The series detailed the journey Bruce Wayne takes through the timestream of the DC Universe after being deposited in the distant past by Darkseid in Final Crisis.

In an interview announcing the series in USA Today, writer Grant Morrison describes The Return of Bruce Wayne as, "...the latest chapter in the long-running, 'definitive' Batman epic I've been trying to pull off since 2005".

[4] The writer-artist team of Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund released a companion series titled Time Masters: Vanishing Point that stars Rip Hunter, Booster Gold, Superman, and Hal Jordan.

Caught in the explosion of the time-and-space-bending Omega Beams of the New God tyrant Darkseid, an amnesiac Bruce Wayne is cast back in time to the dawn of history.

Nearly killed by a tribe of Neanderthals led by the immortal caveman who will become Vandal Savage, Wayne is rescued by a younger human, who returns his utility belt to him.

Operating more on instinct than actual knowledge, Wayne dons the pelt of a giant bat and uses the tools in his belt against the cavemen, but is eventually forced to flee by jumping over a waterfall.

[10] His first act in this new era is to save a woman named Annie from a monstrous, tentacled creature, after which he tries to build a life for himself in the small colony of Gotham.

Calling himself "Mordecai", he joins the ranks of the local witch-hunters alongside his own ancestor Nathaniel Wayne, and uses his forensic skills to solve crimes that might otherwise be blamed on witchcraft.

Blackbeard believes Wayne is the fabled Black Pirate, and demands he lead him to one of the most famous treasures he is known to have stolen—that of the Miagani, a primitive tribe of "Bat-People" descended from the cavemen that Bruce encountered, who immortalized his prehistoric exploits as the god "Barbatos".

Merging with the robotic Architects that maintain Vanishing Point, he has had his memory wiped once more and allows the Hyper Adapter to possess his body, so that he can bring it back to the present day 21st century using the Time Sphere that his allies arrive in.

Wayne awakens from the coma, purged of the radiation, and dons his cape and cowl once again, commenting that Gotham's disease has spread beyond its borders and that once again, Batman is needed.

The plotline then carries on into Batman Incorporated, where Bruce's realization that he is not alone inspires him to expand his crimefighting operation and train new Batmen in countries all around the world.