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"Man, let's go! Let's go, Jack!"
―Jack Napier's partner[src]

Joe Chill [1] mugged Thomas and Martha Wayne, tearing away her necklace. The Waynes were then shot and murdered by his partner, Jack Napier, although his reaction implied that he did not anticipate that Jack Napier would actually kill them. Then he began running away, to escape from the scene of the crime, urging Jack to follow him.

Earle life

Nothing is known of Chill's past other than his criminal association with the unstable Jack Napier. It is possible that they were low level Grissom thugs.

Wayne murders

Chill mugged the Wayne family shortly after their exit from the Monarch Theatre. Napier watched from the shadows as he attempted to rip Martha Wayne's pearls from her neck. Thomas Wayne struggled with Chill during this, while Napier immediately shot them both. As Chill turned to him in surprise, Napier stepped foreword to take aim at their now orphaned son, Bruce. As Chill fled, he called to Napier, who decided to leave Bruce alive on a whim.

Years later while brooding in the Batcave, recalling the memory of Chill's cries brought the sudden realization to Bruce that Napier was murderer of his parents.

Chill's current activities or final fate are unknown.

Behind the scenes

  • Fans speculated that Chill may have been Robert Hawkins or "Bob the Goon", who was always close to Napier and seemed to have a long history with him. Considering his loyalty to Napier even after he was disfigured and reinvented as the psychotic Joker, Bob's chances of being this man only increase but the chances of being Chill increase too for trying to be faithful to the original comic.
  • In the original comics a nameless mugger was responsible for the murder of Bruce's parents. The mugger was eventually given the name "Joe Chill" which was revealed at a even later date to be short for "Joseph Chilton."
  • Chill's presence and actual mugging of the Waynes is intended to be a nod to the original origin story. This variation deviates after Chill grabs Martha's pearls, as he is in shock at Napier's brutal execution of the Waynes, then urges Napier to flee before he shoots Bruce as well.
  • In the film Clyde Gatell is credited as "Other Mugger" while Hugo E. Blick is credited as "Young Jack Napier."

References

  1. Comics Interview #77, Michael E. Uslan & Benjamin Melniker
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