Dr. Simon Hurt, commonly known simply as Doctor Hurt, is a fictional character from the DC Comics universe. First appearing as an unnamed character in Batman #156 (June 1963), the character was retroactively revived in 2008 by writer Grant Morrison and established as Thomas Wayne, a distant relative of Bruce Wayne (the alter-ego of Batman) and his father Thomas Wayne.
Development info
Visually, Doctor Hurt is based on an unnamed scientist who first appeared in Batman #156 (June 1963), in a story titled "Robin Dies at Dawn". In that story Batman participated in an experiment for NASA that caused him to hallucinate that Robin (Dick Grayson) was in constant danger; the story itself is referenced many times in Morrison's run on Batman. The character made behind-the-scenes appearances throughout Morrison's run before actually appearing fully in the first chapter of "Batman R.I.P."
The character was first called "Doctor Simon Hurt" in Batman #674. He is a brilliant psychologist whose true identity and nature is an enigma; over the course of Morrison's run he has been strongly implied at times to be the devil, the demon Barbatos, a supernaturally-empowered ancestor of Bruce Wayne, Bruce Wayne's long-lost evil twin brother, Bruce Wayne's father, an instrument of Darkseid, and perhaps even Darkseid himself. Hurt is dedicated to completely destroying Batman in body, mind, and soul, and replacing him with a corrupted, evil counterpart.
Doctor Hurt led both the Black Glove and the Club of Villains against Batman in "Batman R.I.P." Hurt was the main antagonist of Morrison's run on Batman titles from 2007 to 2011, appearing in Batman, The Return of Bruce Wayne, and Batman and Robin, as well as behind-the-scenes in Final Crisis.
Fictional character biography
A psychiatrist, Doctor Hurt was involved in a program which created three "replacement Batmen" with the participation of the Gotham City Police Department. Sometime after the three replacements had been trained, Hurt was hired by the Defense Department to oversee an isolation experiment. During this process, he gave Batman a post-hypnotic trigger connected to the phrase "Zur-En-Arrh". He also arranged for the replacements to fight the dazed Batman, but they were defeated; Batman suspected nothing of this.
Going over his notes on Batman's psychology, he realized that Batman was "powered by tragedy" and set about traumatizing the three replacements, ostensibly to make them better crimefighters.
Many years later, Doctor Hurt was working with the Black Glove when they decided to target Batman and the Dark Knight's allies. Their first attack consisted of character assassination on the Wayne family, by spreading information to suggest that Thomas Wayne somehow survived the murder by Joe Chill (to the point of arranging for the 'attack' in order to conceal his own debauchery). Hurt then, using the Zur-En-Arrh trigger in conjunction with drugs, sent the dazed and confused Bruce Wayne onto the streets of Gotham with no memory. Furthering this attack, he claimed to Alfred Pennyworth that he was actually Thomas himself, although Alfred denied this.
Batman survived thanks to years of preparation, culminating in a confrontation with Hurt on Arkham Asylum's roof. He accused Hurt of being Mangrove Pierce, an actor, acquaintance, and occasional impersonator of Thomas, but Hurt claimed that he had actually "skinned Mangrove Pierce alive and wore [the man] to Mayhew's party".