Gotham is one of the weirder shows on television because it takes every single type of Batman story and then crams them all together, puts them in a blender, then spits out a prequel, without even trying to make it make any semblance of sense. It's a show where bad guys monologue, good guys grunt, and young children fight against ancient societies that rule the city from the shadows. In short, it's basically the best show ever made.
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Despite being a Batman show, Gotham has been somewhat sparing with its use of hardcore weirdos from Batman's rogue gallery. Sure, it has Mister Freeze and The Riddler -- as well as a dead-not-dead, sorta-maybe Joker -- but what about the really off-the-wall ones? What about the weird Batman characters that feel basically like a fever dream gone mad? Despite the fact that the show seems to not mind plunging into the darkest reaches of inanity, it is surprisingly timid when it comes to taking characters from the deeper wells. Well, we believe that's just silly. There are dozens of wonderfully horrible villains that Gotham should add to its bizarre, circus freak of a show.
15 BIRTHDAY BOY
Birthday Boy is a little known villain who has basically only appeared in the Batman: Earth one comic series, detailing Batman's early adventures in a darker, grimmer Earth. (Imagine the DCEU but in comic book form. And also slightly more fun.) He was a serial killer who preyed specifically on young girls resembling the first girl he ever killed. He fed them birthday cake and made his victims make a wish before brutally murdering them.
Birthday Boy only appeared for a short time at the beginning of Batman's career , which -- along with his MO -- makes him the obvious choice for Gotham. Plus, Birthday Boy hasn't ever worked alongside Calendar Man, but c'mon, that's so obvious. Since Calendar Man has already been introduced, team him up with Birthday Boy and BAM, a weird holiday-centric murder duo -- Gotham at its finest.
14 KGBEAST
Don't pretend he doesn't suck. The KGBeast is one of those Bat villains that nerds love to argue about because he's either the coolest character ever or the worst, most embarrassing character to ever grace a comic book featuring men in tights sleeping in bed together. He's really, really bad. Of course, some people have attempted to make him seem cool -- such as the creators of the new All-Star Batman -- and that's the type that Gotham would go with.
He would be a hardcore murdering Cold War-era soldier, someone with lots of guns, who talks with his fists (one of which is also a gun). His heavy accent and dedication -- heck, his name alone -- would ultimately end up causing more (inadvertent) laughs than any joke the creators of Gotham could ever write.
13 HANGMAN
Hangman is a small villain who only appeared in Batman: Dark Victory, as a serial killer hunting police officers, leaving small clues -- Hangman clues, in blood -- near the victims. If you can’t already picture Gotham doing that, then you need a better imagination. Eventually, it turns out to be a mob boss’s daughter, someone who had been confined to a wheelchair, unable to do near anything for herself before slowly regaining her strength -- and hiding it in order to better carry out her plot.
That would work so well in Gotham, especially if you messed with her alter ego a bit, letting her be someone Jim and the rest of the GCPD got close to and cared for, with her plotting against them all the while.
12 AGENT ORANGE
Agent Orange appears in only one comic. He's supposedly a Vietnam war vet who seeks vengeance against the government for what happened. While that's interesting and could lead to some fun Gotham stuff, it might work better if he was combined with another Agent Orange. See, there's a Wildstorm character of the same name, who is a super-strong killer -- robotic in nature -- who ceaselessly follows orders given to him.
If the show introduced him as this stoic killer and then brought him back as the angry man who seeks vengeance against those who used him as nothing but a murder weapon, you could get a pretty good story arc out of this otherwise bit character. Oh, and then give him an orange power ring!! Why not, right?
11 MAD MONK
Unfortunately, the Mad Monk is not merely a very angry friar -- although that too would be an excellent addition to Gotham. No, he is in fact one of the first villains that The Batman ever fought, someone who ol' Bats had to put down the hard way; so villainous and unstoppable was he. That's because -- wait for it -- the Mad Monk was no mere man... but a vampire!
Yes, the one thing missing from the kooky, mixed up world of Gotham is vampires. Obviously. One comic book depicted all of Batman's rogues turning into vampiric versions of themselves and all we're saying is can we please have one Halloween episode where this happens? Bring the Mad Monk in and have him take over Gotham... just for a little while.
10 CLUEMASTER
Cluemaster is one of those down-to-Earth villains that Gotham uses pretty regularly -- someone who is gimmicky but doesn't have any powers that would necessitate someone saying those dread words "Indian Hill." While he's not the coolest of Bat villains, he has had some good storylines and despite the fact that he sucks, he sucks in that exact way that Gotham loves.
If any show would be able to spin gold out of the straw that is the Cluemaster it would definitely be Gotham. Plus, with the Cluemaster around, maybe he'll bring in his daughter Stephanie Brown, AKA The Spoiler, AKA Robin. Hey, why should Dick Grayson be the first Robin? The show doesn't respect any other part of the mythos. Also, c'mon, can't you imagine Jim Gordon gruffly saying, "The Cluemaster?!" with a mixture of confusion and disgust? *It would be perfection.
9 CLOCK KING
Yes, yes, the Clock King has appeared in both Arrow and Flash but hey, so has Ra's Al Ghul and he's gonna show up in Gotham, so why not the Clock King? One of the best things about Batman's rogue gallery is how utterly weird all of them are -- and the Clock King is no exception. Love it or hate it (but you should love it) Gotham thrives on the weirder spaces of the DC Universe.
So, giving them a character like Clock King would be like giving a flamethrower to Firebug -- pure, exalted destructive madness. There's a couple different versions of the Clock King to choose from -- some even have powers -- but Gotham's fun lies in its weird, cartoon grittiness, so let Jim Gordon fight against a man whose only super power is being in the right place at the exact right time.
8 KITE MAN
NANA NANA NANA NANA KITE MAN (hell yeah)! Kite Man uses kites to commit crimes because at a certain point, comic book writers were very exhausted and really just wanted to go home. To defeat him, Batman engages in some kite-to-kite combat, making it the coolest comic to ever exist. While you might think a man whose entire power consists of “uses kite good” wouldn’t be a match, throw your mind back to the first season of Gotham when a man using balloons was a villain of the week. If a man with balloons can do it, why can’t Kite Man? Heck, he just made an appearance in the Batman comic series in 2017, so now would be the best time to add him to the show. At very least, Gotham should feature a version of him who attempts to outsmart the police, jumps off a roof and has a very, very, very bad landing.
7 DOCTOR DEATH
Doctor Death is one of the cooler, lesser known and silly Bat-villains. He had his most recent role in the New 52 event Zero Year, in which all of Gotham was plunged into chaos as the Riddler took hold of the city. Now, why does that sound familiar? In the comic, Doctor Death creates a serum that makes all of his bones... all of them... grow out of his body, mutating him into a monstrous man with mandibles who is obsessed with murder. In addition to the fact that he's just the right level of B-movie kooky, Doctor Death was also one of the first villains that a young Batman ever faced. That's right, Gotham should have Bruce fight him right here, right now. Bring it, boney.
6 DEACON BLACKFIRE
Honestly, if you read his name and don't think he belongs in Gotham, just... shame on you. Deacon Blackfire is the (possibly immortal?) leader of a cult -- already he definitely should be on Gotham -- who hasn't appeared too often. He's mostly been featured in a small comic called The Cult (guess what it was about) and some recent issues using Arkham Asylum as a base of evil power.
Whenever he appears, he accumulates dozens of worshippers eager to serve him -- most of them insane and/or homeless -- forcing them to attack the citizens of Gotham. Sometimes he even uses his extreme powers of personality to persuade those who fight against him, like Batman and, more for our purposes, Jim Gordon. Also, he keeps dying and coming back to life, so that's neat!
5 ANTI-BATMAN
Anti-Batman is a little known villain who has perhaps the coolest name around. Of course that's because it's merely a nickname; his real name is The Wrath. (Okay, not his REAL name but you know what we mean.) Like Batman, the Anti-Batman had parents (like many do) who died, killed senselessly... and so he vowed to fight against those who killed his parents; i.e., the police. Oh, and also his parents were criminals, so they didn't quite die "senselessly."
Yes, a man who fights against police because they killed his parents and wears a costume almost identical to Batman's is obviously the coolest villain ever created. He could be a young kid that Bruce meets, realizing there's only a thin line between crooks and cops, something that lets him understand that Jim Gordon isn't the role model he's always wanted and that to save Gotham he'll have to become... more than a man. Or, he could just be someone who hates cops and gets killed off in one episode.
4 JOKER'S DAUGHTER
This is the one character that has had the most perfect of opportunities to come up but yet somehow hasn't appeared. The Joker's Daughter has had a long, twisting history, but for Gotham, the version to go with is the one who appeared in the New 52's Villain Month issue, named after the titular villainess The Joker's Daughter.
It's about a deranged, possibly homeless woman who finds/wears the Joker's face and goes mad, deciding to devote herself to the Joker -- no matter the cost. In Gotham, there's already a Joker-devoted cult, so why not have one of them rise above the rest of the crowd, and become Jerome's number two. Jerome's own, twisted, much weirder version of Harley Quinn? Ooo, and then she and the real Harley Quinn could fight! How would that not be awesome?
3 SEWER KING
The Sewer King is a bit of an odd choice, admittedly, since he doesn't really show up anywhere outside of the universe of Batman: The Animated Series. He's a man who lives in the sewer and has a group of young thieves working for him. He would be a welcome addition to the Gotham Universe, maybe someone Catwoman even knows.
Of course, if you want to ramp things up a bit, you could always combine the Sewer King with the man we all know is the Real Sewer King: Killer Croc. Imagine Killer Croc living in the sewers, with a host of children thieves at his fingertips, ruling the shadows and alleyways of Gotham, nothing more than a myth, and so much more than a man.
2 THE OUTSIDER
The Outsider is one of those characters that comics don't quite know what to do with, so they reboot him sometimes -- but no matter which version you're dealing with, he's always an evil Alfred. Maybe he's a mutated evil (and previously dead) Alfred or maybe he's an Alfred from another Universe encroaching on our own. Either way though, he's Bruce Wayne's most trusted confidant turned dark and sinister.
How much fun would that be to see on Gotham? Heck, there's already another, Court of Owls-aligned Bruce Wayne (clone?) so why not add an evil Alfred -- how amazing would that be? The two duos staring each other down, making dry remarks, before punching the living daylights out of each other. What could be more Gotham than that?
1 CONDIMENT KING
You best believe Condiment King deserves to be on Gotham. Of all the characters in the Bat gallery, he's by far the most deserving. Remember, back before Batman: The Animated Series turned Mister Freeze into a multi-layered character with heart and... dare we say it... warmth? Back then, he was bland, boring and one-dimensional.
While no one would argue that Gotham would turn the Condiment King into a three-dimensional character, the show's unique zaniness could take this character and elevate him into frighteningly surreal heights. Imagine this character on a show where Oswald Cobblepot became the mayor and then his ex-best friend the Riddler tricked him into thinking ghosts were real with the help of Clayface. What would that show do to this character? Who knows! But can't we find out?
Which obscure Batman villains do YOU want to see make a Gotham debut? Let us know in the comments!