Leslie Thompkins
61 years ago - Leslie Thompkins is born in Gotham City.
43 years ago - 18-year-old Leslie attends Gotham University, studying pre-med.
39 years ago - 22-year-old Leslie graduates & begins med school.
35 years ago - 26-year-old Leslie finishes med school & begins her residency at Gotham Central Hospital, where she befriends Thomas Wayne.
32 years ago - 29-year-old Leslie finishes her residency. She receives funding for her clinic from a trust set up by Thomas & Martha Wayne.
31 years ago - 30-year-old Leslie comes to comfort Bruce Wayne after the murder of Thomas Wayne & Martha Wayne. She begins regularly trying to care for him.
27 years ago - 34-year-old Leslie opens her free clinic in same part of Gotham where Thomas Wayne & Martha Wayne were killed, now called Crime Alley.
25 years ago - 36-year-old Leslie sees Bruce Wayne off as he leaves to study abroad.
15 years ago - 46-year-old Leslie clinic is regularly visited by Bruce Wayne when he returns to Gotham.
12 years ago - 49-year-old Leslie learns that Bruce Wayne is Batman when he comes to her clinic for help during the night he is attacked by Carmine Falcone's assassins. She treats him, but later confronts Alfred Pennyworth for allowing Bruce to become Batman.
3 years ago - 58-year-old Leslie Thompkins expands her clinic to provide medical assistance during Gotham's contagion and the No Man's Land quake. She forms understandings with the cities street gangs.
2 years ago - 59-year-old Leslie Thompkins helps hide Stephanie Brown when she's hunted by all the criminals of Gotham. Stephanie sacrifices herself to save her from Lester Buchinski before the arrival of Bruce Wayne. She spends four months helping Stephanie with her recovery, coming to better understand why they do what they do.
1 year ago - 60-year-old Leslie Thompkins helps treat Waylon Jones, giving him space to stay. He starts protecting her clinic.
Really great stories, the ones that become folklore and mythology, have a life of their own. They evolve in the telling. New ideas can be introduced, sometimes as weird tangents that eventually spawn off into stories of their own, but sometimes it's just a little notion that by its very existence makes the whole original story become something better than it was before. The idea of Leslie Thompkins and her role in Batman's story is such a clever way to add nuance and character to the mythology, and it's a delight to bring her into ours.
Leslie Thompkins' Comic HistoryLeslie's first appearance was in 1976, in the classic Dennis O'Neil story "There is No Hope in Crime Alley!" from Detective Comics #457. It introduces the concept of Crime Alley, the formerly posh Gotham neighborhood that went downhill after the high-profile murder of the Waynes. Bruce remembers the anniversary of his parent's death by spending the night stopping small-level street crime and reconnecting with the elderly woman who comforted him on that night years ago.
This original sweet old lady version of Leslie appeared a few more times, but in 1987, after the Crisis, she was reintroduced in Detective Comics #574 by Mike Barr, this time as a doctor running a local clinic in Crime Alley. She was still the person who had comforted a young Bruce, but now also helped care for him as he grew up, and even was privy to his secret identity. Leslie notably didn't approve of the whole idea of Batman, but she would still provide begrudging medical help, making her a compelling addition to Batman's supporting cast. With the exception of the 2004 crossover story Wargames, in which Leslie's objection to Bruce's methods led to some behaviors so out of character they're practically begging to be immediately retconned, she's become another tried and true facet of Batman's mythology. |
Our Leslie Thompkins StoryWhile the innovation to make Leslie more than just a sweet old lady Bruce cares about and instead make her a doctor who both knows Bruce's secret & disapproves of the fact that he's become Batman is a really good one, the change also introduced another idea; that Leslie actually knew the Waynes before their murder. There are even stories that suggest that Thomas was responsible for setting up the trust funds that allowed her to build the clinic in the first place. We really like those ideas, but it does actually raise a possible issue. If Leslie was a friend of the Waynes, then her being the first person to arrive at the scene of their murder would probably make her a suspect. That might be such a minor detail that no one but us cares about it, but it was reason enough for us to make a small change, saying that it was, in fact, Commissioner Gordon who found Bruce, and that Leslie simply came to take care of him, since she lived nearby and was a close friend of the family.
Other than that, and of course the changes we made to the Wargames story so it didn't treat both Leslie and Stephanie Brown so terribly, we didn't really need to change anything else at all. Leslie's story is actually pretty simple, but that's often the case with the best-supporting characters. |