Things are bad all over for the rich and powerful these days. Money-men like Sheldon Adelson — who we once profiled as the richest Jew in the world — seem closer to bankruptcy than bonanza. Bernie Madoff is in prison. And Bruce Wayne? Well, he's dead.

But rather than mourn the eccentric playboy, people are spreading lies about him and his supposed "secret identity." They say he leads a "mysterious double life." That his outer appearance was just a "shell, a false front." That something in his family history caused him to live two lives — the ladies man and bon vivant we all know and something else... darker, less appropriate to the public eye.

Yes, it should be clear by now what these muckrakers are implying: that Bruce Wayne was Jewish.

Well color us unconvinced. Does the name Bruce Wayne sound generic whitebread enough to be that of a converso? Sure. But so does Metropolis' mild mannered reporter Clark Kent or New York's own photog Peter Parker and they certainly aren't hiding anything.

Look, no one would want this to be true more than us. But clearly, this is just another attempt to attach some unsubstantiated falsehood to the Wayne name.

Heck, it's no more ridiculous than all those rumors claiming that Bruce Wayne is secretly Batman.

(Editor's update: We're fully aware of various retcons that proclaim Bruce's mother to be Jewish. Until it changes again the following month, that is.)