PROJECT: A Batman Fan Fiction Story
TITLE SUGGESTIONS:
~ A Coat of Ashes
~ The Real Matches
FORMAT: 2-Part Serial (Approx. 2,000 words per chapter)
AUTHOR: Open to all
GENRE: Crime Noir / Tragedy
Everyone knows Matches Malone as the criminal alias used by Batman to infiltrate the Gotham underworld. This story ignores Bruce Wayne entirely to focus on the actual Matches Malone during the last two days of his life.
The story explores the grim reality of being a low-level arsonist in a city ruled by monsters. Matches is a small-time crook trying to pay off his brother’s gambling debts but he accidentally witnesses a brutal mob execution. He is hunted through the slums not by supervillains but by ordinary, terrifying mobsters.
Matches thought he could play the game but he ends up dying alone in an alleyway so a billionaire can steal his jacket and his identity.
TONE & STYLE:
Think gritty 1970s crime cinema, The French Connection.
• Desperate, dirty and inevitable. The horror is in the crushing poverty of Gotham: a leaking ceiling, a broken cigarette lighter and the terrifying sound of heavy footsteps on a fire escape.
• Matches must be shown as a tragic figure. He is a criminal but he is deeply loyal to his family and entirely out of his depth.
Word Count Target: 2,000 words
Core Focus: The desperate life of Matches Malone and the inciting incident that dooms him.
SUGGESTED SCENES / BEATS:
1. The Arsonist:
Open in a derelict warehouse in the Bowery. Matches is meticulously setting a fire for an insurance scam. He is coughing heavily from years of smoke inhalation and wearing his signature red tinted glasses. He finishes the job and walks away into the freezing rain.
2. The Debt:
Matches meets his younger brother in a rundown diner. His brother is terrified and owes a massive sum to the Maroni crime family. Matches hands over his arson payment but it is not nearly enough. He promises his brother he will find the rest of the cash before morning.
3. The Docks:
Matches goes to the Gotham docks to beg a local capo for an advance on another job. He sneaks into a shipping container yard to wait for his contact. While hiding in the shadows he watches the capo get brutally executed by a rival gang.
4. The Mistake (The Cliffhanger):
Matches tries to slip away in the dark. He accidentally kicks a loose glass bottle. The executioners stop and turn their flashlights toward the noise. Matches runs for his life as the gangsters open fire. He is now the only witness to a mob war.
Word Count Target: 2,000 words
Core Focus: The terrifying hunt through Gotham and the quiet tragedy of his death.
SUGGESTED SCENES / BEATS:
1. The Hunt:
Matches is bleeding from a grazing gunshot wound and hiding in an abandoned subway station. The gang is systematically searching the tunnels. He cannot go to the police because he is a known arsonist and he cannot go home because it will endanger his brother.
2. The Sacrifice:
He manages to reach a payphone and calls his brother. He lies and says he secured the money but has to leave town for a while. He tells his brother to take the hidden cash under the floorboards and buy a bus ticket out of Gotham. Matches is choosing to draw the gang away so his family can escape.
3. The Alleyway:
Matches stumbles into a dead-end alley in Crime Alley. The gangsters corner him. He does not beg for his life. He calmly takes out a match, strikes it on the brick wall and lights his final cigarette. The gangsters shoot him in the chest and leave his body in the trash.
4. The Legacy (The Ending):
Hours later the rain is pouring down. A towering figure wrapped in a black cape drops silently from the rooftop. Batman finds the body. He notes the facial structure, takes the red tinted glasses and peels the bloodstained trench coat off the corpse. The chapter ends with Batman walking away into the shadows to use the dead man’s name while the real Matches Malone is left forgotten in the rain.
.
.
