One of the most well-known superhero origin tales is the one involving Batman. Everyone knows how a robber shot and killed his parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne (the mugger being Joe Chill in most continuities). Following the horrible event, Bruce Wayne vowed to exact revenge on criminals and made it his life’s work to rid Gotham City of crime.
What would transpire, though, if Bruce Wayne passed away that evening? Because after the occurrence known as the Flashpoint, a central miniseries penned by the legendary Geoff Jones, that is precisely what took place. Barry Allen traveled across time in this instance to save his mother.
He did, however, shatter the time barrier, which set off a time boom and ripples in the timestream. Every event in the DC Universe was thus somewhat changed. And in the case of Batman, after Bruce Wayne was killed by a gunshot, his mother Martha Wayne went insane with grief and became the Joker, while Dr. Thomas Wayne assumed the role of Batman. Very dark.
With its subtle alterations in each episode, this incident substantially changed the globe. Additionally, this has been covered in comic books and the animated film “Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox.” In today’s video, we will discuss Martha Wayne’s beginnings as the Joker as well as the storyline that made her Gotham City’s most deadly criminal and her ex-foe. husband’s
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The Tragic Story Of Martha Wayne’s Joker From Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox
Directed by Jay Oliva, ‘Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox’ is a 2013 animated film that revolves around a world that Barry Allen accidentally created after he ran back in time to save his mother, Nora Allen.
After causing the Flashpoint Paradox, Barry seemingly loses his memory of it and finds himself back at his workplace. However, his conversations with his colleagues and superiors help him realize that something is wrong with this new world, a world devoid of The Flash. He heads outside and finds his mother. That should be great right? Wrong. His wife, Iris, is married to another one of their colleagues AND she has a child with him.
Batman in this reality uses guns and has no problem killing. Superman is a prisoner of the American government and has been terribly weakened by artificial red sun radiations. Cyborg works for the government. The Amazonians and the Atlanteans are fighting one another while the Amazonians have destroyed London to turn it into a New Themyscira. And certain incidents ultimately cause this new world to fall to its destruction when Aquaman remotely detonates an Atlantean weapon that was being powered by a captive Captain Atom.
During one of his initial conversations with his mother, Barry realizes that this world does not have a Flash. He also does not have his superpowers anymore. But what he does find out is that Batman exists as a superhero. We soon get a glimpse of Batman fighting Yo-Yo (the Flashpoint version of Harley Quinn). He is a lot older than he should be, uses guns, and almost kills Yo-Yo but one thing has remained constant. He is desperately looking for the Joker.
When Barry Allen goes to the Batcave to find Batman, he learns about Dr. Thomas Wayne being the man behind the mask. He needs his help to turn things back to normal but this Batman is ruthless and a hundred percent uninterested in helping Barry out with getting his powers again. But when he hears about Bruce being alive in Barry’s timeline at the cost of his and his wife’s death, he offers his help.
After the first failed attempt at getting his powers back, Bruce tends to Barry’s third degree burns when Barry’s mind is flooded with several images, which are actually his memories from this reality.
In these new memories that try to replace the old ones, a meteor-like object crashes into Metropolis, not too far away from Martha and Jonathon Kent. The Amazons and the Atlanteans ally with one another but Queen Mera finds out that Arthur Curry is having an affair with Diana. She later attacks Diana and is subsequently killed by the Amazonian, who goes on to wear Mera’s crown on her head as a warning to Atlantis. But the act causes the Atlanteans to seek war against the Amazonians.
And finally, Barry witnesses the scenes of that night at Crime Alley when Bruce Wayne was killed. While Thomas beat the mugger into a pulp, Martha Wayne held her son and got his blood all over her hands. When she realized that he was dead, she covered her mouth with that bloodied hand and cried. However, the crying soon turned into a menacing laughter and when she removed her palm, the blood had smeared her face, mimicking the smile of the Joker. She later went on to become a terribly evil criminal who was Thomas Wayne’s Batman’s biggest rival.
The second try at mimicking the incident that created the Flash is successful and Barry Allen gets his powers back. However, he is unable to tap into the Speed Force for time traveling due to Eobard Thawne’s presence in this reality where the Speed Force is not strong enough.
Basically, there’s not enough of it for a speedster to travel in time while two speedsters co-exist simultaneously. This proves to be an obstacle throughout the rest of the movie until one of the climactic scenes where Batman kills Thawne by shooting at his head. With no other speedster present, Barry is able to tap into the Speed Force once again and prevent his past self from changing the timeline.
This movie only glosses over Martha’s origin as the Joker. In the comics, there’s a lot more detail and content, making this origin story much more sinister and dark than many can imagine.
Rise Of Martha Wayne As The Joker
In 2011, DC Comics presented a three part miniseries that revolved around the Batman from the Flashpoint reality. These issues were created by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso.
The first issue opens with Thomas Wayne having a not so civil dialogue with his psychiatrist. He runs the biggest casino in Gotham City, a place that has the tendency to attract several criminals. As such, he is able to keep track of the city’s crime. Thomas Wayne also seems to have business relations with Oswald Cobblepot (a.k.a. The Penguin in the mainstream reality).
Harvey Dent is a judge who never turned into Two-Face. Selina Kyle (known as the Oracle) is confined to a wheelchair and is no Catwoman, barring her several pet cats that are constantly around her. And his relationship with Jim Gordon is not nearly as friendly as Bruce Wayne’s.
Harvey Dent also has two kids, who have been kidnapped by the Joker. While Batman and the police are tasked with finding the kids, the Joker plays house with them at her den. There’s a daddy, there’s a baby, and the Joker alludes to herself as the mommy, which is a reference to her being a mother.
Gordon gets a lead on the Joker’s location via Selina Kyle while the Joker gives her monologue to the kids. She talks about emotions such as joy and fear, which are coincidentally the two emotions that children can feel before developing their emotional maturity. Losing their ability to either feel ‘joy’ or ‘fear’ will make them go crazy. And losing both will make them go mad. As the Joker says these words, it only tells us more about her mental state, a state where she does not feel joy or fear and has truly gone mad.
Soon, we get to see just how crazy Martha Wayne truly is. When Jim Gordon finds her hideout, he gets a glimpse of what looks like Joker. He shoots at it but it turns out to be Harvey Dent’s daughter who was strapped to a chair to create the illusion of her being as tall as a fully grown woman. Meanwhile, the Joker’s menacing smile was drawn on the duct tape that was on her mouth, which made Gordon believe that this was the Joker. As Gordon rushed to the girl, the Joker soon appeared and killed him with a knife.
The first two issues mainly set up the events which lead to the climactic events of the final issue. Batman reaches the hideout and finds Harvey Dent’s kids. He tries to nurse Dent’s daughter who has been shot and takes the duct tape off her mouth. She utters two words – “I’m cold”. The Joker, who was hiding nearby, hears the words and goes into a frenzy. Soon, we get a chilling flashback sequence.
While Bruce was dying after being shot, he had expressed how he was cold. Martha was lying on the floor, paranoid about the fate of her son. Her lips were striking red, possibly due to her smudged red lipstick or Bruce’s blood. Thomas urger her to call a police and an ambulance immediately and so she did. Meanwhile, Thomas tried to keep Bruce alive by giving him CPR and mouth to mouth. But it was all in vain. And when Martha arrived, she saw that her boy was dead.
What made matters worse was the fact that she had begun to blame Thomas for it. She thought that Thomas could not take the mugger out before he had shot Bruce. And Thomas, despite being a doctor, could not stop Bruce from dying after being shot. Realistically, it was most definitely not Thomas’ fault at all. But when grief takes over, people often cope by putting the blame on someone else.
Months had passed by and Martha Wayne still found hersef unable to cope with the loss of her only son. Her room was full of scattered family pictures when Thomas urged her to accept what had happened. She told him how she missed Bruce and responded by stating how he felt the same as well. He also told her that he missed her smile. These words got engraved into her mind, the consequences of which we got to witness not long after.
Thomas proposed to kill the man who had killed Bruce. Out of revenge, of course. And to make his wife feel better. He headed out, found the mugger named Joe Chill, and beat him dead. He then came back home to tell Martha that he had killed the man. But Martha was not Martha anymore. She had used a knife to cut across a broader smile, exposing her teeth from her cheeks as the skin had been slashed. Her eyeliner was melting as she has been crying and her mouth was stained red from the blood, both of which later went on to become a part of the Joker’s standard look.
She was soon institutionalized, despite her resistance and gradually went on to become the Joker. Holding on to the belief that it was Thomas’ incompetence that caused Bruce’s death, she dedicated her life to tormenting him as his arch nemesis with the final goal of killing him.
In the story, she gets these flashbacks, all while engaging in a fight with Thomas. Soon, they find themselves outside and around the Batcave. It begins to rain, causing the Joker’s white face paint to melt. For a moment, we get to see her human-like skin underneath. The real Martha Wayne. Thomas talks to her as she asserts how she wants a world where he does not exist. This is when he tells her about the reality where he dies with her while Bruce goes on to live. For old times sake, he asks her if he should erase this reality for the other one to thrive. The idea of her son being alive makes Martha emotional and she agrees to it.
She asks him what Bruce does in this reality. Thomas talks about how he follows his father’s footsteps and becomes a doctor. But before he can take those words back, Martha runs away. Probably because she has come to hate this Thomas and does not want her beloved son to follow in those footsteps. She asks Thomas to stay away from her while he chases after her. Soon, she falls into a ditch. Thomas tries to save her but a swarm of bats fly over him, preventing him from saving her. Martha hurts her head from the fall and dies as she almost mentions how ‘the world is a baaaad place’.
In a way, this storyline is a lot more morbid than the original. Not only does Martha lose her child but, she comes to hate the only person who could have brought her some solace. But it is the hardest for Thomas as he loses his child and watches the woman he loves turn insane to the point of becoming the most lethal force in Gotham City and his life. He also has to live with the fact she blames him for not being able to save their son.
And with that, today’s video comes to an end. What did you think of Martha Wayne’s Joker? Did you enjoy this video? If yes, then don’t forget to like and comment on this video. Till then, goodbye. And have a nice one!