When Silver St. Cloud mentioned that “M. Malone” was responsible for the death of Thomas and Martha Wayne (whether or not that’s true remains to be seen), Gotham fans instantly knew who she was talking about.
In the comic books, Matches Malone was a small time crook who had an in with pretty much every gang in in the city. However, when he died, Batman covered the death up and adopted the identity of Matches Malone. He did so in order to be able to go undercover and gain insight on what his foes are up to, and while the whole thing bordered on being a bit silly at times, it’s a persona Bruce Wayne has made good use of over the years; he even had himself thrown in prison at one point.
Gotham‘s version is going to be played by Michael Bowen (Breaking Bad), and he’ll be known as Patrick “Matches” Malone. He’ll first appear in the second half of season two and is described by FOX as “one of Gotham’s deadliest killers, Matches Malone is a weathered, philosophical hitman who may be the triggerman behind one of the most important crimes in Gotham’s history.”
Whether or not this version of Matches is responsible for the death of the Waynes remains to be seen, but it should be very interesting to see how the character factors into Bruce’s story and whether we’ll get any hint of the youngster adopting this name somewhere down the line when the events of Gotham finally reach the point where he dons the iconic cape and cowl.
