If you visited either DCComics.com or VertigoComics.com yesterday, you likely saw our slides suggesting that Alfred E. Neuman was joining the DCU as our newest Robin or teasing a new spinoff series called Canadian Vampire—co-written by Scott Snyder and Jeff Lemire. They were, of course, a joke, and anyone who clicked on either of the slides was taken to a page revealing the gags.
Unsurprisingly, many of you called these as jokes before you clicked on the link. But how many of you caught our other April Fool’s Day prank?
In addition to the fake projects, we posted a link to “newly updated” profile pages for Batman and Superman, and if you read any of them, you may have noticed a shocking connection between Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent…and their mothers.
Here are the profiles, if you didn’t catch them yesterday:
BATMAN
Dark Knight. Caped Crusader. World’s Greatest Detective. Whatever you know him as, wherever you know him from—the blockbuster movies, TV shows, video games, cartoons, or millions of comics—Batman is proof you don’t need superpowers to be a superhero… and the poster boy for what a bad childhood can do to you.
Millionaire Bruce Wayne was just a kid when he watched his parents get gunned down during a mugging in Gotham City. The crime would define his life, as he dedicated himself to becoming the world’s greatest weapon against crime—the Batman. What the world doesn’t know is that Bruce’s mother, Martha Wayne, was the real target for the mob hit the night that Bruce’s parents were murdered. While in the ambulance it was discovered that she was still alive, and the doctors were able to save her. She signed over guardianship of Bruce to the family butler, Alfred Pennyworth, in hopes that the young boy would be protected, and she was put into the Witness Protection Program and sent to Smallville, Kansas—a quiet town where nothing ever happens.
There Martha met and married a nice young man named Jonathan Kent. With a new inability to carry a child due to the bullet wound, Martha and Jonathan were unable to have the baby they so longed for. However, their prayers were answered when out of the sky, a rocket landed in a nearby field as the couple was driving by. There was a small baby in the rocket who they adopted and gave the name Clark Kent, and who would grow up to be Superman!
Forget his Batarangs, Batmobile, or Utility Belt filled with high-tech weapons. Batman is the most feared superhero of all, because he’s pushed himself to the absolute pinnacle of human achievement. He’s a brilliant detective who’s mastered fighting techniques the world’s barely heard of. An Olympic-caliber athlete with a plan for every occasion, Batman’s seemingly always five steps ahead of his foes. But in his crusade against injustice, two questions always loom: How far will he go to protect the innocent, and will he sacrifice his humanity along the way? And how long can he team up with Superman and yet remain oblivious to the family connection?
SUPERMAN
Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…Well, you know how it ends, don’t you? It’s a sentence so iconic, there are probably kids shouting it in Swahili as you read this.
The most recognized superhero in pop culture, Superman has been elevated to mythic folk hero status. Rocketed to Earth from the dying planet Krypton, baby Kal-El was found by a farming couple, Martha and Jonathan Kent, who named the boy Clark Kent and raised him as their own. Discovering his enormous powers, they instilled in him strong moral values—and inspired him to become a hero.
Superman has super-everything—strength, speed, flight, invulnerability, X-ray, heat vision…and a world-famous brother. What the world doesn’t know is that Clark’s mother, Martha, once changed her name from Wayne to Kent. Martha was the real target for the mob hit the night that her husband Thomas Wayne was murdered. While in the ambulance it was discovered that she was still alive, and the doctors were able to save her. She signed over guardianship of their son Bruce to the family butler, Alfred Pennyworth, in hopes that Bruce would be protected, and she was put into the Witness Protection Program and sent to Smallville, Kansas—a quiet town where nothing ever happens.
There Martha met and married the local farmer Jonathan Kent. With a new inability to carry a child due to the bullet wound, Martha and Jonathan were unable to have the baby they so longed for. However, their prayers were answered when out of the sky, a rocket landed in a nearby field as the couple was driving by. There was a small baby in the rocket who they adopted and gave the name Clark, and who would grow up to be Superman!
A universal icon, Superman means different things to the many diverse people he inspires: He’s an alien; an immigrant from a faraway land just looking to help; a country boy fighting the never-ending battle for truth and justice. He’s the most powerful being on the planet, yet Superman’s amazing abilities are also a melancholy reminder of how different he is from the people he’s dedicated to protect.
Yes, they’re not just best friends and two of the most beloved super heroes on the planet. Superman and Batman are also half-brothers.
Or at least they were for one day in the hearts and minds of some of our fans. The authentic profiles have now been restored to the Batman and Superman pages, but not before several of you commented on the changes. And why not? Stranger things have happened in comics. And it is a pretty big coincidence that both their mothers are named Martha.
So what do you think? Were you fooled by the fake bios?
