The Legacy Cowl Collection - Our Story So Far

The Legacy Cowl – a discarded AI prototype from Batman’s experimental tools to ensure his legacy –  has gone rogue. After its mysterious disappearance from the Batcave, it began to manufacture duplicates of itself… creating a city-wide mystery that propelled Gotham City into a vortex of uncertainty and fear.

Learn about the first DC Super-Villain created with fan votes in Batman: The Legacy Cowl #1, 2 & 3…

Forged from a scan of Batman’s brain, the Legacy Cowl embodies justice with a relentless, inhuman drive. Its lack of human empathy and ingenuity creates new dangers for the citizens of Gotham City as its duplicates seek to protect Gotham City from its own citizens. 

The Legacy Cowl  thinks itself the superior force for justice - the ultimate protector of Gotham City - and architected a plan to escape using its hypnosis capabilities and accessing the Batcomputer through a human host. 

The Legacy Cowl has Batman's strengths, amplified by the Batcomputer’s capabilities. A Networked intelligence, it not only overcame the Batcave’s security systems, but began reaching its tendrils into Gotham City’s systems… finding a nest to replicate its hardware. 

While this sophisticated swarm has disappeared into the shadows of the city… the citizens of Gotham City aren’t waiting to be saved. It’s up to them to follow up on clues, seek out pockets of The Legacy Cowl’s remnants, and determine how to overwrite them to keep their city safe for those who live in it.

GOTHAM CITY’S NEWEST NIGHTMARE

As soon as citizens of Gotham City discovered the devious duplicates of the Legacy Cowl’s Swarm, they sprang into action, collecting as many of the First Wave of Base Editions as possible. The Gotham City District Knightwatch (GCDK) and Harley Quinn Crew had expertise to offer having protected Gotham City’s systems from the AI’s intrusions before. 

How would they overcome the hypnotic abilities of the swarm?

Can they determine the protocols necessary to shut down the nefarious AI for good? 

SAFE MODE

Despite lingering concerns that its systems may have been corrupted by The Legacy Cowl’s initial intrusions into Gotham City - the Batcomputer released a patch that allowed citizens to use Overdrive - a virtual computing system for citizen detectives in Gotham City - to overwrite Base Edition Legacy Cowls. 

This unlocked new clues to understand the movements of the swarm and removed their hypnotic defenses, making the Legacy Cowls safe to wear. 

The Batcomputer also raised the call to the GCDK - providing a unique update to the crew to support their patrols in the 10 districts of Gotham City. Together with Harley Quinn Crew, they shared the code key the Queen of Chaos discovered when she happened upon the swarm’s assembly lines - but deciphering the codes revealed that no sooner had a method of overcoming the Legacy Cowls’, they began to update their defenses. 

HOPE EMERGES FROM ANONYMOUS TIPS

No sooner had citizens cracked the code, but requests for assistance came from the anonymous tip line on Overdrive. Brave volunteers worked together and voted to determine which lead they’d pursue next as inventive citizens reached out for aid. 

Their first decision led them to an early morning  rendezvous where they met with a lab technician at Lexcorp Cryonics Lab who chooses to remain anonymous. The tech led volunteers who had collected Base Edition Legacy Cowls through the bowels of the facility to a secure area where he develops ice-based weapon prototypes.  

Over the course of several hours they experimented on their cowls. They proved that flash freezing with a rapid super-cooling weapon can crack a cowl’s  super-hardened shell— leaving its circuits open long enough to connect it to Overdrive. 

These brave volunteers shared the details in a small number of objects, broken snow globes, that when scanned replicated their method in Overdrive. These methods only worked for a limited time as the Legacy Cowls quickly upgraded based on the discovered vulnerabilities.

TO THE BOWERY…

The next lead led citizens to the Gotham City Army Surplus shop in the Bowery to meet up with the late night clerk. Together they raided the arsenal in the back of the shop and discovered a cache of obscure medals made of a strange alloy. 

The sharpened edges of these medals proved effective at breaking open the seals to access the Legacy Cowls’ inner workings - making them vulnerable to overwriting. The owner of the shop agreed to make the limited collection of obscure medals available to citizens who wanted to overwrite their cowls. 

CITY ON FIRE…

Citizens responded to an anonymous message at The Narrows Community Center, a shadowy figure in a burn-damaged trench coat shared a new method to access Legacy Cowls’ systems. 

Following the anonymous tipster to a nearby empty lot, volunteers subjected their cowls to an “absolutely ‘fire’ experiment.” Using a DIY modification to a flamethrower, the super-hardened coating of the cowls was… damaged… allowing easy access to its internal systems.

Using the maker space at the community center, the volunteers created a supply of the modified flamethrower attachments that allowed them to make a dent in the number of Legacy Cowls at large in Gotham City. 

AN UNEXPECTED ALLY…

Tomcat left a message from Catwoman on the Overdrive tip line that she’d left a crate of specialized claws - based on her own specifications for gloves - near the wreckage of Lexcorp Labs. “Taking pity” on the citizens of Gotham City who may fall prey to the hypnosis effects of The Legacy Cowls. 

This limited supply of glass-cutting claws could penetrate the newly super-hardened seams of Base Edition Legacy Cowls - allowing access to overwrite their updated systems. They also uploaded a fashionable pattern to cover the cowl once it has been overwritten - “you will not be able to put the pieces back together.”

Read more in Catwoman: The Legacy Cowl

THE DELUGE IS HERE… 

The citizens of Gotham City have been overwhelmed by The Second Wave of Legacy Cowls.

While their ingenious methods to overwrite and understand the Base Editions have taken thousands off the streets… The swarm had been updating itself making their technology stronger with each successive exploit. 

Even worse… the brave citizens whose calls for aid failed to gather allies were co-opted by the swarm and Dixon Docks, The Old Gotham Steam Tunnels, The Sprang River estuary, and even Blüdhaven have potentially become nests of heinous hoods. 

Even citizens who appear normal may be hosts, temporarily influenced by the Base Editions’ hypnotic power - donning the corrupted mask of justice by night to enact the legacy of an inhumane spector bent on total control. 

But hope is not lost…

Gotham City’s unexpected feline benefactor tipped off Batman - led him to take another look at the legacy left behind after his face off with his own creation. Uncovering and closing strange back doors that had been missed in previous scans of his systems… 

Thousands of Legacy Cowls are still at large in Gotham City… 

Who can stand against their twisted code of justice?

Who will heed the call?

Shut. Them. Down. 

______________________________
The fate of The Legacy Cowls is in your hands. By collecting Base Editions and crafting them in overdrive you take them off the board in Gotham City. Each vote the community makes impacts new collectibles and ongoing DC storylines. Find out more at the DC Marketplace on Candy and start your journey in Gotham City.