Spoilers for tonight’s Gotham below.
Tonight’s Gotham introduced a few names that audiences might not be that familiar with, and while we can’t wait to see where the show takes the Secret Order of St. Dumas plotline, we knew that one was coming. One pretty big left field reference made in the episode came when Silver St. Cloud “confessed” to Tommy Flanagan’s hitman that a man named “M. Malone” was the person who killed Bruce Wayne’s parents. Comic fans know the name, but casual viewers might be in the dark.
Matches Malone means two things within the DC Universe. The first involves the actual criminal that went by that name, who first appeared in the comic world back in 1972. Malone was orphaned as a child – connections! – and turned to a life of crime as an adult, although he wasn’t nearly as evil and deadly as the bulk of Batman’s other foes, mostly looking out for his own interests rather than having a giant agenda to take anything over.
The character has a very specific look that includes tinted glasses, a bushy mustache and plaid suits, which plays into the second way Matches Malone’s name is a big one: it was a non-Batman alias of Bruce Wayne’s used when he wanted to mix it up with the criminal underworld. That side of things definitely won’t be making it to Gotham at this point in time, considering Bruce is too young to go around dressed like that without people asking, “Hey, pre-pubescent boy who obviously can’t grow facial hair, what are you doing in that man suit?”
But it would be an interesting connection to make for Bruce’s future. In the comics, Malone had nothing to do with the murders of Thomas and Martha Wayne, but if he’s responsible for doing it in the TV show, that would create an intriguing and fairly painful justification for Bruce to take on that persona later in life. Of course, Malone is presumably quite a bit older than Bruce in this universe, but whatever. The kid has got the money to afford some prosthetics.
And that’s even assuming that Silver was telling the truth when under the threat of having a finger cut off. It seemed like she was, as Selina explained that she only coughed the name up to save herself and not Bruce, but that character is clearly as full of shit as anyone else, particularly her ward Theo Galavan. If she was being honest, then we might see Bruce tracking Malone down later in Season 2, and even if she was lying, we might see the same thing happening. Bruce will make his judgment call when Malone is in his face.
Can Gotham possibly fit any more villains into this crime-ridden city? Count on it. Tune in next Monday night on Fox for the Season 2 miidseason finale, which not everyone will live through.
