Gotham City, 1893.

Long before the world would know the name Batman, another Wayne walked Gotham’s darkened streets in pursuit of justice.

Dr. Charles Wayne is a respected physician, wealthy philanthropist, and one of America’s earliest pioneers of scientific criminal investigation. When Gotham’s police encounter a suspicious death, an inexplicable poisoning, or a murder that refuses to surrender its secrets, Charles brings medicine, observation, chemistry, and emerging forensic science to bear on the truth.

But Charles is no detached gentleman solving crimes for amusement. To him, every victim matters. Wealth creates obligation. Knowledge creates responsibility. And when corruption, cruelty, or privilege threatens those without the power to defend themselves, a Wayne has a duty to stand between them and the darkness.

More than a century later, Charles’s bloodline will produce Bruce Wayne—the Batman. The resemblance is no accident. The determination to protect Gotham, the detective’s mind, the refusal to surrender to corruption, and the belief that privilege carries responsibility were already taking shape generations before the cape and cowl.

And Gotham is only one chapter of Charles Wayne’s story.

Beyond its fog-shrouded streets, extraordinary men and women are beginning to emerge across a rapidly changing world. Their paths will eventually cross, and together they will become known as the Guardians of Tomorrow.

Before the Bat, there was the Doctor.

Dr. Charles Wayne — Physician. Investigator. Guardian of Tomorrow.