Wayne Bruce: Truth Behind 'Bearded, Masked Scotsman' as Batman's Inspiration

A photo of a bearded masked man was posted on the Facebook group 'Travel Scotland Goals Group'. Jake Shearer, the person who posted the photo, claimed the bearded man was the original inspiration for popular superhero Batman.

"Little know fact that Scotsman Wayne Bruce (descendant of Robert the Bruce) was the inspiration for The Batman Comics.

Wayne who would wear a disguise and used his inheritance to take on criminals in the 1880s, this is also why Glasgow was used to depict Gotham in the Batman films as a homage to the true origin story," Shearer wrote.

The post quickly went viral, getting lots of reactions.

One person wrote a hilarious anecdote, saying, "His arch enemy The Yoker from ...Yoker. Then there was The Piddler always arrested for urinating in the street. Catwoman was just an old woman who kept cats."

Another person chimed in, saying, "Hearing the old “Batman” theme on bagpipes now," referring to the cultural heritage of Scotland.

The Truth

The various claims about the photo suggest different origins for the picture. According to Snopes.com, some individuals claim that the person seen is a Scottish guy named Wayne Bruce, who is supposedly descended from Scottish nobility, and those who argue that the person is a butcher from New York City named Bill Smith, who is the subject of an 1892 photo.

Reverse-image searches used to try to track down the photograph's original source have shown up many examples of it being circulated along with inconsistent sources. The image was first seen in a Reddit post in 2017. It was later spotted on Bandcamp, where a person by the name of Dennis Kelly used it as his profile photo. In addition, the image may be viewed on the website of Foto Marvellini, a 2011-founded art and photography workshop that specializes in image editing to create a retro look.

It is clear that the aforementioned photo has nothing to do with the origins of the Batman persona, despite the false allegations that have been spread on the internet.

According to a well-established comic book legend, Bob Kane and his partner Bill Finger created Batman. The masked vigilante made his first appearance in Detective Comics in 1939. The radio program "The Shadow," the 1920s movie "The Mark of Zorro," and the 1930 movie "The Bat Whispers," which had a gangster wearing a cloak with a bat emblem on it.