Spoilers for last night’s Gotham episode are ahead!
Gotham is a show that thrives on villainy, and while that’s great for the viewers, within that gritty world, the overabundance of colorful criminals is depressing. Fortunately, that’s going to change in the near future. The big revelation from last night’s episode “Scarification” was that main antagonist Theo Galavan is a descendant of the Dumas family, who were stripped of their prominence as one of Gotham City’s leading families 200 years ago after an unfortunate incident with the Wayne family. We’ll learn more about the Order of St. Dumas and their plan as the season goes on, and with that will come the introduction of a badass hero to even the scale: Azrael.
Executive producer John Stephens mentioned in an interview with ComicBook that Gotham’s exploration of the Order of St. Dumas will see the hero Azrael eventually introduced. As he put it:
We will be going deeper into the Order of St. Dumas over the next run of episodes, and it will continue to play an evolving role for the rest of the season. And yes, we wouldn’t be telling an Order of St. Dumas story without also intending to tell an Azrael story. Just keep watching.
To Gotham viewers not familiar with Batman lore, they may know Azrael simply as the Angel of Death, but hardcore comic book fans know that Azrael is the title of assassins that have been groomed by the Order of St. Dumas to carry out their will. The two most well known Azraels originally came from violent splinter factions of the Order before going on their own path. There’s Jean-Paul Valley, who briefly served as Batman after Bane broke Bruce Wayne’s back in the early 1990s, and Michael Lane, an ex-cop who was experimented on by evildoer Dr. Simon Hurt. Whether Gotham will adapt one of those two men or have their main Azrael be an original character has yet to be determined.
The priest Theo was talking to in “Scarification” mentioned how their “brothers” are traveling across the ocean not just to cleanse Gotham City in fire, but to kill Bruce Wayne for their family’s slight. So the Azraels in this universe may start out as a force of warriors rather than just one individual, and they won’t be at all friendly. However, much like in the comics, it’s possible that one of the warriors will break off from the group and decide to make Azrael a force for the common good, whether it’s in Gotham City or elsewhere. Then we’ll get the real Azrael crimefighter; and who knows, maybe he’ll end up being one of Bruce’s influences for becoming Batman.
You can catch new episodes of Gotham Mondays at 8 p.m. EST on Fox.
