Martha Wayne
63 years ago - Martha Kane is born, heiress to the Kane fortune.
47 years ago - 16-year-old Martha's father dies of liver cancer.
45 years ago - 18-year-old Martha starts studying sociology & finance at Gotham University, where she meets med school student Thomas Wayne.
44 years ago - 19-year-old Martha starts dating Thomas Wayne, despite her mother's misgivings.
41 years ago - 22-year-old Martha graduates and marries Thomas Wayne. She first meets Thomas's childhood friend Alfred Pennyworth, and begins the Wayne Foundation.
35 years ago - 28-year-old Martha's mother dies of cardiac failure. She uses their family fortune to create the Kane Grant for Medical Research & Development.
33 years ago - 30-year-old Martha & Thomas Wayne's valet Jarvis Pennyworth passes away. Alfred Pennyworth, Jarvis's son & Thomas's childhood friend, returns from England, meets Martha's son Bruce Wayne, and chooses to stay on with the family as their butler. Carmine Falcone is brought to Wayne Manor in the middle of the night after being shot. Thomas saves his life.
32 years ago - 31-year-old Martha & Thomas Wayne set up the trusts to fund Leslie Thompkins's clinic.
31 years ago - 32-year-old Martha's son Bruce Wayne falls through an abandoned well into the cave systems beneath Wayne Manor. While taking him out to the movies to try to deal with his trauma from the event, Martha & Thomas Wayne are gunned down by a mugger.
Thomas and Martha Wayne have certainly gone on to become characters in their own right, as the larger mythology of Batman and his world are constantly examined from every possible angle. Still, it's very important to remember that almost everything we know about them was introduced later on. Originally, in much the same way that all we knew about Jor-El and Lara was that they were alien scientists who put their baby in a rocket, all we knew about Thomas & Martha was that fateful evening under that street lamp.
|
Martha Wayne's Comic HistoryThe sixth issue of Detective Comics after the debut of Batman in 1939 began with the very first telling of his origin story. The mugging was pretty succinct, told in just three panels, but at the same time that is actually a lot of page space devoted to a single event, especially for that era.
There's really no way to know if this deliberate focus given from the very beginning is part of the reason that this has become one of the most iconic and well-known superhero origins of all time, but it certainly couldn't have hurt. |
|
While both Thomas and Martha Wayne were both introduced to us as part of this very specific moment, we've learned quite a bit about them in the decades since. One particular detail that has had an interesting evolution and becomes surprisingly important is Martha's maiden name.
The name Kane was originally associated with the original Batwoman, Kathy Kane, and he niece Bette Kane. (also, you know... Bob Kane) Kathy & Bette were introduced to be potential love interests for Bruce & Dick in response to accusations of homosexuality, so presumably, it was never the intention to suggest that Bruce's mom was related to them. When a new Batwoman was introduced in Kate Kane, she was now established as Bruce's cousin, which means that Martha Wayne's maiden name was Kane, and ALSO establishing that Bruce has a whole surviving branch of his family... who just didn't take him in when his parents died? Interestingly, there is actually an entirely different spin on Martha's family history in the Earth One version of Batman's story from 2012. Part of the story here is tied into Martha's family history, as part of the other big family in Gotham history; the Arkhams. This is actually the version of the story that is being adapted into the Matt Reeves Batman movies. |
|
|
Our Martha Wayne StoryWhile adapting Thomas & Martha to our timeline, we actually had to spend a little time working out just how we wanted their family histories to play out, because this is actually one part of their story that actually has a lot of influence on Bruce. We really didn't want either of them to have surviving family, because it just made the decision to have Alfred as Bruce's guardian work for us.
We decided to use the more commonly seen Kane name. She's just going to have to be unrelated to Kate Kane, both of whom are unrelated to Betty Kane, all of whom are unrelated to Adeline Kane, or Regina Kane... or, while we're at it, to David and Cassandra Cain. While Thomas Wayne's parents both passed when he was 15, we decided to have Martha's mother survive much longer, only dying after Martha married Thomas and gave birth to Bruce. This means that she's the final heiress of the Kane fortune, and leaves her with the responsibility to make sure the name is remembered. Since both her parents died of medical issues, we imagine that she invents the Kane Grant, which is given for medical research and development... which might just help explain why there seems to be so much experimental medical research happening in Gotham. Future recipients might include Kirk Langstrom, Hugo Strange, or Victor Fries... |