After a bit of a rocky start future generations, with the benefit of eons more wisdom and analytical capabilities, will still struggle to figure out what that Balloon Man thing was about and who thought it was a good idea Gotham wound up being one of Fox's biggest hits this year, the Batman prequel series managing to climb to...if not dizzying, then at least acceptable heights in terms of critical and fan estimations. One of the delicate tight rope walks the show has sometimes stumbled on is the amount of villains it introduces. The premise of Gotham has Bruce Wayne, the future Caped Crusader, as a helpless child and its Jim Gordon, years before he becomes police commissioner, who's tasked with solving the murder of the innocent young billionaires parents. An investigation that's taken him into the singularly strange criminal underworld of Gotham city. The general explanation for why so many supervillains can be found on its streets is that they were inspired by the Dark Knight, but on the basis of Gotham, a lot of those weirdos have been around way longer. The first season hinted at the early start of The Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, and The Penguin's criminal careers, decades before Batman shows up. Sometimes they've hinted at the future of Batman's rogues gallery with a degree of subtlety; other times, there's been a girl called Ivy Pepper tending to a room full of plants. Also she has red hair. Do you get it yet? The next batch of episodes looks set to continue the trend, for better or for worse, with subtlety or without here are ten villains you can expect to see in Gotham's second season.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
