I was thinking about the iconic death scene of Thomas and Martha Wayne that forever altered the life of young Bruce Wayne and lead him to become Batman, and how it made no fucking sense whatsoever.
The story itself -like common folklore- has been changed many times for comic reboots, movies, television and video games, but the general facts remain the same. Thomas, Martha and Bruce Wayne leave a theatre (usually a movie theatre playing “The Mask of Zorro,”) and take a shortcut down Crime Alley, where Thomas and Martha are robbed and murdered. The criminal (usually a common street thug with the unlikely name of Joe Chill), grabs Martha’s necklace and breaks it, then shoots both of Bruce’s parents.
Now: Thomas Wayne is a well respected doctor and one of the richest men in America. At the time he’s a millionaire and by today’s standards he’d be a billionaire. He’s one of the most recognizable men in Gotham, if not America. Thomas and Martha are a power couple, with Martha coming from “old money.” Still, it’s possible that your average thug wouldn’t recognize them, even if they’re in all the papers. He could be out of touch with the media, or it might be too dark in the alley. He’d only notice they were dressed too well for the neighbourhood and rob them.
The baffling thing is why Thomas or Martha would put up any kind of resistance that would warrant them being shot. Thomas is a millionaire. A millionaire. The money he keeps on his person wouldn’t be worth a millionth of his fortune. Martha’s pearls, which get her shot, could be replaced as easily as Marge Simpson’s in the one episode where it’s revealed she has a whole drawer full of them. With Thomas’s influence, he could have every cop in the tri-city area hunt down the criminal and get the pearls back for him. He even has connections with the mob family, the Falcones, as he once saved the Don’s life. Both sides of the law would be on him like flies on shit. They could have just given him the pearls, and gotten Alfred. Alfred himself is combat trained in the British army and much younger at the time. In all likelihood, Alfred himself could have gotten the criminal single-handedly. He might have even carried a gun in the glove box for safety. In any event, the situation could have played out much differently.
Still, Thomas and Martha throw a fit and get shot. Maybe they deserved it? No reasonable person with as much wealth as they had would put up a fight in that situation. They’re like the Trumps.
Also, why were they at a movie theatre dressed to the nines? They have a private theatre in their mansion. You don’t run into Bill Gates at the grindhouse. It wasn’t even the good movie theatre; it was the one next to Crime Alley. That’s it’s literal name, “Crime Alley.” It even has a sign saying, “CRIME ALLEY.” They ducked down CRIME ALLEY wearing enough jewels to feed Africa. The average person might be tempted to rob them in that situation.
Like I said, the story’s been changed a bunch of times to suggest it was a conspiracy to assassinate the pair and destroy Gotham, but still… What the fuck were they thinking? I’m surprised Batman didn’t start a campaign to stop stupidity.
In many versions of Batman, he NEVER finds the man responsible. In one version it’s Joe Chill, in another it’s the Joker, but in the longest running version up until a few years ago he never finds out who did it. It’s not like he’s the only one trying to solve the crime either as the “World’s Greatest Detective.” As one of America’s greatest unsolved crimes there’s likely hundreds of people involved in the investigation, including three Robins. Commissioner Gordon himself keeps a tab on the case and follows up on any leads. With all of Batman’s skills, training, money, and connections to people who can see molecules, read minds and travel through time, he never solves the case. He even has a super-fan from another dimension called Batmite, who can alter reality and knows everything about Batman. You’d think he’d help out. Any member of the Justice League, the Outsiders, the Justice League International, the Teen Titans, the Titans and even some of his villains like the Riddler would be more than willing to help him solve the case. The Martian Manhunter alone could probably crack the case in a few hours.
Seriously, he has a database in his Batcomputer he pours over every night. It has facial recognition technology and can finger a perp instantly. His parent’s murder is permanently etched in his mind, a mind which he’s honed into a weapon to fight crime. He has complete access to Gotham’s police files, as well as the FBI. At no point while looking over any of these files does he recognize the man who killed his parents. It’s completely implausible. I’m not even sure what stance the New 52 has on his parent’s murder, and they’ve even tried to resolve how Batman never deciphered the Joker’s real identity… kind of. Batman claims to the Joker he knows who he was before, but the Joker throws himself off of a cliff to avoid hearing it. Then they reveal that the Joker knew who Batman was for years and years, but didn’t care.
Why is there such a glaring oversight in the Batman cannon? There was always a sense that one day they’d do a sweeping story arch that would finally reveal the secret truth behind his parent’s death, like how in the Batman movie it was the Joker, or in Chris Nolan’s Batman Begins it was Ra’s Al Ghoul, but that never came to be. The best answer is that it was Joe Chill. In one Silver Age comic, Batman tracks down the crook who killed his parents and… kind of scares him. That’s as exciting as that got. He told the dude he was keeping an eye on him.
From the outset, it seems like Joe Chill is the dumbest criminal who ever lived. He created the world’s biggest control freak/superhero and made about $50 in the process. Way to be. Yet, things turn out pretty decent for him considering. In some versions he avoids jail. In others he works for the Joker as a henchman, and in other versions still he becomes a small-time crime boss. In Nolan’s version, Bruce intends to kill him, only to witness him being murdered for turning snitch. Still, in his earliest days, Batman was fond of dumping criminals in vats of acid, with varying results. Joe Chill managed to kill his parents and avoid that fate.
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