So here is a little theory of mine. What if Gotham takes place in the Earth 2 universe?
On Earth 2, Thomas Wayne is actually Batman. In the Earth 2 rendition of Thomas Wayne, Wayne saved a mobster when he was young by the name of Francesco Francavilla from a hit. To show his gratitude, Francavilla threw Thomas a huge rock star style party, where he met Martha, and became close friends with Francavilla and later supplied drugs to the mob. In Gotham, it definitely seems like there are a lot of connections between Wayne Enterprises and the Falcone crime family. It has also been pointed out a few times that since the death of the Wayne’s that things in Gotham have been getting crazier. Maybe Thomas played a big part in keeping things flowing with Falcone?
There have been some interpretations of the Earth 2 universe where when Thomas was still in medical school in in the 70’s or 80’s, he developed connections to the Falcone crime family after he saved Frankie Falcone from a gunshot wound. Afterwards though, the same thing happened as the Francavilla story, where Thomas was thrown a huge party and introduced to the world of drugs, but in this interpretation it was only when Bruce was Batman that he discovered his father was still alive, and after Darkseid killed him, Thomas took his son’s place as the Batman. So they can sort of mix and weave the two stories together to make it fit into the show better.
When Thomas and Martha had Bruce, Thomas wanted out of the organization, which Francavilla didn’t like. So he tried to send a message by having three enforces jump Thomas, but he ended up being saved by Jarvis Pennyworth. With the beating ending up being a failure, Francavilla took the next step and ordered a hit on Thomas. In this situation, we may just never get to see the first attempt where the three-gang members are sent to jump Thomas, or maybe we will see it via flashback if Alfred ever decides to tell Bruce about it or anyone else. Maybe Jim Gordon?
Turns out that Wayne actually survived, and used his connections with people like Leslie Thompkins (who was recently cast actually) to remain “dead.” Thomas retaliated though and got back at the men who came after him and Francavilla with the help of a drug compound called Mircalo, which gives the user some enhanced strength and abilities for a short period of time. Sounds an awful lot like the viper drug we saw in the last episode. It’s also worth pointing out that Hourman/Rex Tyler uses this drug as well and I believe is credited with its creation.
Anyways, Thomas used the drug to kill all the men who came after him, but Bruce never accepted Thomas back into his life. So, to Bruce, Thomas remained dead and for the next handful of years, Thomas would view Bruce’s life from afar, watching Bruce get married, have a daughter, and ultimately die. With everyone Thomas ever loved and cared about gone, he thought it best to honor his family, more specifically his son, by taking up the ideology of what he stood for, and dawning the mantle of the bat.
So that is the general idea of Earth 2 Batman, Bruce Wayne, etc. Not everything lines up perfectly but it is pretty close. Like I stated, there are a lot of connections between the Falcone family and Wayne Enterprises. Instead of Miraclo, what if Thomas used a more stable version of Viper? It is essentially the exact same thing and a subsidiary of Wayne Enterprises is even credited with the drugs creation. Or it definitely seems that Wayne Enterprises wants this drug to work, so maybe Rex Tyler is brought onto the show as a Wayne Enterprises employee to fix the drug. Also, on Gotham, Alfred’s name is not Jarvis, obviously. Now they could say that it his middle name or he had to change his name after defending Thomas from the gang beating, but for now all we know is his name is Alfred.
Another great thing about this if it actually happened is that we could get Justice Society members such as Alan Scott, Jay Garrick, and many others. This would also serve as a great twist on the series, while giving us Batman, but not necessarily the Batman we are used to seeing so it wouldn’t interfere or take away from the version that we will see in the movies.
It is also worth noting too, which I know this may be looking way into it, that we never see the corpse of Thomas after the alley. We see him lying there but we never see him in a morgue or in his casket at the funeral. Also as I previously stated above, Leslie Thompkins was actually recently cast in the series and will be played by Firefly alum Morena Baccarin. She played a big role in Thomas’ secret by declaring him dead and nursing him back to health. Plus, if anyone read the extensive interview from Geoff Johns that was posted yesterday, he states that he looks for each show to be different. What would be more different than setting a show on a completely different Earth while also giving us a version of these characters we have never seen in the live action medium? In addition, giving us a version of Batman that kills and uses guns.
This is also occurred to me while writing this article, why would they be introducing so many Batman villains that are adults while Bruce Wayne is still a kid? Like so many, myself included, like to point out, by the time Bruce did become Batman, most of these criminals would be old and no match for him. But if Thomas became Batman now, then they would be the perfect matches for him. So much like this is an origin story for Bruce Wayne, maybe season 1 is just an origin story for all these villains and at the end of the season we will get the big reveal that Thomas is still alive.
In addition to all of this, we did get that big easter egg in the Flash pilot teasing a possible ‘Crisis’ storyline. Could DC be setting up a Flashpoint storyline between all of its shows? This would make sense because Johns and the producers always say that the shows are separate universes. Well we all know how universes have a tendency to collide in the DC universe. For those of you that didn’t see the animated Flashpont movie or ever read the storyline, we had a Batman that was actually Thomas Wayne, but what was different was that the night that Thomas and Martha usually got murdered, it was Bruce that got shot. This drove Martha insane and she ultimately became the Joker while Thomas became Batman.
So what do you all think? Is Gotham setting up the Earth 2 version of Bruce Wayne and Batman? Will we see other characters like Alan Scott and Jay Garrick appear eventually? Let me know what you think.