Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for Gotham Knights season 1, episode 6, “A Chill in Gotham.”In a major change from the established DC Comics lore, Joe Chill is innocent of killing Batman’s parents in Gotham Knights. Set in an alternate reality apart from the core Batman universe, Gotham Knights has already made several big changes, starting with the death of Batman himself. However, the changes to the story of mugger Joe Chill put forth in Gotham Knights season 1, episode 6, “A Chill in Gotham,” significantly change the status quo even more.
“A Chill in Gotham” reveals that Joe Chill has been scheduled for execution after 50 years on Death Row. In a meeting with District Attorney Harvey Dent, Chill reveals that he found a coin with the emblem of the Court of Owls on his lunch tray just before his execution was confirmed. This is how the Court informs people, like Bruce Wayne and Mayor Hamilton Hill, that they’ve been marked for death. Chill tells Dent that before he dies, he wants to speak with “the kid who killed Batman,” in reference to Wayne’s adopted son, Turner Hayes.
How Joe Chill Is Innocent Of The Wayne Murders In Gotham Knights
While Turner is initially reluctant to face the man Duela Doe describes as “the patron saint of bad guys,” the revelation that the Court of Owls is trying to silence Joe Chill pushes Turner to agree to meet him. Harvey Dent arranges to sneak Turner into Blackgate Prison disguised as a guard. Once they are face to face, Chill reveals the secret he’d kept for five decades and how he was the fall guy for the Court of Owls’ plot to kill Thomas and Martha Wayne.
According to Joe Chill, he had been hired to mug some rich couple and scare them. To that end, he carried a .38 caliber pistol, but the gun was not loaded. Chill claimed that the shots that killed Thomas and Martha Wayne had come from behind him. From the perspective of their son, Bruce, it appeared that Joe Chill had fired the shots that killed his parents. Joe Chill was quickly apprehended and convicted based on Bruce Wayne’s testimony.
Chill speculated that the Court of Owls framed him and then kept him alive on Death Row to fashion a boogeyman to keep the people of Gotham City terrified. “The Court needs me to keep Gotham looking under its beds, so it doesn’t look up to see the real monsters that control this city,” quipped Chill. Turner agreed, saying that Chill was useful until he and the Gotham Knights offered the Court a new group to demonize. Turner also comforted the old convict by telling him what he wished someone had told him after he was framed for killing Bruce Wayne – “I believe you.“
How Gotham Knights’ Joe Chill Differs From The Comics
There have been several backstories detailing the deaths of Batman’s parents, and Joe Chill figures prominently in many of them. In most of the comics, the death of Thomas and Martha Wayne is a random crime of opportunity by a career criminal desperate for cash. In some stories, the mugging is meant to cover a conspiracy. Sometimes Joe Chill is caught. Sometimes he escapes justice. Gotham Knights‘ version is the first to suggest Joe Chill was an innocent patsy rather than a hardened hitman or a cowardly crook who panicked and pulled the trigger when Thomas Wayne tried to protect his family.
One notable and ironic version of Joe Chill’s story unfolded in the miniseries The Untold Legend of the Batman. In this retelling of Batman’s origins, Joe Chill evaded justice for the Waynes’ murders for years and went on to run a smuggling operation in Gotham City. Batman eventually tracked Chill down and revealed his identity to him, outlining how Chill had inspired his war on crime. A panicked Chill fled and told his henchmen that he was responsible for creating Batman. The henchmen beat Chill to death, blaming him for everything Batman had ever done to them.
What Joe Chill Being Innocent Means For Gotham Knights
Joe Chill is executed at the end of Gotham Knights season 1, episode 6, “A Chill in Gotham.” While his innocence is still unknown to the world at large, it inspires the Gotham Knights in their battle to prove their own innocence. On a meta-textual level, Joe Chill’s innocence is one more example of how Gotham Knights is changing up the classic Batman mythology to put a new spin on it.
Gotham Knights season 1 continues on Tuesdays on The CW.
