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Lew Moxon
Lew Moxon
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Detective Comics #235 (November 1956)
Created by	Bill Finger (writer); Sheldon Moldoff (artist)
In-story information
Full name	Lewis Moxon
Species	Human
Team affiliations	Moxon Crime Family

Lewis "Lew" Moxon is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He is most famous for hiring Joe Chill to murder young Bruce Wayne's parents in early versions of Batman's origin story, thus making him indirectly responsible for Batman's existence.

Publication history

Lew Moxon first appeared in Detective Comics #235 and was created by Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff.^[1]

Fictional character biography

Golden / Silver Age version

Lew Moxon is a notorious racketeer and bank robber who enlists Thomas Wayne to remove a bullet from his shoulder. After completing the operation, Thomas overpowers Moxon and escapes. Moxon is arrested and swears revenge on Thomas.

Ten years later, Moxon hires Joe Chill to kill the Waynes. Bruce Wayne does not learn of Moxon's involvement until years later, learning that Moxon has been operating a blimp business and cannot remember hiring Chill due to suffering from amnesia. Determining that Moxon's blimp business is a front for illegal activities, Batman pursues him in Thomas Wayne's costume after his own is damaged. Regaining his memories and believing Batman to be Thomas' vengeful ghost, Moxon panics and runs into the street, where he is hit and killed by a truck.^[2]

Post Zero Hour version

Lew Moxon is reintroduced into post-Zero Hour continuity as an aging mob boss with failed political aspirations who returns to Gotham City after years in self-imposed exile. However, his motivations and desire for revenge against Thomas Wayne are largely the same as his previous self.^[3] Following a failed assassination attempt by Deadshot, Moxon is rendered wheelchair-bound and is later killed by his former bodyguard Zeiss during Batman: War Games.^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]

DC Universe

In Batman: Three Jokers, Lew Moxon is mentioned to have owned a restaurant called Lew's Restaurant. He and his family are accused of orchestrating the Waynes' murders, but are exonerated when Joe Chill claims to have committed the murders alone.^[8]

Place in continuity

During the Golden Age of Comic Books, Lew Moxon was established as the man who hired Joe Chill to kill Bruce Wayne's parents.

During the Silver and Bronze Age of Comic Books, the Lew Moxon story remained canonical for tales set on Earth-Two. For several years no mention is made of Moxon's role regarding the origin of Batman on Earth One. The Len Wein's mini-series, The Untold Legend of the Batman (published in 1980) re-introduced the Lew Moxon story, exactly as it was told in 1956. The canonical presence of the character is reinforced in the feature story in Detective Comics #500, "To Kill a Legend", when Batman and Robin are sent to a parallel Earth to avert the murder of that version of the Waynes. To accomplish that goal, the Dynamic Duo find and question that world's version of Moxon about the whereabouts of Chill. Moxon had not yet hired Chill to perform the murder and with the attention of this bizarre figure, accelerated his plan with a different killer to first murder Chill and then the Waynes. Batman discovered the dying Chill and deduced that the Waynes were in danger that very night; thus, Batman managed to arrive in Crime Alley in time and stop the murder.

Following Infinite Crisis, Chill is again known to be responsible for the murder of the Waynes, and he was arrested for the crime on that same night. In Grant Morrison's Batman #673, Batman learns Chill acted on his own and that his parents' deaths were not ordered by someone else.

In other media

Lew Moxon appears in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Chill of the Night!", voiced by Richard Moll.^[9] He gives a deathbed confession to Batman, who is disguised as a priest, in which he admits to ordering Thomas Wayne's murder as revenge for the doctor testifying against him in court, but he insists that he did not want Martha to die and expresses remorse for making Bruce Wayne an orphan. With his dying breath, Moxon identifies the hitman he hired as Joe Chill.
Lew Moxon appears in the Justice League: Gods and Monsters tie-in comic, where he is killed by a vampiric Batman.

References

^ Greenberger, Robert (2008). The Essential Batman Encyclopedia. Del Rey. p. 267. ISBN 9780345501066.
^ Detective Comics #235. DC Comics.
^ Batman #591. DC Comics.
^ Batman #593. DC Comics.
^ Batman #595. DC Comics.
^ Nightwing (vol. 2) #66. DC Comics.
^ Batman: The 12-Cent Adventure #1. DC Comics.
^ Batman: Three Jokers #1. DC Comics.
^ "Moxon Voice - Batman: The Brave and the Bold (TV Show)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved October 25, 2024. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.