3. Batman - 'Bruce Wayne: Murderer' And 'Bruce Wayne: Fugitive'
Bruce Wayne: Murderer and Fugitive constituted a crossover storyline that enveloped all the Batman comic book titles in 2002. The basic plot is that Bruce Wayne and his bodyguard Sasha Bordeaux (a character created by Greg Rucka during his run on Detective Comics) are charged with the murder of Bruce's girlfriend Vesper Fairchild, who has been found dead in Bruce's arms in Wayne Manor. Has Bruce been framed? The story follows the quest to expose the truth, taking him from incarceration to eventually going on the lam. A compelling element of the story is the fact that evidence mounts against Bruce and as his behaviour becomes more and more erratic, the extended Bat-Family are genuinely unsure as to whether he is guilty or not. (Spoiler: he's not. It's totally a frame-up.) Now, obviously, we can be pretty certain that Batman is not going to be appearing in Arrow anytime soon, what with the Gotham TV show recently starting and the Batman Vs Superman movie in the works. But, if the producers were to substitute Oliver Queen for Bruce Wayne, a cracking potential story arc could begin to form for Arrow, one that could last a substantial chunk of a season. Let's say Oliver is found in the Queen mansion with the body of, for argument's sake, Laurel Lance in his arms. Think of the dramatic potential in that, as the Arrow team struggle with how well they really know Oliver. He's killed criminals before, so could he really murder someone he professed to love? We could then be treated to great scenes of Ollie in prison, scrapping with criminals he put there as Arrow, all the while trying to expose the conspiracy against him. Deadshot even shows up towards the end of Fugitive, so the show already has that character in it's back pocket. We think it could be something special.
