Joker: What Really Happened To Arthur Fleck’s Mom

In the 2019 Joker movie, Arthur Fleck’s mom Penny insists her son was the product of an affair with Thomas Wayne, but what’s the real truth? While multiple stories – both onscreen and in comics – have attempted to reveal The Joker’s origin story over the years, it’s likely many already consider director Todd Phillips’ standalone movie to be the best version yet. Made in the mold of 1970s Martin Scorsese classics like Taxi Driver, Joker takes viewers into the mind of Arthur Fleck, a troubled man destined to become the Clown Prince of Crime.

One of the most interesting subplots in Joker concerns Penny Fleck’s claim that she once had an affair with Gotham City’s resident billionaire business mogul Thomas Wayne while she was working for him, and that Arthur was Thomas’ biological son. Arthur is at first hesitant to believe his mom’s story, but when evidence begins to mount, he confronts Thomas about the allegations. The future dad to Batman vehemently denies Penny’s assertions, telling Arthur she’s simply delusional.

Taken at face value, Joker seems to confirm that Penny was crazy, and that Thomas wasn’t Arthur’s father. The thing is, there are many reasons not to accept the obvious explanation.

Joker: What Really Happened To Arthur Fleck’s Mom

As mentioned previously, Joker‘s surface-level position is that Penny Fleck was delusional, imagined the affair with Thomas Wayne, and what’s more, actually wasn’t even Arthur’s birth mother. It’s after finding official paperwork at the asylum revealing those facts that Arthur goes even further off the deep end, killing his mother via smothering. It all seems fairly cut and dry, and it might be, were this another movie. But considering that Arthur himself is shown to be an entirely unreliable narrator, it’s really not clear how much anything that’s shown from his point of view can be believed. Then there’s the fact that mental illness tends to run in families, so the odds that Penny would just happen to adopt a child with the same delusional tendencies are much smaller than him being her biological son.

Then there’s Thomas Wayne, shown in Joker to not really be a great guy. If he really did father a child with Penny Fleck, it’s not at all hard to imagine a man of his wealth and power using his resources to fabricate documents, and get Penny locked away to discredit her claims. Additionally, Arthur finds a photo after his mother’s death that’s signed “TW” on the back. Again, that’s assuming something only Arthur is shown looking at can even be trusted. Another wrinkle is that pieces of the documents visible briefly on camera suggest that Penny had been lobotomized at the hospital, and if that’s the case, did any of her interactions with Arthur in the film even happen as shown?

Putting aside the idea that everything that happens in Joker might just be the product of Arthur’s delusions, as some have theorized, it seems more likely than not that Arthur actually is Penny and Thomas’ son, and that Thomas did whatever he needed to do to cover that up. For one, Alfred Pennyworth readily remembers the name Fleck when Arthur goes to Wayne Manor, which seems odd for a simple case of an unstable employee having unrequited love for her boss decades prior. Then there’s the TW photo, Penny and Arthur’s shared mental issues, and how defensive and bothered Thomas immediately appears when Arthur confronts him. While the circumstances may never fully be confirmed unless there’s a Joker 2, Thomas Wayne seems like exactly the kind of man who would sleep with a subordinate, accidentally get her pregnant, then kick her to the curb.

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