The All In era of DC Comics is shedding new light on Batman’s origin story. One of the many titles to get a new creative team in DC All In is Detective Comics, with writer Tom Taylor and artist Mikel Janin taking over the Batman-focused series. Fans of the Dark Knight are surely familiar with how the deaths of Thomas and Martha at the hands of Joe Chill impacted Bruce Wayne’s life, sending him down the path to becoming Batman. DC doesn’t look to be changing what we already know about these events, but the Detective Comics team is adding an extra layer of intrigue to the story with its opening story arc.
*WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Detective Comics #1090. Continue reading at your own risk!
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Detective Comics #1090 comes from the creative team Tom Taylor, Mikel Janin, and Wes Abbott. The story jumps back and forth from the past and the present, as we see Thomas Wayne saving the life of a 20-something male and his pregnant girlfriend who is 17-years-old in the past, and Batman confronting a mysterious antagonist in the present-day. But it’s the story from the past that’s the most relevant. An aide to Thomas Wayne informs him that the mother and child are going to live, though she came to the hospital with bruises she didn’t receive from the car crash. The implication is the boyfriend beat her.
The boyfriend is given a zero chance of survival, and Thomas is urged not to give the male any medication attention. However, Thomas made an oath as a doctor to try and save every life. The mother, Evelyn, also asks that Thomas take her baby away and to tell the father that she lost the baby. “You’re supposed to save lives,” Evelyn tells Thomas. “You’d be saving this one.” Martha Wayne eventually gets involved and tells Evelyn that instead of giving the baby up, she can provide means for them both to flee and escape their toxic relationship together.
Detective Comics #1090 ends with the enraged boyfriend fighting with security as he tries to leave the hospital with his face almost completely bandaged up. The male’s surgery was a success, and his facial burns should eventually heal, so Thomas doesn’t see any reason why the man should be kept against his will. And in a shocking reveal, Thomas tells a nurse to let security know that Joe Chill can be discharged.
Joe Chill’s impact on Batman, explained
Joe Chill is the mugger who killed Thomas and Martha Wayne in front of a young Bruce Wayne. As the story goes, the Wayne Family had just left a theater showing when they turned down a dark alley and were confronted by Joe Chill. After a brief scuffle, Joe Chill shot both Thomas and Martha as Bruce watched on. Seeing his parents murdered by a gun is why Batman is against them and has a “no guns” policy, and what started his journey to becoming a crimefighter.
There have been slight variations to Batman’s origin story over the years, which can be expected when a character like the Dark Knight has been around for over 70 years. Fans have watched versions of Batman’s origin in the comics, TV shows, movies, video games, and more, so even casual fans are familiar with it. But since everyone has heard of and knows the name Joe Chill, this development in Detective Comics has major ramifications for Batman.
One decision by Thomas Wayne completely changes everything we know about Batman
Thomas Wayne obviously didn’t know that saving Joe Chill’s life would wind up costing him his and his wife’s lives, but it’s looking like that’s exactly what happened. Men like Thomas and Bruce Wayne live by a strict code, and they’re so stubborn that they don’t want to budge from it. This is both good and bad, and in this case, it may turn out to be really bad for Batman.
There is also the question of how Batman will discover his father had a hand in that faithful night. The new mysterious villain Batman is tracking at the beginning of Detective Comics #1090 is probably tied to Thomas Wayne’s actions, and there’s also the introduction of Scarlett Martha Scott, a former chief geneticist at WayneTech who started her own wellness business. Scarlett is also more than likely Evelyn’s daughter, which makes her Joe Chill’s daughter too. It isn’t explicitly stated in the comic, but Bruce does say that his mother Martha helped Scarlett when she was a child in a Wayne shelter.
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