John James looked around his shabby apartment, hearing the arguments of his neighbors through the walls and the police sirens from the tattered window. He thought of his beloved city, plagued by the Bat Man, a faceless shadow that took it upon himself to "save" the city from the evil that it faced. Or so the stories go.
He laughed to himself as he remembered the stores uttered by the homeless bums by the fires. "Don't steal," they'd say. "The Bat Man will see you." John had never heard of anything so ridiculous in his life. A man dressed up as a bat stopping crimes? Please. That sort of thing only happens in the comic books. Reassured, John put on his mask, intent on getting some of that wealth everyone always looked for.
Decked out in all red, John mentally said goodbye to the disgusting apartment he'd spent the last several years suffering in. "It's time to get yours, Hood," he mumbled to himself. That night would mark the first appearance of the Red Hood, a villain John was sure Gotham would never forget.