Quote:Lex sighed, "What did I tell you about underestimating my intelligence? The Robin kid works for The Batman. The Batman works for you. The guy you have in the costume might be on the ball for the most part, but you're the driving force. You give him his marching orders. Of course, he's going to hand the data to you."
Bruce shook his head and gave an exasperated chuckle. "Lex your assertion is absurd. If I'm the Batman's boss, who is the Batman supposed to be?"
"You've had several." Lex replied finally. "I still haven't figured out who the first one was, but my suspicion is that he ended up becoming the Joker. The rumors about the Joker's origin said that he was in the Red Hood outfit when he was stopped by the Batman and ended up accidentally falling into a vat of toxic chemicals which drove him nuts. But it was just the two of them there... and the Red Hood's never been a specific person. It was a criminal persona that had been passed around. I posit that the Red Hood got away clean and it was the Batman who fell into the chemicals. It's why Joker's always been so obsessed with the Batman. He wants to be the Bat again."
Bruce stared at him, completely dumbfounded. Lex had him. Bruce could try to lie, but the expression on his face told Lex everything he needed to know. He had to press the advantage. He needed the support Wayne had at his fingertips. Lex continued. "Right after his accident, I suspect your second one was Harvey Dent. On top of his own impressive laundry list of mental issues, making him your second number two, must've helped spark something when his mind broke after they maimed him in court."
"Now look here, Lex... Harvey and I were friends, but that doesn't mean-"
"After that," Lex spoke over him, "You switched gears. Your first two Batmen were no doubt good men who'd been broken by what they went through, so you tried someone who was already broken. You picked a petty thug named Matches Malone."
"I've never even heard of this Malone-"
"Which actually made him perfect for your purposes. Petty criminal. Low rent, low life thug. No links to you. No reason for you to care about him... if he broke, then you could find someone else to replace him." Lex grinned, "Except third time was the charm. He turned out to be extremely good at the job. You set a thief to catch thieves and it worked. Except for a brief period in the 90's when some maniac stole the costume away from him, Malone's been your personal superhero for years now."
Inviolate
D for Drakensis
You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.