At first we were distracted by the appearance of that annoying hypochondriac guy off of Scrubs, but then we realised Richard Kind (who, to his credit, has also appeared in a lot of other brilliant, non-annoying roles) was playing not just any mayor of Gotham, no sir. He's playing Mayor Aubrey James, who appears briefly during a news bulletin at the start of the pilot - decrying the murder of the Waynes and promising swift justice - and campaign posters promising he's got your back are plastered across the city as Bullock and Gordon conduct their investigations. Gotham is littered with new creations, including principal antagonist Fish Mooney, but Aubrey James is a character that's straight out of the comics. Or, at least, he was mentioned in one comic once. In 2006's Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #204 he's mentioned as the current Mayor of Gotham whilst Thomas Wayne is still alive, with James being included amongst Thomas and the then-head of the police department as a member of the "Madmen Of Gotham" during the fifties, who were working on a drug designed to repair and restore damaged brain tissue whilst suppressing violent tendencies. They were all ready to dump it into the city's water supply, too, until it turned out to give people weird superpowers. So if Gotham starts to take a turn for the Smallville later on, you'll know who to blame.
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/
