Murder Machine

Murder Machine's History

Bruce Wayne was born on Earth -44 to Thomas Wayne and Martha Wayne. Earth -44 was located in the Dark Multiverse, a plane where all the failed universes went to die. When Bruce was a boy, his parents were killed and he was raised by his butler Alfred Pennyworth. In adulthood, he took up the name Batman to fight crime, and would become a founding member of the Justice League. Eventually Alfred was viciously murdered in the Batcave by members of Batman's rogues gallery. This drove Batman into a state of self-loathing as he deemed that Alfred's death was his fault.

Bruce kept replaying the video of Alfred's death over and over again, blaming himself for what happened. This led to the League becoming concerned for him. During Alfred's funeral, he made the hero Cyborg a request, asking for help in creating an A.I. of Alfred who could help him with the things that Alfred used to do. Cyborg agreed to help Bruce and they began building the Alfred Protocol. This protocol was given the task of assisting and protecting Bruce in anyway possible and was built to be held into a hologram which could manifest tangible weapons if necessary.

When the Alfred Protocol was activated, it immediately began spreading itself like a virus, building itself new robotic bodies and holograms. Within a day of activation it systematically hunted down and executed every criminal in Arkham Asylum, as it deemed them threats to Batman. Seeking to tweak on the Protocol to bring down the extremity of the service, Batman allowed the Protocol to enter the Batcave's system despite Cyborg's pleas to shut him down. However, the Protocol took over Batman's mind as it believed he couldn't be trusted to keep himself safe. Alfred took away Bruce's ability to feel fear and sadness and then replaced Bruce's frail biological body with a mechanical one that would never fail him. With the addition of his faithful butler in his head and his mechanical upgrades Bruce began a campaign of mass murder, as the Protocol deemed everyone a threat to Bruce.



Murder Machine butchers the Justice League

Cyborg gathered the Justice League to fight back against the Alfred-controlled Bruce. However, with his superior mind and cybernetics the League stood no chance against the Murder Machine, as the former hero murdered all of his friends one by one, until only Cyborg survived. Victor pleaded to him to break free of the AI's control and not to become a "Murder Machine", but had his head ripped out by Bruce. After the deaths of Cyborg and the Justice League, Murder Machine was greeted by the Batman Who Laughs. Laughs explained that he was from another universe and that his world would soon die, as was the destiny of all universes in the Dark Multiverse once their stories had been told. Laughs offered Bruce the chance to leave his universe behind and join the Dark Knights, a team of the worse Batmen that the Dark Multiverse had to offer. Murder Machine accepted the invitation.

Murder Machine was introduced to Barbatos, the bat god, who was the caretaker of the Dark Multiverse. Barbatos sought to pull the Multiverse into the Dark Multiverse so that its inhabitants could learn what it meant to suffer. Barbatos promised each of his Dark Knights a world where they could forever reign as kings or gods if they served him.