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| - Inheriting the Wayne Family fortune from his father, Thomas Wayne was one of the most respected patrons in all of Gotham City. He inherited his family's ancestral home, Wayne Manor, and took charge of the family business, Wayne Enterprises. A skilled surgeon, Thomas was non-the-less an infamous playboy and "party animal".
In contrast, Martha, born to the Kane Family and heiress to the family's Kane Chemicals fortune, gained a reputation as a notorious socialite and debutante in her youth, frequenting all the most prestigious country clubs, night clubs, and soirees. However, she also had a developed social conscience and often used her family's wealth and status to champion causes and charities.
- While the clinic's doctors recovered from the attack, Thomas volunteered to work at the clinic alongside Martha and became content with charity. While working together, it wasn't long before she and Thomas became romantically involved and Thomas established himself as an official sponsor for the clinic; distancing himself from his carefree lifestyle, Thomas cited Martha as his inspiration to change and became an esteemed figure in the business community.
- During the party, several gangsters raided the mansion and Wayne as a physician. Kidnapping him, they brought him to an old warehouse to perform surgery on mob boss Lew Moxon, who had suffered a serious gunshot wound. Wayne knew that once he removed the bullet, the gangster would likely kill him. Instead of performing the surgery, Thomas dove into the gangsters and managed to apprehend every one of them. He called the police and handed the thugs over to a young police lieutenant named James Gordon. The courts sentenced Moxon to ten years in prison.
However, Moxon only served a few years in jail and upon release he decided to pay a visit to Thomas Wayne and promised the philanthropist that he would find a way to "get even" with him.
While looking after Bruce and still championing the East End clinic and various other charities, Martha began to notice the steady growth of crime in Gotham City. In an effort to protect abused children and fight against the trafficking of children around the globe, she secretly headed a covert detection agency with help from police officer James Gordon and Alfred Pennyworth. Their goals were to catch abuse before it escalated in the hopes that those children would not grow up to turn into abusers and criminals themselves.
One night Thomas, Martha and Bruce were walking home from a night out at the Monarch Theatre when a mugger leapt from the shadows of Park Row and assaulted them, demanding money and the pearls around Martha's neck. While Thomas tried to fight back, the mugger shot him in the chest. The mugger then turned his gun on Martha and shot her while attempting to steal her pearls. As he watched the mugger run away, Bruce made a promise that he would bring the killer to justice and avenge his parent's deaths.
- When Bruce was still a young child, his family attended a costume fundraiser; the theme of which was "Creatures of the Night". Thomas decided to masquerade as a bat, and wore a costume consisting of a pointed mask, and large, dark blue scalloped wings.
- Eventually the two married, Martha used her newly acquired wealth and influence to further finance her philanthropic endeavors while Thomas gained a reputation as a philanthropist.
- When Martha's father, Roderick Kane, was tricked into a shady investment deal by a mobster named Judson Pierce, the family fortune was drained and Roderick suffered a heart attack that left him catatonic. Following this Martha dropped her role as a socialite and became more involved with charity work, with one of her main projects being to raise support for the East End Free Clinic which was built to provide medical care to Gotham's poor and homeless.
During a gala for Gotham's high society, Thomas met Martha, who had attended the gala in an attempt to gather benefactors for the East End Free Clinic, but being drunk his attempts to impress her resulted in him vomiting on her shoes.
Martha's East End clinic quickly became a new target for Judson Pierce to acquire, however Martha's charity work prevented him from acquiring it. Pierce attempted to prey on Martha's poverty by offering cash to shut the facility down. Martha accepted Pierce's money, but filed it as a donation to keep the clinic running. Enraged, Pierce arranged to have Martha and Leslie assassinated but on the night of the hit, Thomas Wayne had Alfred Pennyworth chauffeur him to the East End clinic to try to apologize for his errant behavior and in the process interrupted the mob hit on Martha.
- Decades later, the Wayne murders were considered the start of the city's fall to crime and corruption, as, once it became clear that even people like Thomas and Martha Wayne could be murdered, the city's people began to lose faith in its police, and the police themselves started to lose faith in their importance, leading to corruption within the force and the free reign of syndicates like the Gotham City Organized Crime Family.
Since becoming the Batman, on the anniversary of their deaths, Bruce always visits the site where his parents died; leaving a memorial of flowers over where they fell. This ritual is recognized by the other members of the Bat Family and they actively ensure that the alley is clear for their mentor to place the flowers without witnesses or interruption.
- Martha eventually became pregnant.
Thomas and Martha were traveling across the American midwest when they witnessed a glowing light falling from the sky. Thomas went to inspect the item and discovered a strange alien crystal. Upon physical contact with the artifact, his consciousness was transported through space and time to the planet Krypton where he met Kryptonian scientist Jor-El. Jor-El explained to Thomas that the item he discovered was a Kryptonian probe, one of dozens that he had sent out throughout the universe in search of a suitable world in which to send his infant son Kal-El. Jor-El instantly developed a respect for Thomas Wayne and because of this determined that Earth was the ideal world to send his son.
A few months later, Thomas and his wife Martha gave birth to their only son, Bruce Wayne. Thomas never forgot his experience on Krypton and, still in possession of the Kryptonian probe, he reverse-engineered the probe's technology to save Wayne Enterprises from bankruptcy.
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