Anytime there’s Batman news, I feel obligated to talk about it. Although, this isn’t really Batman news per se…I’m talking about the recent announcement of the new Fox television series based on the younger years of everybody’s favorite police Commissioner, James Gordon. Of course this will be pre-commissioner days, even before the arrival of Batman. The show will be called Gotham. What are my thoughts? I have some concerns, but for the most part, I think it’s pretty cool. Let’s break it down!
First of all, I’m thrilled this isn’t on the CW. A lot of Warner Brothers/DC based shows like Smallville, Arrow, and the supposed Flash series have been, or will be headed to CW. It’s not that the CW can’t do a good series, it’s just that I don’t want to see a show about a 22 year old James Gordon in a love triangle. The fact that it’s on Fox gives it more weight.
I’m also appreciative that one of the first things the story confirmed is that Batman will have nothing to do with it. Good. With the untitled Man of Steel sequel coming out in 2015 with Ben Affleck as Batman, we don’t need to complicate things. Also, if the show was set in the same time period as Batman, but they didn’t have Batman in it, we’d just be wondering “So…where’s Batman?” “Ohhhhh, they just mentioned Batman. Cool.” With this being before all that, we won’t be asking those questions. Although, I will be really irritated if they keep making forced references to Bruce Wayne’s absence from Gotham City, or lame jokes about “Hey, it’s not like we got a vigilante in Gotham to do our dirty work.” Huh. Huh. Get it? I mentioned vigilante, because in the future, there’s going to be one. Isn’t that cute? Please don’t let that happen.
The other curious wrinkle to this announcement was that it would also focus on the early days of Batman’s rogues. Okay, I have mixed feelings about this. While I wouldn’t mind seeing some of Batman’s enemies brought into this series, I don’t feel comfortable about certain villains showing up before there’s even a Batman. Villains like Oswald “Penguin” Cobblepot, or Edward Nygma before he was the Riddler could work, and actually work pretty well. And I fully expect to see a Harvey Dent character. BUT, what I don’t want to see is anything remotely related to the Joker. No. Stay away. I don’t want to see the Joker. I don’t want to see some criminal who they blatantly foreshadow will be the Joker. I don’t want to see some struggling comedian they tease as the Joker. Just leave him out. The Joker should only be mentioned when Batman steps onto the scene. End of story.
All in all, I just hope to see a really tense cop drama that happens to star James Gordon. I’m looking forward to it. And while it’s clear this has no connection to the Nolan universe, I hope this isn’t a prequel to the Man of Steel world, or have any bull shit connection to the Arrow CW show. Just let this be it’s own thing. Do we have to make everything a damn shared universe!
The Joker is scarier than most clowns. Coulrophobia is but one of several phobias swirling through his unique, potent cocktail. The fears he instills often don’t have scientific names as they’re so ubiquitous and rational that you could hardly label them disorders. He is a murderer after all. He is a terrorist. Unlike a bundle of snakes or a black cat perpendicular to our path or a somersaulting clown, his menace is certain rather than hypothetical. Maybe it’s that mixture that makes him so consistently frightening. As a threat, the Joker is predictably lethal, but the nature of his mania makes him equally unpredictable. By behaving so badly in a skin just slightly Dutch to our own, he reminds us what we might be capable of if we take that wrong turn at Albuquerque, if we give in to the monster in the mirror.