The Batman's Secret New Origin Makes Pattinson's Dark Knight Perfect

In The Batman, Bruce Wayne’s parents were murdered, setting off Batman’s origin story, but the real murderer isn’t actually who the film suggests.

The Batman's Secret New Origin Makes Pattinson's Dark Knight Perfect

Warning: Contains spoilers for The Batman.

In The Batman, Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne appears to learn who murdered his parents, however, his actual origin story in the film makes the movie perfect. While some superhero origins might change in different iterations, the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne is as much an iconic part of Batman’s origin as Spider-Man’s loss of Uncle Ben. The Waynes are always killed after leaving a theater, but the identity of the killer has been changed more than a few times.

The Batman suggests that Bruce Wayne originally had no idea who killed his parents, thinking it a simple act of violence as part of the larger issues with Gotham’s crime problem. However, once he learns more about his parents, Carmine Falcone (John Turturro) tells him that the Marconis had Thomas and Martha Wayne murdered. In turn, Alfred Pennyworth (Andy Serkis) suggests that it was likely Falcone himself that had Bruce Wayne’s parents killed and kicked off his origin story to become the legendary detective and crime fighter.

While Alfred tells Batman that he thinks Falcone might have been behind the Waynes’ murder, he acknowledges that he’s not sure and that it might have just been random violence that killed Batman’s parents. With the Maroni’s in prison and Falcone dead, it is unlikely that Bruce Wayne will ever know the real truth behind his parents’ murders in The Batman franchise. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter whether it was the Marconis, Falcone’s goons, or a random person on the street: in The Batman Bruce Wayne’s parents were really just killed by Gotham itself, and that presents the perfect route for Pattinson’s Batman going forward.

In various other iterations of Batman’s origin story, the killer has been different. Most commonly, the murder of the Waynes is tied to a mugger named Joe Chill. However, Gotham pinned the blame on Matches Malone, Joker tied their deaths to a riot started by Arthur Fleck, and in Teen Titans Go! it is technically Robin that kills the Waynes. Most importantly is how Thomas and Martha Wayne were killed in Tim Burton’s iconic 1989 Batman, in which Jack Nicholson’s Jack Napier, who would go on to become Joker, killed Batman’s parents. While the misdirections around the Waynes’ murder in The Batman might appear to play into these inconsistencies, it provides a more grounded realism for Bruce Wayne’s past and future.

While Burton’s Batman was able to derive a deeper personal narrative from having Bruce Wayne able to face and defeat his parent’s murderer, this decision risks undercutting the message that The Batman is going for. In The Batman, Bruce Wayne has been beating up criminals for two years, but at the end he realizes that the change he is making isn’t quite the change he had hoped for. He needs to help people and to help Gotham to be a better place, not just fight people. The fact that Bruce Wayne will likely never know who killed his parents in The Batman franchise means that his personal vendetta can never be brought to a complete resolution. In The Batman, Bruce Wayne’s crusade and his mission must be to help clean up and improve Gotham, tackling its corruption and removing the elements of its infrastructure that fuel crime, not simply punching bad guys until he feels better.