hot take but the main reason "the wayne family has a secret evil legacy" storylines don't work for me is because they run counter to how the story frames the waynes deaths.
the reason the death of thomas and martha wayne matters more than its effect on a young bruce is that they were the last good family among the upper crust. thomas was a self sacrificing doctor and martha started and ran the charity foundation of their company. wayne enterprises treated its employees well and stayed out of shady business and the mob scene. they didn't die in that alley bc they were stupid, oblivious rich people fucking around, but because they had been working on meaningfully cleaning up that area and wanted their son to see and be among the people they were trying to help. they wanted their son to care about who they were helping. they walked down that street because gotham was their home and they loved it regardless of its faults -a mindset bruce does in fact inherit despite every reason to the contrary.
making the waynes have a "dark history" just takes away from the tragedy of actually good, caring people being killed for basically no reason in a city that really needed them.
