OK, if you’re writing Batman in the current day, Bruce Wayne was probably born in the mid-1980s. His parents were murdered in the early ‘90s. Stop drawing them like they’re dressed to go to the opera in the 1940s. They saw a movie.

This also speaks to my argument for a black Batman. The current origin is steeped in white suburban fears (rich family ventures into dirty city and are gunned down in a mugging).

But Black people have slightly different fears. Black Thomas and Martha are rich but because this is the 21st Century, they probably don’t dress like it -- imagine even the Obamas on a night out.

They have trouble hailing a cab (definitely would happen) or they are taking a shortcut to their expensive car. Either action would register as “suspicious.” Instead of Joe Chill the mugger emerging from the shadows, it’s Joe Chill the cop.

Before they know what’s happened, a gun is pointed at them and they’re ordered to put their hands up and stand against a wall. Bruce is terrified. (And yes, this would happen in front a Black child.)

In the comics, the mugging usually goes wrong when Chill reaches for Martha’s pearls and Thomas freaks out. “Don’t touch her!” etc. This is seen as valiant not stupid because Thomas Wayne is white.

The cop could go for the same pearls on Black Martha, maybe he assumes they’re stolen. The scene still plays out in an all-too familiar way. Thomas reacts and even the slightest move makes the cop think he’s going for his gun, etc. Within seconds, Thomas and Martha are dead.

*That* is a crime that goes unsolved.

I’ve long argued that the Wayne murders -- two white Billionaires -- does not go unsolved. The state would put all its resources in finding, prosecuting the killer.