>Bruce Wayne did not train with the League of Shadows in this version. It was Alfred who brought him around the world from an early age and taught him everything, from hand-to-hand combat to weapons handling to SERE techniques, at Bruce's request. Alfred was a Commando Engineer in the Falklands War, where he suffered a career-ending injury, and was later hired as Thomas Wayne’s chief of security after they met when Thomas was an army medic. Batman's equipment is salvaged and built by Alfred and Bruce themselves, without any help from Wayne Enterprises, so there is no Lucius Fox in this version. Bruce adamantly refuses to kill, as it would make him no better than the people he fights, and prioritizes stealth takedowns over open confrontation.

>Bruce has been Batman for two years by the time the movie begins, and has mainly fought the mob, led by Carmine Falcone. In an interesting bit of subversion, Bruce laid low for months while operated as Batman before returning to Gotham’s public scene as Bruce Wayne, to deflect suspicions that they could be the same guy. The media portrays Batman as a dangerous criminal, and Jim Gordon is tasked with bringing him down. He isn’t a commissioner yet, just a detective who is frequently denied a promotion and stuck with dead end cases so he can’t make a move against the rampant corruption going on at GCPD, Batman being the latest. Batman doesn’t trust Gordon at first and Gordon doesn’t trust Batman, but they end up teaming up to solve the main mystery and slowly become allies.

>Edward Nashton was born in poverty to abusive parents, and eventually removed from their care and placed in a state-run foster home, where he was further abused. Every attempt he made to get help was ignored, so he becomes the Riddler to punish public figures who represent “the system”. His main targets are the Mayoral candidates including Bella Real and Oswald Cobblepot.

>Cobblepot is fairly “legitimate” as far as criminals go. He is a businessman who owns a lot of Gotham nightlife and real estate, but he also launders, smuggles and deals in stolen goods and weaponry. More crucially, he deals in information, and he has an interesting relationship with both Batman and Bruce Wayne as a result. This Penguin is not a vicious killer, although he does maintain a gang of enforcers to do his dirty work. Batman ignores some of his activities in exchange for useful information, but he keeps a close eye on him nonetheless and will shut down his operations where they cross a line that puts people directly in harm's way.

>Batman also uses his public face as Bruce Wayne to keep Oswald's daytime activities in line by outbuying him, investing in Oswald's rivals or persuading Oswald's allies not to deal with him. This leads to a funny situation where Penguin will only provide Batman with some crucial information in exchange for giving him Bruce Wayne - this results in Bruce willingly running into and taking a beating from Penguin's enforcers, to show how far he's willing to go to succeed in finding the Riddler.

>Penguin only appears in a few significant scenes so this may make it sound like he has a bigger presence than he does, but he's being developed in an interesting way, Oswald and Bruce being public enemies, while Penguin and Batman are begrudging occasional allies.

>Selina Kyle works for Cobblepot as a thief-for-hire, and leads a luxurious lifestyle with the money she makes from her crimes. That is how she first runs into Bruce and there’s an instant attraction, but they both quickly figure out that the other is hiding something, and it becomes a cat-and-mouse game between them. As Catwoman, Selina is tasked by Penguin to find the Riddler, which leads her to sometimes work with Batman and sometimes against him. They end up learning each other’s secret identities by the end.

>Despite his flirtation with Selina, Bruce’s real relationship in the movie is with Bella, a councilwoman running for mayor. She comes from a poor but loving family, and her father was shot dead by a robber in front of her. She and her mom were actually the ones who found Bruce after his parents’ murders, when Bruce and Bella were both children. That incident is what shaped Bella’s idealistic worldview and determination to clean up Gotham. She quickly sees through Bruce’s playboy façade and connects with him on a deeper level, but she has no idea he is Batman.

>Falcone is the man Bruce is after. He is Gotham’s kingpin, known as “The Roman” because he controls all illegal activities in the city and all the gangs pay tribute to him. Bruce has learned that Falcone was pressuring Thomas Wayne to launder money for him through Wayne Enterprises, but Thomas refused, and Bruce is convinced that Falcone had his parents killed in retaliation. Falcone’s main allies are Commissioner Pete Savage and D.A. Gil Colson, who protect his activities and sabotage his enemies. Part of the reason why Bruce is convinced Falcone has a hand in his parents’ death is because Savage arrested and Colson convicted a man later proven innocent for it, in what Bruce believes was a ploy to conceal the real killer’s identity and link to Falcone.