The Bronze Tiger’s journey has been long and winding. He went from the dark side to the light, then back to the dark, until he ultimately found his way to salvation.
In the DC Universe, he is the best martial artist. He is so skilled that he has defeated Batman in hand-to-hand combat.
The genesis tale of the Bronze Tiger has been slightly inconsistent, depending on the media type in which it has been depicted. He was first presented as Benjamin Stanley in his first comic, but he is now better known as Benjamin Turner. His birthplace is listed as Harlem in one place and Central City in another. In the comic, he is a pupil of Japan’s O-Sensei, whereas in the cartoon, he studied under Master Wong Fei of China. But one thing remains constant throughout it all: his unrivaled martial arts ability.
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The Bronze Tiger’s And His Complicated Journey With Morality
Benjamin Turner hails from an upper-middle-class family in Central City. His life turned upside down at the age of ten when he found his parents getting assaulted by a burglar. Filled with rage, a young Ben took a knife and stabbed the burglar repeatedly as he went berserk. He ended up killing the man when he felt a very problematic feeling – he enjoyed his violent act and was disappointed that it came to an end quickly.
Three years later, Ben turned to martial arts to control his anger and violent tendencies. He enjoyed hurting people and was prideful over excelling at combat. As a result, Ben decided to become a criminal. But, this wasn’t an easy fix as he did not wish to end up in jail. So, he decided to head to the East and train under masters of martial arts.
Initially, he trained under Master Kirigi, who exploited his violent tendencies. Fortunately, Ben had enough self-awareness to know that this was wrong and sought out O-Sensei, who finally helped Ben with his anger. Here, he became an easy-going person. Not long after, he met his friend and partner Richard Dragon as the two studied together and also worked as agents of the government.
However, things took a turn for the worse during a mission to take down the League of Assassins. He had a fiancee, Miyoshi. The League killed her and then captured Ben to brainwash him. This is when he became the Bronze Tiger as an assassin for the League.
The First Comic Book Appearance Explored!
The Bronze Tiger is originally a character from a novel called Dragon’s Fists. It was written by Dennis O’Neill and Jim Berry.
Later, in 1975, the Bronze Tiger made his debut in DC Comics in Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter Issue 1. This is the story that introduced him to the fans of DC for the very first time. However, he is not the main character here. His partner Richard Dragon is.
The story takes place in a time before Ben had adopted the moniker of the Bronze Tiger. It introduces Richard Dragon, a man who began his journey as a thief before becoming a martial artist who partners with Ben. In fact, Richard is the main character here.
Richard infiltrates a villa in Kyoto, Japan, to steal a jade Buddha. The statue was over eleven hundred years old and yet, seemed to be an easy steal as there were no alarms or guards around the place of theft.
All of a sudden, he is greeted by a man with a calm demeanor. The villa is his and he is known as the O-Sensei. He seems to know of Richard Dragon, which surprises the thief. But throughout the encounter, the O-Sensei treats him with respect, even though Richard is trying to commit theft from his premises. He refuses to let Richard take the statue when Richard retorts with a punch. Or rather, he tries to.
The O-Sensei grabs Richard’s arm and flips him over. Richard tries to attack again but is no match for the old man’s karate chops. He introduces himself as a disciple of martial arts such as karate, aikido, jiu-jitsu, boxing, and savate. He takes out a knife and rushes toward the O-Sensei. But despite having an advantage with the obvious usage of a lethal weapon, he is once again, flipped onto the ground. To make things worse for Richard, the O-Sensei introduces him to his disciple, Benjamin Stanley, a man initially from Harlem.
The O-Sensei offers Richard to be a part of his school. This is a school that enlightens the students into gaining wisdom through the path of martial arts.
With no place to call home, Richard Dragon takes up the offer and dedicates himself to martial arts for the next six years with Ben.
One day, the O-Sensei summons him for tea. Richard is curious as to why he was summoned when he learns that his training is over. The O-Sensei tells him how he has nothing left to impart to Richard and Ben and that they must depart into the great, big world, starting tomorrow. Soon after, Benjamin calls them as he points out four men by a jeep who were giving off a suspicious vibe.
Richard and Benjamin walk over to the men and tell them that they cannot trespass on private property. But they are met with violence. These men were oblivious to their targets They were easily overpowered by Richard and Benjamin. It is soon revealed that this was intentional as the man in the jeep wanted to test Richard and Benjamin. The O-Sensei used to be a part of his organization, an international peacekeeping group called G.O.O.D. and now, he wanted to recruit Richard and Benjamin.
They were given a task. They had to rid Sudan of slavery by capturing and questioning their kingpin Aki so that the organization could dismantle his slavery business. They set off to Sudan the next morning and before they spend time trying to locate the kingpin, they find him surrounded by his army of bodyguards.
They infiltrate Aki’s fort under the guise of selling Richard for the slave trade. Aki decides to capture the both of them for his purpose and orders their incarceration. In lock-up, Richard and Benjamin find themselves surrounded by slaves in what seems like a hell hole. The place stank and the people were plagued by disease due to the horrible living conditions they were kept in. And they had to free them.
Luckily, Richard had hidden a lockpick with himself. He freed himself and Benjamin and then they freed everybody else. Aki’s bodyguards realize that the slaves are escaping and charged at Richard and Benjamin with their arms. And yet, they could do nothing against the two maestros. Meanwhile, the slaves gang up on the guards and begin to maul them as they run towards their freedom.
Richard and Benjamin break the doors to find Aki as they try to take the kingpin with them. However, the man’s bodyguards try to cross blows with Richard and Benjamin. Needless to say, they’re no match for the duo who retort with devastating counterattacks. Aki, afraid that all of his guards have been taken down, picks up a pistol. With trembling hands, he shoots. Benjamin’s arm takes a hit, which causes all humanity to leave Richard’s eyes as his friend is severely wounded. He kicks Aki with incomprehensible force, causing the corrupt kingpin’s body to shatter the glass windows behind him and fly into the air. And when it lands, a horde of his now-former slaves await him to maul him to his death. With this, the issue comes to an end.
The Bronze Tiger’s Marvelous Backstory From Batman: The Brave And The Bold Animated Series
The Bronze Tiger appears in the Batman: The Brave And The Bold Animated Series with a slightly different story and a slightly different name. Ben Stanley from Harlem is turned into Ben Turner from Central City.
Instead of Kyoto, Japan, Ben Turner learned martial arts in China as a student of Master Wong Fei. In fact, he was believed to be Wong Fei’s best student. However, he was a very prideful man and as a result, his title wasn’t given much consideration. He would never bow to his master and was resentful towards his classmate, Fox. Fox came from a background very different from his. He was born in wealth and he fought only for the thrill of it, unlike Ben who fought to protect and has no money. Even though he sought a life in Asia for the betterment of his mental well-being, he was still dissatisfied. He believed that he had mastered everything he could learn at the Wudang Temple and left.
He took upon the moniker of the Bronze Tiger and nominated himself as the protector of a village in China. He built the Tiger Cage where he fought those who challenged him. With his skill set, he was quick to garner an undefeated record as someone with a whopping sixty five victories.
In this episode, the Bronze Tiger teams up with Batman to defeat the Terrible Trio, the Shark, the Vulture, and the Fox.
The Terrible Trio had attacked the Wudang Temple. Even though the ancient monk was able to deflect hundreds of arrows, five ninjas, the Shark, and the Vulture, Fox’s poisoned dart took him down. The Terrible Trio were former students of Master Wong Fei but now, they needed the Wudang animal totem for their self-interest. Touching the totem would’ve transformed them into the hybrid versions of their spirit animals and give them an incredible power boost.
The incident of the attack and their objective caused Wong Fei to summon Batman’s astral self, who also happened to be a student of the monk.
Wong Fei tells Batman how the Trio is seeking the animal totem and that Batman must reach the Wudang temple before sundown. Batman decides to bring the monk’s other student alongside himself – the Bronze Tiger. Master Wong Fei explains the situation to Batman and then returns Batman’s consciousness to his body.
The episode has heavy flashback sequences as it switches between the past and the present. This comes to be as Batman flies to China and looks back to the time when he trained in China.
Wong Fei required his students to choose a spirit animal for their mantle. Needless to say, Bruce Wayne had chosen the Bat – the one thing he had been afraid of. Here, Bruce thinks about his battle with the other students when the Bronze Tiger had knocked Fox away and let him off with a warning.
In the present, Batman heads to the Bronze Tiger’s fighting cage where Ben Turner summons Batman to fight him. However, Batman doesn’t have time for it and tells the Bronze Tiger about having to defend the animal totem. The Bronze Tiger comes up with a condition – if he loses, he would go with Batman. And so, Batman enters the ring. However, he sneakily uses marbles to trip the Bronze Tiger and then gets him in his hold, which means that Ben Turner must go with Bruce Wayne to Wudang.
At the temple, the Bronze Tiger learns about Fox working with the Shadow Clan. If he gained the totem, he would become invincible, which tugs at the Tiger’s strings as he had always treated Fox with contempt.
In the past, all five of them had gone against their master during their training – not out of malice but because Wong Fei had called for it. The Shark and the Vulture were defeated easily. Fox was knocked down. Bruce’s attack had failed but the Bronze Tiger managed to break the master’s staff. However, he was taken out and asked to bow. The prideful man refused to do so as he threw away his tiger helmet and walked away.
Back in the present, Batman and the Bronze Tiger enter the Wudang Temple and locate the animal totem. They are greeted by the Trio and their ninjas when Bronze Tiger notices Fox. He neglects the totem to go after Fox which turns out to be a fatal mistake as the Trio manages to touch the Totem and turn into the forms of their spirit animals. And this births their superhuman strength. At this point, Batman and the Bronze Tiger are no match for the Terrible Trio who begin to toy with the two of them.
After this, the Terrible Trio leave to attack Hong Kong City. Batman and Bronze Tiger follow in pursuit in the Batplane but Vulture rips off the plane’s wing as he flies high up in the air. Batman ejects out of the plane with the Tiger but the duo finds itself surrounded. In front of Fox, the prideful Bronze Tiger tells him that he will surrender if the Trio did not attack his village. Fox decides to take advantage of the situation as he forces Ben Turner to bow. And so he does. But it’s a ruse. Bronze Tiger knocks the totem out of Fox’s hand and grabs it with Batman. The two of them turn into their hybrid Bat and Tiger forms.
Batman defeats Vulture and the Bronze Tiger defeats Fox as he breaks his limbs. Once the battle is over, Bronze Tiger tells Batman that he will stay back at the Temple to protect the place and bring in students to start school, once again.
What Makes Him So Powerful?
Batman is an absolute beast when it comes to martial arts and combat. However, the Bronze Tiger is believed to be a better martial artist than him. And this is enough to prove how dangerous the Bronze Tiger is. In fact, Batman had to resort to trickery to defeat Ben Turner in the cage match and he even denied the Tiger’s proposal for a rematch.
Batman himself admits that the Bronze Tiger is faster. He is also skilled with stealth and espionage, much like a ninja. His physical condition is at its peak and he excels at swordsmanship. Even without superpowers, he is a massive threat.
In the animated episode, he had turned into a human and tiger hybrid after touching the totem. With a superpowered amp, he took upon the form of a primal tiger which gave him superhuman strength and agility.
Terrifying Versions Of The Bronze Tiger In Other Forms Of Media
The Bronze Tiger has appeared outside of the comics quite a number of times. We’ve already discussed his role in Batman: The Brave And The Bold Animated Series. He appeared once again but in a cameo role without dialogue where he had been possessed by the alien Starro.
The character has also appeared in an animated web series called Deathstroke: Knights & Dragons.
When it comes to live-action television, the Bronze Tiger appeared in the popular CW series Arrow, portrayed by Michael Jai White. His character design gets an upgrade as he is given gauntlets with claws. With this, he is able to deflect arrows as he is someone who wants to kill Oliver Queen or the Arrow. After he is sent to prison, he is approached by Amanda Waller to be a part of her Task Force X, popularly known as the Suicide Squad.
He ends up in a maximum-security prison again and sides with Oliver Queen following a riot as Team Arrow fights the Ninth Circle and Emiko.
The Bronze Tiger has also appeared in animated films such as Justice League: Gods and Monsters, Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay, and Batman: Soul of the Dragon.
The Bronze Tiger has had an incredible character arc and an evolution. Following his brainwashing, he became a formidable assassin, rivaling the likes of Lady Shiva in combat, and also trained Cassandra Cain. Sometime after his incarceration, he was approached by Amanda Waller to be in the Suicide Squad. Once his brainwashing had been undone, he headed towards the path of redemption while working for Waller.
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