| Thomas Wayne | |
|---|---|
 Thomas Wayne, as he appeared on a variant cover of Detective Comics #1050 (January 2022). Art by Jorge Molina. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Detective Comics #33 (November 1939) |
| Created by | |
| In-story information | |
| Full name | Dr. Thomas Wayne |
| Team affiliations | Wayne Enterprises |
| Supporting character of | Batman Flash |
| Notable aliases | Dr. Wayne |
Dr. Thomas Wayne, M.D. is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He is the father of Bruce Wayne (Batman), and husband of Martha Wayne as well as the paternal grandfather of Damian Wayne. Wayne was introduced in Detective Comics #33 (November 1939), the first exposition of Batman's origin story. A gifted surgeon and philanthropist to Gotham City, Wayne inherited the Wayne family fortune after Patrick Wayne. When Wayne and his wife are murdered in a street mugging, Bruce is inspired to fight crime in Gotham as the vigilante Batman.[2]
Wayne was revived in Geoff Johns' alternate timeline comic Flashpoint (2011), in which he plays a major role as a hardened, more violent version of Batman, whose son was killed instead of his wife and himself, leading both of them to become the altered reality's counterparts of Batman and the Joker respectively, and dies again by the end of the storyline. Dr. Wayne returned to the main DC Universe in DC Rebirth, as a revived amalgamation of his original self killed by Joe Chill and his Flashpoint Batman self killed in "The Button", teaming up with the supervillain Bane to attempt to force his son to retire as Batman.
As a key figure in the origin of Batman, Thomas Wayne has appeared in multiple forms of media. Notable portrayals of the character in live-action films include Linus Roache in Batman Begins (2005), Jeffrey Dean Morgan in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Brett Cullen in Joker (2019), and Luke Roberts in The Batman (2022). Ben Aldridge also portrays him in the television series Pennyworth (2019).
- ^ Gardner Fox, Finger, Bill (w), Kane, Bob (p), Meldoff, Sheldon (i). "The Legend of the Batman – Who He is, and How he Came to Be" Detective Comics, no. 33, p. 1, 2/1 – 8 (November 1939). DC Comics.
- ^ Beatty, Scott (2008). "Batman". In Dougall, Alastair (ed.). The DC Comics Encyclopedia. London: Dorling Kindersley. pp. 40–44. ISBN 978-0-7566-4119-1.