Seriously, they cast an actor named Robin in a Batman show! Priceless!
Batman has the best rogues gallery of any comic book hero. Structuring a whole season around a Bat-villian is a great way to service them. I’ve already discussed what characters I don’t want to see on Gotham, but who do I want to see?
Sorry, I think we're gonna go another way . . .
A hero is only as good as his villains but Batman's villains have proved that they are good without him around. I mean not good, because they're bad guys but you get the idea. There are a plethora of Bat-villains that the producers can use to structure season two around. Here are my 5 VILLAIN RISING ARC SUGGESTIONS FOR GOTHAM SEASON 2 AND BEYOND:
HUGO STRANGE:
Hugo is one of Batman's oldest and best villains. You probably know him best as the main antagonist from Batman: Arkham City. My favorite Hugo Strange story is "Prey." In that story, Strange is a psychologist obsessed with Batman. He starts a smear campaign against Batman including creating another vigilante named Night Scourge to undermine Batman's work. I think it would be interesting to see him as a doctor at Arkham Asylum, especially if Gordon will be spending more time there. Of course, Gordon will get his detective shield back but Arkham will likely still be a major part of the series. I’d like to see him at Arkham, commenting on the increasingly bizarre criminals that Gordon and Bullock are catching. While treating them, his obsession would grow with understanding the criminal mind, eventually driving him mad.
We all go a little mad sometimes . . .
His obsession could start with Gotham City itself, rather than just an individual person like Batman. This would actually make a lot of sense considering that the show is all about the decline of Gotham City. It would be really interesting to see him being creepy and crazy under everyone's nose but no one notices or realizes what's going on. It would emphasize how much worse things are getting for Gotham City.
MAXIE ZEUS:
I’m only partly kidding with this one. If your only exposure to Maxie Zeus is the one episode of Batman: the Animated Series then . . . Well you get it. He’s a businessman that went a little nutty and thinks he’s the actual Greek god Zeus. It’s surprising that he hasn’t been challenged by the Roman god Jupiter! Ha . . . Ha . . . Ok . . . Back to the seriousness, this could be a really cool villain. Maybe if the campiness of the “Zeus” persona is toned down, it would be cool to see this guy rise through the criminal ranks while maintaining a legitimate business, similar to the Kingpin from Daredevil or Lex Luthor from Superman. I'd like to see the legitimate business aspect of what these criminals do. Maybe it would have something to do with supplying new equipment to the police department. I don't know what legitimate businesses do. I think they build . . . staircases?
Seems about right
In Zeus’s case, he has this weird fetish that ends up taking over his whole life/personality. Like I said, maybe the actual Zeus persona can be toned down, but it would still be cool to see him causing trouble for Gordon and Bullock and maybe even the Penguin.
EDWARD NYGMA / THE RIDDLER:
I think this is inevitable on the series. Nygma’s story so far on the show is that he’s a genius CSI that is under appreciated by his colleagues on the police service. It would be interesting to see the next season see Nygma be promoted or gain some sort of recognition only to have it taken away either literally, like he's fired or figuratively, like he's still under appreciated despite being successful. Perhaps he could even leave the GCPD to start his own P.I. firm.
If it's on a comic book cover, it must be true
The recent "Zero Year" comic book storyline gave Riddler back the status of genuine threat to both Gotham City and Batman. He threatened the entire city with extinction if they weren’t smart enough to figure a way out of it. In a way, he has a point. We all need to be smarter and it would be interesting to have a (probably toned down) version of that on the series. Nygma could challenge the police to be smarter. Of course, they will be nothing compared to his ultimate Bat-shaped nemesis. But there was a cool little moment in the pilot where he had a riddle and Gordon solved it right away. Nygma gave a little look of shock. It was one of my favorite moments from the pilot. We need more of that on the show.
THE COURT OF OWLS:
This is a more recent addition to the Batman rogues gallery but they have deep ties to Gotham City. The Court of Owls is an Illuminati-esque group of elite citizens hiding in the shadows, shaping the City as they see fit. When things don’t go their way they send their assassin, the Talon, to “take care of things.”
Dun dun dun!!!!
In order to build a rich mythology for Gotham it would be beneficial to look into its history. Maybe things have gotten so bad because someone wanted it that way? Interesting . . . interesting . . . Also, it would give a reason for my main man Scott Snyder to write an episode or two of the series.
Best selling writer pictured here
In the "Court of Owls" story, Batman learns how the history of Gotham was shaped by the Court of Owls. It would be interesting to see Gordon conduct a similar investigation, only for it to come up with no leads. Then of course it's revealed that the Court was there all along. They're now an integral part of the Batman mythology and it would be awesome to see them woven into the TV show. But shhh! It's a secret!
HARVEY DENT / TWO-FACE:
This would actually be serendipitous because it's season two and he's all about two's! That’s pretty much the only reason . . . No I’m just kidding! I highly doubt that we’d see Harvey become Two-Face by the end of the season (or even during the series for that matter) but that doesn’t mean that we can’t get deeper into his psyche and find out how this crusading D.A. could become one of Gotham’s most notorious citizens. It could be totally different from Oswald’s story in that instead of seeing him rise from minion to crime boss, we watch him become a little more unhinged. Like how Oswald started a villain and stayed a villain, just with more power, we could see Harvey start a hero and stay a hero, but instead of becoming stronger he’ll be weaker. He’ll be a man broken and easily manipulated. Two-Face is one of the best Bat-villains out there. He's got one of the best origins of all the villains. Seeing him go from strong, confident man to broken would be a great arc. Granted it would be tragic but that just makes for great drama. Anyway, seeing him broken and turning to the dark side would make sense for when the Dark Knight Rises. PUN! HAHA!
Gotham is quickly becoming a distinct note in the Batman mythos. I'd like to see the show embrace not only more of Batman's mythology but establish itself as it's own entity. Young versions of Batman's rogues are cool and all but what keeps people coming back are the character interactions and mythology building. Hopefully, we'll see more of these characters (except the five I mentioned in a previous post). Here's hoping Gotham season 2 will dig deeper into the rich DC Comics Bat-mythology.
JJ - The Comic Junkie
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