Gotham: Comic Book Influences (Obvious Spoilers...)

[BatmAngelus]

Leslie had her first sit-down with Bruce in the last episode, so it's possible that they are just beginning her journey of becoming a surrogate mother to Bruce.

Still, it feels as if the show originally wanted to go traditional with Jim and Barbara as a couple. When the character wasn't working out that way, there was a creative overhaul.

A few episodes in the season, Mekia Cox played an unnamed doctor who helped patch up a wounded Gordon in one scene and was friends with Montoya and Allen. In the original press release, Cox was listed as a guest actress playing Leslie Thompkins.

Whatever scene that identified her as Leslie was cut, however, and Morena Baccarin was cast mid-season as a young Leslie working at Arkham instead.

I have a feeling they wanted to give Gordon a different love interest at that point and wanted to use someone in the comics too, so they made it Leslie and brought in a more popular actress to play her, while cutting the scene that identified Cox's character as Leslie.

As the season progressed, Leslie became the new girlfriend and Barbara turned homicidal, nearly killing Leslie in the finale and landing in Arkham.

Granted, it makes this Barbara Kean way more interesting (and potentially sets up what happens to Jim Jr. in the Black Mirror), but it also makes a mess out of Gordon's future so it's incredibly unlikely that he will get back together with her and have children with her, nor is it likely that Gordon would name his daughter after her.

I will say that the show feels like it's making an effort to line itself closer to the comics, with Leslie now becoming part of Bruce's life, Mr. Freeze's origin being represented rather faithfully, and B.D. Wong's Hugo Strange as probably the most faithful take on a Batman character in the show. His Strange so far has been perfect:

[Silver Nemesis]

Perhaps there's hope for the Thompkins-Bruce relationship after all. With any luck they'll continue exploring it in future episodes. The Gordon/Thompkins romance sounds like a pretty massive departure though. I've come to expect a certain degree of soap opera content from DC's TV output, but going by the comics, wouldn't it be more fitting for Leslie to have a relationship with Alfred?

I'm probably being unreasonable expecting the show to stick too closely to the comics. As you say, it can be more interesting to put their own spin on things. And there's not much point in retelling the same stories if they don't throw some variety into the mix.

That said, I feel frustrated by the fact we've never had a faithful serious live action Batman TV series. We had a brilliant and faithful light-hearted series in the sixties, and we had a great serious animated series in the nineties. But no great serious live action show. Gotham could have been that show, but so far it isn't.

However the depiction of Hugo Strange looks like a step in the right direction. If the series continues evolving in that way, bringing itself more in line with the classic mythology, then I might give it another shot further down the road.

[BatmAngelus]

Perhaps there's hope for the Thompkins-Bruce relationship after all. With any luck they'll continue exploring it in future episodes. The Gordon/Thompkins romance sounds like a pretty massive departure though. I've come to expect a certain degree of soap opera content from DC's TV output, but going by the comics, wouldn't it be more fitting for Leslie to have a relationship with Alfred?

I have my own suspicions about this. In a previous episode, when Leslie met Bruce, she also met Alfred, who flirted with her and attempted to ask her out before discovering that she was already with Gordon.

But now, Leslie and Gordon are having conflicts in their relationship, with it looking likely that Leslie will call it quits soon...and she's just starting to visit Wayne Manor these days...

[Dagenspear]

I have my own suspicions about this. In a previous episode, when Leslie met Bruce, she also met Alfred, who flirted with her and attempted to ask her out before discovering that she was already with Gordon.

But now, Leslie and Gordon are having conflicts in their relationship, with it looking likely that Leslie will call it quits soon...and she's just starting to visit Wayne Manor these days...

I would prefer that. I liked that scene with Alfred quite a bit. And I have found the changes like Barbara being made crazy obnoxious and pandering. I would like to see it revealed that Barbara didn't kill her parents and she just thinks she did because seeing the Ogre kill them made her crazy. I suspect this because Barbara's story of killing them doesn't match how they were found by Jim. But that could just be because the writers rushed that and messed it up due to them trying to appease the character's dislikers. Have a very great day!

God bless you! God bless everyone!

[johnnygobbs]

I would prefer that. I liked that scene with Alfred quite a bit. And I have found the changes like Barbara being made crazy obnoxious and pandering. I would like to see it revealed that Barbara didn't kill her parents and she just thinks she did because seeing the Ogre kill them made her crazy. I suspect this because Barbara's story of killing them doesn't match how they were found by Jim. But that could just be because the writers rushed that and messed it up due to them trying to appease the character's dislikers. Have a very great day!

God bless you! God bless everyone!

Even is Barbara didn't kill her parents, and to me it seems she did, I don't see how she can ever become 'normal' again and settle down with Jim.  She aligned herself with Galivant and other murderers, and tried to off Bruce and Lesley.  She's clearly damaged.  The fact that she would even suggest to The Ogre that she wanted her nice, normal, albeit a little cold, parents killed to begin with shows she's not quite compos mentis.

[BatmAngelus]

At this point, the only way I see Jim naming his daughter Barbara is if this Barbara redeems herself and takes a bullet for a pregnant Leslie by the end of the season. It feels lame, I know, but I don't know how you get around this unless they do the "Barbara Jr. is his niece" route and just don't explain why she shares the name as his homicidal ex-fiancee.

[johnnygobbs]

I just read the news item: "Congratulations to Gotham stars Ben McKenzie and Morena Baccarin on the birth of their baby girl."

So the child Lesley has been carrying is Morena Baccarin and Ben McKenzie's real-life daughter.    Talk about Method Acting.

[BatmAngelus]

"This Ball of Mud and Madness"

Hugo Strange uses Gerald Crane's fear toxin for his experiments on Penguin. This could be a reference to the fact that Strange was the original creator of a fear gas in the comics before the Scarecrow.

Strange's therapy of Cobblepot is reminiscent of how he treated Scarecrow in the story Terror, though in reverse. While Strange in that story was trying to get Crane to become Scarecrow again, Hugo is trying to get Oswald to curb his violent tendencies.

Alfred gets information on Matches Malone from the Mutant gang. The Mutants seem to be a precursor to the ones in The Dark Knight Returns.

When fighting the Mutant gang chant "Solomon Grundy"- another reference to the character that seems to keep popping up. Perhaps it's a reference to the future resurrection of certain characters?

The character of Jeri is clearly meant to be a female prototype Joker, with her clown-like makeup, harlequin-type clothes and her reaction to Bruce pulling a gun on her. Her interrogation scene is reminiscent of the one with Joker in The Dark Knight, in which she asks "What time is it?" as a condition for the information she'll give, much like Ledger's Joker in the film.

The confrontation with Matches Malone shares similarities with the various confrontations with Joe Chill. Bruce originally offers to hire Matches, a possible reference to Year Two where Batman and Chill teamed up. Then, much like the original Batman #47, Bruce reveals himself to be the son of the people Matches murdered. Like in The Dark Knight #0, Bruce finds that his original expectation of the killer turns out to be wrong and the real man is more of a pathetic has-been, who doesn't give him an answer on whether or not he was hired to kill the Waynes. When Bruce refuses to kill him, Matches takes his gun and shoots himself, much like Joe Chill did in Joe Chill in Hell.

In the comics, the real Matches Malone accidentally killed himself when he fired on Batman and it richocheted and hit him instead. The comic book Matches also got his nickname for always having a match on him, as well as had a reputation for being a diplomat, which is why Batman tried to recruit him in the war against Ra's Al Ghul. In the TV show, Matches is a hitman whose nickname comes from burning a man to death.

Much like in Batman Begins and Dark Knight #0, this confrontation with his parents' killer causes him to develop his code against killing as well as leave Wayne Manor to begin his education/training into becoming a vigilante.

Edward Nygma's monologuing as he watches Gordon is reminiscent of Jim Carrey's Nygma talking as he watched Bruce Wayne walk away in Batman Forever.

As a side note, I really wish they had just named Matches Malone with "Joe Chill." Michael Bowen gave a great performance for his one scene and I see no reason why they had it be the man who'll influence his future persona.

[BatmAngelus]

"Mad Grey Dawn"

Not many comic book influences, so much as movie influences here...

Bruce agreeing to only steal from criminals, while being relatively homeless, is probably influenced by the portrayal of Bruce in Batman Begins.

Obviously, Paul Reubens's Elijah Van Dahl is the second time that the actor's played Penguin's father. The first being Tucker Cobblepot in Batman Returns. This is one of the rare times that Penguin gets to interact with his father. In the comics, Mr. Cobblepot died when Oswald was young (as Oswald in the TV show was led to believe). Since the cause of death was pneumonia, Oswald's mother always made sure that her son had an umbrella on him.

[Silver Nemesis]

Does Oswald's relationship with his father follow the abusive pattern depicted in Pain & Prejudice or are they taking it in a new direction altogether?