the ogre was once michael adams, a homeless man who volunteered for a scientific experiment, dubbed "project mirakle", in return for money. five doctors, led by endocrinologist dr. winston belmont, performed cruel experiments upon adams' body and mind in order to turn him into a devolved "missing link", with the ultimate goal of enhancing man's evolutionary process. the doctors used adams and an ape as guinea pigs, dramatically increasing adams' strength and the ape's intelligence. adams was the 23rd subject the doctors experimented upon - the other 22 died during testing. adams escaped with his ape "brother", and vowed revenge. with his "brother" in tow, ogre systematically tracks down and murders the doctors, with the ape injecting them with sedatives so they wouldn't feel the torture they inflicted upon him. with help from oracle, batman finds ogre before he can kill his final intended victim, dr. gould. when gould shoots and kills the ape, ogre flies into a rage and tries to kill him without using the sedative, intent on gould suffering even more than he had. when batman assures ogre that gould will be prosecuted for what he has done, ogre relents and spares gould's life. he then disappears into the city.