Batman's parents

[Sundancer]

One of things that struck me odd about Batman Begins was how they focused on Bruce's father and none on his mother. I read a few Silver age stories about his dad. Did Bruce have a closer relationship with his father in the comics? And what is his mother's name?

 

[batpawn]

One of things that struck me odd about Batman Begins was how they focused on Bruce's father and none on his mother. I read a few Silver age stories about his dad. Did Bruce have a closer relationship with his father in the comics? And what is his mother's name?

There are many comicbooks that focus more on his father than on his mother. That's true. I guess, many writers (Frank Miller, for example) do so, because his Father was pretty much the working man of the family. In the end of the day, he is the provenance of the 'Wayne'y' family man. The good doctor, with a heart made oput of gold who doesn't care as much for his wealth, than for the people he can help with it.

That being said, not every Graphic Novel out there focuses on Bruce's relationship with his father. 'Arkham Asylum' for example has a larger leaning towards his father, making her almost angel like. Overall, the way Batman's been interpreted in Arkham seems almost like a perversion of the 'Mommy's Boy' concept.

Her name's Martha.

 

[Mr. Earle]

I always hated that story about Thomas going to a costume party dressed as a bat. He is then kidnapped to treat a mobster who has been shot and he beats his captors and escapes. Why did they feel like they needed to make Thomas into an amateur batman?

Goddamn i hate that story.

 

[Drz]

Isn't it simple psychology that the child feels first and easily attached to the one thats the same gender as the parent? Anyhow Bruce's mother is Martha Wayne and she did get a cool spotlight in "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader" and i do remember in Jeph Loeb's Haunted Knight story Bruce was very disappointed when he couldn't go trick or treating with his father who was busy helping people.

@Mr. Earle: Man that sucks! Since that episode is going to be in Brave and Bold with Adam West as Thomas Wayne!

 

[Sundancer]

I always hated that story about Thomas going to a costume party dressed as a bat. He is then kidnapped to treat a mobster who has been shot and he beats his captors and escapes. Why did they feel like they needed to make Thomas into an amateur batman?

Goddamn i hate that story.

I remember that story. I think at the time, Burce hypothesized that he got the Batman idea from once seeing his dad "fighting crime" as a bat.

It's early Silver Age cheesiness, so I let it slide...

 

[Mr. Earle]

Since we re talking about Thomas and Martha, i always wondered what they'd think if they saw what their son has become. And as if my prayer was answered, they did a story about it. Let me tell you about it since its one of my favourites.

Its a canon story called "Batman: Death and the maidens". Ras has exhausted his Lazarus pits and he asks Batman to let him use the last remaining pit in Gotham in exchange for giving him a magic potion that will allow him to meet the spirits of his parents. At the same time Bruce catches himself not feeling pain about his parents, in fact he barely remembers their faces. That is why he feels like he needs to meet them again and so he uses the potion. Of course he is skeptical about keeping his part of the bargain and letting Ras use the pit. In the end Ras dies because he is murdered by a daughter of his that he had abandoned to the Nazis. The story ends with said daughter assuming the mantle of the Demon's Head, but they never did anything with the character since Morrison later brought Ras back to life.

Anyway, Bruce uses the potion and his spirit meets those of his parents in Crime Alley. His father isnt there at first, so he takes a long walk around Gotham with his mother. They talk about many things but Martha is very cold towards him. When they return to Crime Alley Thomas is there but he doesnt want to speak to Bruce. Martha explains that its because they are both disappointed with what Bruce has done with his life and that is why she was cold towards him. They tell him that he no longer feels the pain and that they want him to be happy. He could easily have become a doctor, a scientist, a president and help just as much, if not more. Here are two amazing pages from it (just imagine Barbastella playing as Bruce transforms into Batman):

Spoiler

The meeting ends with his parents asking him to move on. He wakes up confused on whether he was having a dream or really meeting his parents and what the latter could mean for him. And then Alfred sets him straight:

Spoiler

Its a very good story about Bruce meeting his parents and i highly recommend it.

 

[Drz]

The Silver Age origin IS canon origin nowdays. Morrison is using it for his story telling and right now Dr. Hurt is wearing the very first Batman costume, worn by Thomas Wayne.

 

[Mr. Earle]

Morrison has made everything canon so that story is canon as well. I still dont like it though.

 

[Sundancer]

Since we re talking about Thomas and Martha, i always wondered what they'd think if they saw what their son has become. And as if my prayer was answered, they did a story about it. Let me tell you about it since its one of my favourites.

Its a canon story called "Batman: Death and the maidens". Ras has exhausted his Lazarus pits and he asks Batman to let him use the last remaining pit in Gotham in exchange for giving him a magic potion that will allow him to meet the spirits of his parents. At the same time Bruce catches himself not feeling pain about his parents, in fact he barely remembers their faces. That is why he feels like he needs to meet them again and so he uses the potion. Of course he is skeptical about keeping his part of the bargain and letting Ras use the pit. In the end Ras dies because he is murdered by a daughter of his that he had abandoned to the Nazis. The story ends with said daughter assuming the mantle of the Demon's Head, but they never did anything with the character since Morrison later brought Ras back to life.

Anyway, Bruce uses the potion and his spirit meets those of his parents in Crime Alley. His father isnt there at first, so he takes a long walk around Gotham with his mother. They talk about many things but Martha is very cold towards him. When they return to Crime Alley Thomas is there but he doesnt want to speak to Bruce. Martha explains that its because they are both disappointed with what Bruce has done with his life and that is why she was cold towards him. They tell him that he no longer feels the pain and that they want him to be happy. He could easily have become a doctor, a scientist, a president and help just as much, if not more. Here are two amazing pages from it (just imagine Barbastella playing as Bruce transforms into Batman):

Spoiler

The meeting ends with his parents asking him to move on. He wakes up confused on whether he was having a dream or really meeting his parents and what the latter could mean for him. And then Alfred sets him straight:

Spoiler

Its a very good story about Bruce meeting his parents and i highly recommend it.

I did read that as well. I thought it was all in Batman's head....? Is Rha's known for performing magic?

 

[Mr. Earle]

The comic book doesnt explain what it was exactly and Bruce is left wondering if it was a dream, or Ras made him hallucinate or if it was real. Its in the 3rd page that i posted.

Still, it could be true because Ras after all is a dude that takes a bath in a magical fountain and ages backwards. And then, when he died his spirit was roaming around the world (for some reason) and he wanted to use Damian as his interim host body before he could steal Bruce's. In the end he got his own back if i remember correctly. So you see, Ras' ways are supernatural in the comics.

 

[Red_Hood]

I just want to add that almost every, if not every story line that covers his parents is done in the 50s timeline. When bruce was a child. So the father being strong in the family was normal. During that time, in almost every marrage, especially rich families, the mother was like a trophy wife. There to cook clean look pretty. That's it. Not to have opinions. And women were ok with that. That's why, I think, martha wayne was never a strong opinionated talkative character. And since thomas wayne was the role model of the house, the strong chain, that's why bruce looked up to him so much.

Its normal to hear a son say "I wanna grow up to be just like my dad" you never really here "I wanna be just like my mom when I grow up". Other than the obvious gender similarity, I'm sure that has something to do wirh bweing raised on the belief that the father is the strong suit of the family. This was back in the day people. Now a days girls have rights and stuff....:shakes my head: femenists.

 

[Blitzkrieg Bop]

The book Batman: The Ultimate Evil shows a stronger relationship between Bruce and his mother, making her a stronger character than most stories do.

 

[Mr. Earle]

The book Batman: The Ultimate Evil shows a stronger relationship between Bruce and his mother, making her a stronger character than most stories do.

Is it any good? What's it about?

I agree with Red_Hood that that's the reason that Martha hasnt been so prominent as Thomas, but i think that this has got to change. First of all, times are changing and that sexist position that women used to have shouldnt be allowed to continue in our days. And since Batman will always be around 40, his childhood will sooner or later have to move to the 90ies so its only natural that the story will be updated to suit the time.

And finally, i always liked to think that Thomas and Martha were the perfect couple and very good parents, so i never really liked strict Thomas. I know that it doesnt make him an ***hole, its just how men were at the time, but I just prefer Thomas like he was in Begins. A modern, caring and loving father.

 

[Blitzkrieg Bop]

Is it any good? What's it about?

It's a realistic story where Batman takes on a child-sex trade. I thought it was a nice book and Batman's first appearance is something I'd like to see adapted into the comics or films. Martha is much more prominent than Thomas as some light is shed onto her life where she was a crusader in her own right, taking on child abuse cases as a secret investigator.

 

[Mr. Earle]

It's a realistic story where Batman takes on a child-sex trade. I thought it was a nice book and Batman's first appearance is something I'd like to see adapted into the comics or films. Martha is much more prominent than Thomas as some light is shed onto her life where she was a crusader in her own right, taking on child abuse cases as a secret investigator.

From Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman:_The_Ultimate_Evil

Doesnt sound so good and i dont like the fact that they used Batman for their propaganda, even if it was for a good cause. At least they could have left Martha out of it. She was social worker? Oh come on now.

in Batman: The Ultimate Evil, Vachss reveals that the Batman's mother was a social worker investigating a group of predatory pedophiles in Gotham City. With little help from the police, she was getting close to having enough evidence to stop them when nameless assassins shot her and her husband. Years later, the Batman finds the same gang running sex-tourism charter trips to Thailand. As Bruce Wayne, he signs on as a charter trip client; once in Thailand, Batman swings into action, with local help.
The novel was released during the period of the Don't! Buy! Thai! boycott. This grassroots campaign encouraged people to boycott all products of Thailand until the Thai government effectively addressed the rampant prevalence of prostituted children that has been present in that country for years and caters to prosperous foreign tourists. One result of this trade is that many poor children become HIV-positive; eventually, most develop AIDS. An appendix to the novel discusses the sex trade, the foreign firms that profit from it, and the Don't! Buy! Thai! boycott.

 

[batpawn]

I always hated that story about Thomas going to a costume party dressed as a bat. He is then kidnapped to treat a mobster who has been shot and he beats his captors and escapes. Why did they feel like they needed to make Thomas into an amateur batman?

Goddamn i hate that story.

Ed Brubaker re-wrote this story in his Batman-run. In that story, Thomas was wearing a Zorro costume instead of a Batman costume. Because Bruce didn't know to that time who Zorro is, his father told him that they'll go watch one of the older Zorro flicks as soon as it hits one of the many arthouse theatres around Gotham once again.

 

[batpawn]

From Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman:_The_Ultimate_Evil

Doesnt sound so good and i dont like the fact that they used Batman for their propaganda, even if it was for a good cause. At least they could have left Martha out of it. She was social worker? Oh come on now.

Your loss. I think it's one of the best battales that deal with realworld problems to date. I even like it better than 'Nightshriek', and that was one hell of a story. I thought that this take on Martha was believable as well.

 

[Mace Dolex]

Hmm aside from Klaus Janson's sketchy art that Death And The Maiden's sounds like an interesting read, I always love how Alfred deep down may not always agree on Bruce's life as Batman he is still with him 100%, god knows that Alfred only wants for Bruce to have a normal and healthy lifestyle.