falcony’s mob and Salvadore Maronee’s mob. Eventually, the Joker makes his way back to Carl Grissom’s home and kidnaps him. After a week of Grissom’s mob searching for him, the Joker takes control of every media outlet in gotham and tortures Grissom on live tv. The Joker ends Grissom’s torture by burning his eyes just as he had done to Jack Napier and slicing his mouth cheek to cheek. The Joker then orders Man-Bat to take Grissom as high as it possibly can and drop him to his death in the middle of Gotham Zoo. The Joker then announces on live tv that he is taking over Grissom’s business and issues a warning to The Black Mask, who controls the only other organized crime organization in Gotham that he’s coming for him next. Before signing off, the Joker issues a challenge to the Batman, taunting him hoping that he joins in on the fun.
Black Mask is a ruthless crime boss who controls the largest crime syndicate in Gotham until Joker ties him. Victor Freese is an employee of the black Mask’s, and it’s the black Mask who transforms him into the criminal genius Mr. Freeze. Also on Black Mask’s pay role are Scarface and the Ventriloquist, Pamela Isley who he experiments on and transforms into Poison Ivy, and Fire Fly. Oswald Cobblepot is a private club owner called the Iceberg Lounge and a heavy arms dealer on the black market providing weapons to both the Joker’s men and Black Mask. Most of Bane’s origin will remain unchanged, with the exception that when he moves to Gotham he releases all of the inmates of Arkham and Black Gate and forces them to join his criminal empire. Zsasz is a serial killer who on occasion is hired by both the Joker and Black Mask but secretly feeds information to Bane and Oswald Cobblepot (who most people refer to as The Penguin because of his appearance and love for tuxedos.
In my reboot, Commissioner Gordon secretly knows the true identity of Batman and on occasion makes slight references to it. John Blake is also in the reboot as Commissioner Gordon’s right hand man and also knows the true identity of Batman with whom he’s let the cat out of the bag too. Harvey Bullock and Renee Montoya are also close to the commissioner and apart of his special task force with John Blake to work with Batman and his allies. In this version, Lucius Fox is also a main character who’s just as important to the series as Alfred and knows the identities of the Bat family and assists them when need arises. Lesley Thompson is a major recurring character as well acting as a surrogate mother opposite Alfred as a surrogate father and the two who were once lovers have a close bond.