Owlman (character)

Owlman (Thomas Wayne, Jr.) is a fictional character appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. A supervillainous alternate-universe counterpart of Bruce Wayne / Batman, he is depicted as the adult version of Wayne's deceased older brother, who in other universes dies as a child, before Bruce is born. In The New 52, the primary continuity Owlman, originally depicted as the asylum-bound Boomerang Killer, is retroactively revealed to be still alive, stolen from his parents as a child, and working in the service of the Court of Owls under the name Lincoln March.

Owlman is voiced by Diedrich Bader and James Woods in the 2008 animated series Batman: The Brave and the Bold and the 2010 animated feature film Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths respectively. Damon Dayoub portrays Lincoln March in the 2023 television series Gotham Knights.

Owlman first appeared in Justice League of America #29 (August 1964), and was created by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky. Thomas Wayne Jr. / The Boomerang Killer first appeared in World's Finest #223 (June 1974), and was created by Bob Haney and Dick Dillin. In JLA: Earth 2 #1 (January 2000), created by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, the two are retroactively established to be the same character.

Originally, Owlman was a super-intelligent supervillain whose real name was never given. He was created as an evil counterpart to Batman. He is a member of the criminal organization known as the Crime Syndicate of America, who originated and operated on the reverse Earth-Three. In some of the pre-Crisis Crime Syndicate appearances, the Earth-Three Owlman also had the ability to briefly control minds, though it is unclear how he acquired this ability. When he was knocked out, his sub-conscious mind was able to remain active enough for him to say a word enabling him to travel to Earth-Three. He was also able to see in the dark. In the Syndicate's first travel between Earths, they met the JLA and JSA, but were defeated and imprisoned between Earth-1 and Earth-2 by Green Lantern. Later the time travelling villain Per Degaton released them as part of his plan to take over Earth-2 by stealing nuclear missiles from the Cuban Missile Crisis of Earth-Prime. When the Syndicate betrayed him, they were sent to 1982 as he had made sure this would happen when they touched him. When he was defeated, these events were erased from existence.

The pre-Crisis Earth-Three Owlman and the Crime Syndicate were killed by the Anti-Monitor's antimatter wave during Crisis on Infinite Earths.

During the Convergence storyline, Owlman was with the Crime Syndicate when they tried to free Superwoman from death row. After their mission failed and the domes fell around the cities, Owlman shied himself away from the battles.

The Owlman character was revived (along with his teammates) in the late 1990s for modern DC continuity in the graphic novel JLA: Earth 2. This Owlman was developed to be reflective of the modern readers with a far darker attitude and background than either of the two Earth-Three depictions. On antimatter Earth, Owlman was now Thomas Wayne Jr., the older brother of that reality's Bruce Wayne. In most mainstream DC universes, Batman's genesis occurred when young Bruce Wayne was witness to the murder of his parents, and was inspired to devote his life to fighting crime.

In the antimatter universe, however, young Bruce was killed along with his mother, while his brother and father survived, with Thomas Jr. growing up to be Owlman. Equipping himself with a utility belt containing technology and weapons similar to those used by Batman along with possessing a drug-enhanced high intellect (devoted to crime rather than serving the law), Owlman became a master criminal and an ally to Boss Gordon (the antimatter Earth's version of James Gordon) and underboss Lucius Fox. Later, he learned that his father Thomas Wayne Sr. was still alive and had become the chief of police in their world's version of Gotham City, gathering a cadre of police officers who did not give in to the rampant corruption which infested their version of Earth. Thomas Jr. blames his father for the deaths of his mother and brother and it is implied that the main purpose to his criminal career is to punish his father, who is well aware of who he is and is equally determined to destroy his own son. During his visit to the "main" DC Universe upon discovering the Waynes' graves, he states that nothing matters because "he's dead", and that there is no one left to hurt, referring to Thomas Wayne Sr. and collapses to his knees in despair in front of his father’s grave.