The Many Deaths of The Waynes...And the Men Who Killed Them

[TMC]

http://www.batman-online.com/feature....xUqGas2p.dpbs

2014-2016: The Masked Killer & Matches Malone: In the show Gotham, the Waynes walk down an alley only to get robbed and killed.

This time, however, the mugger’s face is hidden and one can only see his eyes when he shoots Bruce’s parents. Also, like in the proposed Batman musical, Selina Kyle is a witness to the murder.

In this version, a young Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock attempt to investigate the murder. Gordon meets Bruce and comforts him in the alley, promising him that he'll find the killer.

Their first suspect is Mario Pepper, father of the future Poison Ivy, Ivy Pepper.

Bullock shoots and kills Mario to save Gordon, but Gordon later finds out that Mario was set up by Carmine Falcone to give off the impression to the city that the police did their job. Falcone rationalizes that organized crime can't exist without law and order, otherwise, there'll be chaos.

Gordon tells Bruce the truth about Mario Pepper and promises to keep investigating.

Later in the season, a captured Selina Kyle tells Gordon that she knows the face of the killer, but later on, admits to Bruce Wayne that she lied in order to avoid going back to juvie.

Much like the Bruce Wayne pilot, Bruce suspects that the executives at his father's company were behind his parents' death and becomes rivals with an executive there named Sid Bunderslaw, (a character following in the footsteps of McCanlies's Charles Palantine from Bruce Wayne and Nolan's Bill Earle from Batman Begins).

In the second season, the villain Theo Galavan claims that he knows the identity of the Waynes’ killer and offers to give the information to Bruce in exchange for control over his company. Bruce refuses and Theo destroys the evidence before Bruce can get to it.

Turning the tables, however, Bruce works with Selina in getting a group of thugs to fake-kidnap him and Theo’s niece, Silver St. Cloud. They pretend to torture Bruce in the other room and make Silver confess that the name of the killer was “M. Malone.” When Bruce reveals that it was all a trick, Silver claims that she made the name up, but both Bruce and Selina are skeptical.

Bruce later has Alfred track down police records, showing that there's a killer in Gotham named Patrick "Matches" Malone, who matches up with Silver's confession. Bruce is determined to kill him, but Alfred would prefer Bruce not have a death on his conscience...and volunteers to kill Malone himself.

Bruce goes behind Alfred's back and asks Selina to get him a gun so that he can kill Malone. He and Alfred attempt to get information from Malone's former associate, Cupcake, but when Cupcake beats up Alfred, Bruce goes off on his own. After interviewing Malone's friend, Jeri, Bruce locates Malone at his apartment, 9B.

There, Bruce is surprised to find that Malone is drunk and washed-up. Bruce pretends to be hiring him for a job before he finally pulls his gun on him and reveals that he's going to avenge his parents. Malone claims, at first, that he has no memory of committing the killing, due to how many he's done in the past, but when Bruce tells him the story, Malone continues it and describes Bruce's family, seemingly confessing that he did the job.

Bruce tries to ask Malone who hired him, but Malone refuses and says that he could've even targeted them for himself. He tries to goad Bruce into shooting him. Bruce, however, refuses and runs off, leaving the gun behind and running into Jim Gordon, shortly before Malone uses the gun on himself and commits suicide.

Gordon and Bullock discuss the shooting and determine it's ambiguous whether or not Malone actually did it or who hired him.

Malone was clearly suicidal and may have simply been goading Bruce into killing him. He only continued Bruce's recap of the events with obvious details, such as claiming to remember that the pearls in Martha's necklace went all over the place after Bruce mentions that Malone grabbed for it. He also describes Thomas, Martha, and Bruce, but could've easily been going off his memory of their photos in the papers. And despite Malone's claim that he doesn't read the news, viewers can clearly see a newspaper on his table after Bruce drops the gun.

Regardless if Malone was guilty or innocent, the man's suicide causes Bruce to leave Wayne Manor, vow to never kill, and begin living in the streets of Gotham to learn more about his city.

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[Walter White]

I know the hiring of someone to kill the Waynes has roots in the comics, but I personally prefer either Joe Chill acting on his own or John Doe.