- "You see that, kid? That's what happens when you try and be a hero!"
- —Joe to a young Bruce Wayne
In an act of desperation, Joe Chill stepped into Crime Alley and, with two bullets, changed Gotham forever. The murders of Thomas and Martha Wayne, suffered by both the city and young Bruce, led to the birth of Batman. Convicted for an unrelated crime, Chill did not think anyone would discover his darkest secret. He was wrong.
Incident Reports[]
Childhood[]
Joe Chill grew up in a rough neighborhood in Park Row with his parents and younger brother. His parents would fight frequently when he was seven, and would often direct their anger onto their children, Joe more so. Joe would call this abuse "prize fighting" because "I always got the belt". Joe's path in life was influenced by a desire to "get back at them", causing him to become a criminal and engage in crimes in Gotham. Joe's brother on the other hand fared better later in his life despite having the same abusive upbringing as his brother, and eventually got an education, got married, and had children of his own, however his older brother's choice to continue committing crimes resulted in the two growing apart, to the point that Joe wasn't sure what his younger brother was even up to anymore.
Criminal Career[]
According to Joe himself, he was "pretty big deal, back in the day", having pulled a few big jobs. He claimed that life was good while he and his friends owned a block of Amusement Mile before the casino was built, where they would rob the bars, ATMs, etc., as they pleased. He was also suspected of numerous outstanding muggings, burglaries, and murders. Eventually, his friends started disappearing.
Wayne Murders[]
Joe Chill after killing the Waynes.
Whether or not he was ever as much of a big shot in his youth as he claimed to be, in an act of desperation, he attacked the Wayne family one night on their way home from the Monarch Theatre (though he did not mean to hurt anyone), noting the necklace around Martha’s neck, believing it to have value. Chill had recognized the Waynes from the newspapers and television. Although Chill only wanted their money and jewellery, things quickly escalated out of control when Thomas Wayne tried to fight him. In the ensuing struggle, Martha’s necklace had broken into pieces.
Though originally he did not intend to harm them, the scuffle ended when Chill shot Thomas and then Martha to silence her, fearing that she might recognize his face and report him.
However, he did not notice Bruce. Upon seeing his facial expression, he could not bring himself to kill Bruce, as he was a child, so he vanished into the night. He never stole anything; Martha’s pearl necklace was already broken into pieces and he did not even take Thomas or Martha’s wallets. All he took was their lives. Chill's actions haunted Bruce for the rest of his life and ultimately put him on the path to becoming the city's savior: Batman.
Two decades after his murder of Thomas and Martha, Joe genuinely regretted what he had done to the Waynes, and feared Bruce would come after him in revenge. He was eventually sent to Blackgate Prison for robbing a gas station, though all parties concerned in the robbery were unaware that he was the one who killed Thomas and Martha Wayne (no one in Gotham save for Bruce knew it was him), and was sentenced to life in prison, which he accepted, due to self-preservation and at some point before this sentence he suffered an injury that left him with a "bum leg", giving Joe a noticeable limp in his older years in Blackgate. In the years since he was imprisoned in Blackgate Joe managed to get a job working in the prison's commissary, where he would supply prisoners and guards alike with contraband normally banned in the facility, along with eventually attending group therapy sessions run by Dr. Harleen Quinzel to help him deal with his childhood trauma as well as his guilt in causing the deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne, though Joe chose to keep his role in their deaths to himself, with the group and Dr. Quinzel, along with everyone working or imprisoned in Blackgate, not knowing this fact, until Jonathan Crane coerced Joe into revealing his crimes to him by drugging his coffee with his “Project Umbra” drug, though Crane was surprised to find that Joe was responsible for the deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne. He even had recurring nightmares where Bruce got revenge on him.
Arkham Origins Incident[]
Joe Chill in Bruce's flashback.
Joe Chill was shown shooting Thomas and Martha Wayne in front of Bruce during a flashback in the Batcave after he returned from the Royal Hotel, with it also being implied that Batman mentally compared the sheer level of the Joker's depravity as being similar to Chill. He was also indirectly mentioned in the final casefile mission Crime Alley Shootings, where Batman noticed the similarities between the deaths of Clarissa Rodriguez and Horace Riley and the murder of his parents, and it was implied he nearly killed Ian Chase due to projecting Chill onto him.
Arkham Shadow Incident[]
After being sent to Blackgate Prison under the guise of Irving "Matches" Malone in order to uncover the identity of the Rat King, Bruce would unknowingly see his parent's murderer for the first time since their deaths while he was in the middle of working. Later Malone would meet Joe properly in the prison's commissary, and during Malone's time in Blackgate Chill tried to act as a mentor to him, encouraging Malone to attend and engage with group therapy and to reject violence as a way of life, the two men not realizing who the other actually was.
Joe Chill in Bruce's hallucination in Arkham Shadow.
Bruce's childhood friend Harvey Dent discovered Chill's identity as the murderer of Bruce's parents. However, because Bruce was in Blackgate, Dent was unable to reach him to inform him of the news. Suffering from dissociative identity disorder and seeking to avenge his friend's parents, he abducted Chill. On the Day of Wrath, suffering a complete psychotic break brought on by exposure to the highly concentrated and caustic liquid form of Dr. Jonathan Crane's experimental chemical known as "Shadow", Dent attempted to publicly execute Chill. Batman arrived to stop him, discovering that the man he had befriended and being held hostage by Dent was the man who had killed his parents, and tried assuring Dent that killing Chill would not be what his friend Bruce wanted. When Dent scoffed at this and wondered aloud how Batman would know what Bruce would want, Batman voluntarily removed his mask and revealed his secret identity as Bruce Wayne. The revelation stunned Dent into releasing Chill, who fearfully apologized for what he'd done, and Batman, who silently brushed off his apologies, angrily commanded him to flee for his own safety, with the implication that he still has not forgiven him.
Chill later turned himself in and was sent back to Blackgate. Because Chill was the only inmate to turn himself in willingly, he didn't have any additional time added onto his original sentence. When asked why he turned himself in, he said that he was where he belonged. Chill seemingly chose to keep his knowledge of Bruce Wayne's identity as Batman to himself, believing that he'd caused Bruce enough pain already.
Arkham Asylum Incident[]
Chill's voice was heard in the second Scarecrow Nightmare when Bruce relived the death of his parents after being dosed with Fear Toxin.
Arkham City Incident[]
While Chill didn't make an appearance, Crime Alley did as part of Arkham City; people may have presumed that Bruce's stepping up in his public persona was due to the site of his parents' murders being included as part of the makeshift prison.
Arkham VR Incident[]
During a Joker Infection-induced nightmare, Bruce hallucinated himself as a child alongside his parents, and seeing Chill killing them before remarking that this is what happens when one tries heroics.
Batman would later found himself back in Arkham Asylum; Chill was listed on a clipboard for recording patient names, but after getting to his cell was greeted by Joker instead.
Arkham Knight Incident[]
Like before, Chill didn't make an appearance, but he was briefly alluded to when several Joker hallucinations, while goading Batman into using a "gun" on Scarecrow stated he was no different than Chill.
During Batman’s nightmarish struggle against Scarecrow, the latter can occasionally be heard mocking the revelation of Batman’s true identity as Bruce Wayne by alluding to Joe Chill’s actions when he killed Thomas and Martha Wayne, comparing the latter two to “useless dogs”.
Personality[]
Due to his abusive upbringing at the hands of his parents, Joe Chill grew to be a violent criminal who would gladly engage in many crimes in Gotham, and would repeatedly and reportedly be involved in many muggings, burglaries and potentially murder during his criminal career. Chill is shown to initially lack empathy and sympathy on the night he attempted to mug and eventually murder Thomas and Martha Wayne, leaving a lasting impression on Bruce of a heartless monster who showed no guilt over what he had done nor to anyone else he caused harm to, and leading him to become Batman many years later to stop what Chill had done to him from ever happening again to another child.
In reality however, Chill could not bring himself to kill Bruce, indicating that he does have a heart. Long after what he had done, Chill would be left with immense guilt and come to deeply regret killing the Waynes and would come to realize too late after killing them that he had robbed a young boy of his parents, and years later after being imprisoned in Blackgate is shown to be a completely different person to the man that robbed Bruce of his mother and father; as an older man Joe is shown rejecting violence in any way possible, possibly due to feeling shame for the behaviour that cost him not only his relationship with his brother but also the lives of the Waynes, and urges Irving "Matches" Malone not to resort to it when giving Bird his parcel in exchange for money, though despite this shame for his past behaviour Chill is still shown looking back at his crimes before the Wayne murders with some pride, even displaying an ego as he claims to have been a big deal in Gotham many years ago to Malone.
Despite finding Dr. Harleen Quinzel's therapy sessions therapeutic, and even suggesting Malone start attending them during his time in Blackgate, at his core Joe Chill was a heavily conflicted man tormented by the guilt he felt for having been responsible for the unintentional murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne and leaving their son Bruce an orphan, to the point he feared Bruce would eventually come looking for revenge as the years went on. He even had nightmares where this came to pass. This fear seemed to become reality when he discovered Batman was actually Bruce Wayne, however Bruce would try and succeed in saving Chill from Harvey Dent during the Day of Wrath despite what Joe had done, Joe himself would finally be given the opportunity to apologize to Bruce for what he did before being told to escape, showing that Chill, despite fearing what Bruce would do if he found him, wanted nothing more than to apologize to Bruce no matter what the outcome would be, though Bruce silently brushed off the apology and angrily commanded him to leave, which indicated that Joe’s fear of Bruce’s anger at him was well-founded.
Quotes[]
Game Over Lines[]
- "Dammit kid. That’s why I mind my own business. Real shame you didn’t."
- "Wish I could say I was surprised, kid, but I’ve seen this happen way too many times."
Batman: Arkham Origins[]
Batman: Arkham VR[]
Batman: Arkham Shadow[]
Trivia[]
- Oddly, when Batman hallucinates the memory of Chill's voice in the first game, it was implied his father ended up being shot regardless of whether or not he complied.
- In a way, Joe Chill was responsible for every event in the Arkham Series, as he unknowingly and indirectly created Batman.
- It was unknown what happened to Joe Chill in the Arkhamverse, as he has seemed to disappear after killing the Waynes.
- Batman: Arkham Shadow reveals Chill was incarcerated in Blackgate Prison on unrelated charges shortly after their death (with it being heavily implied that he deliberately confessed to every single crime he was accused of save for his role in the Wayne murders specifically to protect himself from Bruce Wayne in the event that he sought to exact revenge), explaining his sudden disappearance.
- Depictions of the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne change with each entry, suggesting that Bruce had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, though the truth is revealed in an interview tape between Joe Chill and Jonathan Crane, where the former is coerced into confessing his crimes to him, which results in him recounting the murder of the Waynes and the reason he was arrested, though Crane seemingly did not expect to hear that Chill was responsible for that crime in particular as evident by his reaction.
- Batman has most likely been searching for his parent's killer ever since he donned the cowl. But until the Day of Wrath in Arkham Shadow, he had no success.
- Joe Chill was referenced in the achievement for the remastered Crime Alley challenge map in Arkham Knight, as the achievement is called "The Chill in the Air".
- Joe Chill's cell containing a hallucination of Joker in Arkham VR is most likely an indirect reference to how the Joker filled Joe Chill's usual role of killing the Waynes in the 1989 Batman movie.
External Links[]
Joe Chill on the DC Comics Wiki
