Character Profiles - Villains - Joe Chill
Real Name: Joe Chill
Occupation: Criminal
Marital Status: Single
Base of Operations: Gotham City
Height: N/A
Weight: N/A
Eyes: N/A
Hair: N/A
First Appearance: N/A
Created By: N/A
Pre-Crisis:
Batman discovered that Joe Chill, a small-time crime boss he was investigating, was none other than the man who killed his parents. Batman confronted him and revealed his secret identity ("I'm the son of the man you murdered—I'm Bruce Wayne!") and Chill, frightened, sought protection from his henchmen. Once his henchmen (who had friends that were arrested by Batman) learned that Chill's actions lead to Batman's existence, they turned on their boss and killed him, never giving Chill a chance to reveal Batman's identity.
Batman learned that Chill was not a robber, but actually a hitman who had murdered the Waynes on orders from a Mafia boss named Lew Moxon. In a flashback, we learn that Bruce's father, Thomas Wayne, had worn a bat costume to a costume party, where Moxon and his men had shown up and forced him to remove a slug from his arm. Afterwards, he testified against Moxon in court. The crime boss swore revenge, and hired Chill soon after. Batman confronted him years later while wearing his father's costume (since his current one was ripped in his last battle). Moxon, who had amnesia and so did not remember ordering the hit, suddenly remembered what he had done. Thinking Batman was actually Thomas Wayne's ghost, Moxon panicked and ran out into the street, where he was hit by a truck and killed.
Post-Crisis:
Several Gotham City crime bosses pooled their resources to deal with a vigilante called the Reaper, and Chill was hired to take him out. When Batman proposed an alliance it was agreed that he and Chill would work together - something Batman found repugnant, but which he nevertheless justified to himself as necessary to tackle the Reaper. He vowed to kill Chill afterwards. Chill was also commissioned to kill Batman after the Reaper had been disposed of. During a major confrontation, the crime bosses were all killed in a battle at a warehouse, in which the Reaper seemingly also perished. Chill reasoned that he now no longer needed to fulfill his contract, but Batman took him to "Crime Alley", the scene of his parents' murder. There he confronted Chill and revealed his identity. Batman had Chill at gunpoint, but the Reaper appeared and gunned Chill down, leaving it ambiguous as to whether or not Batman would have actually pulled the trigger.
Later, Chill's son (also named Joe Chill) appeared, taking on the identity of the now deceased Reaper. He sought revenge for his father's death, and subsequently attempted to drive Batman insane by using hallucinogenic drugs to trigger Batman's survivor's guilt over his parents' deaths. Chill knew that his father had killed Batman's parents, but did not know of Batman's identity. However, thanks to the intervention of Robin, Batman was able to free himself from the drug-induced haze, and overcome his guilt. After the new Reaper was defeated, Batman accepted that the bad blood between him and the Chills was now over.
After Zero Hour, DC Comics stated that Batman did not know who had murdered his parents after having seen in an alternate timeline that Chill hadn't done it after all. The rationale for this change was that it would allow Batman to view all criminals as surrogates for the man who killed his parents.
During the Infinite Crisis, another cosmic crisis changed continuity, reestablishing that Chill murdered Thomas and Martha Wayne and adding for the first time that he had been arrested for their murder. This change is consistent with the previous year's film Batman Begins, in which Chill was also caught after murdering the Waynes.
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