Being a Gotham Villain meant more than just being a criminal. Being a Gotham Villain meant being made of stronger stuff; being a Gotham Villain meant being able to inspire fear just from the sound of your name.
Most of all, being a Gotham Villain meant being destined for something more. Something no law abiding citizen, no drug dealer or embezzler, no crooked politician or smuggler, no murderer or rapist could possibly hope to achieve.
It meant being a whole new breed of criminal, a niche wherein the thieves were sneakier, the fighters stronger, the geniuses smarter. A kind of person for whom the impossible was reality and reality didn't exist.
And it had always been thought that in order to be a Gotham Villain, you had to be cut from a certain cloth; the kind of person who could work well in a team, who knew how to hide their weaknesses with their teammate's strengths and do the same for them, who knew their place in the grand scheme of things; but who also knew that when you were a villain, you were alone. Utterly alone, no matter how many henchmen or teammates or partners you had. Because when you were a villain, you couldn't trust anyone; you had to sleep with one eye open, always stay on the run, never become too attached to anything or anyone. If you went against this cardinal rule, you put yourself at risk for capture, or worse. Attachments were weaknesses, weaknesses that could be exploited, abused, used against you again and again until you broke.
Being a villain had always meant that you couldn't depend on anyone, most especially the people who thought you trusted them. Because trust was a weakness, a weakness stronger and more vulnerable than any other, because inside, everyone was only looking out for themselves, and you had to be that way too, or else get crushed under the weight of the world. And whatever you were after, be it recognition, money, power, fame, knowledge, thrills, balance, vengeance, retribution, or anything else, it had to be one of your two only concerns; the other being yourself. Everything else was just more rope to hang yourself with.
Especially in the vicious, dog-eat-dog streets of Gotham, where your teammates could become your enemies at any second, if it meant escaping the Batman and the promise of either Arkham or Blackgate. Where plots and goals meant everything, and honor meant nothing. But as bad a world it was, it was the only one any of them knew; the place they'd all survived for so long, in spite of their masked enemy and his constantly growing band of colorful sidekicks. And their system had worked for so long; in their minds, nothing really needed changing, except for maybe the levels of resistance they were faced with. They may not have all been happy, but none of them would really say they wanted it any other way.
But, for better or for worse, things were changing. Forever.
This is, above all, a story of change.
A story of love. Hate. Loss. Gain. Friendship. Rivalry. Acceptance. Rejection. Insanity. Humanity. Finding your place. Slipping away. Life. Death. Time. Space. Loyalty. Betrayal. Work. Games. Science. Magic. Impossibilities. Reality. Family. Enemies. Success. Failure.
But mostly of change, and how no matter how much something changes, it always stays the same.