When Bruce Met Alfred, and Martha Explains Social Responsibility

[espanolbot]

From 1994's Batman #0 (thanks for the issue number),

Comments

[kurenai_tenka]

Aww, Alfred. <3

This is great, it almost makes me want to end my hiatus on comic buying, but then I know I'd only be disappointed.

[espanolbot]

If it helps this was published YEARS ago, I think.

[kurenai_tenka]

Oh yeah, I know, that's what's so depressing. :)

[bewareofgeek]

This is from BATMAN #0, by Doug Moench and Mike Manley, from 1994.

[indy2012]

I forget due to being on a bit of a comic-buying hiatus myself, but what is Martha Wayne's official background? She's been written as late as very bleeding heart and I know that she's canonically has a ton of charities attached to her name. Was she anything like a social worker or reporter or community activist/advocate prior to becoming half of Gotham's philanthropic power couple? The more I read about the Waynes in this kind of context, the more I'd like to know. All we're ever treated to are the Wayne's shrouded in mythology and guilt as two tombstones or an eerie portrait above a darkened fireplace. I'd like to see them as more fleshed-out characters where we can more readily see where Bruce gets his core beliefs.

[espanolbot]

In Paul Dini's excellent Streets of Gotham series, they established that prior to meeting Thomas Wayne, Martha was working as a fundraiser and nurse at Leslie Thompkin's free clinic. Her dad had lost all of his money in a ponzi scheme run by some local gangsters, so she pretty much worked there as her full time job, when she wasn't out trying to get her former friends to donate cash to keep the place running (a lot of them stopped returning her calls when her dad lost his money)...

Basically the story establishes pre-Bruce Martha and Thomas a lot more than most of the other depictions of the pair, in addition to showing where Bruce got his altruistic streak from.

Martha being heavily into charity work isn't really a recent thing though, appearing to her her outlet into helping the people of Gotham while Thomas worked as a doctor. For example, in the story Ultimate Evil she campaigned extensively to end the child sex trade in Gotham, which implictly may have lead to her death.

So yeah, her being involved in charity work is a pretty consistant thing throughout many of her incarnations (even in Batman: Earth One, where she campaigns for the rights of the mentally ill), but really Streets of Gotham is the main one that stakes it was her thing before getting the political clout that came when she eventually hooked up with Thomas.

I did think that the theory that was stated in one of the comics that the unsolved murder of the Waynes was a major player in what made Gotham the thing it is today. As they were SO respected and well loved (not just by the populous, the Long Halloween showed that even Carmine Falcone felt he owed Thomas for saving his life once) that the public's support and morale of the GCPD became so low it opened the door to the corruption and graft that made the city the sewer it was by Batman: Year One.

[indy2012]

Wow. I most definitely need to look up some Streets of Gotham. I feel like there 's much potential in a series focusing on preBat Gotham and the marvelous Waynes.

Martha Wayne (née Kane)

[7dialsmystery]

Martha Wayne was a Kane before marriage. She is the cousin of Kathy Kane (original Batwoman) who is the aunt of the current Batwoman, Kate Kane, and Bette Kane (original Batgirl). Her parents (Bruce's maternal grandparents) were Roddy and Betsy Kane. The Kane family owned half of Gotham. During the Flashpoint crossover arc, Bruce dies and Martha becomes The Joker while Thomas Wayne becomes Batman.

[ar_feiniel]

It needs to be said: Alfred was a hottie.

[superfangirl1]

Alfred you are really a well rounded handsome and awesome man. :)