American comics: Starting with Luke the Maker

Batcave.

"You seem depressed. Still blaming yourself?" Martian Manhunter J'onzz, seeing Bruce Wayne standing silently by the monitor screen for a long time, stepped forward and gently patted him on the shoulder.

"No, I'm just thinking about how things ended up," Bruce said without turning his head, his face alternately lit and shadowed by the light from the screen in front of him, making his expression unreadable.

"Then are you still annoyed that they didn't take us with them? In fact, although it might sound a bit self-deprecating to say this, I think they probably don't need our help." J'onzz spread his hands. He didn't want to admit it, but that might be the truth. They would only be a burden, and a weak point.

"This big trouble started because of me, after all," Bruce said after a moment of silence, speaking with difficulty.

"Your original intention was to better protect this world, wasn't it? We all experienced the disaster brought by Thanos, and although the ending was good, everything returned to normal, and even the civilization of this planet has made considerable and gratifying progress, we can't forget those traumas. So I understand your actions, you were just a bit of a loner." J'onzz comforted, "We are a team, a team that has saved the world together. I'd like you to understand that sometimes communicating with people, discussing things, is much better than making decisions alone and bearing all the burdens."

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"Thank you," Bruce said softly.

"You're welcome. They will help solve this trouble, and all we need is the safety of this world, isn't it?" J'onzz believed he had found the source of Bruce's inner turmoil, and he did feel Bruce's tense spirit relax after hearing his words. He did have the ability to peek into people's memories and detect lies, but he didn't want to use this ability on his partners, and Bruce and the others had their own methods to shield and interfere with such probes.

"I want to be alone," Bruce finally turned around, facing J'onzz's eyes with a slight smile on his face, and requested in a low voice.

"No problem." J'onzz spread out his hands. "If you need it, I'd be happy to enlighten you again. After all, this opportunity may be hard to come by in the future."

After J'onzz finished speaking, he said goodbye to Bruce and left him alone in the monitoring room.

Seeing the door close, the smile on Bruce's face gradually disappeared, and his face was once again hidden in the mixed light and shadow, coated with a layer of shadow.

Obviously, J'onzz hadn't persuaded him, or rather, hadn't comforted him. It was just an act that Bruce put on to get J'onzz to leave. Now that he was alone in the room, the confusion and torment in his heart surged up again.

"Why are you hesitating?"

A sudden voice rang in Bruce's mind, as if his thoughts had automatically split into a consciousness, communicating with him in his brain.

Bruce didn't show any surprise at this, as if he had already known about the existence of this consciousness, and listened calmly and composedly to the voice in his mind chattering on.

It wasn't the first time he had heard this voice. In fact, it had appeared a long time ago, but at that time it was still very immature, like a rebellious thought, only appearing suddenly occasionally. But in the past year, it had appeared more and more frequently, so frequently that it had evolved from a thought into a consciousness with its own ideas and philosophies.

Realizing that there was an extra consciousness in his mind, or rather, his own Bruce, immediately thought that he had symptoms of schizophrenia, and he even used his advanced psychology to heal himself. But the effect was not obvious.

This voice now appeared from time to time, expressing some opinions that Bruce found to be very unconventional, even absurd. Those words and thoughts made Bruce vaguely see a criminal template that he was familiar with.

The Joker!

Yes, equally absurd, with no so-called justice or evil, doing whatever he wanted, without logic, and without worrying about anything. It was just that the Joker had the ability to take action, while this thought could only chatter in his mind, trying to entice him to hand over control of his body.

When the other party wasn't crazy, his verbal persuasion was still very strong. Even with Bruce's strong mental state, he sometimes found his words extremely煽动性.

"I know what you want to do, and you know what I want to do. Why don't we just combine? You don't have to be so wary of me, I am you, and you are me. Although I'm a bastard, dark, cunning, without morals or a bottom line, I'm at least doing it for your own good. I'm strategizing for your ideals. If you didn't need me, how would I have appeared? You created me so that I could help you, didn't you?"

Demonic words rang in Bruce's mind, as if the Joker had moved into his head, desperately trying to combine with his consciousness, to see where the brain structures of the two were different, so as to produce this consciousness that was both so similar and so contrasting.

"I created you?" Bruce closed his eyes and communicated with the other party in his mind. Within the sea of consciousness, two Bruces stood face to face, each able to see the subtle expressions on the other's face.

"Isn't it? Because you need me, that's why I exist. Haven't you noticed? I can now communicate with you frequently for a long time. In the near future, I will also be able to control your body. After all, it's yours, and it's mine." The other personality consciousness smiled sinisterly.

"You are not a split personality that I created, I am very sure of that." Bruce's sudden words caused the other personality consciousness to stop laughing abruptly. In that instant, Bruce seemed to be able to clearly perceive the shock and coldness revealed by that consciousness.

"You don't need to deceive me, I wouldn't draw this conclusion without sufficient knowledge and certainty," Bruce said again before the other personality could answer.

"But you can't deny that you are me, and I am you." After a moment of silence, the other personality consciousness returned to that Joker-like crazy smile.

"I never deny that," Bruce said.

"Then what do you think I am?" The personality consciousness seemed to have guessed the answer, but still asked Bruce with a smile.

"I know the existence of the multiverse, and I also know that we from different universes may have intersections. I don't know what happened in your universe that caused you to become twisted into what you are now, and I don't know how you came to this universe and lived in my brain, but, that doesn't prevent me from saying hello to myself from another world!"

In the mental sea of consciousness, Bruce greeted the personality consciousness whose smile on his face was gradually becoming more and more crazy and obvious, gradually developing into a maniacal laugh. (End of this chapter)