Martha Wayne
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Martha Wayne is a fictional character of the Batman series of comic books, published by DC Comics. She was Dr. Thomas Wayne's wife and mother of Bruce Wayne. When she and her husband were murdered during a holdup, young Bruce swore to avenge their deaths by fighting crime. As an adult, he fulfilled his vow by becoming Batman.
[edit] Background
Martha Wayne first appeared in Detective Comics #33 (November 1939) in a story by Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson which detailed the origin of the Batman. Initially little more than a cipher whose death inspired her heroic son, later comics would expand upon her history.
Born Martha Kane (a maiden name given in homage to Batman co-creator Bob Kane), Martha was the heir to the Kane Chemical fortune and a member of one of Gotham City's wealthiest families. It has not been revealed whether she has any connection to the other prominent Kanes of Gotham, Kathy (Batwoman) or Bette (Flamebird). In her youth, Martha had a reputation as a notorious party girl, socialite, and debutante, frequenting all the most prestigious country clubs, night clubs, and soirees. However, she also had a developed social conscience and often used her family's wealth and status to champion causes and charities.
As revealed in the miniseries Batman: Family by John Francis Moore, Martha's closest friend in those days was a woman named Celia Kazantkakis. Both were renowned for their beauty, which caught the attention of a gangster named Denholm. Martha dated Denholm for a time prior to meeting Thomas Wayne, though she was unaware of his true nature at the time. Celia, who had had previous dealings with Denholm, became very protective of her friend and conspired to get this thug out of her life. However, in the process it came to light just why Celia was familiar with him. Celia, it turned out, was a criminal herself and had been embezzling money from an orphanage that was one of Martha's charities. She attempted to hide the evidence of this by setting fire to the building but Martha discovered her duplicity. Before Celia departed for her family's home in Greece, Martha threatened to expose her should she ever return to Gotham.
(In fact, Celia would return to Gotham many years later, as "Athena," the leader of a criminal cartel. In this guise, she attempted to stage a coup of Wayne Enterprises, until Batman discovered the true nature of his mother's history with Celia and defeated her.)
Shortly after Celia's departure, Martha met and fell in love with prominent physician and philanthropist Dr. Thomas Wayne. They were wed soon after and Martha eventually gave birth to a son, Bruce.
[edit] Murder
When Bruce was eight years old, his parents took him to a screening of The Mark of Zorro at a cinema in Gotham's Park Row. Returning to the car through an alley, they were confronted by a lone gunman who attempted to steal Martha's pearl necklace, an anniversary gift from Thomas. In the ensuing struggle, the thief shot both the Waynes dead (early versions of the story claimed that only Thomas was shot and Martha had in fact died of shock. This detail was later retconned). In the wake of this tragedy, Park Row was given the nickname "Crime Alley."
The identity of the Waynes' killer has varied through different versions of the Batman story. Initially, he was said to be a criminal named Joe Chill. Later retellings would claim that Chill had been hired by gangster Lew Moxon, an enemy of Thomas Wayne, and told to make the killings look like a robbery. After DC Comics' history-altering Zero Hour series, this interpretation was abandoned in favor of the Waynes' deaths being a random street crime. The killer was thought to have never been caught, adding to the tragedy and universality of Batman's origin.
After the further continuity tweaks of the Infinite Crisis miniseries, DC has once again returned to the Joe Chill interpretation (most likely influenced by the popularity of the film Batman Begins). It is unknown at this time whether Chill acted alone or under orders.
Since her death, Martha Wayne has only appeared in the Batman series in flashback and in the occasional out-of-body experience or hallucination. Her most significant appearance in this latter category is in the miniseries Batman: Death and the Maidens by Greg Rucka. In this story, Batman ingests an elixir given to him by his enemy, Ra's al Ghul, and believes he is having a conversation with his dead parents. Martha is depicted here as a beautiful woman whose face is marred by a bleeding bullet wound. Interestingly, Martha strongly disapproves of her son's costumed crusade, fearing he has thrown away his chance for happiness.
In Jeph Loeb's Batman stories, Bruce feels responsible for his parents' murder because he advised Martha to wear the infamous pearl necklace the night she was murdered. Had she not worn it, the mugger might have not killed them, or even have been attracted to them.
[edit] Other media
In Tim Burton's film Batman (1989), Martha Wayne is portrayed in flashback by Sharon Holm. In this version, she and her husband are killed by Jack Napier, the man who later becomes The Joker.
In the Joel Schumacher film Batman Forever (1995), Martha is played by Eileen Seeley and is only seen in a misty flashback as Bruce struggles with repressed memories.
In Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (2005), Martha is played by Sara Stewart. In this version, it is once again Joe Chill who is the murderer. The Waynes are killed after exiting the opera Mefistofele, whose bat-like performers frighten young Bruce.
On Batman: The Animated Series and the subsequent DC Animated Universe, the Waynes' killer is never identified and the murder is rarely explicitly shown, relying on nightmares and visual metaphors, such as a tunnel that becomes the barrel of a giant gun, to display Bruce Wayne's inner demons. The murder of the Waynes only becomes explicit in the Justice League Unlimited episode For the Man Who Has Everything in which Batman hallucinates the event while under the thrall of an extraterrestrial plant called the Black Mercy. At first, the Mercy grants him his fondest wish-- to see his father fight back and his parents be saved-- but when the Mercy is removed, Batman's true memory of the murder returns (the deaths of the Waynes occur offscreen however).
