Today in Comics History, Two Weeks to Election Day: "Obsessed? But you're the one who keeps showing me dirty surgery diagrams!"

from Catwoman: Lonely City #3 (DC/Black Label, June 2022); script, pencils, inks, colors, and letters by Cliff Chiang

There Is No Hope in Crime Alley, Night 26: Or...is there?

Tonight, June 26, at 10:48 PM, is the anniversary of Joe Chill killing Bruce Wayne's parents in Crime Alley.


from Batman (2016 series) #63 (DC, March 2019), script by Tom King, pencils and inks by Mikel Janín, colors by Jordie Bellaire, letters by Clayton Cowles
When I've counted down this event in previous Junes, I've generally reserved the actual anniversary for not only yet another scene of the Waynes dying, but also the hope that sprang from that moment, as personified by Leslie Thompkins.


from Batman: Madness one-shot (DC, November 1994), script by Jeph Loeb, pencils and inks by Tim Sale, colors by Gregory Wright, letters by Todd Klein
If Joe Chill made Bruce Wayne into Batman, I believe there are three characters who made Batman into Bruce Wayne, preserving his humanity. The first is Dick Grayson, Robin:


from "[Robin the Boy Wonder]" in Detective Comics (1937 series) #38 (DC, April 1940), script by Bill Finger, pencils by Bob Kane, inks and letters by Jerry Robinson
The second is Alfred Pennyworth — who didn't even become a part of Bruce's childhood until after the universe reset in Zero Hour, more than fifty years after Batman's debut:


from Batman (1940 series) #0 (DC, October 1994), script by Doug Moench, pencils by Mike Manley, inks by Joe Rubinstein, colors by Adrienne Roy, letters by Ken Bruzenak
But the third — and I think often sadly overlooked — influence in young Bruce Wayne's life is Leslie Thompkins the woman whose existence completely negates the familiar maxim of "there is no hope in Crime Alley."


To me, Leslie is as important an element to the Batmythos as the Batmobile and Bat-Mite: you can't truly have the rich and lush tapestry of the world of Batman without her.


from Batman: Madness
Tonight we mourn Thomas and Martha Wayne yet celebrate Dr. Leslie Thompkins. With her, there will always be hope in Crime Alley. With the Batman, there will always be hope in Gotham City.


Tomorrow, June 27: We'll wrap this month up with Dick Grayson. Or: There Is No Hope at Haley's Circus.


from Detective Comics #38

A Month of... There Is No Hope in Crime Alley, Night 17: A Flashback Within a Flashback

Panel from Nightwing (2011 series) #30 (July 2014); script by Tim Seeley and Tom King, pencils and inks by Javier Garron, letters by Jeromy Cox, letters by Carlos M. Mangual

There Is No Hope in Crime Alley, Night 26

Each June for the past few years (2012, 2013) we've commemorated one of the most retold, one of the most iconic scenes in comic books: the shooting of Thomas and Martha Wayne Gotham's City's Park Row (and in an assortment of Elseworlds)...the dark back street later known as Crime Alley. It's a scene so seminal that it even appears in the pilot for Fox's new Gotham television series this fall.


Clip from the trailer for Gotham, premiering on Fox

There Is No Hope in Crime Alley, Hour 24

Batman is unpredictable. No one can anticipate or foreknow his movements, actions or location at any one time...except right now, this very minute. At 10:48 PM GST (Gotham Standard Time), on today, June 26, you will find the Batman at one particular, specific location: in Gotham City's Crime Alley. The criminal among you however should be advised that now is not a good time to ambush the Dark Knight, or lay in wait on the rooftops with your high-powered sniper rifle. Even tho' he's got something else on his mind at this exact moment, Batman ain't never not paying attention to his surroundings. And attacking him on this day, at this time, at this place, here in Crime Alley? That'll earn you an extra-rough Bat-whupping.

But why here and now? Tonight we'll walk in the bat-soled steps of Bruce Wayne and find out, as I've been telling you all night long (and also last year, altho' an internet problem on 6/26/12 kept me from wrapping up that series as I'm doing tonight), that there is no hope in Crime Alley. Or...is there? So, let's begin our journey. Say, where's a good place to start, Batman?:


Panel from the Batman newspaper comic strip (November 27, 1989), art by Marshall Rogers