So, I just got Batman: Thrillkiller from the Atwater Village library and read it cover to cover. I am telling you now, to do whatever you have to do read this book. It's not a perfect story, but what it does do, it does very well.
The story basically reinvents the Batman story and shows what new paths you can go down if you make changes in a character's backstory or change the setting of the story. In this new version, which takes place in 1961, Bruce Wayne's parents go broke in the depression, prior to being killed, and Bruce is raised in an orphanage and becomes a cop. Barbara Gordon is Batgirl and Dick Grayson is Robin, and Bruce is hunting them down. Barbara is rich and owns Wayne Manor, which she has retrofitted and refers to as the Batcave. There are other changes (Joker is a woman), but you get the idea.
In the past, I never gave a huge amount of thought into character's backstory or the specifics about setting. While I was writing Heisty however, I started to. I changed character's gender and starting using specific regional aspects in the storytelling, and it helped the story make sense.
Thrillkiller does this in spades, it takes a story we already know and shows us how everything would be different if their world was different, but that what it is at the core of the character doesn't have to change. Bruce is a corrupt cop like everyone else on the force because of his tough upbringing, he is still a boy scout.
If you can get your hands on a copy of this book, it's definitely worth reading.
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