Last night, Gotham — Fox’s long-awaited and endlessly trailered Batman show without Batman — hit the small screen. And if you have ever even heard of Batman, this next bit of information won’t be a spoiler: His parents die! The Caped Crusader’s origin story has been tweaked and reinterpreted countless times throughout the decades, but Bruce Wayne always starts his war on crime to avenge his parents’ death in an alleyway stick-up. And so, in virtually every TV and movie adaptation of Batman — from the 1989 Tim Burton movie to his various animated adventures and beyond — we see li’l Bruce stand by, jaw agape, as Thomas and Martha Wayne get gunned down. How many goddamn times do we have to see this brutality? And will anyone ever significantly alter it? We put together this little video remix/mash-up to show all of the various Wayne murders, synced up to climax with the moment everything changed for Brucie. Watch it, see all the tropes, and maybe you, too, will decide to become a Bat.
