Kane, Martha

Mrs. Martha Wayne was the mother of Bruce Wayne and wife of Thomas Wayne.

### Relatives

Bruce Wayne (son), Thomas Wayne (husband), Roderick Kane (father), Betsy Kane (mother)

## Biographical information

### Place of birth

Gotham City, New Jersey, United States of America

### Place of death

Gotham City (Crime Alley), New Jersey, United States of America

## History

### Early Years

Martha was born to Roderick and Betsy Kane of the wealthy Kane Family, which owned Kane Chemicals, but her father lost their family's money through bad investments, which he had entered into on the advice of his friend Judson Pierce. Roderick died of a heart attack soon afterwards, which Martha blamed on Pierce.

### Teen Years

#### High School

Martha's 4 years of high school are unknown.

### Adult

Martha became a philanthropist, appealing to her wealthy acquaintances to support various causes, including the Thompkins Clinic. A year after her father's death, Pierce tried to bribe Martha into abandoning the clinic so he could buy the block and gentrify the neighborhood, and when she refused, he placed a hit on her with Sallie Guzzo.

Martha met Thomas Wayne at a party where he was drunk and vomited on her shoes. Later he came by the clinic to apologize, which was when Guzzo's men attacked. Thomas's driver Alfred Pennyworth fended off the attackers, but Leslie Thompkins was shot during the fight. Thomas volunteered to fill in for her and began financially supporting the clinic.

Pierce then hired Doctor Death to get rid of the clinic. Doctor Death infected a homeless child with a man-made virus, but before there could be an outbreak, Thomas called in researchers from Wayne Enterprises to create a cure. Martha was injured when Guzzo set the block on fire, and was rescued by the Justice Society.

Martha helped Celia Kazantkakis protect the Copper Street Orphanage from the developer Stanford Whittaker by having it declared a historic landmark; however, the orphanage later burned down. Martha arranged for the children to be placed with good families while Whittaker was arrested for arson. At the time, Martha was dating club owner Denholm Sinclair, who broke off their relationship because it was getting too serious. Martha later discovered Celia was the true culprit of the Copper Street fire and warned her if she ever came back to Gotham, Martha would expose her crimes.

#### Marriage

Martha married Thomas a year after her breakup with Sinclair. She would become estranged from her family due to her mother's disapproval of Thomas. Martha and Thomas socialized with other wealthy, prominent couples like Charles Sionis and his wife and Roger and Marla Elliot.

##### Motherhood

While she was pregnant, Martha and Thomas went on a road trip where Thomas discovered an alien device and was mentally transported to Krypton. She was also pregnant when Thomas made his last humanitarian visit to Santa Prisca, which is when Bruce believed he might have fathered Bane until a DNA test proved Thomas innocent.

Martha raised her son to value philanthropy like she did. She was pleased that Bruce had befriended Roger and Marla's son Tommy.

Thomas told his wife about his coworker Eve Mackay's infatuation with him, and he gave her the letters Mackay had written him, which Martha kept at the family's summer house.

#### Death

Martha and Thomas were walking home from the theater with their son when they were approached by Joe Chill, who mugged and killed them both. Bruce was inspired by their deaths to train and become the vigilante Batman.

After her death, Simon Hurt visited her mother disguised as Thomas Wayne. "Thomas" claimed he had arranged for Martha to be killed and faked his own death, among other sins, all of which Betsy believed and shared with Martha's friend Marsha Lamarr and "the Chump" when they visited her.

Bruce has seen his mother in numerous visions, dreams, hallucinations, and illusions. Decades after her death, her body was stolen from its grave, along with her husband's, and held over a Lazarus Pit by Ra's al Ghul as part of a plot against the JLA. Both Judson Pierce and Celia Kazantkakis targeted Bruce as a proxy in their revenge against his deceased mother.

Martha posthumously became a grandmother when Bruce adopted Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, and Cassandra Cain and when he fathered Damian Wayne.