David Mazouz as Bruce Wayne in “Damned if You Do”

While it may have had plenty of promotion elsewhere, Gotham, the Batman origin series, near sneaked back onto Channel 5 last night with the launch of its second season in the UK.

Drew Powell as Butch Gilzean and Robin Lord Taylor as Oswald Cobblepot / The Penguin in Gotham’ “Damned if You Do”

In “Damned If You Do…“, the first episode of the season which has the arc title Rise of the Villains which began airing in the US last September, the future Penguin, Oswald Cobblepot (Robin Lord Taylor) begins to style himself as the new King of Gotham after taking Fish Mooney’s place. He immediately decides to flex his new muscle by having one of his henchmen kill a rival mob boss.

James Frain as Theo Galavan in Gotham’s “Damned if You Do”

Meanwhile, Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie) has been demoted to beat cop, while his ex-girlfriend Barbara Kean (Erin Richards) is locked up in Arkham Asylum. His former partner Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue) has quit police work himself to become a bartender.

The former detective is so tense that he attacks a fellow cop, making Commissioner Loeb (Peter Scolari) threaten to fire him, too.

Elsewhere, future Batman Bruce Wayne David Mazouz and Alfred Pennyworth (Sean Pertwee) discover secrets under Wayne Manor…

The show also stars Camren Bicondova as future Catwoman Selina Kyle and Morena Baccarat as Dr Leslie Thompkins.

Sean Pertwee, who plays Bruce’s guardian Alfred, recently told Digital Spy that the team behind the show are “very much” committed to seeing the story of Bruce Wayne’s rise to become Batman through to its end, even though that’s still some way off.

“That’s the extraordinary thing – it’s real-time,” he said. “It’s the honour and the privilege of working on a show like this that we get the opportunity to discover these characters over 22 hours per season.

• Gotham airs on Channel 5 on Monday nights at 10.00pm. Catch up with previous episodes here on the Channel 5 web site

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.

Categories: downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Television, US Comics

Tags: Batman, Ben McKenzie, David Mazouz, DC Comics, downthetubes News, Gotham, James Frain, Sean Pertwee