13. BATMAN OMNISCIENT

This sequel to The Batman follows Bruce Wayne's discovery of the clandestine cabal Court of Owls. He learns that the Court has been in existence for a long time, and that they know everything they need about him, including his vigilantism as the Bat of Gotham. This revelation induces a latent paranoia about the world around him. For a man who must always be in control, always the smartest person in the room, such lurking phantoms serve to shatter his own illusions. This is a new world of superbeings and world-threatening villains, and he has chosen to step out from the shroud of obscurity to venture far beyond his depth. He has to embrace a new kind of fear, the fear that comes from being a real entity, a watched man.

"I've been doing this a long time. I have confronted the greedy… the arrogant… the oppressive… the downright monstrous. Gotham still fears the Batman, because it fears what it does not know. The Batman is always watching from the shadows.

And for that, I must see everything that happens.

I've seen too much."

These words are narrated by Bruce Wayne, interspliced with footage of Batman fighting with various villains over the years. We see short, disjointed clips that feature Black Mask, Killer Croc and Bane. Cut to black.

"And yet, I haven't seen enough."

Finally we see the inside of a modest mansion, the home of Gotham city mayor Hamilton Hill.

Mayor Hill is speaking intensely on the phone, but still manages to keep his voice down to a whisper. It's nighttime, so his wife and daughter should be asleep. He argues with the person on the line that he can no longer stay silent, that he's being a pawn and a puppet long enough and that something drastic has to be done to expose the people responsible. We follow him as he treads up the stairs as he enters the bedroom, when he suddenly stops talking.

"Oh God," we hear him groan harrowingly from inside the room. "Oh God, Vanessa, no… no no NO!"

Hill runs out of their bedroom and into his daughter's. He starts wailing and begging, calling out his daughter's name. He limps out of the room, half covered in blood, sobbing hysterically. As he trudges down the hallway, attempting to call the police on his phone, we see the silhouette of a large man standing silently just behind him. A gloved hand reaches out and hurls a small but sharp dagger, killing Hill.

This is the night that the mayor of Gotham city is assassinated.

Later that night, the house is swarming with GCPD officers investigating the crime scene. Commissioner Jim Gordon arrives and is greeted by police inspector Ellen Yindel, who brings him up to speed with what they have found so far. Hill's wife and daughter were murdered almost an hour before the mayor got home, and no attempts were made to contact emergency services. The entire security detail assigned to guard the Hill residence had also been slaughtered. Privately, in hushed tones, Yindel admits to Gordon that while they have managed to recreate the events of the gruesome murders, they have not yet found any evidence or leads about who the killer could be. This was not the usual modus operandi of an assassin for such a high-profile target. Someone wants to send a very strong message, yet are being very coy about revealing themselves or who the message is for.

Gordon knows what needs to be done. He gets into his car and is taken back to police headquarters. Up on the roof, he turns on the large light projector that casts a distinctive silhouette across the Gotham night sky.

Not far away, in the industrial storage district, Batman is on an elevated platform engaging in a vicious, intense battle with Slade Wilson, the mercenary known as Deathstroke. Both of them see the bat signal light up, and in the split second that Batman is distracted Deathstroke seizes the opportunity to land a powerful blow, knocking the Dark Knight backwards.

Batman declares he has business to attend to, and in one fluid movement delivers a capoeira kick knockout, before wrestling Deathstroke while simultaneously launching his grapple gun at the roof of the adjacent building. He drops Slade onto the ground from this considerable height, and without looking back spreads his cape, soaring the rest of the way onto yet another ledge. Batman continues to make his way to the rooftop of police HQ.

Gordon explains the situation to Batman, adding that other than the baseline, there had been absolutely no indication that the mayor or his family were under any serious threat. Batman himself admits he had not seen any signs, a revelation which stuns Gordon. Gordon runs through the names of a few potential suspects – Riddler, Deathstroke, one of the crime families – but Batman rules each of them out. Batman tells the commissioner to clear GCPD from Hamilton Hill's house so that he can do his own investigation. Gordon agrees, but insists he is present as well. Batman says fine, and silently leaves.

Elsewhere, in a massive dimly-lit underground space, we see the killer rigidly walking up to a set of armchairs where four people were seated, each wearing white oval masks. The de facto leader, a slender middle-aged woman with white hair, welcomes him back warmly and tells him he's done an excellent job. The killer stands perfectly still and says nothing. We finally see a clear shot of his head. He's wearing a black hood under a gold headpiece and goggles that are almost fully opaque.

Back at Mayor Hill's house, it's empty now and all the lights have been turned off. Batman is inspecting the upper hall and rooms in the dark with night-vision lenses, and communicating with Jim Gordon who is downstairs guarding the entrance. Just then, Gordon spots some movement outside that looks like a person climbing up the side of the house and warns Batman, who stands by the window in wait. After a brief person, the intruder turns out to be a young woman that Batman recognizes. Jim Gordon runs up the stairs with his flashlight and shines it at the woman, also recognizing her.

"You're… you're Lance's kid."

The woman introduces herself as Dinah, daughter of the late GCPD captain Larry Lance, and that she's here to do her own investigation. Batman notes that she is a metahuman, with the ability to generate a powerful sonic scream. On top of that, she is a trained operative with several former affiliates, some of which have been at odds with the Bat in the past. Dinah assures that this time she is here on her own accord.

Batman asks why Dinah is interested in the Hill murders, to which she replies that she might know who the killer works for. But she refuses to reveal whom she suspects. Gordon wonders aloud if it has anything to do with her father, but Dinah just says she has work to do and starts going through the house. Batman and Gordon look at each other.

After a series of sleuthing and correct deductions, the three eventually find themselves at the morgue where Mayor Hill's body is kept. Batman reaches into the cadaver's mouth and extracts a tooth, using a magnifying optical device to examine it, and sure enough there is a miniscule imprint of a distinctive symbol etched into its root. Dinah's face turns deathly pale. "The Court of Owls," she whispers.

Back at the Batcave, Bruce tells Alfred that he remembers the urban legend about the Court of Owls, and together they recount all the investigations they have done to ascertain its existence. They had apparently reached a conclusion long ago that the Court of Owls was nothing more than a myth, possibly cooked up at some time in the city's past by conspiratorial revolutionaries to spread paranoia among the people about the elite class. Bruce and Alfred discuss the one person who continued to cling stubbornly to the idea that the Court is real.

This would be around the time the mid-credits scene from The Batman takes place.

Cut to a coastal hillside not far away from Gotham. A man on a motorbike stops by the side of the road and takes off his helmet. He's about 30 with dark hair, and gets off the bike to sit on a rock, gazing out into the water. He sits there for some time before Bruce Wayne appears and approaches him.

"How did you find me?" the man asks, without really caring about the answer.

"Well," Bruce replies. "I never lost you."

"You've been keeping busy."

"So have you, by the looks of it. That Roland Desmond affair was a big one. The city will be a lot better off without him."

"There's still much to be done."

"There's always something to be done."

"Why are you here, Bruce."

"Just keeping an eye on you."

The man gets up from the rock and starts walking towards his bike.

"The Court of Owls, Dick."

Dick Grayson stops and slowly turns around.

"It's come to my attention that the Court of Owls might actually exist and making some moves. And while I still find it hard to believe, I didn't want to dismiss it until I check with our resident Owl expert."

After some back and forth, Dick agrees to return to Gotham with Bruce and help. They are also joined by Commissioner Jim Gordon and Dinah Lance on the rooftop of police HQ, and together they exposit everything they claim to be true about the Court of Owls. The Court is understood to be a highly enigmatic, clandestine organization made of wealthy influential Gothamites who control every layer of the city. They recruit young, talented citizens with tragic backgrounds and turn them into sociopathic killing machines who do their bidding. There is even a nursery rhyme associated with the Owls that Dick still knows by heart.

It turns out Dick had been obsessed with learning as much as he can about the Court of Owls because he believed they were responsible for the death of his parents. Ever since Bruce met Dick, and for a few years after, the younger man could not let go of trying to prove that the Owls were real. But all their efforts to identify and locate the Court of Owls turned up nothing. Dick eventually learned to accept it.

"Oh they're definitely real," Dinah says bluntly, to the stunned group. She then tells her side of the story.

Five years ago, Dinah's father Larry Lance and his team had been on the tail of Sebastian Lark, an ultra-wealthy businessman with suspected links to white collar corruption. Nothing extraordinary for a city like Gotham. But Lance was one of the good ones, a stalwart senior officer trusted by Commissioner Gordon. Not long after, Lance and his wife Laurel were murdered in their house, not dissimilar to what happened to Mayor Hill and his family. Dinah, who by this time had struck out on her own, had been in utter shock and anguish, vowing to find her parents' killer. So when she learned what happened to the Hills, she had to investigate.

Batman does recall the murders of Larry and Laurel Lance, but he had to prioritize much bigger threats at the time. He tells the group that he will follow up on Sebastian Lark. Commissioner Gordon invites Dinah to stick close to GCPD, but she wants to continue her search of the Hill residence. Dick too has something he wants to do.

Batman wastes no time in tracking Sebastian Lark's movements and background that night and many nights after. In the day, Bruce Wayne uses his authority and influence as the head of Wayne Enterprises to keep Lark within range. His investigation turns up little other than the circumstantial evidence linking the wealthy hotelier to the fraudulent crimes from years ago. However he does uncover a conspiracy that could possibly connect Lark and Mayor Hill.

Commissioner Gordon is dealing with the aftermath of the mayor's death, which is being received badly by the press and the people of Gotham who are questioning the competence of the city's police. He is on a video conference with the deputy mayor, who is also giving him a hard time. When the meeting ends, Gordon sits back on his chair just as one of his officers enters the room urgently. "Sir, you might want to see this."

Dinah Lance's thorough search of Hamilton Hill's house had turned up a loose pamphlet of a masonic community in Gotham thought to be defunct. With nothing much else to go on, she spends the next few days visiting known former assembly halls used by the community.

On one such visit, at a now-abandoned chapel, we see Dinah being quietly followed by the mayor's killer who eventually attacks her. With the help of her sonic scream she manages to escape, but only barely.

At the cemetery, Dick is standing over the gravestones of both his parents. At this point we are introduced to his backstory.

We learn that the Graysons were a pair of multi-talented entertainers from Gotham who bring their act from city to city. One day they were both found killed in their hotel in Bludhaven, leaving behind their only son Richard who happened to be away at the time. The murders were never resolved.

Dick spent the rest of his childhood and teenage years in an orphanage, where he made some friends but struggled to keep his anger and confusion at bay. Just after he turned 17, he started sneaking off late at night into the wee hours, trying to find some answers about the death of his parents. On one such night, he had the misfortune of picking a fight with an unruly member of the Black Mask gang, and almost got shot in the head. That was when Batman descended and knocked the gangster and his posse, rescuing the teen.

Just as Batman turns to leave, Dick calls out saying that he wants to be like him. The vigilante, who had seen Dick hold his own during the fight with the thugs earlier, tells him to be careful what he wishes for, and disappears into the night. Almost a year later, when it was time for Dick to leave the orphanage, he sees a black Bentley waiting for him outside, with a man named Alfred Pennyworth at the wheel. Alfred takes Dick to the manor to meet Bruce, who over the course of a few years equips Dick with the skills and tools needed to face the criminal underworld. Bruce gave Dick the codename 'Robin', almost as a joke.

The relationship between Batman and the first Robin in this universe started off as a mentorship, but later evolved into more of a brotherly one. On the field, they're not the hero-sidekick duo that we recognize. We see Batman guiding Robin from afar in solo operations, and occasionally swoop in to deliver his trademark brand of justice.

Cut to some time later, at the highest floor of Wayne Enterprises. Bruce Wayne is having a meeting with some international partners when the elevator door opens. A squad of GCPD officers in tactical gear step out, followed by Jim Gordon. The commissioner, who still doesn't know Batman's true identity, tells Bruce that there are numerous death threats against him that have suddenly come under police radar around the same time. So far Jim hasn't discerned any real motives for the threats, but he wants to bring Bruce into protective custody just in case. Bruce says he has people to take care of security threats for him, but finally relents at Jim's insistence and is escorted out by the squad. Discreetly he sends out a text: 'Need an extraction. Track me.'

Over at Bruce's lake house, Alfred receives the text. "Dear me," he says nonchalantly, and heads for the Batcave.

Alfred launches a series of generic drones that travel by air to where Bruce is being taken by armored vehicle. The drones take out the vehicle's electronics remotely as the GCPD officers get out to shoot at them, and in the resulting chaos Bruce manages to escape. A car pulls up and it's Alfred, who drives Bruce back to the lake house. There, Bruce tells Alfred to go get Dick and Dinah back in the city.

"And where will you be headed, Master Wayne?" Alfred asks.

"The Owls' nest," Bruce replies, walking towards the Batcave.

From his investigations, Bruce has pieced together the clues and figured out where the Court of Owls assembles. It's just about sundown, and we see a montage of Bruce preparing his gadgets and putting on the Batsuit. He gets into the Batmobile, which fires off speedily into the evening with a nitro boost before converting to stealth mode.

Somewhere in the city, Alfred is in the car and gets on the phone with Dick, who says he is nearby and will arrive at the rendezvous point shortly. As Alfred waits in the driver's seat, he looks out the glass window and starts to look worried.

Night has fallen. Batman is standing on the roof of an observatory sitting at the top of a hill, formulating a plan. He then finds a way into the building which is empty save for a security guard. As he glides past a vast hallway, we see a gold plaque with the words 'Crowne Trust' engraved upon it. Batman is about to break into the control room when his vision starts to blur and his knees give way. As he loses consciousness and drops onto the ground, we see the silhouette of Talon standing over him.

Batman wakes up on the floor of a small, dark empty room with a door. He realizes he is now literally blind, and starts to cautiously move around the room using his other senses. He finds the door, pushes it open and walks through a long, desolate corridor that suddenly leads to a massive space that is also mostly empty, save for a platform in the middle. He has deduced that he was knocked by a colorless, odorless airborne gas in the elevator lobby, that this is somewhere deep underground, and that all his known adversaries can be ruled out. Someone new is responsible for this. He walks up to the platform and we see four people seated in armchairs, each wearing a variation of a white oval mask. The masked person in the center left, the only woman in the group, speaks up slowly and serenely.

"Bruce… Wayne."

From what little we can see of Bruce's face behind the cowl, he looks unperturbed by the mention of his alter ego. "Ah, don't worry about your eyes. The poison just blinds you temporarily."

"The Court of Owls," Batman replies matter-of-factly. "I never believed you were real. You never flew under my radar."

"You never flew under ours either."

Batman doesn't respond. The woman stays quiet for awhile, and then laughs mockingly. "I'm joking, of course. We know all about you, Bruce Wayne. We were there when you were born in St Martin's. We were there when Thomas and Martha bled to death in Park Row. We were there the very first day you put on that mask. And we will continue to be here long after you die."

The woman introduces herself as the Owl Sovereign, and the three men by her side as her Delegates. She recounts the history of the Court of Owls, implying that throughout the history of Gotham some of its most influential citizens had been a member in some capacity. Together they were the movers and shakers of the underworld, profiting off the highest levels of corruption in the city. None of the wealthier villains that Batman has faced could even touch what the court wets it's beak in; not Cobblepot, not Sionis, not even the Falcone family. Every industry in Gotham comes under the portfolio of the Owls, from pharmaceuticals to military technology.

"To politics," Batman offers.

The Owl Sovereign laughs again, saying that part was obvious. Power matters not without other powerful people to lord over with it. Otherwise one would always only be at the receiving end of it. To set the stage for a Gotham fully controlled by the Court, the Court always decides who gets to be in the positions of power. Batman wonders aloud about Commissioner Gordon, with whom he has had an alliance with for more than a decade, but the woman simply says Gordon's efforts only helped to organize a largely disorganized criminal underworld. Gordon is a safe bet, as long as nothing could be traced back to the Court of Owls.

"But I found you," Batman states.

"Ah, did you," the Owl Sovereign replies without missing a beat. She proceeds to explain how the Court had planted the information Batman used to find this location while clearing any obstacles and distractions that might have gotten in his way. The vigilante was under watch this whole time. "We have eyes. Everywhere."

Batman, who by this point is reeling from the realization that he had no idea what was really going on in his own city in the last 17 years, chooses to be very careful with his words while he quietly formulates a plan. "I have eyes everywhere too."

"You'll wish you had eyes at the back of your own head."

We see Batman reaching for his grappling gun, but this time Hamilton Hill's killer, the Owl assassin, is towering over him silently just behind him.

Elsewhere in the city, Dick Grayson meets with Dinah Lance and tells her he was supposed to meet a friend – Alfred – but he never showed up. He also mentions that Batman hasn't been responding to his calls either. Dick and Dinah share the information they had uncovered separately, finally realizing where Batman could have gone to hunt down the Court of Owls. They head for the Crowne Observatory on their bikes.

In the Court of Owls compound, the Owl assassin introduced by the Sovereign as 'Talon' is already almost overpowering Batman in a fierce struggle. Batman tries to fight his way out of a headlock the way he would counter Bane, but Talon is a lot nimbler than the Caribbean wrestler. Talon rips the cowl off Bruce's head, and with a few powerful brass-knuckled punches to the back of the billionaire's head knocks him out.

Bruce eventually awakens again, this time finding his sight has been restored. Batman is dragged by Talon through a series of rooms where, in the attempt to strike utter horror into his heart, he sees the bodies of Dick Grayson, Selina Kyle and both his parents, all of them strung up, brutally tortured and murdered. Through keen sense, he figures out that these are just the bodies of uncanny lookalikes, although he is quite impressed by the similarities and attention to detail. Then he hears a faint, tired voice call out to him. "Master Wayne…" For the first time in a very long time, Bruce feels a surge of true fear.

Alfred – the real Alfred – had been captured and in the time that Batman was unconscious, they had chained the Englishman down to a concrete slab in a room constantly illuminated by blinding white light.

"We know who you are, Mr Wayne," the Owl Sovereign's voice boomed into the room as if everywhere at once. "We know who you work with, and everyone you care about. We have left you be all this time because you never really posed a threat to us, but now that you've found your way here, we have to dispose of you."

Talon appears behind Batman and wrestles him to the floor. They fight viciously, with Batman sustaining many cuts and stab wounds. The two eventually end up in another massive dark space where this time Bruce gets the upper hand, using the many gadgets at his disposal to slam Talon onto a large marble slab, rendering the assassin unconscious. Catching his breath, Bruce takes a look around. The place is filled with dozens of similar marble slabs, with a giant marble statue of an owl in the center. Each slab was the shape of a rectangular box, and had lids with words engraved on the top surface.

They were coffins. And as Bruce continues to watch, every single one of the lids start to slide open.

The Owl Sovereign and her three Delegates have appeared in the hall of coffins. The matriarch continues to taunt Bruce while telling the story of the Talons. They were originally teenagers, largely orphans, who were taken in by the Owls and forced to train as adept killing machines. When they reach their peak, the young are sent out into the world to live regular lives, while secretly on call for assassination missions. Just before their deaths, they are put in stasis so that they can be revived in the future.

While all this was happening, Bruce has figured out that the giant owl statue is made up of white marble, the same substance that he had found earlier while stalking Sebastian Lark. White marble is softer and shatters more easily than the regular marble used in construction. Bruce had also removed the potassium chlorate plating from the antique camera that was pointed at the lookalikes of his parents back in the other room. Just as the Talon soldiers reanimate from the dead, he strikes the blades of his gauntlets together to spark a fire, igniting the potassium chlorate as he tosses it into the high ceiling.

As the marble ceiling starts to crumble, revealing the interior of the observatory, Bruce shoots his grappling gun at a ledge on the upper floor, lifting himself up through the widening hole. He sees Dick and Dinah, in full Nightwing and Black Canary costumes, standing over the hole and staring at him, astonished.

"Y-you're…" Dinah starts. "Bruce Wayne is Batman?"

"You look like you've been through hell," says Dick.

"We need to get Alfred," Bruce tells them.

Meanwhile, down below, the Owl Sovereign commands the gang of Talons to pursue Batman. They begin to nimbly climb the marble statue into the observatory above. The Sovereign then turns to her Delegates. "Kill the old man."

One of them whips out a gun and calmly walks into the room where Alfred was chained down, but much to his surprise their prisoner is no longer there.

Up on the observatory level, Bruce, Dick and Dinah are already starting to fend off the Talons who are incredible opponents. They are greatly outnumbered. Bruce instructs Dick to go down into the Owls' lair and rescue Alfred, and Dinah to keep the Talons busy as he races back to the Batmobile nearby. Dinah unleashes one of her strongest Canary Cries yet, knocking all the Talons off their feet.

Meanwhile, Dick descends underground to where the opened coffins lay. None of the Owls are around. He slowly approaches the body of the original Talon that Bruce had incapacitated earlier, and sees that the marble coffin nearest to it still had the lid on, implying that it belonged to this particular Talon. He reads the words engraved on the lid. 'William C. Grayson, 1911 - 1949'. Dick turns aghast.

Outside, Bruce activates the Batmobile, which basically turns into a Transformer; the hydraulic axle of its front wheels extend, anchoring the vehicle to the ground as the rear of its chassis folds over its top, then splits open to reveal the various parts of an armored exo-suit. Bruce removes his cape and puts the exo-suit parts on his body one by one. They meld perfectly onto his Batsuit. First the boots and leg parts, then the shoulders, arms and gloves, and finally the front and back of the torso. A large bat symbol is emblazoned across the chestplate. He grabs the headgear – a wide metal helmet with an array of fangs for a mouthguard and a bold red visor across the eyes – and replaces his torn cowl with it over his head.

He is the Thrasher Batman.

Down below, someone coughs causing Dick to whip around. It's Alfred, not in very good shape, who tells Dick that Bruce had severed the chains earlier, allowing him to escape when the opportunity arose. He had been hiding in another room, where the dead body of Dick's doppelganger is on display. Alfred says they should really leave now, prompting Dick to assist him out of there.

Bruce rejoins the battle just as Dinah is about to get rushed, and uses the many abilities of the Thrasher exo-suit to neutralize multiple Talons at once. But they are still too many, and they recover fast. Just then, Dick also joins the fray, this time wielding a pair of Escrima sticks which he expertly uses to perform a series of quick strikes at the Talons. While they are recovering, Dick tells Bruce that he had a look into the marble coffins and found temperature control technology, indicating that the Talons were kept at very low temperatures when they were not active.

Thrasher-suit Batman unleashes six grappling hooks that he uses to trap the Talons, and blasts cryogenic matter that quickly freezes and neutralizes them.

The four head members of the Court of Owls finally reappear. The Owl Superior tells our heroes that this isn't the last of the Owls, but Batman simply says he is taking them out as they speak. He has identified that the observatory itself doubles as a watchtower for the Owls, and that there is a network of satellites out in geostationary orbit that hacks into just about every electronic feed in Gotham. This is how the Owls have kept an eye on everything that has been going on in the city, using it to their advantage. This massive surveillance apparatus now belongs to Batman.

"You've lost your Talons. You've lost your nest. You've lost your all-seeing eye," Batman says. "It's time to give yourself up, Maria."

Maria Powers takes off her mask, and her Delegates follow suit. They are revealed to be Sebastian Lark, the deputy mayor Lincoln March and one of Bruce's business partners we had seen earlier John Wycliffe. "Congratulations, Bruce Wayne," Maria sniggers. "But you do realize we have your little secret identity as well. And as soon as we tell the world, everyone you have ever wronged will come after not just you, but the people close to you. Killers, gangs, governments. You can never hide again."

"Go on," Batman replies, unfazed. "Do it."

Maria merely sneers.

"If you wanted to expose me, Maria," Batman continues. "You'd have done it long ago. You would have done it as soon as I blew a hole in your ceiling. But you know it wouldn't matter. Yesterday Bruce Wayne was forced out of an armored truck by a direct assault and hasn't been seen since. It's not that hard to make him conceivably turn up dead. And the next time Batman shows up, all that credibility you think you'd have goes up in smoke. I'd be more worried about what the world would do to all of you."

Batman unleashes four drones from the exo-suit that cuff the four Owls by the legs as they try to run. We hear police sirens fading in in the background, and Batman turns to leave. Nightwing follows him, but not before calling out to the Owls, "By the way, you guys do know he's friends with Superman now right?"

Fast forward to the next day. We see in the news that four of the wealthiest individuals in the city have been apprehended for dozens of conspiratorial crimes in various facets of society, including the murder of Gotham's late mayor Hamilton Hill. A vast network of associates involved with the four of them were also brought in for questioning. The living corpses that were the Talons became the horrifying headline. Needless to say, the Court of Owls are pretty much done for.

Dick speaks to Bruce about the marble coffin bearing his great-great-grandfather's name. It turns out the original Talon really was William Grayson, and after some digging they find that Dick's parents were trying their best to distance themselves from that secret history and got caught in the middle. It's no big leap to conclude that they were murdered by the Talons after all. With this knowledge, and a hefty weight lifted off his back, Dick decides to head back to Bludhaven and continue the new life he had started.

Dinah Lance has nowhere she wants to go. Commissioner Gordon had invited her to follow in her father's footsteps as one of Gotham's finest, but she feels bound for even bigger things. Bruce gets an idea that would put her training and metahuman abilities to good use, and tells her to stick around.

That night, the Batman slips back into the observatory and finds the room where all the surveillance data is being fed to. This had been how the Owls extended their reach for at least the last couple of decades. The sheer volume of information impresses even Batman. He now has eyes everywhere in Gotham, and if he gets to work, maybe even elsewhere in the world.

This will be very useful in formulating his next grand plan, which we will find out in Justice League: Countermeasures.

"People fear what they do not know, what they cannot see. For a long time, the Batman has been watching from the shadows. For a long time, I have seen everything that happens.

And I believed that I had seen too much."

Batman gazes into the multitude of screens, each displaying a different video stream.

"But now... I see all."

END

Mid-credits:

Deep in the Bolivian jungles, a small militant army is engaged in intense trainings. Up on a watchtower, a man looks over the camp with folded arms. His face is mostly obscured by a cap, shades and a balaclava.

Placed on a stool next to this man is a customized militaristic helmet.

He is the Arkham Knight.

End-credits:

Far out in the Nevadan desert, a trio of teens are riding around on dirt bikes when suddenly a loud rumble rolls through like thunder. But the skies aren't turning dark. Instead, pockets of red light start forming among the clouds, just before a hundred pillars of photonic waves rain down. Each beam is carrying a pale, monstrous humanoid alien creature that lands hard on the desert sand. Some of the creatures have red straps across their torso forming an 'X', while others are wearing dark blue cloaks with red accents.

The teens stop in shock as they watch this unfolding. One of them yells at the others to get the hell out of there, while another whips out her smartphone to take a video, only to find it malfunctioning. However the pale aliens simply ignore the humans and began marching, as if zombified, towards one particular direction.

There are thousands of them here, the White Martians.