Batman: HIVE

The HIVE Saga is a trilogy of superhero action/adventure films based on the Batman characters from DC Comics. The films focus on a realistic take on the Batman mythos, like Christopher Nolan's interpretation, but these films do not explain the origin of Batman, it starts when he has been a vigilante for a year, and is just starting to become the legend we all know.

The films are:

1.   Iceberg Lounge
Iceberg Lounge (or Batman: Iceberg Lounge) is the first installment in the saga.

In this film, Batman has been battling criminals for a year, and is still not a professional. As Bruce Wayne, he is invited to a grand card game tournament  in the Iceberg Lounge, the most luxurious nightclub in Gotham City,  by major Gotham figure Roman Sionis (who is secretly the supervillain Black Mask). The grand reward for winning all three rounds:  $2.500.000. Bruce deduces that he is Black Mask with his detective skills,  and that Black Mask intends to use the 2.500.000 to recover the money that Batman made him lose, and use it on building a huge army of henchmen to infiltrate the Mayor's office and place Sionis in power. He  decides that in order to stop Black Mask from causing any more damage to Gotham, he must beat him in the tournament, which consists of three rounds with a different card game for each round.

Bruce arrives at the Iceberg Lounge, dressed elegantly in a white tuxedo, but hiding his armoured Batman suit underneath. He enters the Lounge, greeting the Iceberg Lounge's owner, Oswald Cobblepot, who doesn't get on that well with Bruce due to his incorrect belief that the Wayne family ruined his. Nevertheless, Cobblepot allows Bruce Wayne to enter and play in the tournament. The first game is Texas Hold 'Em Poker, which Bruce wins with ease. This frightens Sionis, who believes he should get rid of Wayne. Realising that the next game will be on the next night, Bruce becomes Batman and commences his nightly mission. However, Sionis spotted him on the roof putting his mask on. Sionis informs Cobblepot that he knows who the Batman is (since Batman had been foiling many of Cobblepot's operations), Cobblepot tells him not to tell him who he really is, but to simply capture him and have him tortured.

Batman finds one of Sionis' goons, interrogating him into telling him what Black Mask's latest move is, the goon not knowing what it is.