Origin
Born in the 1700s, Thomas Wayne (not to be confused with Bruce Wayne’s father Thomas Wayne) eventually grew up to be the “black sheep” of the Wayne family, as he began to lead a demonic cult worshipping the demon Barbatos, in search of eternal life. One night, he and a number of other cult members, including prominent figures in history like Benjamin Franklin, successfully summoned what they believed to be Barbatos. While the other members of the cult ran in horror, Thomas stayed behind to receive the gifts he believed his god would bestow on him.
What Thomas didn’t know was that Barbatos, was actually an alien weapon, the Hyper-Adapter, sent out by the evil god Darkseid to chase Batman through out time, a result of the events of Final Crisis. The weapon gave Thomas what he was looking for, eternal life, which he would use to live on for years and years to come as one “Simon Hurt” eventually seeking out the destruction of his descendant, Bruce Wayne caused by the influence of the weapon.
Creation
Doctor Hurt was originally created by Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff as an at the time, inconsequential one and done character in 1963’s “Robin Dies at Dawn” story.
The modern re-imagining of the character was handled by Grant Morrison, who made a habit of pulling obscure characters out of Batman’s past continuity, and making them big parts of his multi year Batman epic starting with 2006’s Batman and Son.
Character Evolution
Sliver Age / Earth-One
Doctor Hurt, originally was an obscure character who made a single appearance in a Batman comic during the 1960s, and wouldn’t be seen again until Grant Morrison brought him back in 2006.
Modern Age / New Earth
Morrison took Hurt’s obscure status of a character who simply put Batman through a scientific test, to something more sinister and menacing. Morrison described Hurt as being the devil, in a metaphoric sense to Batman, though some would debate that he could have quite possibly been the literal devil. Hurt was given a back story of being a colonial Wayne Family family ancestor, who through the power of what he thought to be black magic, lived for hundreds of years, eventually aiming to destroy Batman and his family.
Major Story Arcs
Modern Age / New Earth
The Black Mass
In 1765, a young Thomas Wayne, along with numerous other influential colonial Americans, participate in a demonic mass where they attempt to summon the demon Barbatos, in an attempt to gain eternal life. When the summoning seemingly works, all of the men but Thomas flee in fear, locking Thomas underground with the demon. While Thomas believes he had summoned Barbatos, what actually appeared to him was Darkseid’s weapon, the Hyper Adaptor, which adapted to Hurt, with the intent of using Thomas as a weapon against his future descendent.
Testing of Batman
Early in his career, Batman agreed to scientific tests that would allow the government to create replacement Batmen, if anything tragic was to happen to the original. These tests were overseen by a one Simon Hurt, who put Batman through a series of hallucinogenic tests, where he would see such things as the death of Dick Grayson, who was Robin at the time. While Batman was taking Hurt’s tests, the Doctor would secretly plant a post hypnotic trigger into Batman’s mind, triggered by the phrase “Zur-En-Arrh” which he intended to use in the future as a way to disable Batman. Hurt would later use his findings on Batman’s psychology to create three possible replacements to Batman that he would later use to torment the real one.
The Black Glove
Hurt would have his Black Glove associate, John Mayhew, reassemble his old Club of Heroes, a group of international heroes, including Batman who Mayhew attempted to spearhead years ago, eventually failing to keep the team together. The heroes were brought together under the guise of a reunion, but it was really a twisted game set up by the Black Glove of good vs evil, who would live and who would die. Though suffering some casualties through out the night, Batman and most of the Club of Heroes manage to make it out of the ordeal alive. To Hurt’s displeasure, he feels as if Mayhew failed him, and ends up killing him as retribution. The one thing Hurt does manage to accomplish is planting the idea of the Black Glove into Batman’s mind, as he would soon become obsessed with finding out just who the Black Glove is.
Batman R.I.P.
Becoming more and more obsessed with the Black Glove, Batman is driven nearly to his breaking point of stress, as news reports begin to surface that his mother and father were actually abusive, alcoholic, drug addict deviants, rather than the loving philanthropic couple the world believed them to be. It is then when Hurt decides to use the post hypnotic trigger he planted in Batman’s mind years ago. This disables Batman, allowing the Black Glove, lead by Hurt, to infiltrate the Batcave and Wayne Manor. Hurt has Bruce drugged and thrown out into the streets of Gotham with out a memory of who he is. Celebrating his feat, Hurt tells Alfred Pennyworth, the Wayne Family butler that he is Thomas Wayne, Bruce’s father. Alfred, knowing better, doesn’t believe the claim, but it doesn’t matter, as Hurt’s plan for his “son” Batman is not yet over. While Bruce becomes the Batman of Zur en Arrh, a back up Batman persona used as a contingency plan if his mind came under attack, Hurt and the Black Glove take over Arkham Asylum, waiting for the guest of honor, Batman, to arrive, while freeing and inviting Joker to the party. Batman arrives to the Asylum to find Joker holding his girlfriend Jezebel Jet captive.
While Joker laughs, claiming he doesn’t get the joke, Batman falls to yet another trap set by the Black Glove, a drug triggered by red and black rose petals surrounding Jezebel, who reveals herself to be a member of the Black Glove as well. Hurt take’s Bruce’s body, and buries him alive in a shallow grave. Believing he has won, Hurt and the Black Glove’s celebration is interrupted by the Joker, who as he’s leaving reveals he’s betting on Batman to win, warning the group not to underestimate him and that he’ll be back later to collect his winnings. Bruce eventually breaks out of the coffin to chase Hurt down. As Hurt tries to escape via helicopter, he once again claims to be Bruce’s father, something Bruce refuses to believe. Just before Bruce manages to take the helicopter down plunging into the Gotham river, Hurt curses Bruce, telling him that the next time he puts on his costume will be his last. Through Bruce survives the crash, Hurt’s body is never found, his words rang true, as the next time Bruce wore his costume, he was abducted by Darkseid, who would eventually seemingly kill him.
Batman and Robin
With Bruce Wayne seemingly dead, Dick Grayson and Bruce’s son, Damian Wayne take up the role of Batman and Robin. Very early in the new Dynamic Duo’s tenure, they come across a serial killer known as the Dominio Killer, who seems to be targeting members of the Black Glove. With the help of a British author/detective by the name of Oberon Sexton, the duo look into the crimes, but it would not be long until Hurt would once again reveal himself, this time under the guise of El Penitente, a Mexican drug lord, who sends his forces after the duo and Sexton in order to an ancient artifact buried deep within the crypts of the Wayne estate. Soon after Hurt’s return to Gotham, his forces manage to steal a small coffin like box found in the caves below the Wayne graveyard.
While Hurt plans his final phase of his plan to destroy Batman and his legacy, Dick Grayson figures out that Oberon Sexton is actually the Joker, who assumed the writer’s identity in order to attack the Black Glove as the Domino Killer and get close to Batman and Robin in order to help, as he feels that Hurt and the Black Glove took “his” Batman away from him. With the battle lines drawn between Dick, Damian and Joker against Doctor Hurt and the Black Glove, Hurt reveals himself to Gotham City as Thomas Wayne, back from the dead, just as Gotham falls into a plague of madness caused by a viral drug spread by the Black Glove in secret.
The Return of Bruce Wayne
While Hurt returns to Gotham in present day, an amnesiac Bruce Wayne is still throttling through time, attempting to get back to his own period. Bruce comes across Hurt through various periods of time. First during the mid 1800s, where Hurt and Vandal Savage are attempting to open the small coffin like box that Hurt was created by those who would come in contact with Bruce through his time travelling, believing the secret of Barbatos, Hurt’s demon god to be locked within. Hurt would be unsuccessful in his attempts to unlock the box, and would flee to England, where it is heavily implied he was Jack the Ripper. Bruce would later come in contact with Hurt again, in a period of time very soon after his parent’s murder. Here Hurt and the Black Glove would attempt to sacrifice Bruce (who they believed to be a nameless detective) in an attempt to summon Barbatos, while posing as Thomas and Martha Wayne recording the event, which would be part of the “information” leaked to the press during the events of Batman RIP. The plan would backfire, and actually send Bruce though time, once again, eventually allowing him to finally return home.
The Final Confrontation
With the drug induced madness taking over Gotham, while the rest of the city believes Thomas Wayne to be back from the dead, Hurt and the Black Glove manage to overtake Dick and Damian. He holds the two in captivity while he attempts to once again summon Barbatos, and opening the small coffin like box found under the Wayne grave yard. To Hurt’s surprise, the box opens on it’s own. Hurt looks into the box and finds only a batarang and a simple note proclaiming “Gotcha!” Dick and Damian manage to break free and attack Hurt. Confused and panicked, Hurt is unable to comprehend what’s happening, and to his dread, he hears a voice telling him it’s all over. Bruce Wayne stands behind his foe, ready to end their confrontation. Hurt sends his army of fiends after the two Batmen and Robin, while he tries to make an escape. After beating Hurt’s men, Bruce sends Dick and Damian to deal with the chaos in Gotham as he goes after Hurt who has fled into the Batcave. It is here where Bruce reveals to Hurt that he knows exactly who he is, and how he was contaminated by a weapon from a different world, which his real father Thomas tried to treat him for. Hurt in his madness remains headstrong claiming to be Bruce’s father, as he tries to make his escape by forcing Batman to save Alfred, who Hurt trapped under water.
Thinking he had escaped, Hurt crawls out of the cave, finding a trail of dominoes waiting for him, which lead out into the Wayne graveyard. At the end of the trail, Hurt finds Joker, waiting for him, with a gun on the ground in between him. Joker offers Hurt a chance to go “mano a mano” allowing him to go after the gun, but in his attempt to do so, Hurt slips on a banana peel, laid by Joker, cracking his head on the steps. As Joker drags him away, telling Hurt how disappointed he is in him about not living up to his expectations, he poisons Hurt with his toxin, then proceeds to bury him alive, proclaiming “Joker trumps deuce.”
Other Versions
Batman 666 Universe
Set in an apocalyptic future where Damian Wayne is Batman, Damian has been said to have sold his soul to the devil in exchange for the power to be invulnerable. Coming into contact with the Third Ghost, the Ghost constantly mentions their ‘father’, who is later shown to be Doctor Hurt in the present mainstream universe. Some time after this interaction Damian is facing a deranged Gotham while the people of the White House decide what to do about Gotham. The President then is shown to have no other choice and bombs the city after being coaxed on by Doctor Hurt himself. This future version is shown to follow closely the tales in Revelations where Hurt can be considered the Devil, adding more so to who he has become.