When Fox first announced “Gotham,” it sounded like a very stupid idea. A Batman show with no Batman? Who would care about a prequel centered on Gordon when he was just a detective? Why would anyone watch a show about a young Penguin and Riddler? And yet, the show quickly embraced the silliness of its premise and turned it into a winning formula. What started as just another police procedural, albeit one with comic book references, quickly turned into a predecessor to the everything-goes attitude that made “Riverdale” a fan favorite.
“Gotham” not only featured compelling origins for villains like Penguin, but it gave the spotlight to other villains like Professor Pyg, Mat Hatter, and Solomon Grundy — fully embracing the sillier and more cartoony elements of those characters, like Grundy being a literal zombie. Sure, Bruce Wayne was a part of the show, but he’s just a rich teenager years removed from putting on the cowl and cape. In the meantime, Gotham City is already crawling with supervillains and even adapting big comic book events like “The Court of Owls,” “Hush” and “No Man’s Land” even without Batman around. This is not unlike the way the Sony Spider-Man movies already have both Venom and Morbius (with Kraven joining soon) as established characters despite there seemingly being no Spider-Man in their universe.
Of course, one of the boldest things “Gotham” ever did was introduce Joker — again, before Batman arrives. Not only that, but it gave us two Jokers. You read that right. Two Jokers. In this economy? Somehow, it all worked. By having a city filled with supervillains, “Gotham” turned the arrival of Batman into the city’s salvation rather than the start of its comic book journey. Perhaps “Madame Web” has a chance to do the same.