Martha Kane (Absolute Universe)

Martha Wayne
Absolute Universe‎
Gallery
Real Name	Martha Kane
Main Alias	Martha Wayne
Relatives	Thomas Wayne (husband, deceased) Bruce Wayne (son)
Affiliation	Mayor Gordon
Base Of Operations	Crime Alley, Gotham City
Status
Alignment	Good
Identity	Public Identity
Citizenship	American
Marital Status	Widowed
Occupation	Social worker · formerly deputy mayor of Gotham City
Characteristics
Gender	Female
Eyes	Black
Hair	Brown
Origin
Universe	Absolute Universe
Creators	Bill Finger · Bob Kane
First Appearance	Absolute Batman #1 (December, 2024)

Martha Wayne is a social worker in Crime Alley and the mother of Bruce Wayne. She briefly served as deputy mayor of Gotham City.

History

Martha first met Jim Gordon when she was a political activist and he was a beat cop who arrested her at a protest. She cursed him out all the way to central booking, but when they arrived he let her go and even paid for the placard he broke, earning her respect. Years later, her husband Thomas was killed when a mass shooter attacked Gotham Zoo where he was escorting a field trip, including Bruce. Thomas was able to get the children to safety and tackled the shooter, saving them at the cost of his own life. Gordon was one of the officers who responded to the scene and found Bruce in the bat enclosure being savaged by the creatures. Martha and Gordon remained friends in the years after Thomas' death.

Gordon eventually became Mayor of Gotham. Fourteen years after Thomas was killed a gang of nihilistic terrorists called the Party Animals terrorised the city, including attacking a town hall meeting which Martha was present for. Gordon was wounded but the vigilante Batman prevented any further bloodshed. Many people resigned from Gordon's administration, including the deputy mayor. Gordon offered Martha the job and she accepted, despite the danger and the fact that they looked certain to lose the election that year.

Black Mask, the leader of the Party Animals, distributed crates full of weapons around the city and offered huge amounts of money to anyone who committed acts of violence with them. Gordon and Martha were confronted by a group of armed men, as their murders were each worth one million dollars. Gordon told Martha to run, and the gunmen also decided to spare her, but she refused to leave. She told the men that she had seen all their faces, so if they were going to kill anyone they should start with her, yelling at them that the people of Gotham should be better than this. They decided to kill her anyway, but just as they were about to the system Black Mask used to communicate with and pay them went down. The lead thug asked if that meant there was no money for them and Martha punched him out while he was distracted. The rest of them shamefully dispersed.

Gordon and Martha lost the election and were replaced by former mayor Hamilton Hill, who instituted martial law to "protect" the city from Batman. Martha told Jim that he should speak out against it and try to rally political resistance against Hill's authoritarianism, but he believed that his time in frontline politics was over and told Martha that it was her time to take the lead. She said she would not run for mayor but Jim sill promised to support her in whatever she decided to do next.

Notes

• Martha Wayne was created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, first appearing in Detective Comics #33. However, the Absolute Universe version of Martha Wayne first appeared in Absolute Batman #1 by Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta.

Related

• 7 Appearances of Martha Kane (Absolute Universe)
• 2 Images featuring Martha Kane (Absolute Universe)
• Quotations by or about Martha Kane (Absolute Universe)
• Character Gallery: Martha Kane (Absolute Universe)