Several years ago, a young Bruce Wayne located tracker/bounty hunter Willy Doggett in order to improve his tracking skills by learning from the best. The two of them started a manhunt across the mountains of Alaska, looking for the assassin named Tom Woodley, who appeared and killed Doggett, while greatly injuring Bruce. Bruce fought back, and during the struggle, Tom slipped from his perch and fell seemingly to his death. Without any means of survival, Bruce wandered the frozen mountains until he collapsed of exhaustion and dehydration, which caused him several hallucinations, including a vision of Joe Chill as an evil snowman. An Alaskan Shaman and his daughter found Bruce and nursed him back to health. The Shaman told Bruce an ancient Native American folktale about a bat to heal him and by the time Bruce departed, he made Bruce promise to never tell the story to another living soul. Bruce returns to the United States and his family home at Wayne Manor. His first attempt at crime fighting (depicted as his first unconsumed encounter with Selina Kyle) nearly ends in disaster, and he returns to Wayne Manor broken and bleeding. While resting in his father's study, a large bat crashes through the window. Inspired by animal's dark visage, Bruce decides to adopt the costumed identity of Batman in order to strike terror into the hearts of criminals. The following evening, Batman investigates a break-in at Leslie Thompkins' free clinic. He beats up several thugs in the alley behind the clinic and finds a scared patient hovering in a corner. The woman screams the word "Chubala" and then plunges a knife directly into her own heart.

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