Thomas Wayne, MD is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly in association with the superhero Batman. The character was introduced in Detective Comics #33 (Nov. 1939) in the first exposition of Batman's origin story. He is the father of Bruce Wayne, who is Batman, and husband of Martha Wayne. A gifted physician and philanthropist to Gotham City, Dr. Thomas Wayne, MD inherited the Wayne family fortune after Patrick Wayne. When Dr. Wayne and his wife are murdered in a street robbery, Bruce Wayne becomes inspired to fight crime as the vigilante Batman. The character was revived in Geoff Johns' alternate timeline comic Flashpoint (2011), in which he plays a major role as a hardened version of Batman, whose son was killed instead of his wife and himself, and dies again by the end of the story-line. Thomas Wayne returned to the main DC Universe in DC Rebirth, as a revived amalgamation of his original Dr. Thomas Wayne self killed by Joe Chill and his Flashpoint Batman self killed by Eobard Thawne in "The Button", a story-line revolving around the "Smiley-face" button from Watchmen.