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Martha Wayne was the wife of the billionaire owner of Wayne Tech, the wife of Thomas Wayne, and the mother of Bruce Wayne.

Physical Appearances[]

Martha Wayne is blond, dresses elegantly, and is always seen wearing pearls around her neck.

Early History[]

Not much is known about the past of Martha Wayne. At one point in his life, she married Thomas Wayne and became the mother of Bruce Wayne. Bruce would state that she was a kind mother.

Later, she and her husband were killed by Joe Chill.

Alternate Realities[]

Season Eleven[]

Alien (Earth-13)

Martha and her husband were killed by their own son Bruce Wayne, who later became a psychopath criminal.

Appearances[]

In the Comics[]

Batman Thomas and Martha Wayne Martha Wayne 0001

Martha Wayne as she appears in the comics.

Martha Wayne is the mother of Batman. She was shot down by a mugger right in front of her son after watching The Mark of Zorro, usually because of the pearls she wore around her neck. In life, she was a teacher and in many modern retellings, her maiden name was Kane, named after Batman's creator Bob Kane.

Batman Joe Chill Thomas Wayne Earth-Two 001

Thomas Wayne's death.

Martha Wayne (née Kane) was born into the Kane family, who were so rich that they allegedly "owned the half of Gotham that the Wayne's don't". Her father Roddy Kane, had a fortune through his ownership of Kane Chemicals. Martha married Thomas Wayne, though this started an argument with her parents which would last the rest of her life. However, she remained on good terms with her friend Marsha Lamarr.

Martha, Thomas and young Bruce were walking home from a night out at the movies. A mugger known as "Joe Chill" leaps from the shadows of Park Row and assaulted them, demanding money. Thomas tried to fight back, but the mugger shot him directly in the chest, killing him. He then turned his gun on Martha and viciously ended her life as well. Bruce Wayne stared on in horror, as his parents laid dead beside him. Chill turned on his heel and ran from the alleyway. Bruce made a graveside promise that he would bring the lowly killer to justice and avenge their deaths. His personal crusade would escalate until the fateful night that he chose to become Gotham City's Dark Knight protector - the Batman.Martha and Thomas Wayne, died on June 26 at 10:47.

Batman Thomas and Martha Wayne Batman Zero Hour 01

Joe Chill was never convicted of the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne.

A few years ago, the international eco-terrorist Ra's al Ghul disinterred the Waynes' remains and threatened to immerse them in one of his Lazarus Pits – a side effect of which would be resurrection as a decomposed zombie. Batman infiltrated Ra's stronghold however, and reclaimed his parents' bodies before Ra's could fulfill his scheme. 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, suggesting that Bruce remembers her this way because he has become 'focused' on her death rather than her life, the wound vanishing after she forces him to acknowledge that issue. Martha strongly disapproves of her son's costumed crusade, fearing he has thrown away his chance for happiness, although her husband notes that they disapprove of what being Batman has cost Bruce rather than disapproving of Batman himself. As she and Thomas depart, they assure Bruce that just because the passing of time has lessened his grief does not mean that he no longer cares for them, and, as a result, Bruce is able to accept that he is Batman because he chooses to be, not because he has to be.

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. In Death and the Maidens she claims that the pearls were in fact fakes, and that she wouldn't have worn real ones simply to go to the theater. As this experience may have been merely a hallucination, it is unknown whether or not this is true.In Batman: The Ultimate Evil, Martha's past is explored; she fought crime in her own way as a social worker trying to protect sexually abused children. The novel suggests this was the motive for the murder of the Wayne couple.

Another mystery about Martha's final fate is unveiled in the Batman R.I.P. storyline, where it is revealed that the Kanes actually hired a detective to prowl about the circumstances of her death, always suspecting that Thomas Wayne married her for her money. Many years later, the detective hired by the Kanes presents to Commissioner Gordon a dossier describing Martha as a helpless, frail woman hooked on drugs by an abusive husband, who frequently indulged in orgies and extramarital affairs, taking Alfred Pennyworth himself as her lover. The detective pushes his theory further, disclosing to Gordon a theory about Thomas Wayne ordering the fateful shooting to get revenge over an unfaithful wife and disappearing before being hit by the scandal. The villainous Simon Hurt, head of the Black Glove cabal, bent on getting revenge on Batman, claims to Alfred, taken hostage, to be Thomas Wayne himself, returned to enact his vengeance once again over the unfaithful Martha by ruining her son's life. Alfred disproves this version, and questions the truth of the "revelations" about Thomas Wayne. In the end Simon Hurt is unmasked by Bruce Wayne as Mangrove Pierce, a former impersonator trying to ruin Thomas and Bruce Wayne's lives. Simon implies that Pierce may be another forged identity, but tacitly admits that the stories of Martha's sexual relationship with Alfred and the circumstances of her drug addiction and homicide are clever forgeries designed to break Batman, or coerce him to join the Black Glove as a means to silence the rumors about his family. With Bruce Wayne's and Simon Hurt/Mangrove Pierce's disappearance the charges are dropped, and Martha's good name is cleared. In Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader, Martha appears to her son between life and death and guides him to his fate.In Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #5, the detective hired by the Kanes to investigate Martha Wayne's murder is revealed as Batman himself, turned amnesiac as he leaps through time under Darkseid's Omega Effect. His 'investigations' are influenced by the Black Glove organization as they attempt to use him as a sacrifice in a ritual while planting evidence to frame the Wayne family for debauchery.In the series Streets of Gotham, Martha Kane's history as a young woman was revised and elaborated further. After her father was tricked into a shady investment deal by a mobster named Judson Pierce, which drained the Kane fortune and made him suffer a fatal heart attack, Martha became involved with charity work focusing on Gotham's poorest citizens. One of her main projects was raising support for the free clinic founded in Gotham's slums by doctor Leslie Thompkins. During an attempt to solicit support from Gotham's elite, she had her first encounter with Thomas Wayne. Aside from being a well-regarded surgeon, Thomas was also an infamous playboy and party animal. He affirmed this reputation by being extremely drunk in public and vomiting on Martha's shoes, causing her to storm off in disgust despite his apologies. Leslie's clinic also became a new target for Judson Pierce after he deemed it a key point for taking over the surrounding neighborhood. Pierce attempted to prey on Martha's poverty by offering cash to shut the facility down. Martha accepted Pierce's money, but filed it as a donation to keep the clinic running. Enraged, Pierce arranged to have Martha and Leslie assassinated. Martha met Thomas Wayne a second time after he had Alfred chauffeur him to the clinic so he could apologize again. That same evening though, Pierce's hitmen also decided to make their move. Alfred was able to subdue the assailants, but not before Leslie suffered a minor gunshot wound. While Leslie recovered from her injury, Thomas volunteered to work in the clinic alongside Martha. Thomas became content with the work there and it wasn't long before Thomas and Martha became romantically involved. By the time Leslie returned to work, Thomas became an official sponsor of the clinic and used his vast resources to keep it running. Thomas also distanced himself from his hedonistic past, citing Martha as his inspiration to change.

Batman Thomas and Martha Wayne EO Martha Wayne Earth-1 001

Martha Wayne as she appears in Batman:Earth One.

Martha is seen as a good, strong-willed mother worried about her child's future and the future of Gotham's children as well. It is revealed that while Bruce was three years-old, Martha was pregnant with a second child, Thomas Wayne Jr. Due to an accident, orchestrated by The Court of Owls, the child was born prematurely and supposedly sent to Willowwood Asylum in order to heal. After the murder of Thomas and Martha, the asylum ceased to receive proper funding and the staff started to abuse the children in their care. At some point in time The Court offers a child that is possibly Thomas Jr. to become a part of them and he goes up Gotham's ranks with the false-identity of a rich Gotham socialite and mayor candidate, called Lincoln March. Thomas Jr/Lincoln holds Bruce directly responsible for their parents' murders and the life he went through, and has a burning desire for revenge against his brother. Whether Lincoln really is Bruce's brother, Thomas, or a ploy set by the Court of Owls in order to enlist him in their ranks, is unresolved.

In the graphic novel Batman: Earth One, Martha's maiden name was Arkham instead of Kane in this alternate continuity. Martha's father was murdered by her mother when she was twelve, leaving her family with a series of scandals; including a rumor of members of the Arkham bloodline would be insane. Martha was a campaign manager of her husband's mayoral campaign against Oswald Cobblepot. Cobblepot had planned to have a corrupt cop, Jacob Weaver, to murder Thomas, but a mugger got to her family first and killed both her and her husband, leaving Bruce orphaned.

Other faces of Martha Wayne[]

See also[]

Links[]

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