Come one come all to the greatest show on earth, Haly's Circus. But behind the scenes, not all was great. The Circus owner, Mr. Haly was confonted by Tony Zucco who was making demands that could not be met.

The stars of the Circus, the Flying Graysons were to be showing a new act that night. Which lead to come of Gotham's most infulental people to be present, including Bruce Wayne. Another family that was there were the Drake's, and their young son Tim. Tim was so frightened at the circus that his mother took him down to the floor get a picture of him with the Graysons. It was the last picture anyone took of them.

Tony Zucco, being so engraged with Haly, decided to get some sort of revenge on Haly. He tampered with the trapeze set. When the Flying Graysons came on, everyone was waiting for their new act. To introduce the act, John and Mary's young son, Dick, performed a quadruple somersault. The ringmaster said that he was one of three people in the world that could perform a quad.

Then it was John and Mary's turn, the safety net was removed and they leaped out onto the wire. The wire snapped and Dick's parents plunged down to their deaths. Dick approached Tony Zucco, who unbeknownst had seen him threatening Mr. Haley earlier, and was attacked by a few of Tony's thugs. Batman rescued a unconcious Dick and he gave him to Alfred to help Dick get over a concusion.

Not soon after Dick took off to confront Tony, who was deathly sick, and Batman followed him. They caught Tony, but he died later in the ambulance on his way to the hostpital.

It was then that Bruce let Dick into the secret that he was Batman and took him in as his partner.