Comic book fans have a lot to cheer for on TV, but this fall could possibly offer up the TV season's sweetest story arc, as Gotham Season 4 will officially put Bruce Wayne on the costume-covered path to becoming Batman, as some truly dangerous foes enter Gotham City's underworld. But don't expect to see Bruce's vigilante persona immediately getting along with presumed future crimefighting ally Jim Gordon, as that relationship will take an interesting left turn as Season 4 marches on. Writer and executive producer John Stephens was talking Jim Gordon's other big season arc and then brought this up:
Bruce Wayne is gonna go out there and start operating as a vigilante wearing a mask and everything, and we'll see him learning the skills that will one day be used as Batman. And then moving forward after that, Jim Gordon will realize that this vigilante's operating out there in Gotham somewhere and he goes, 'I'm going to hunt that guy down.' We have Jim Gordon and a masked Bruce Wayne going head to head.
Say wha-a-a-a-at? Throughout just about all of Batman's history across all mediums, Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon are similarly committed to ridding Gotham City of its criminal element, even when it means skirting by-the-books methods of keeping the peace. As we all know, though, Gotham isn't telling the average Batman tale, and so viewers have already seen far different shades of this relationship than we're used to. Bruce and Jim's respective stories haven't majorly crossed paths in a while, but it sounds like their chum-dom will become more complicated before it ever gets more comfortable.
Bruce's transition into pure hero-dom has been documented in the first few looks at Gotham Season 4, as he's started taking on more of the costumed and weaponry side of things to complement his broadened fight skills. With protective chest gear, gloves, boots and the practical precursors to the iconic cape and cowl, Bruce is lightyears away from the frightened and saddened young boy Jim Gordon first tried to soothe back in Gotham's pilot, after his parents had been gunned down. And so while one might automatically think that Jim will have the upper hand when it comes to putting the masked vigilante in his place, don't expect Bruce to enter the fight half-cocked. (And we're keeping up faith that Alfred will be a secret weapon in the Bruce vs. Jim narrative.)
Of course, both Jim and Bruce will have their hands full when it comes to all the bad guys in Gotham City. But the former will have an unlikely ally in his attempts to take down that most wily of Gotham's antagonists, The Penguin. Here's what else John Stephens told DC All Access.
In the first half of the season this year, Jim Gordon is going to try to loosen Penguin's hold upon Gotham. He does that by forming an alliance with Sofia Falcone, who Crystal Reed is playing, and the two of them work together to basically try to dethrone Penguin.
It's about time someone with a badge actually tries to take Penguin down again. Sure, it's fun to watch Gotham City's underworld collapse on itself to pit its villains against one another, but it's still weird to me that "Mayor Oswald Cobblepot" was a thing that people could say for as long as they did. And given the testy relationship between Jim and Carmine Falcone, it's certainly interesting that the crime boss' daughter will be Jim's cohort in this takedown attempt.
Beyond Penguin dealing with new threats to his well-being, Gotham is upping its villain game in many other ways. We're getting a horror-tinged return from The Scarecrow (a different version of the already established version, in any case) as well as the introduction of Professor Pyg and his Dollotrons. Other leading villains like the currently ice-encased Riddler, proto-Catwoman, Tabitha and more, will come together for some interesting groupings that form between them all. (Though perhaps none are more interesting than Jim and Sofia.) And to cap it all off, we might get a possible return from Jerome at some point.
Gotham will bring its "A Dark Knight" storyline to audiences when Season 4 kicks off for the show's new night on Thursday, September 21, at 8:00 p.m. ET. To see everything else heading to the small screen in the near future, head to our fall premiere schedule.
