WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Before the Batman: An Original Movie Novel, on sale now.
One of the most important parts of all Batman stories is why the Dark Knight embraced the symbol of the bat. It's a staple of any Bruce Wayne journey, as the origin of the playboy becoming an agent of the night to inflict fear into Gotham's criminals is synonymous with the creatures. Usually, different iterations have different reasons for including bats, but it usually can be traced back to trauma. However, in the prequel to Matt Reeves' The Batman, titled Before the Batman: An Original Movie Novel, it's revealed Robert Pattinson's Bruce has a new reason for embracing bats.
The bat has always been personal to Bruce, dating back to the original comics. In the '50s, it went from crashing through his window and inspiring his vigilantism to a costume his dad once wore to a party. In Batman: The Animated Series, Bruce needed a terrifying symbol, and after finding the cave on his mansion grounds, he saw the bat as something frightening.
Then, in the movies from Tim Burton, Joel Schumacher and Christopher Nolan, Bruce was scared of bats as a kid after falling into the cave at home and wanted to turn his fear on his enemies. Thus, the creatures were mostly tied to the memory of his parents and wanting to honor them in an effective way as a vigilante. As such, the bat embodied death and life, driving Bruce as the Caped Crusader on his lifelong mission.
This novel from David Lewman changed things drastically, however, addressing Bruce's teen years and how he went to schools across the world, learning various scientific disciplines and picking up martial arts styles. Eventually, when he got back home to Alfred years after his parents' deaths in his late '20s, Bruce realized he could do more for a broken city with his potential. After all, his brains, brawn and resources were indeed a gift.
Bruce used his cave, which was hidden away at the bottom of Wayne Tower, for this crusade because it connected to various parts of the city. There, he had his lab for analyzing chemicals, building weapons, a suit and his car. But when it came to picking a theme, it wasn't like older stories where the bat had some profound impact on his life. It was that the underground network also linked to the manor, and the cave had bats in it.
However, the budding detective didn't fear them; seeing as he was introverted and a socially awkward outsider, he considered them the only friends he ever really had. It's a nice subversion of the mythos, having Bruce plotting his formative identity since age 17 in the cave, with bats being unwitting partners and kindred spirits in the war to come.
To see Bruce Wayne's bat persona in action, The Batman hits theaters on March 4 before making its way to HBO Max on April 19.