Wrath (comics)

Publication history

The Wrath's debut story was titled "The Player on the Other Side", published in Batman Special #1 (1984). The title was based on the essay "A Liberal Education and Where to Find It" by Thomas Henry Huxley (Although mistakenly attributed to Aldous Huxley by Bruce Wayne). It is also a reference to the Ellery Queen novel of the same name, as the story's author, Mike W. Barr is a renowned Queen enthusiast.

A Post Infinite Crisis legacy version of The Wrath debuted in the pages of Batman Confidential #13 in a story arc written by Tony Bedard, with Elliott Caldwell, the 'student' of the original Wrath, taking on his mentor's mantle.

The original Wrath

The first Wrath was a member of Batman's rogues gallery, where he served as a sort of anti-Batman. The Wrath's appearance and motivation are reminiscent of Batman's, but with notable differences. The Wrath (like Batman) is distinguished by perfectionism and obsession in what he does. His costume is also very similar to Batman's (though coloured in crimson and purple with a W-insignia on the chest and cowl; the W on his cowl, when seen in the right light and at the right angle, looks like the ears of the Batman's own cowl).

Wrath's parents were a couple of burglars like Joe Chill, the man who shot and killed Batman's own parents. They were shot by a young policeman who mistook them for robbers (in actuality, they were crawling out of a window to "skip out" on paying their rent). Due to this, Wrath dedicated his life to a campaign of revenge against law and law-enforcers. As he grew up, the burglars' son became a skilled professional assassin. For years, he traveled the world working as a gun for hire, later falling in love with the daughter of a retired Mafia boss, Gayle Hudson, when she hires him to kill the party responsible for the murder of her father.

When Wrath finally returns to Gotham City, he comes to kill the man who had shot his parents. Wrath's target turns out to be Commissioner Gordon of the Gotham City Police which leads to Wrath coming into conflict with Batman. In the course of their impersonal battle of wits, Wrath learns Batman's secret identity as Bruce Wayne and proceeds to attack several of his friends; Alfred Pennyworth is hospitalized, and Leslie Thompkins is taken hostage by Wrath.

During his rooftop showdown with Batman, one of Wrath's explosive capsules detonates during the fight; Batman's attempt to throw Wrath off of him leads to the villain accidentally landing in his own fire and, panicking, falling over the edge to his death before Batman can grab him.

In Wrath Child (Batman Confidential #13-16), several details of his origin underwent a retcon, including the original story taking place shortly after Dick Grayson became Robin (the original story was published the same year that Grayson became Nightwing), with Grayson missing the events because he was away at the time on an "educational holiday" (One of the various training missions Batman sent him on). Wrath's father is now depicted as a corrupt cop who was robbing a warehouse with his wife and son acting as a lookout. Gordon confronted them and, in a gunfight, killed the parents in self-defense. When Batman hears the story of the Wrath's origins from the original's successor, the young Wrath claims that only his predecessor's father was armed and Gordon shot to kill first, but in reality his father fired first and then his mother took up his father's gun, with Gordon's shots only being fatal because his aim was off due to his injuries (It is unclear if the young Wrath believed this story because he heard it from his mentor or if his mentor told him the truth and he then twisted it to make the Wrath seem like a victim). Abandoned by the cops in an effort to conceal the corruption - Gordon going along with the plan because then-captain Gillian Loeb threatened to kill the boy (as he was the only witness) if he talked - Wrath became a contract killer in the hopes of "avenging his parents again and again". While preparing to assassinate Gordon, Wrath studied Batman and initially planned to dress just like him to needle Gordon. However, he came to the conclusion that they were kindred spirits inspired by a similar disaster in their lives, and duplicated Batman's costume and equipment as an homage - to the extent that he began training his own "Robin", who went on to become the second Wrath.

Elliot Caldwell

Sporting an all-purple costume, this Wrath, who Batman is convinced is a copycat from his first appearance, begins murdering police officers visiting Gotham for a convention and breaks into Grayle Hudson's apartment. After a fight with Batman, during which he confirms he's not the original Wrath- and is apparently unaware of Batman's true identity- he tells the Dark Knight to investigate Commissioner Gordon's actions on June 26 twenty five years ago— the same night Bruce Wayne's parents died. Upon another meeting with Batman, the second Wrath tells a distorted version of the events that happened (Although it is unclear if he is reciting the version he learned from the original Wrath or if he has twisted it in his own mind), saying Gordon killed the original Wrath's parents in cold blood, though Batman saw through this and realized that Gordon shot them in self-defense. His subsequent assessment of the old Wrath helps Batman determine the identity of the new one; as the original Wrath sought to duplicate all of Batman's methods, Batman concludes that the new Wrath must be the original's equivalent of Robin.

Batman and Nightwing, upon confronting the second Wrath for a final time, reveal that they have learned that the new Wrath's real name was Elliot Caldwell, an orphan boy whom the Wrath trained to be his answer to Robin, based on a psychological profile run by Alfred looking for children in Dick's age range who disappeared around the time that the Wrath was active. Elliot was one of five orphans who the original Wrath kidnapped and trained, but he was the only one who survived the training. Despite Caldwell's refusal to believe their claims and his subsequent efforts to continue fighting, he was stopped by Batman and Nightwing, whose teamwork and care for each other forced Caldwell to recognize that he had never had the same relationship with his master. He was subsequently sent to Blackgate Penitentiary, although he reflected that he would be ready to face them again in future now that his 'emotional weakness' had been purged.

The New 52

In The New 52 (a reboot of the DC Universe following the events of Flashpoint), E.D. Caldwell is the CEO of Caldwell Tech who appears as legitimate magnate trying to buy Wayne Enterprises. When a series of policeman murders strikes Gotham, Batman uncovers him to be sociopath killer using the company to create an army of soldiers called Scorn and adopting the codename "Wrath." Caldwell manages to capture Alfred Pennyworth and plans to murder him.

Upon rescue, Alfred reveals the fruit of this revenge is because Caldwell's father has been murdered during a diamond heist by corrupt officers who then pocketed the diamonds. Helped by the Gotham City Police Department, Batman finally defeats Wrath. While in prison, Wrath meets with Emperor Blackgate where they both begin a partnership.

Television