be Commissioner Gordon of the Gotham City Police which leads to the Wrath coming into conflict with Batman. In the course of their impersonal battle of wits, the Wrath learns Batman's secret identity as Bruce Wayne and proceeds to attack several of his friends; Alfred Pennyworth is hospitalized, and Leslie Thompkins is taken hostage by the Wrath. During his rooftop showdown with Batman, one of the Wrath's explosive capsules detonates during the fight; Batman's attempt to throw the Wrath off of him leads to the villain accidentally landing in his fire and falling over the edge to his death. Looking down from the rooftop, Batman remarks that watching Wrath's death felt like watching his own. In "Wrath Child" (Batman Confidential #13-16), several details of the Wrath's origin underwent a retcon, including the original story taking place shortly after Dick Grayson became Robin (the original story was published the same year that Grayson became Nightwing), with Grayson missing the events because he was away at the time on an "educational holiday" (one of the various training missions Batman sent him on). The Wrath's father is now depicted as a corrupt cop who was robbing a warehouse with his wife and so acting as a lookout. Gordon confronted them and, in a gunfight, killed the parents in self-defense. Additionally, the Wrath is now depicted as having copied Batman, whereas in his original appearance, this is never suggested and it is implied that they both developed nearly identical personas independently. When Batman hears the story of the Wrath's origins from the original's successor, the young Wrath II claims that only his predecessor's father was armed and Gordon shot to kill first but, in reality, his father fired first, and then his mother took up his father's gun, with Gordon's shots only being fatal because his aim was off due to his injuries (it is unclear if the young Wrath II believed this story because he heard it from his mentor, or if his mentor told him the truth and then twisted it to make the Wrath seem like a victim). Abandoned by the cops to conceal the corruption - Gordon going along with the plan because then-Captain Gillian B. Loeb threatened to kill the boy (as he was the only witness) if he talked - the Wrath became a contract killer in the hopes of "avenging his parents again and again". While preparing