Despite Gotham being a radical reinterpretation of the Batman mythos, we all pretty much know how it’s going to end: With Bruce Wayne embracing his destiny as the Dark Knight. With the character currently being around 16 years of age on the prequel series, one would naturally expect it to be quite some time before he takes up cape and cowl. But oddly enough, this iteration aims to own the night much sooner than we’d normally come to expect.
To date, I’ve been one of this show’s loudest advocates, but what we have to present to you today is just downright goofy. Granted, we learned not long ago that Bruce will be taking significant strides toward crusading of the caped variety, but seeing him in a textured motorcycle jacket and a cowl sans bat ears makes him look like he’s on his way to a fetish party that he’s not yet old enough to attend.
Seriously, the kid closely resembles Everett McGill in The People Under The Stairs. Well, either him or someone cosplaying as Big Daddy from Kick-Ass.
For my money, it’s my belief that the producers had two reasons for rushing things so dramatically, one being that the series was just barely renewed for a fourth season, thus they’re making a mad dash toward the finish line. The other, quite possibly, is that they realized they’ve hit a brick wall when it comes to how many stories you can tell about a child Bruce Wayne. Still, it’s kind of hard to picture him taking down supervillains after receiving some boxing lessons from Alfred and training with the Shaman for only a matter of weeks.
On the plus side, the footage offered provides new looks at Scarecrow, the Riddler, Poison Ivy and Tabitha Galavan, so there’s still much to look forward to when Gotham returns for its fourth season on Thursday, September 21 on Fox.
