In 1938, the success of Superman prompt the company now called DC Comics—it was National Comics Publications at that time—to launch another one. Editor Vin Sullivan was tasked to do exactly that in the pages of Detective Comics.
The writer and artist Bob Kane came up with an idea based on Sherlock Holmes, Zorro, and other pulp heroes (like The Phantom), but also, apparently, a Leonardo da Vinci sketch of a bat-winged flying machine. He took all this to the writer Bill Finger who added his own inspiration like the Dracula movie (the one from 1931) and the 1926 silent film The Bat. He then suggested a new costume as Kane’s was then basically Superman with a mask and bat wings (the Da Vinci inspiration). Finger suggested a cape, a cowl, and a gray bodysuit. As a result, The Bat-Man silhouette really looked like a bat.
Finger wrote the script, Kane drew the story. It was published in Detective Comics #27 (cover dated May 1939). The rest is history.
This is the short version of the origin story of the creation of Batman that emerged years after Bob Kane created the myth—his version was that he alone did everything and, therefore, deserved everything. Kane had the makings of a really minor Batman villain.
But let’s forget reality to focus on the ever-evolving fictional origin story of Batman himself.
How did Bruce Wayne become the Dark Knight?
In the aforementioned Detective Comics #27, a six-page story of “The Bat-Man” called “The Case of the Chemical Syndicate,” we are introduced to Bruce Wayne, the young pipe-smoking socialite friend of Commissioner Gordon who tagged along with him to a crime scene because he didn’t have better things to do. In fact, he got bored and went home … or did he? On the next page, the mysterious Bat-Man appeared and start beating-up criminals on a roof. Of course, in the end, he killed the criminal and, after a brief reappearance of Bruce Wayne, we learned that he is in fact The Bat-Man!
Yes, Batman killed a criminal. It may be surprising to you, but he did it for a while. Batman finally stopped being this type of lethal vigilante after Batman #15 (cover dated February 1943).
Detective Comics #27 didn’t offer a proper origin story. It came in Detective Comics #33 (November 1939) in which we learned that, fifteen years prior, a mugger had gunned down Bruce Wayne’s parents as the family was walking home from a movie. A few days later, young Bruce vowed to spend the rest of his life “warring on all criminals.” The next panels chronicled Bruce’s training and how he was inspired by a bat flying through an open window. This is how he became “The Batman.”
It was a two-page backstory written by Bill Finger. There was more to come as this seemingly simple origin was going to be retold time and time again through the years.
In Batman #47 (cover dated July 1948), a new version of Batman’s origins by Bill Finger introduced important elements. First, as the story began, Batman and Robin are working on a case that led them to a man named Joe Chill whom the caped crusader recognized as the man who killed his parents. In this issue, we also learned that Bruce’s mother and father are Martha and Thomas Wayne (the first time their names were used in a story). Once again, it is a two-page story (in flashbacks) and most of the bits are the same.
At that time, the involvement of Joe Chill was random. This changed in Detective Comics #235 (June 1956). It was not a retelling of Batman’s origins, but the story titled “The First Batman” introduced the idea that Bruce took on the Bat persona because of the subconscious memory of a costume his father once wear for a masquerade party. This exploration of the past led Bruce and Dick Grayson to discover that Joe Chill was only a hired gun of gangster Lew Moxon to kill Bruce’s parents.
Batman’s Origin Story Retold
In 1980, with the three-issue miniseries The Untold Legend of the Batman by writer Len Wein and artists John Byrne and Jim Aparo, those elements were fully integrated into a proper rewriting of Batman’s origins. This time though, the costume party turned into a hostage situation, and Thomas Wayne, dressed as a bat, beat the criminals who were searching for a doctor to remove a bullet as bank robber Lew Moxon had been shot. It was a desire for vengeance that pushed Moxon to hire Joe Chill to kill the Waynes. The story goes a little further by establishing that Mrs. Chilton, the housekeeper of Bruce’s uncle, Philip Wayne (who had been appointed Bruce’s guardian), was in fact Joe Chill’s mother—in The Brave and the Bold #79, we also met Chill’s brother, Max, but it’s irrelevant.
Being more than a two-page story, The Untold Legend of the Batman established how Bruce was in fact the original Robin and how he became a great detective with the help of a police detective named Harvey Harris. Bruce wanted for a while to become a cop, but his notion of justice was not in tune with the laws. And then a bat flew by the window … an omen!
“And thus was born a weird figure of the shadows… A dark avenger of evil… The Batman!”
Then, DC Comics rebooted its universe. Following Crisis on Infinite Earths, Batman got a new start in the Modern Age with a now-classic story Batman: Year One written by Frank Miller and illustrated by David Mazzucchelli—Miller already touched this story in his classic The Dark Knight Returns but it’s not relevant here.
This story is about Batman’s first year as a crime fighter, but couldn’t avoid going back to what pushed Bruce Wayne to become the Bat when he was a kid. Unlike The Untold Legend of the Batman, Batman: Year One went back to the two-page format for a flashback that focused on the basic facts and the symbolism of the bat—and by doing so got rid of the Lew Moxon/Joe Chill story.
Joe Chill resurfaced quickly as DC Comics wanted to capitalize on Year One’s success with Batman: Year Two by writer Mike Barr and artists Alan Davis and Todd McFarlane. As a repeat of Batman #47, Batman ended up confronting Joe Chill by revealing a terrifying truth just minutes before he dies—but not by Batman’s hand.
For a short while, Joe Chill’s role in Thomas and Martha Wayne’s death was altered. In Detective Comics #678, a “Zero Hour” crossover story, Batman explores an alternate timeline in which Chill was innocent. This left a doubt that was erased in Infinite Crisis #6, in 2006. Two years later, Grant Morrison wrote a story titled “Joe Chill in Hell” (featured in Batman #673) in which Chill is tormented by the bat for his past crimes in order to force him to take responsibility for them—a story echoing once more Batman #47 with some details.
As for Lew Moxon, he was brought back by writer Ed Brubaker in Batman #591. The story of the shooting and the costume party was retooled, but this time Moxon didn’t order Thomas Wayne’s murder.
In 2011, DC Comics once again rebooted its continuity. This led to a new exploration of the murder Bruce Wayne’s parents. In The Dark Knight #0 by writer Gregg Hurwitz and artist David Finch, Bruce Wayne grew up in search of an explanation of why his parents were killed and by whom? After years, he learned about Joe Chill and discovered that there was no reason, Chill didn’t plan to kill them, it was an accident.
As Batman’s origin story has been told and retold in every TV and movie adaptation, everybody is familiar with it. In the pages of the comic books, the story is not revisited anymore. But it’s probably just a question of time.