Dr. Simon Hurt, commonly known simply as Doctor Hurt, is a fictional character who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. 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.
Publication history 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. 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, Simon Hurt is involved in a program which creates three "replacement Batmen" with the participation of the Gotham City Police Department. Sometime after the replacements are trained, Hurt is hired by the Defense Department to oversee an isolation experiment. During this process, he gives Batman a post-hypnotic trigger connected to the phrase "Zur-En-Arrh". Going over his notes on Batman's psychology, Hurt realizes that Batman was "powered by tragedy" and set about traumatizing the three replacements, ostensibly to make them better crimefighters. Many years later, Hurt is working with the Black Glove when they decided to target Batman and his allies. Their first attack consists of character assassination on the Wayne family, by spreading information to suggest that Thomas Wayne somehow survived his murder by Joe Chill. Using the Zur-En-Arrh trigger in conjunction with drugs, Hurt sends the dazed and confused Bruce Wayne onto the streets of Gotham City with no memory. Batman survives thanks to his years of preparation, culminating in a confrontation with Hurt on Arkham Asylum's roof. He accuses Hurt of being Mangrove Pierce, an actor, acquaintance, and occasional impersonator of Thomas. However, Hurt claims to have been a separate person from Pierce and was responsible for his death. Hurt is presumed dead after a helicopter explosion, but survives and reappears six months later in Mexico, disguised as drug lord El Penitente. With Joker working as an unreliable ally, Hurt releases an airborne drug into Gotham City with the intention of driving the city mad, subsequently making a public return as Thomas with the intention of setting up his headquarters in the Batcave. Hurt shoots Dick Grayson in the head and attempts to force Damian Wayne to swear allegiance to him to save Dick's life. Hurt is revealed to be Thomas Wayne, a distant relative of the Wayne family who originates from the 17th century and prolonged his life through a series of occult rituals. Having escaped to a graveyard, Hurt is confronted and defeated by the Joker when he slips on a banana peel and breaks his neck. The Joker doses Hurt with Joker venom and buries him alive, claiming that he proved to be a disappointment as a "new" arch-enemy. It is revealed that Dick has survived the injuries, despite Hurt's intent to render him comatose and nearly brain dead. Joker claims that he has "taken care" of Hurt, but Bruce is not willing to believe that Hurt is dead. Hurt appears in the storyline Convergence, where a group of pre-Flashpoint Batman villains, including Riddler and Professor Pyg, attempt to confront the Batman of Earth-Two (a version of Thomas Wayne). Hurt is eventually killed when Batman blows himself up as a delaying tactic.
DC Rebirth In 2016, DC Comics implemented a relaunch of its books called "DC Rebirth", which restored its continuity to a form much as it was prior to The New 52 reboot. Hurt is depicted as deriving his immortality from the Hyper-Adapter that is fused to him. Hurt recruits Professor Pyg and has him create Dollotrons of Robin and Nightwing, one of which becomes known as Deathwing. Deathwing brings him Robin, who he plans to kill at dawn. Hurt is apparently killed when Deathwing stabs him, but manages to stab Deathwing in return.
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