Characters / Gotham - Rogues Gallery: Cellblock B

Main Character Page | Cellblock A (Arthur Penn to Jeremiah Valeska) | Cellblock B (Jonathan Crane to Victor Zszaz)

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Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow

Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow

"Jonathan Crane isn't here anymore... it's just the Scarecrow."

^{Click here to see Jonathan Crane.}

Played By: Charlie Tahan (Seasons 1-4), David W. Thompson (Seasons 4-5)

Forced to go along with his father's fear experiments as a teen, he later submits to and adopts the identity of his personal bogeyman: a Nightmare Fuel scarecrow-demon conjured up by his own fear toxin-addled imagination - the Scarecrow.

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• Adaptational Attractiveness: Jonathan is usually depicted as a lanky Ichabod Crane lookalike (he was even named after the guy) in the original comics. Here, he's a handsome young man.
• Adaptation Origin Connection: In the comics the origins of the major Bat-rogues are normally unconnected. Here, not only did he help Jerome invent the infamous Joker Gas, he's the one who created the special mixture that infected Jeremiah, ultimately making him responsible for the birth of the Joker.
• Adaptational Badass: Most incarnations of Crane had him be portrayed a scrawny nerd who was bullied all throughout his childhood, but here he's not only already preparing his fear toxins but he also becomes the Scarecrow while still in his teenage years.
• Adaptational Dumbass: Unlike most of his other depictions, he isn't a professor but the reluctant accomplice of his father.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Most depictions of Scarecrow are usually inherently sadistic and Ax-Crazy. This depiction is forced into helping his father infect people with fear toxin and is later psychologically tortured into becoming the Scarecrow.
• Advertised Extra: Was a major element in marketing leading up to Season 4, with Word of God stating Scarecrow would be "out in full force." Come the actual season, Crane is a major character in the first two episodes, before vanishing for half a season, being recast, and relegated to muscle for Jerome and Jeremiah.
• Age Lift: Jonathan Crane looks to be about five years older than Bruce Wayne.
• Alone with the Psycho: He ends up locked inside a closet with a scarecrow who he believes is his boogeyman. This results in him going mad and believing that the scarecrow demon he's hallucinated is possessing him.
• And I Must Scream: Screaming incoherently is all he can do after his father overdoses him on adrenaline and everywhere he looks he sees a monstrous scarecrow. By his return, it appears his incarceration in a mental hospital has taken a toll on him, and being locked up overnight with an actual scarecrow by a bunch of brutal crooks pushes him over the edge completely.
• Arc Villain: For the first two episodes of Season 4.
• Ascended Extra: Was just a very minor character who played second fiddle to his father in his debut, but by Season 4 he's grown into a major Arc Villain.
• Avenging the Villain: He attempts to kill Gordon at Arkham Asylum to avenge the death of his serial killer father.
• Badass Longcoat: His Scarecrow costume has a large coat holding his weapons.
• Bullying a Dragon: Some out-of-town thugs retrieve Jonathan from Arkham via bribery, then terrorize him into producing his father's fear gas for use in their own crimes. You just know it's not going to go well when they leave him locked up alone with an actual scarecrow that Jonathan perceives as a nightmarish "bogeyman": a product of his damaged mind which more or less possesses young Crane, subduing and invading his original persona, then turns the gas on his captor.
• The Bus Came Back: He was last seen in a coma in the first season, but returns as the Scarecrow in Season 4.
• Co-Dragons: Becomes one to Jerome alongside Mad Hatter in season 4.
• Cool Mask: The famed Scarecrow mask. In seasons 4 and 5 it's used to cover the original actor's recasting.
• Costume Evolution: The first Scarecrow costume is a very thick burlap suit with a gas mask◊. In later episodes, he wears a sleeker Arkham Knight-esque suit with a hood, and in the Season 4 finale, he ditches the hood for the iconic Scarecrow hat.
• Dark Is Evil: In contrast with Bruce’s Dark Is Not Evil.
• Demonic Possession: Played with. Jonathan thinks that the Scarecrow demon from his hallucinations is possessing him, driving him to become one of Gotham's greatest villains.
• Driven to Villainy: He might have stayed a harmless inmate of Arkham were it not for Merton and his gang taking him from Arkham and locking him in a room with the subject of his terror - an actual scarecrow.
• Evil Counterpart: To Bruce. Both kids have witnessed their parents killed horribly and were mentally scarred for life as a result, but they vowed to avenge the deaths of their family members by punishing their killer and growing into a force to be feared in Gotham. However, Bruce desires to grow into the hero Gotham deserves and bring peace, but Jonathan craves power and wants to be feared by those lower than him. Both also tend to use stealth-based attacks and theatrics in their fighting, but Bruce has been trained by the seasoned Alfred while Jonathan uses his scythe in a comparatively amateur way, able to be disarmed by Gordon.
• Evil Sounds Deep: His mask in season 4 has some sort of effect that deepens his voice considerably.
• Face Your Fears: Inverted; having surrendered to his "bogeyman" himself, Crane uses fear-toxin and persuasion to convince Arkham's warden to likewise embrace and become his personal phobia. When Gordon successfully plays this trope straight, fighting off the fear-gas's effect by overcoming fear, Scarecrow outright claims it's impossible.
• Forced into Evil: For a short time in Season 4, as Jonathan is forced to re-create his father's fear serum by a bunch of bank robbers who terrorize the hallucination-hounded young man with an actual scarecrow.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Goes from a total pushover being forced to serve other criminals into Gotham's great master of fear.
• Generation Xerox: Turns out to be one for his father, a fear-obsessed doctor determined to invoke that fear in others (though their end goals differ considerably).
• Gone Horribly Wrong: His father believes his serum will stop Jonathan feeling fear. An overdose of the serum ends up having the opposite effect, driving him mad and fueling his eventual change into the Scarecrow.
• Insane Equals Violent: He's gone off the deep end, which in Gotham City also means that he's a violent psychopath.
• Karma Houdini: Gets away with all his criminal actions by the end of the series.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: His father was trying to find a cure for fear. As the Scarecrow, Jonathan will someday be trying to cause as much fear as possible.
• Missing Mom: His mother's death in a house fire is what drove Jonathan's dad to research fear, because Gerald couldn't work up the courage to dash through the flames to save her.
• Mythology Gag: In Season 4B, he dons a new hooded Scarecrow mask that heavily resembles the one he wore in the Batman: Arkham Series.
• Out of Focus: His father is the main antagonist of his debut episode, while Jonathan really plays no important part in it himself. That is until Season 4 where Crane returns and becomes the Scarecrow.
• Overlord Jr.: Jonathan acts as a willing accomplice to all his father's crimes, although intimidation does seem to play a part.
• Punch-Clock Villain: When he first debuts in Gotham, Jonathan isn't a kid who's malicious at heart. For all the horrible things Jonathan helps his dad do, fear is his father's obsession, not his own. He goes along with what Gerald does out of familial loyalty and a desire to be rid of the fear he believes makes his father ashamed of him.
  • Once he becomes the Scarecrow, he embraces that his father was a genius trying to rid the world of fear; he's just "improving" the process by not only having people embrace their fears, but become them just like he did.
• Pungeon Master: After becoming a super-villain, he really likes peppering variations of the word "fear" into his dialogue.
  Scarecrow: You look a fright, Mr. Tetch.
• Scary Scarecrows: His new costume has the raggedy, demonic scarecrow look to intimidate his targets.
• Sinister Scythe: He starts wielding a scythe as a weapon in case of physical confrontations.
• Start of Darkness: Unless Gotham is your very first exposure to the Batman franchise, you've probably already guessed that this isn't the last we'll be seeing of Jonathan.
• That Man Is Dead: "Jonathan Crane isn't here anymore..."
• This Cannot Be!: He's utterly shocked that Gordon was able to overcome his fear toxin.
• Through the Eyes of Madness: Injected with his father's own formulas, Jonathan's hallucinations of his scarecrow-like personal "bogeyman" are terrifying.
• Took a Level in Badass: Was first introduced as a young accomplice serving his father, but by Season 4 he's evolved into the Scarecrow, one of Gotham's most dangerous villains.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Unlike many other takes on the character, this Crane started off as a well-meaning young man trying to aid his father.
• Weak Sauce Weakness: In The Fear Reaper, Gordon figures out that people under the influence of Jonathan's toxin can be cured with a splash of cold water in the face. Justified, as the fear toxin dispenser this time around seems to be the equivalent of a high-tech spritzer, leaving traces of the toxin in their faces.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: After his debut episode in Season One, he's never seen or mentioned for the next two seasons, even after Arkham Asylum re-opened. We don't learn what became of him until Season 4, when he becomes the first Arc Villain of the season, the Scarecrow, popping up sporadically thereafter to aid Jerome and Jeremiah. Subject tot his again in season 5 - he's defeated by Gordon in the series opener and is only mentioned once thereafter.
• Who's Laughing Now?: His assault against the Arkham warden that sold him off as a slave carries shades of this as he's dragging his scythe close to his former handler. He begins recalling the events of his abuse at the hospital before infecting the corrupt jerk with his toxins, then literally turns the warden into a clown to demean him.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Was forced to be a Punch-Clock Villain for his father, ended up losing both said father and his own sanity, and then kept enduring Kick Them While They Are Down from a system that was supposed to treat him instead. After all that, you really can't blame him for finally going on a warpath.
• You Killed My Father: He has this attitude towards Gordon thanks to his father getting gunned down by the police. This causes him to try and kill the officer to avenge his lost father.

Lazlo Valentin/Professor Pyg

"You'll never forget me. I promise you that."

^{Click here to see him unmasked.}

Played by: Michael Cerveris

"What you said about the rot in Gotham, high to low - so concisely phrased - well, it gave me an idea. The next step in my plot. It's a saga. It's an epic. It's a spectacle. And you're my muse, Jimmy Gordon."

A deranged serial killer who sports a pig mask. His primary targets are the corrupt cops of Gotham, although he seems to have taken a liking to Jim Gordon...

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• Abled in the Adaptation: Unlike the comics Pyg, who's one of the few Batman villains to actually meet the qualifications to be declared insane, this version is clear-headed.
• Accent Slip-Up: As Gordon leaves him behind in his Arkham cell, Pyg angrily snarls, "Don't you walk out on me!" in a Southern accent, thus revealing giving Gordon a major clue where to start finding out his true identity.
• Actor Allusion: This version of Pyg bakes some of his victims into meat pies, using a recipe Michael Cerveris no doubt learned on stage.
• Adaptational Badass: Most versions of Pyg, excepting Beware the Batman, are schizophrenics and murderous psychopaths and have very little planning skills. This version is perfectly capable of executing an almost Joker-like scheme such as when he massacres the GCPD in the abandoned court house.
• Adaptation Deviation: This version of Pyg doesn't have any involvement with the Circus of Strange.
• Adaptational Intelligence: While he lacks the comic variant's surgical skills needed to create his Dollotrons, he's a master strategist and actor, skills the comics Pyg doesn't have.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Downplayed. This version of the character is a vigilante who murders corrupt cops, which is considerably less depraved than his M.O. in the comics. However, it's clear that this Pyg is still a severely disturbed psychopath, and that his mission against Gotham's corruption is more or less an excuse he uses to indulge his sick desires.
• Adapted Out: His signature Mooks, the Dollotrons, never make an appearance in the show.
• Arc Villain: He serves as the primary antagonist for the first few episodes of Season 4. It later turns out that Sofia is the one who hired him.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: He changes his targets from corrupt cops to Gotham's elite because of their callousness and disregard towards the poor.
• Animal Motifs: He models himself after pigs, and places a pig mask on every cop that he kills. Not only that but he leaves figurines of pigs on his crime scenes, sent pig heads to the police HQ as a calling card and left live pigs with two of his victims' corpses, one of which was eaten by said pigs.
• Attention Whore: He loves being the center of attention, so much so that he actually yearns to be hailed as Gotham's most notorious criminal. When Gordon tells him that the city's already forgotten about him after his arrest, he does not take it lightly.
• Baddie Flattery: He apparently sees Gordon as a celebrity of sorts, and is somewhat starstruck when the two meet face-to-face.
• Bald of Evil: This version of Pyg is bald behind the mask.
• Berserk Button:
  • The only thing so far that breaks Pyg's hammy disposition is Gordon saying that his killing spree is just a madman's game and not some crusade for the greater good.
  • He breaks his Pyg persona when Gordon makes it sound like he's yesterday's news and nothing but an amateur compared to Jerome Valeska, Fish Mooney and Penguin.
• Beware the Silly Ones: He's a flamboyant, effete eccentric with a bizarre dress sense, a lilting voice, and a fondness for nursery rhymes, but he is extremely dangerous nonetheless.
• Big Bad Ensemble: With Sofia Falcone for the first half of Season 4. Both have different goals, and ultimately oppose each other in one episode, yet both are the main threats in Gordon and Penguin's life, respectively. Ultimately subverted on the "oppose" part, since they were working together all along.
• Boom, Headshot!: Courtesy of Sofia Falcone.
• Cop Killer: The Dirty Cops on Penguin's payroll are his main targets.
• Deadpan Snarker: After Penguin kills a callous aristocrat for disregarding the fate of an "urchin" and "orphan" child, Pyg only responds by saying "what a waste of a good pie" and complimenting Penguin's response.
• Death by Adaptation: Sofia shot him in the head and killed him, years before Bruce Wayne becomes Batman.
• The Dragon: To Sofia Falcone.
• Dramatic Unmask: We finally see his true face (or is it?) when he removes his Fisoli disguise at the end of "A Day in the Narrows".
• The Dreaded: Pyg becomes one of the most feared cop killers in Gotham and forces Bullock to team up with Penguin and his goons in an attempt to capture him.
• Even Evil Has Standards: At Sofia's fundraiser for orphans, Pyg assures her said orphans are locked up and not hurt, saying he's not an animal. Even his threat against Martin seems aimed more at intimidating Penguin than an actual desire to harm him.
• Evil Is Hammy: No pun intended; he's very theatrical for a psychopathic killer. Fittingly enough, he's played by Broadway veteran Michael Cerveris.
• Fake Brit: In Universe. His British accent is a cover for a Texan one.
• Faux Affably Evil: He acts very polite and friendly towards Jim, though this is simply a facade to hide his southern roots.
• Ironic Nursery Rhyme: At the end of "Hog Day Afternoon", he recites "Two Mother Pigs" to a pen of piglets before slaughtering them to make pig masks.
  Professor Pyg: Two mother pigs lived in a pen.
  They each had four piglets, and that made ten.
  All the piglets loved to play,
  and they rolled and they rolled in the mud all day.
  At night, when their mothers curled up in a heap,
  they squealed and they squealed until they went to sleep.
  And sleep well, for tomorrow, the axe shall fall...
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Gordon tells him that he's nothing more than a C-list criminal who's doomed to fall into obscurity, and has virtually no match against the staying power of bigger villains like the Penguin or Jerome. Pyg is considered by many to be one of Batman's more obscure rogues due to his relatively recent introduction compared to the classic Rogues' Gallery.
• Master of Disguise: He's a dangerously good actor, as demonstrated when he disguises himself as one of his victims in an effort to trick Gordon and the GCPD. We eventually find out that even his Pyg persona as a whole is just a big act.
• Meaningful Name: He tells Gordon that spelling it with a Y rather than an I is deliberate as it's short for Pygmalion.
• Mythology Gag:
  • At one point, he sings along to opera while carving out another pig mask. This should seem very familiar for fans of Batman: Arkham Knight. He even throws a butcher knife at Jim in "Let Them Eat Pie", just like in his boss battle.
  • In the comics, Pyg is a surgeon who uses his skills to turn his victims into Dollotrons. In the show, this is visually alluded to during a scene where he surgically removes a dead man's organs.
• "Not So Different" Remark: He expresses interest in Jim because he believes that they share a common goal: to wipe out the corruption within the GCPD.
  Professor Pyg: You and I know that Gotham cannot survive unless the cancer is cut out. We both share the same mission, only I do it with a little bit more flair.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: The man's a living testament to why you should Beware the Silly Ones, but he's no fool. When Jim pretends not to know Pyg's location, Pyg's response is, "Don't act dumb. Only I get to do that."
• One-Man Army: He single-handedly massacred a large portion of police officers, some on his own and by using a machine gun trap.
• Pig Man: Through wearing his signature pig mask.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: His pig mask in the comics is usually depicted as a cheap plastic mask and reminiscent of Porky Pig. Here, it appears to be an actual pig's face that's been sliced into a mask.
• Serial Killer: He sure loves killing.
• Shout-Out: Pyg's plot to bake his murder victims into human meat pies is directly inspired by Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. This was a deliberate reference, since Michael Cerveris actually played Sweeney Todd on Broadway.
• Southern-Fried Genius: He’s revealed to be from the south and briefly slips into a Southern accent during “Things That Go Boom”, Yet this doesn’t negate the fact that he’s still a genuinely intelligent and dangerous criminal who managed to escape from both Arkham and the prison from his original town with seemingly minimal effort.
• Villain Song: He has a very short one in the form of "Meat Pie Tango", a parody of "Cell Block Tango" from Chicago.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He's offed by Sofia once he's no longer useful to her plan.

Magpie

Played By: Sarah Schenkkan

A cunning thief who steals precious treasures and leaves explosive dummy copies in their place. Penguin enlists Selina's help to take her down after she robs his secret treasury.

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• Adapted Out: She does not sport her famous Wolverine Claws in this continuity.
• Age Lift: She's already a fully-grown supervillain before Bruce dons the cowl.
• Animal Motifs: She's visually based on the magpie bird.
• Cloudcuckoolander: She's incredibly eccentric, has a deep love for shiny jewelry, and even gives them names.
• Dark Action Girl: A skilled jewel thief and acrobat who dresses in black and white attire.
• Death by Adaptation: A frequent B-list Batman villain in the comics, she's unceremoniously gunned down by the Penguin here.
• Karmic Death: She loves leaving booby traps behind to blow up her victims. When she goes back to Penguin's vault to steal some more stuff, she herself gets taken down by a booby trap that he set up, leaving her vulnerable enough for him to shoot her dead. Penguin even shoots her "Bang bang!" line right at her before pulling the trigger.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: She's killed in the same episode she's introduced in.
• White Hair, Black Heart: She's a white-haired robber with a knack for explosives.

Mutant Leader

Played By: Sid O'Connell

A brutish cutthroat who took control of the Mutants in Terence Shaw's absence. He and his gang reign in the Dark Zone when Gotham becomes no man's land.

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• Adaptational Attractiveness: Sure he may be "300 pounds of ugly" as Selina put it, but he's nowhere close to being the mountain of deformed blubber he was in the original comics.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: In the comics, the Mutant Leader rose to prominence during the 10 years the older Bruce Wayne spent retired from crimefighting. Here, he's causing trouble in the time before Batman ever existed.
• Adaptational Wimp: While he's still not to be taken lightly, he goes down much more easily here than in the comics.
• Agony of the Feet: Selina manages to bring him down by slicing his Achilles tendon with her blade.
• Bald of Evil: He's bald as ever here, though one wonders if the strip of metal on his head counts as hair of some kind.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Once Selina gets the upper hand, she absolutely wrecks the Mutant Leader, nearly killing him before Bruce intervenes.
• Cyborg: His mechanical gloves, a metal Mohawk, and Geordi LaForge goggles all look like they're welded to his body.
• Delinquent Hair: He's got a Mohawk made of metal. If this serves some practical purpose or just a fashion statement is unclear.
• Facial Horror: Once Selina manages to get the drop on him, she carves his face up with her claws while pumping him for info about Jeremiah's whereabouts.
• Fangs Are Evil: His teeth are filed to points.
• Horrifying the Horror: He's a dangerous gang leader, but even he knows better than to get on Jeremiah's bad side.
• Mighty Glacier: He's a hell of a lot stronger and tougher than most characters, but not very fast at all. This is what allows Selina to get the upper hand in their fight, as she can dodge his attacks while moving too quickly for him to counter her.
• Perma-Stubble: He has thick 5 o'clock shadow in contrast to his clean-shaven comic counterpart.
• The Quincy Punk: As a violent, uncouth street criminal with a stereotypical "punk" aesthetic, he qualifies.
• Tattooed Crook: Unlike the comic version, this Mutant Leader has rather intricate tattoos on his arm and upper torso.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: In keeping with tradition, he never wears a shirt.

Nathaniel Barnes/The Executioner

See his entry on this page.

Secretary Theresa Walker/Nyssa al Ghul

Theresa Walker/Nyssa al Ghul

Played By: Jaime Murray

The US Secretary of Homeland Security, as well as Eduardo Dorrance's commanding officer. Revealed to be the daughter of Ra's al Ghul.

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• Adaptational Name Change: The comics version of Nyssa uses her Nom de Mom Raatko.
• Adaptational Personality Change: The comic version of Nyssa hated her father, Ra's, and even killed him without remorse. This Nyssa clearly loved Ra's, and is looking to avenge his death. It's probably because she's really a Composite Character with her sister Talia.
• Batman Gambit: Impressive considering who she does it to: she lets Bruce and Gordon escape and free General Wade - knowing they'll take him to his HQ where (under her control) he'll enact the protocol that will destroy Gotham for good.
• Big Bad: She's behind all of Bane/Eduardo Dorrance's actions, and turns out to have orchestrated most of the major events of season 5 to destroy Gotham as revenge for the death of her father - Ra's al Ghul.
• Big Bad Ensemble: While she's a much greater threat, Jeremiah is responsible for the fall of Gotham and is the Final Boss in the Grand Finale set ten years later.
• Canon Character All Along: Many speculated she was the Gotham take on Amanda Waller due to their similar methods and surnames. Instead, it turns out she's actually another character from the comics - Nyssa al Ghul.
• Crazy-Prepared: Gordon and Barbara have her on the ropes and are ready to get General Wade to call off the attack on Gotham - lucky she implanted a failsafe command in his mind control device that has him shoot himself instead...
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Thrashes Gordon with ease in "They Did What?" It takes some trickery and teaming with Barbara to take her down.
• Evil Gloating: Cannot stop during her battle with Gordon. He even lampshades that she never shuts up.
• Expy: Initially seemed to be one for Amanda Waller, due to their similar names, government positions, and methods. Subverted in that she's actually Nyssa al Ghul.
• Karma Houdini: Despite instigating the main conflict of season 5 Nyssa ultimately evades justice by escaping in the submarine that Penguin and Riddler made. The only consolation is that her plans are in ruins and the government is likely hunting her down.
• The Man Behind the Man: For Bane, Hugo Strange, and the mind-controlled Ed Nygma.
• Mind-Control Device: Has Hugo Strange implant mind-control chips in the skulls of Ed Nygma, Lee Thompkins, and later General Wade, turning them into her sleeper agents.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: She wipes out Barbara's League of Assassins followers singlehandedly, with Barbara and Lee discovering the aftermath when they get to her club.
• Revenge: Everything she does is to gain this on Bruce and Barbara for killing her father, Ra's al Ghul.
• Small Role, Big Impact: She's only in the series for a few episodes, but her actions have a big impact on the Time Skip finale.
  • Targeting Bruce is one of the main things that makes him leave Gotham to keep his loved ones safe - leading him to abandon Selina and setting her on the path to becoming Catwoman.
  • Battling her solidifies Barbara's Heel–Face Turn, putting her firmly on Jim's side.
  • Her stealing Penguin and Riddler's submarine - and loot - is one of the contributing factors to the Heel–Face Door-Slam that solidifies their descent into villainy.
• Truer to the Text: Zig-Zagged. This portrayal of Nyssa is a straight-up villain, lacking the Adaptational Heroism of the Arrowverse and Arkhamverse versions. However, unlike those incarnations who hated Ra's, which is true of the comic version, this Nyssa is seeking to avenge his death.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: In the penultimate episode after being stabbed by the very same knife that killed her father, and with her revenge scheme in ruins, Nyssa is forced to escape from Gotham in Penguin and the Riddler's submarine with her tail between her legs.
• You Killed My Father: She wants revenge on Bruce and Barbara for killing Ra's al Ghul.

Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin

Once a flunky of Fish Mooney, Oswald Cobblepot would take a long, hard road to taking over the city's criminal underworld, becoming its self-styled King. Though hating the nickname of "Penguin" at first, Oswald would go on to embrace the name. For tropes regarding him, see his character page.

Ra's al Ghul

The mysterious leader of the League of Assassins, Ra's is an immortal seeking an end to his long life - and in season 3 takes a distinct interest in Bruce. For tropes regarding him, see Other Criminal Groups.

Richard Sionis/Black Mask

Played By: Todd Stashwick

A businessman wearing a black oni mask who makes people fight to the death for a job at his investments firm.

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• Adaptation Name Change: In the comics, his name is Roman not Richard. Then again, it's possible, given his age, that he is comic!Black Mask's father or relative.
• Asshole Victim: Being a criminal and all he really did deserve to die.
• Back for the Dead/Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: His first episode back in Season 2 has him killed off for real.
• Bad Boss: He forces his employees to fight to the death for a job in his company. This trait follows him again when he's locked up in Arkham. It leads to his former "team mates" immediately joining the new Big Bad.
• Big Bad Wannabe: He assumes that he is the prison kingpin while locked up in Arkham Asylum. However, once outside prison he's killed quickly for upsetting a real criminal leader.
• Canon Immigrant: Richard was created for Gotham, but he was incorporated into the main DCU as the father of Roman Sionis AKA Black Mask and the original founder of the False Face Society in the New 52 Catwoman comics.
• Cool Mask: Collects several of them and wears one when staging fights.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Makes prospecting employees fight to the death.
• Deadly Game: The fights are transmitted in closed-circuit TV for the amusement of his employees.
• Dirty Old Man: While in Arkham, he comes onto Barbara, intending to make her his prison wife.
• Gory Discretion Shot: His manner of death was him being stabbed multiple times in the face, with the effects not shown.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: He's stabbed to death multiple times through his face.
• It Amused Me: Primary did his underground deathmatches just for his own personal amusement.
• Jerkass: He's a very horrible man.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Wields a katana when he attacks Gordon.
• Mythology Gag: This isn't the first time Sionis was unceremoniously deposed to establish a new villain as the new threat.
• Noodle Incident: Mentions an amusing one that happened while he was in college, involving his varsity polo team and a group of ponies.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In the Season 2 premiere, Theo Galavan offers him and some of the other Arkham inmates a chance to join in on the fun. Sionis declines, and is killed to make an example out of him.
• The Sociopath: Slick and charming, he cares nothing for anybody, and enjoys watching his employee's fight to the death to work for him. He never shows any remorse, or motivation other than sadism.
• Too Dumb to Live: When at the mercy of a criminal leader who's offering him a chance to join an elite team of criminals, demonstrating his influence earlier by breaching a prison and leading an army of elite soldiers, Sionis obnoxiously blows his captor off, refuses his offer, and even insults him. Needless to say, he's brutally dispatched for his troubles.
• Waistcoat of Style: Wears one during his entire appearance.

Selina Kyle/Catwoman

Selina "Cat" Kyle

"Five minutes on the street, you'll be mincemeat."

Selina as an adult

Played By: Camren Bicondova, Lili Simmons (adult)

"Rule number one: look after number one."

A teenage girl with a fondness for theft and cats. The future Catwoman. She witnessed the murder of the Waynes, and has been keeping an eye on Bruce, a relationship that gradually sees both become more and more attracted to each other despite their differing moral codes.

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• Aborted Arc: Selina gaining her unstable, ferocious cat-like powers is forgotten by the end of the show. Hints are given that she has it under control now, but they never pop up again.
• Adaptational Badass: Selina seems to demonstrate superb acrobatics and combat skills before getting trained in martial arts. Also, she's already shaping up into her hardened, intelligent con-artist self during her teenage years.
• Age Lift: A minor one, but Batman: Year One explicitly has Bruce aged 25, while later works featuring Selina in this timeframe establish she's 18 when the two unwittingly meet. Here, their onscreen ages are revised to reflect the actor's ages (Camren Bicondova is roughly a year older than David Mazouz) so that Selina is a year older than Bruce.
• The Aloner: She frequently ends up isolated from everyone else thanks to her cynical, selfish attitude and trust issues due to living on the mean streets of the city all her life. It's a habit that has both benefited her and screwed her over.
• Animal Motif: She may not have taken the mantle of Catwoman up yet, but young Selina is seen moving like a cat as she prowls through Gotham. And feeding a cat. In one scene, she's seen playing with her locket as a cat would. And she's nicknamed "Cat" for obvious reasons.
• The Apprentice: Tabitha takes her under her wing in the season 3 finale. Once Barbara returns, the three become the Sirens.
• Arch-Enemy: Silver is this for her in season 2 after she twigs her motives towards Bruce aren't good. After he almost cripples her in season 4 she regards Jeremiah Valeska as this.
• Badass Adorable: She's an extremely smart and savvy survivor of Gotham's mean streets, but she's still just a kid. Especially pronounced in the first season where, as Fish's chief henchman, she looks almost comical recapturing Gordon and Falcone with a pack of much larger mooks in tow.
  Selina: [while holding Lee at gunpoint] You're cute, for a doctor.
  Lee: Thanks. You're cute, for a gangster.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: Kills Reggie to keep Bruce's hands clean. Later tries to kill Jerome to keep Bruce safe.
• Battle Couple: With Bruce: they complement each other's fighting style amazingly well, especially in seasons 4 and 5.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • She often expresses the belief that she's better off on her own. When Bruce cuts ties with her at the end of season 3 she's left without anyone and really doesn't like it. She ends up going to Barbara and Tabitha of all people (though she doesn't know Barbara is dead) because she's terrified of being alone again.
  • Expresses the plaintive hope that her mother will return to Bruce in season 1. In season 3 her mother does return - and shortly proves to be using her to con money out of Bruce. It's particularly crushing as unlike the Silver situation this time it's Bruce who instantly spots the deception while Selina naively hopes for the best.
• Berserk Button: She hates being compared to her mom.
• Big Sister Instinct: For all her protestations of not caring about people, this is how her relationship with Bruce forms, as she's unable to stop checking on him after the death of his parents. Throughout the series also does this with Ivy and Bridgit.
• Bratty Teenage Daughter: Alfred finds her a handful, and at first wants her gone. The two eventually develop into Fire-Forged Friends, at first because they both recognize the other usually has Bruce's best interests at heart, and later because they start to genuinely like each other.
• Break His Heart to Save Him: She tells Bruce she never saw his parents' killer, and it was just a lie to save herself from juvie. While it visibly hurts Bruce, she knows any association with Bruce will ultimately endanger them both. She's later on the receiving end when Bruce elects to stop living with her in the city in order not to put her in danger.
• Brutal Honesty:
  • She isn't afraid to speak her mind, as Bruce figures out, notably when she bluntly tells him there was nothing he could have done to save his parents.
  • In "Pena Dura", she confesses to Bruce that she was there the night his parents were killed and that she didn't do anything to help not because she was scared but because she didn't care and was only looking out for herself.
• But Now I Must Go: Selina leaves Wayne Manor on her own accord once she realizes that the danger she's in is too much for Bruce, a rich kid who doesn't know much about the city, to handle at his age. She comes back though, and begins to form a friendship with Bruce through the seasons.
• Came Back Wrong: She's healed from her crippling spinal injury at Jeremiah's hands by Ivy's potion - but she has actual cat's eyes, and acts distinctly more vicious and out-of-control.
• Cassandra Truth: Selina figures out Silver is manipulating Bruce, but he doesn't believe her... at least until he finally sees that she was right all along after they trick Silver into revealing her true colors.
• Childhood Friend Romance: With Bruce Wayne, and the both have a Will They or Won't They? relationship. Naturally. After nearly five seasons of false starts and rocky patches they look to begin a relationship at Jim and Leslie's wedding - but then events with Jeremiah and Bane convince Bruce of the need for anonymity in his crime fighting, in order to protect his loved ones, leading him to abandon Gotham and Selina to seek further training. By the time Bruce comes back as Batman, Selina is Catwoman in all but name, leaving them free to take up their famously complex relationship from the comics.
• Civvie Spandex: Selina doesn't wear a costume yet, but does sport a black jacket and a pair of goggles. The Time Skip finale shows her adopting something very close to her comics look, minus the ears.
• Classy Cat-Burglar: In the distant finale, Selina has finally grown into the mischievous master thief we all know her as. She even cleans up rather nicely while attending a swag party, to the point where everyone barely recognizes her as the street urchin she used to be, with Barbara noting she's turned into quite the socialite around town.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: She's never actually referred to as Catwoman in the finale, despite her having the look, thieving skills and on-off relationship with Bruce by this point. One of the promo videos refers to her as such in the title though.
• Cool People Rebel Against Authority: She knows full well that the cops are corrupt, and she won't take any of their bullcrap.
• Combat Pragmatist: Knows to go for the eyes first in a fighting situation. In her battle with the mutant leader, she disables her much larger foe by kicking out his ankle, then pummeling him while he's down.
• Composite Character: She replaces Harley Quinn as Poison Ivy's best friend.
• Dating Catwoman: She's not Catwoman yet, and neither are they dating, but their numerous flirtations have a lot of shades of this given their extremely different experiences and morals.
  Bruce: There's something between us. You have to see that.
  Selina: Rule one: Don't ever tell me what I have to do.
  [she kisses him]
  Bruce: So you do have feelings for me? I'm confused.
  Selina: Good. [leaves]
• Delinquent: She's been in and out of juvie quite a lot, and she does not want to go back. She'd rather stay on the streets.
• Did Not Get the Girl: By the end of the series, Selina and Bruce are at odds again once more, questioning whether or not they can ever go back to their fun, loving days. Thus starting the classic Will They or Won't They? relationship their adult counterparts are known for.
• The Dragon: Becomes one for Fish Mooney in the season 1 finale, as she sees her return to Gotham and thinks she's cool. She also gets coerced into becoming one for Firefly later on.
• Driven to Suicide: She tries to kill herself when the despair of losing the use of her legs thanks to Jeremiah becomes too much. Fortunately, the doctors are there to stop her.
• Due to the Dead: She removes her hood during Thomas and Martha's funeral.
• Escape Artist: She's able to pick a pair of police cuffs with a pen. After that Gordon realizes the chances of getting her to stay in police custody are next to nil.
• Establishing Character Moment: The first few minutes of the pilot show how skilled and bold a pickpocket she is, and her connection with cats.
• Everyone Has Standards: She kills Reggie when she realizes Bruce can't do it (and he'll likely expose them to Wayne Enterprises and get them both killed), but she's shown to be highly uncomfortable with killing those who can't fight back. When Ivy murders a hypnotized Wayne scientist and later when Penguin guns down a critically injured Magpie she's horrified both times.
• Eye Scream: Her initial method of combat involves clawing out an opponent's eyes.
• Faux Paw: Bats around a locket with her hand curled up like a cat.
• First Girl Wins: More complicated than most examples of this trope due to her and Bruce's infamously complicated relationship, but Selina's the first girl Bruce meets in the series that's his own age and by the time of the Distant Finale 15 years after they still have a Will They or Won't They? relationship.
• Five-Finger Discount: Pickpockets people with frequency and aplomb. Whenever Bruce or Gordon need something stolen she's their go-to girl.
• Go for the Eye: Her preferred way of attacking people in early episodes. She can do some major damage.
• Goggles Do Nothing: Selina is usually seen with a pair of goggles on top of her hood, as a nod to more modern versions of Catwoman who wear goggles as part of their costume.
• Good Is Not Nice: She's technically one of the good guys, and she's clearly way more moral than someone like Penguin - but she's still a kid who grew up on the mean streets of Gotham, and as such has a distinctly more pragmatic outlook than someone like Bruce - best shown where she realizes Bruce doesn't have what it takes to deal with Reggie in season 1 and shoves him out a window herself. Bruce actually tells her she's a good person but not a nice one at one point early on, much to her discomfiture.
• He Knows Too Much: She saw the Waynes' assassin before he covered up his head. Because of that, whoever hired the hitman wants her dead.
• Heel–Face Turn: She's firmly on the side of good in season 5 after she helps Bruce save Gordon and Lee from Jeremiah. She even makes friends with Alfred.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: She's always had an affinity for leather jackets, but from season 4 on she's almost never seen without a leather catsuit, much like her mentor Tabitha. She even wears it to Gordon and Leslie's wedding in season 5.
• Hellhole Prison: The juvenile hall upstate she was sent to upstate is this, apparently. She does not want to go back.
• I Did What I Had to Do: How she justifies killing Reggie. "It's called surviving."
• Instant Expert: She's shown to be incredibly good with Tabitha's whip on first try.
• Improbable Hairstyle: Her hairdo seems a little high maintenance for someone living on the street. Towards the end of season 2, she somehow manages to not only straighten it, but also dye it.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In Bruce's words, she's a good person but she's "not nice". She doesn't appreciate the observation.
• Karma Houdini: Hugely. While she has her share of awful things happen to her over the series, she's stolen many, many things, worked for Fish as her dragon (twice) and straight-up killed someone in season one - yet she rarely suffers any long-term consequences. Even getting crippled by Jeremiah was his way of getting at Bruce rather than for anything she did. Played straight by the end of the series, where after directly watching her in the act of stealing a diamond, Bruce simply gives her a lecture and a weak apology for not being able to help her instead of arresting her for a museum theft. Even after he departs she doesn't even consider returning the diamond she stole.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: Part of her Establishing Character Moment is her stealing some milk in the first scene of the Pilot - only to drop into an alley to give it to a stray cat (it's actually what leads her to be there to see the Wayne murders). Season 3 shows she has a whole host of pet cats at her squat at any given time.
• Laser-Guided Karma: When she refuses to help Alfred look for Bruce in the season 3 finale, which earns her a massive What the Hell, Hero? from the butler. Bruce ends up stabbing Alfred as a result of the Court of Owl's manipulations, leading Bruce to furiously sever ties with Selina as a result.
• Le Parkour: Gotham is one big jungle gym to her. Ties into her actress' abilities as well.
• Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: The light to Silver's dark, ironically, considering whose side Silver is on.
• Little Miss Badass: Selina may be a child, but she manages to survive in the very hard streets of Gotham and has escaped from criminals and the police several times.
• Little Miss Snarker: Selina does her future counterpart proud with how much sass she exudes. Considering her status as a street kid, she likely uses it to cope with her harsh life, as well as to conceal her feelings and vulnerabilities. She snarks at everyone, but Alfred in particular seems to bring it out of her (of course, this could be because he punched her in the face - she's not happy with him about that).
  Bruce: What do you have against the front door?
  Selina: Nothing. It's the ape who opens it I could live without.
• Loveable Rogue: Her Establishing Character Moment shows her as this: She takes out a switchblade, but only uses it to slash open a grocery bag and steal a jug of milk, which it turns out was not for her, but for a stray cat. The only other thing she steals is a little cash from a passerby. Throughout the scene, she avoids inflicting a single physical injury on anyone.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Starts playing as one to Bruce, once she moves to Wayne Manor. She questions his odd behavior and decisions, and manages to do in a couple of days what Alfred has been trying to do for weeks without success: get Bruce to act like a kid and have some fun.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: The tough street fighter Masculine Girl to Bruce's sensitive, domestic Feminine Boy while they're living together.
• Meaningful Name: Her name on the streets is Cat, which is what she prefers to be called.
• Missing Mom: The police think her mom is dead. Selina insists that she's alive somewhere. She turns out to be right in season 3, much to her massive disappointment.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: A more downplayed example, but she notably averts the Waif-Fu archetype by being solidly built for a girl her size, with a physique more akin to a gymnast than a dancer. As mentioned below in Pint-Sized Powerhouse, this Selina is very capable for someone her age.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Bicondova looks very much like a young Michelle Pfeiffer, who was Catwoman in Batman Returns, right down to a similar hairstyle.
  • Selina doesn't go by Catwoman yet, but she calls herself Cat. In her very first comic book appearance, Catwoman was just called the Cat.
  • Selina shares the same fate as her namesake from Batman Returns when she is pushed out of a window and killed, only to be resurrected by alley cats.
  • She's shown to be an ace with Tabitha's whip, like every other version of the character.
• Never Hurt an Innocent: For all her talk about being ruthless and mean, Selina seems to have a strict policy about not harming anyone who hasn't tried to harm her first. Even when stealing from people (as in her Establishing Character Moment), she avoids hurting them.
• Not So Similar: She tries this on Bruce after she thinks she's killed Jeremiah, claiming that she was there in the alley the night his parents were killed and did nothing not because she was a scared kid like him but because she didn't care. Played with though: while Bruce believes her enough he needs a pep talk from Harvey Bullock, the haunted look on her face as she says all this indicates she doesn't actually believe it, and is just trying to make Bruce go away.
• Odd Friendship: With Bruce, and later Fish.
• Pet the Dog: Steals a jug of milk to feed a stray cat.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Despite being only 13 and half the height of most adults, she can easily take down larger opponents in physical combat.
• Puppy Love: She may act mainly as The Tease towards Bruce, but over the course of "Harvey Dent" and "Lovecraft" it's clear she has genuine feelings for him. By the end of "The Ball of Mud and Meanness", he's moved in with her, and by the end of season 4 things start to get serious between them.
• Real Women Don't Wear Dresses: She hates dressing girly, but does so for an undercover mission with Bruce. She's seen doing so several more times so she can pickpocket fancy galas, and it becomes a more frequent occurrence after she joins up with Barbara and Tabitha as she deals with idiots in their club - including a drunken Bruce.
• Refuge in Audacity: Averted. She once attempted to rob a fancy department store in broad daylight, and got caught by the cops for her troubles.
• Revenge Before Reason: In season 5, she's obsessed with making Jeremiah pay for crippling her by shooting her in the spine despite Bruce trying to convince her not to do it, even ditching Bruce to do so. In "Ruin" she gets her wish, stabbing him repeatedly in the stomach.
• Running Gag: Her ability to get in and out of Wayne Manor with ease despite the security. Bruce and Alfred barely look surprised when she wanders in for Bruce's birthday.
  Selina: Y'know, for a billionaire your security system is lame.
• Sarcastic Devotee: She points out that Bruce's behavior is either crazy or suicidal, and yet she still helps him in spite of herself.
• Satisfied Street Rat: Selina uses Gordon to stay out of juvie, but has no interest in him finding her a better life, and seems quite happy in her career as a pickpocket.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Whenever she gets arrested, she immediately asks to see Gordon, hoping to evoke this - though not always successfully. In later seasons, she starts going to Bruce when she needs help with something outside the law.
• Secret-Keeper: Unlike the comic version of the character (who only found out Bruce was Batman well into their respective careers), it's made clear that here Selina knows Bruce is Batman from the moment he comes back.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: For the Wayne Enterprises Charity Ball in "Under the Knife".
• She's All Grown Up: In the grand finale, Selina has now aged from a tomboyish hoodlum into an attractive, hot-blooded woman. Alfred and Barbara even compliment how they didn't even recognize her.
• Slap-Slap-Kiss: The Puppy Love edition. Bruce and Selina alternate between trying to shove one another way and running to help when the other is in danger.
• Spanner in the Works: Jeremiah's plan would have gone off without a hitch in "Ace Chemicals" if she hadn't shown up at just the right moment.
• Stalker with a Crush: After she sees the Wayne murders, she seems to be taken by Bruce, possibly because he's an orphan, and begins stalking him at a distance throughout the pilot. A later episode shows her breaking into Wayne Manor and watching him sleep. The crush part is emphasized at the end of "Lovecraft": after two episodes of challenging him to kiss her, she steals a kiss from him.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: She pulls one on Bruce in "Lovecraft": He's balancing on a banister in the mansion, clearly by himself, and then Selina just appears there with him. It's quite a feat, considering who she pulled it on. Does it again when she appears out of nowhere on Bruce's birthday.
• Stealth Mentor: Perhaps not willingly, but it's clear Bruce has learned a lot about the nature of Gotham and how its underworld works from her.
• Street Urchin: This version of Selina Kyle is already a roof-hopping Kind Hearted Cat Lover stealing milk for a stray.
• The Tease: Downplayed since she's a teenager, but acts this way to Bruce, enticing him to try and earn a kiss from her. Hilariously, Bruce seems to have her pegged as an (age appropriate) Femme Fatale already, and is suspicious of her offer of letting him kiss her. Gets a lot more serious in later seasons.
• Token Evil Teammate: Evil's a stretch, but whenever she teams up with Bruce she's fully aware that, even as he gets more skilled, his moral compass means that sometimes she needs to be there to do the things he can't - she flatly tries to murder Jerome in season 4, with Bruce being the one to stop her.
  • Also sometimes with Gordon - when he's trying to entrap Nygma and needs someone to convincingly sell him out to Barnes Selina is the one he goes to.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Tomboy to Ivy's girly girl. In "Under the Knife," she goes on about how she hates wearing dresses and heels.
• Took a Level in Badass: Under Tabitha's tutelage, she goes from a girl who mainly wins fights via pragmatism to someone who can take on all five members of a street gang and easily thrash them.
• Took a Level in Kindness: From season 2 onward - we see the depths of her loyalty towards Bruce and later the Sirens, and her genuinely caring about characters like Bridgit and Ivy.
• Took a Level in Jerkass:
  • Goes from morally ambiguous street urchin, to willing flunky of Fish and later Penguin who was willing to sell out Gordon to be murdered by the former without so much as a shred of regret.
  • Again in season 5 when she's healed by Ivy, at the cost of her inner darkness taking control of her. She becomes obsessed with revenge on Jeremiah, even ditching Bruce to go kill him. This ultimately results into her final transformation into the villainous Catwoman.
• Trickster Mentor: To Bruce. She teaches him about keeping his balance and roof jumping, as well as fighting dirty - Gotham's thugs usually don't wear boxing gloves.
• Two First Names: Per the DC Comics norm.
• Undying Loyalty: Zigzagged. While she does have her selfish moments, she develops this for Bruce as the series progresses. In "One Bad Day", Bruce is trying to apologize for enlisting her assistance in stopping Jeremiah's plans. Selina's response?
  Selina: (smiles) Bruce, I'm gonna be here whenever you need me.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Bruce.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: While their relationship is... complicated and still relatively innocent, Selina does show this towards Bruce. As both Reggie and Bruce found out when she shoved the former out of a window after the latter hesitated. Later she submits Silver to fake Cold-Blooded Torture in order to get Bruce to see her dark side and help him gain information out of her, and in season 4 takes on Jerome to save Bruce.
• The Voiceless: She doesn't speak at all in the pilot. However, she does speak in the subsequent episodes.
• We Used to Be Friends: Suffers this with both Firefly and Ivy at various points.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Receives this from Gordon and Bruce all the time. The chewing out she gets from Alfred for refusing to look for Bruce in the season 3 finale is particularly noteworthy.
  • Many times, she winds up giving this to Bruce as well, particularly in Season 4 during Bruce's bratty phase. However, by season 5 she seems to have grown distant from him even further after he left her without warning to seek his Training from Hell. She calls him out on this as well.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Selina regularly subverts this. Clearly fed up with everyone else's complexity addictions, she often goes for the direct solution, most notably attempting to shoot Jerome just seconds after meeting him (albeit unsuccessfully) and simply walking up to Jeremiah in disguise and successfully stabbing him in the chest.
• Worthy Opponent: She calls Silver this after being impressed by how good she is at her innocent act.

Tommy Elliot

Thomas Elliot

season one

season four

Played By: Cole Vallis (Season 1), Gordon Winarick (Season 4)

Yes, that Tom Elliot. He's a schoolmate of Bruce Wayne and they don't exactly get along.

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• Adaptational Jerkass: Originally, in the comics, Tommy Elliot's parents were friends with the Waynes back when they were still alive. Young Tommy was likewise a good friend of Bruce's at least, initially. It wasn't until after Tommy's half-successful attempt to make himself a Self-Made Orphan that his friendship for Bruce turned antagonistic. But in Gotham, Tommy and Bruce despise each other right off the bat. He seems to have mellowed out with age, however.
• The Bully: Literally the first time we him, he's picking on Bruce.
  • He ends up Bullying a Dragon when Bruce later shows up to beat Tommy senseless with his own father's watch for insulting his dead mother.
• The Bus Came Back: Returns in season 4 as a new friend of Bruce.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Like other iconic characters, he hasn't done anything particular yet. But comic fans know that this is the kid who would later become Hush. Possibly a subversion, in that his relatively young age means he doesn't appear as Hush before Bruce becomes Batman - which he only does in the very last episode.
• Jerkass: Said bad things about Bruce's mom. This bites him in the ass hard.
• Malicious Misnaming: To "Brucey". Because, you know, he's an orphan.
• Mocking the Mourner: When Bruce objects to Tommy calling him "Brucey", Tommy counters that he can call Bruce whatever he wants, because Bruce is an orphan.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Seems to really like talking about the gory aspects of his parents' death.
• Took a Level in Kindness: When he makes a return, he has noticeably mellowed out, admitting that he was a jerk and that Bruce "should have punched (him) harder, really."
• Two First Names: Per the DC Comics norm.

Victor Fries/Mister Freeze

Victor Fries/Mister Freeze

"They think walls and guns can stop me? They have no idea... they'll learn."

Played By: Nathan Darrow

A young cryogenics engineer-turned-criminal who first appears at the end of the Season 2 mid—season finale. Armed with a powerful gun that can freeze people solid, he goes through tremendous lengths to save and protect his ill wife, Nora - but all for naught. The combination of the emotional trauma of his wife's death, a botched suicide attempt with his own freezing chemicals and Hugo Strange providing his famous suit have rendered him Mr. Freeze by series' end.

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• Adaptational Attractiveness: In the comics, Mr. Freeze has a physiology that prevents him from living without his suit and looks freakishly inhuman, with no hair on his head and blue skin. On Gotham, he is still relativity normal, with an albino appearance, white hair, and light blue eyes and veins.
  • His appearance also either hearkens back or is a Shout-Out to Captain Cold from The Flash television series from 1990, who was also an albino Psycho for Hire.
• Adaptational Jerkass: After Nora dies, he becomes a full-fledged Ax-Crazy Psycho for Hire working under Hugo Strange and taking joy in killing people for him as opposed to the emotionally scarred Tragic Villain who wants no hand in evil whatsoever.
• Affably Evil: Enough, apparently, to convince some bystanders to help him load one of his victims into his van. He's also considerate enough to shoo them away when the police are about to show up. This, of course, all goes out the window after he becomes Mr. Freeze.
• Anti-Villain: Like in Batman: The Animated Series and the comics before the 2011 relaunch, he's trying to help his wife, no matter who else gets hurt in the process. At least until she dies - after this he's a Psycho for Hire to the bigger villains in Gotham.
• Acquired Poison Immunity: The reason for his below-mentioned Bungled Suicide; he'd soaked up enough trace elements of his formula that it turned him into the classic Mr. Freeze, only able to survive in sub-zero temperatures, rather than killing him.
• Bald of Evil: Pointedly averted; where nearly every other version of Freeze in other media is traditionally bald due to his altered physiology, here he has a full head of snow-white hair post-transformation.
• Bungled Suicide: Tries to use a faulty batch of cryo-formula to kill himself just like Nora did, so he can join her in the afterlife. But really, were you expecting Victor Fries to die from an accident with his serum at this point?
• Co-Dragons: Both him and Firefly are this to Oswald Cobblepot in Season 3. Neither of them are happy about it but they make the best of it by killing anyone who tries to kill their boss with precision.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Averted. He is called Mr. Freeze by the newspapers (despite that his last name actually isn't pronounced that way this time).
• Costume Evolution: The Mr. Freeze suit starts off as a thick hooded jacket with simple, makeshift armor plating◊. In "A Dead Man Feels No Cold", he ditches this getup for a more spaceman-like suit, and eventually, it evolves into the iconic armored suit (and red goggles) from the comics.
• Cold Ham: Pun aside, this is appropriately how Fries acts throughout his episodes in his attempts to save his wife, even holding Tranquil Fury as part of his repertoire.
• Death Faked for You: Ostensibly, his dead body was burned after a stay at the city morgue. In fact, he'd been transformed into a human Popsicle by his Bungled Suicide and became one of Hugo Strange's enforcers.
• Driven to Suicide: After failing to save Nora. Needless to say, he fails to kill himself, and of course, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger...
• Fire/Ice Duo: With Firefly. The two of them are a pair of Psychos for Hire, and they work surprisingly well together whenever they're not at each other's throats. One episode even has them turning their weapons on each other, though both survive.
• Foregone Conclusion: Victor's plan to reverse his condition and become normal is unlikely to ever happen due to Mr. Freeze being around during Batman's crime fighting career.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: While the appearance of Victor Fries was already announced for Season 2, viewers were still surprised to see the logo for the show freeze over, and were immediately greeted by this character's appearance.
• Foil: To Firefly, appropriately. Both are villains themed after elements, both wear bodily-concealing suits and goggles, and both use guns that fire ammunition deriving from said elements. While Freeze goes out of his way to save his wife and not cause too much collateral damage until his ultimate transformation and Face–Heel Turn, Firefly had already murdered her brothers who were abusive to her. Both wind up at Indian Hill not soon after their supervillain debuts, and while Firefly is temporarily locked up in the basement, Freeze is out and about as Hugo Strange's errand boy. The two counterparts meet soon enough, and participate in Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors with their guns until Strange is hurt.
• Hired Gun: What Fries does as a side job. He's really good in what he does.
• Human Popsicle: What he becomes by the end of his second episode.
• An Ice Person: On the giving and receiving ends: his freeze gun lets him freeze people solid. Later, his suicide attempt alters his physiology so that he can only survive in cold temperatures.
• In the Hood: His suit has some resemblance to Firefly's (goggles, gunmetal grey suit, power supply attached to weapon), and features this in place of the familiar dome.
• Karma Houdini: Gets away with all his criminal actions by the end of the series.
• Light Is Not Good: Started off with white armor, but becomes a villain later.
• Locked into Strangeness: His hair turns completely white after his resurrection.
• Mythology Gag:
  • In "A Dead Man Feels No Cold", while holding a man hostage, Fries creates what appear to be ice grenades with the ability to shoot out icicles similar to a nail bomb, for use in saving his wife from Arkham. These are clearly the Freeze Grenades that debuted in Batman: Arkham City, except much deadlier and for murderous intent instead of simple stunning.
  • His alliance with Hugo Strange is also taken from the game, though the alliance is mutually beneficial and seems to be more friendly, with Hugo assisting Fries and distracting the police in exchange for a sample of Victor's cryonic formula. However, thanks to Victor's Bungled Suicide, he receives his own specialized cell in Arkham acts as a mercenary.
  • The astronaut-like suit that he wears "A Dead Man Feels No Cold" looks almost exactly like one of the suits that he wore in the◊ Adam West series.
• Powered Armor: As mentioned in Costume Evolution, he ditches his chain-mail jacket for a spaceman-like suit. Of course, his first usage of it combined with his ice gun makes him an example of Clothes Make the Superman, but once he becomes An Ice Person after his Bungled Suicide, Hugo Strange has some modifications made to his suit to fit his Human Popsicle biology.
• Psycho for Hire: After his debut arc becomes this to first Penguin, and later Jerome's Legion of Horribles. Justified in that it's mentioned that he needs money in order to fund reversing his condition.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: His actor was also appearing regularly on House of Cards (US) during the time period he was portraying Freeze, leading to his sporadic appearances after his debut arc.
• Slasher Smile: He looks like he's enjoying freezing Karen Jennings to death a little too much.
• Steven Ulysses Perhero: This series decided to go with a different pun on his last name. Instead of making it sound identical to "freeze", it's instead pronounced like "ice".
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: He despises working with Firefly in season 3, even though they're a devastatingly effective combination.
• Villain Decay: He started out as a complex tragic villain who was trying to save his dying wife, but after her death and his transformation, Freeze became the muscle for other arc villains with more power than him. It actually got to the point where he barely even speaks in his appearances despite his intimidating presence.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: In season 4 he first works for Penguin, then becomes part of the Legion of Horribles, but drops out of sight after their defeat. He's mentioned in season 5 as being in a turf war against Firefly, but his final fate is unresolved in both the season proper and the Time Skip finale.
• White Hair, Black Heart: Ends up with white hair after being frozen and later unfrozen - and after this change is an Ax-Crazy psycho for hire.

Victor Zsasz

Victor Zsasz

Played By: Anthony Carrigan

An enforcer and killer working for Don Falcone, and later the Penguin.

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• Adaptational Attractiveness: His comics counterpart is either really ugly or monstrously inhuman Depending on the Artist, but here he's played by Anthony Carrigan, who is quite the handsome fellow.
• Adaptational Badass: In the comics and most adaptations (such as the Batman: Arkham Series) he's just a serial killer who relies mainly on ambush tactics and fear, but who's not very tough in a straight fight. Here he's the most feared mob hitman around and can make the entire Gotham police department turn and run at his request.
• Adaptational Comic Relief: While he's a badass, he's also sassier and more prone to making jokes than the comic book Zsasz.
• Adaptational Job Change: From a Serial Killer to a mob hitman for hire.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: A very borderline example. This incarnation of Zsasz is more of an Affably Evil mercenary who's only crazy and sadistic when working on the clock. Otherwise, he doesn't display as much deep insanity and extreme bloodlust as most of his counterparts, who're usually so Ax-Crazy that he can't do anything but think about killing.
• Affably Evil: In a really, really weird way. He's a brutal Ax-Crazy hitman, but if he's not been tasked to kill you, harm you or otherwise ruin your life he's actually an OK guy - his weird Friendly Enemy relationship with Gordon being the best example.
• Age Lift: He's roughly around Batman's age in the comics.
• Amazon Brigade: The assassins he runs around with in the early seasons are primarily female.
• Ambiguously Gay: When Gordon and Bullock are interrogating him in Season 5, Zsasz asks if they're going to strip search him and offers to cooperate only if a "handsome" cop is doing it.
• Ambiguously Jewish: During his absence in season 4, it is mentioned he is on vacation visiting his bubbie.
• Arson, Murder, and Admiration: When warning Gordon that Falcone has it in for him for what he did to Mario, he compliments Gordon on his actions, commenting that he was never a fan of Mario.
  Zsasz: Nice shot on Mario, I never liked him.
• Ax-Crazy: Downplayed compared to his comics counterpart, but he's still a murderous psychopath who gets kicks out of killing and torturing. Best seen when told to "bring Jim Gordon in alive" - pointing out when Jim mouths off that a man without hands is still alive.
• Badass Boast: As one of the show's deadliest characters, when he makes these, people listen.
  Zsasz: I'm here for Gilzean. Anyone who leaves now, leaves alive. Anyone who stays, dies. You have 60 seconds to do the math.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Sports a classy, black suit in nearly all of his appearances, even in No Man's Land.
• Bald of Evil: Not a single hair on this psycho's head. Not even eyebrows or even eyelashes (Anthony Carrigan has Alopecia Areata Totalis).
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Ivy uses her powers to make him go after Gordon in "The Trial of Jim Gordon"
• Cavalry Betrayal: Zsasz betrays Penguin in "Queen Takes Knight" by claiming Penguin did kill Martin, rather than faking it and having Zsasz escort the boy out of the city.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Whil it doesn't make him any less deadly at his job, his detachment from the murderous acts he commits is so pronounced he comes across as this; his puppeteering a dead man's decapitated head when threatening Loeb, squeeing over election pins while murdering a mayoral candidate and his staff, kissing the bride's hand and chiding her husband for his choice of ring as his goons rob a wedding, or his casual "hey, what's up?" when being greeted by a small army of cops and Penguin's men looking for the Haven bomber.
• Co-Dragons: With Butch for the new King of Gotham, Cobblepot, come Season 2. Whereas Gabe seems to serve as a bodyguard and assistant, Zsasz is the one that goes out with the boss to take care of business.
• Comically Missing the Point: Due to his never taking situations as seriously as Penguin, this happens a lot.
  Penguin: How is Jim Gordon beating us?!
  Zsasz: Well, every cop in Gotham is behind him. I'm guessing he has great leadership skills.
  Penguin: ...Victor, when this is said and done, you and I need to have a frank discussion about chain of command.
• Commuting on a Bus: Disappears for large parts of seasons 3 and 4 due to the actor's other commitments, but always comes back.
• Cop Killer: Kills a female officer in the GCPD building while hunting for Gordon - after she was already shot and immobilized on the ground, and begging for mercy. When Gordon interrogates him as to why he was shooting at the GCPD squad sent to apprehend him when they think he's responsible for the Haven bombing, he responds "because they're cops" in a bewildered tone.
• Covered with Scars: Not to the extent of his comic book counterpart, but he already has 28 self-inflicted marks on his body to count all the people he has killed.
• The Dragon: To Falcone, and later Penguin - up until Sofia manipulates him into betraying the latter.
• The Dreaded: It only takes a simple request with an added "please" from him to have the entire GCPD precinct abandon Gordon on the spot rather than face him.
• Enemy Eats Your Lunch:
  • When warning Gordon about an expected hit on him, he's seen helping himself to Gordon's milk.
  Zsasz: Hope you don't mind, I helped myself.
  • The following season he's distracted from threatening Tabitha and Selina into attending Penguin's opening by their pepperoni pizza, and seems legitimately annoyed they don't want to share it.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Victor is absent from one episode, much to the Penguin's frustration, because he is "visiting his bubbe."
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Upon warning Gordon that his days may be numbered after what he did to Mario, he remarks that he never really liked Mario and is glad to see him gone.
  • Played for laughs when he chides a new husband for skimping on his bride's wedding ring at their wedding - as a team of licenced criminals rob the place.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: When he and Penguin are threatening Loeb, he shows the Commissioner what happened to his security by revealing the man's severed head and manipulating his mouth like a puppet. He also routinely fails to take situations as seriously as either Falcone or Penguin.
• Evil Versus Evil: Interrupts Mooney's attempted revenge on Penguin and sends her and Butch running.
• Faux Affably Evil:
  • He's polite to everyone in the GCPD, asking nicely where Gordon is. But then, of course, he notes that the order to bring Gordon in alive doesn't mean he has to have his hands. He taunts Gordon when he's chasing him down and needlessly kills a police officer after he disabled her.
  • Later, he interrupts Mooney's revenge on Penguin by announcing himself and making an amusing remark before attacking. The scene ends with him contemplating playing with Butch back home...
  • In "Pax Penguina", he's playfully-snarky when he interrupts the Merton gang's attempt to rob a wedding without a license, and seems friendly enough when addressing the wedding guests, bride and groom ... at least, until another gang of crooks who do have a license arrive.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Like his comics counterpart, he keeps score of everyone he kills with tally marks.
• Guns Akimbo: His usual shooting style.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: He has an amazing capability to kill anyone except those who have a contract out on them, in which case this trope comes into full force: if Falcone puts a hit on you, Zsasz can't hit the broad side of a barn if you're leaning against it. Gordon's Plot Armor certainly helps in his case.
• Implacable Man/The Unfettered: During the firefight in the police station, his mooks and Gordon are all behind desks for cover while trying to get shots off. Zsasz is on top of said desks, strolling toward Gordon while firing, like he couldn't care less about return fire.
• Karma Houdini: Despite all he's done over the seasons, Gordon saves him from Penguin and frees him when he's sure he isn't responsible for the Haven bombings. Zsasz even tells him he'll regret it in the end.
• Large Ham: Very theatrical and loud, and has "Funkytown" as his phone's ringtone. Also, with his assassination attempt of one of the mayoral candidates.
• Laughably Evil: Whenever he appears on screen, Zsasz will most likely have you laughing by the end of the scene. He’s a notorious and cold blooded Hitman, and yet he barely drops his chipper attitude or Affably Evil nature while on or off the job.
• Mythology Gag: This isn't the first time he's been a hitman for Falcone.
• Nothing Personal: He more or less says this to Jim when hunting him down after Falcone ordered the hit on him. He isn't even upset in the slightest after Falcone called it off.
• Not Me This Time: When Gordon and Penguin accuse him of the Haven bombing and the deaths of so many refugees, he immediately retorts that he'd never take credit for someone else's work— if he'd done it, he'd happily own up to it.
• Odd Friendship: With Falcone most of the time, but especially with Oswald. Both of them are equally psychotic and crazy, though Oswald can be disturbed by Victor— which is saying a lot.
• One-Man Army: He can easily take on entire precincts of police officers.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • When he appears in "Ghosts", he's more subdued than he normally is, and for good reason: his boss is furious with Gordon for icing Mario. He also doesn't take much pleasure in the knowledge that he'll eventually have to put one in Gordon's head, and his Ax-Crazy side only shows itself (also in a subdued fashion) towards the end of the meeting, when he congratulates Gordon for doing to Mario what it's implied he had himself thought of doing more than once.
  • Later seen in "Queen Takes Knight", after Don Falcone's death. He spends nearly the entire episode silent, deep in mourning for Falcone.
  • His appearance in "The Trial of James Gordon" has him rambling about stopping to smell the roses, being in love, and having become a vegan. This is because he's under the control of Ivy Pepper.
• Professional Killer: He kills people and gets paid for it instead of just doing it for the sake of killing.
• Psycho for Hire: Clearly very unstable and dangerous, but he works for and is actually quite loyal to Falcone. In the comics, he's a serial killer instead.
• Punch-Clock Villain: He's a surprisingly affable guy when he's not working a job to assassinate targets. For example, when Falcone drops the hit against Gordon despite Zsasz having him in his sights, Victor cheerily agrees and goes off minding his own business with a smile on his face.
• Torture Technician: It only took him a couple of weeks to turn Butch into a loyal puppet for Oswald.
• Undying Loyalty: Interestingly, given his otherwise Psycho for Hire character type, he's got this to Don Falcone in spades. When Fish makes her play and comes very close to forcing Falcone into leaving town, Zsasz is aware of it and watches Falcone nearly give up and bow out. Instead of treating his boss like he was going soft or getting on the betrayal wagon as Falcone loses his nerve, Zsasz begs Falcone not to leave, insists he fight back and, when Falcone doesn't, begrudgingly stands with him every step of the way despite his reservations, even though he could've easily found work with any other boss. He is also noticeably very happy to see Fish's plans foiled. He later turns on Penguin, whom he was otherwise very loyal to, when Sofia frames Penguin for Carmine's death.
• Villain Respect:
  • He has deep, immense respect for Jim Gordon, to the point that in "Ghosts", when Don Falcone and Lee Tompkins put a hit out on Gordon, Zsasz approaches Gordon hours before the hunt starts to warn him. In a deleted scene from the same episode, Zsasz describes the high-caliber sniper bullet he plans to use to kill Gordon, stating that he doesn't want Gordon to suffer and that he deserves "Nothing but the best."
  • When he and Alfred have a brief team-up to deal with Merton's thugs at the start of season 4, the two briefly share admiring looks at the other's professionalism.
• Villains Out Shopping: If Riddler is to be believed in season 4, he's apparently a big fan of the disco. The fact that he has "Funkytown" as his ringtone proves it.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Is nowhere to be seen when Falcone was put into the hospital during the season 1 finale. You'd think Zsasz would be at Falcone's bedside considering how their relationship was in previous appearances. However he would have been a Story-Breaker Power for Falcone. Subverted in season 5— he returns in person, and the first episode shows he controls a substantial territory on his own.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • Zsasz seems to have formed a respect for Jim Gordon, despite being on opposite sides of the morality coin. When it looks like he'll be sent after Jim when he kills Falcone's son Mario, he actually visits him beforehand to assure him his death will be painless and that he regards Jim as a "good egg".
  • He trades wry smiles of professional regard with Alfred in "Pax Penguina", when he and Bruce's butler-cum-bodyguard simultaneously draw on each other at the Iceberg Lounge in the middle of trouncing Merton's followers.

Wendell/Headhunter

Headhunter

"The second one is my trademark."

Played By: Kyle Vincent Terry

A low-level hitman who is recommended to Penguin by Zsasz as a security consultant during Penguin's Crime Licensing.

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• Affably Evil: Is a ruthless assassin willing to threaten a wounded and innocent old man for information but is otherwise jovially friendly and treats Gordon as if they were in a Buddy Picture.
• Badass Bandolier: Wears two, though never uses either.
• Calling Card: His oft-mentioned “signature” is that each of his victims has two bullet wounds — an instantly fatal headshot, and a second bullet just for the hell of it.
• Catchphrase: "The second one is my signature." It refers to his trademark of killing his targets by shooting them once in the head, then expending another bullet... just because. Repeated mockingly by Penguin when he stabs Wendell twice.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: He vanishes off the face of the earth after “The Sinking Ship, the Grand Applause.”
• Delinquent Hair: He sports a silver Mohawk.
• The Dog Bites Back: After recovering from being stabbed by Penguin, works with Zsasz to hunt down Penguin for Sofia Falcone.
• Eyepatch of Power: Has a metal-studded eyepatch in his second appearance after losing his eye.
• Eye Scream: Loses an eye as a result of Professor Pyg's trap.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: He wears a leather coat with a High Collar of Doom.
• Informed Attribute: Despite claiming to never need more than one shot to kill someone, constantly invokes A-Team Firing and never actually hits anyone onscreen.
• Laser Sight: Notably, the only character in the show to use them. Seems to be for Rule of Cool only, as it doesn't seem to actually help his aim.
• Race Lift: Is white in the comics.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After one failure too many in "The Sinking Ship, The Grand Applause", leaves with Zsasz in the middle of a mob hit to get milkshakes.
• Tattooed Crook: He has a skull tattooed on his right cheek. (In the comics, he had skulls tattooed on both cheeks.)
• Those Two Guys: With Zsasz in "The Sinking Ship, The Grand Applause."

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