Bam Smack Pow
Fansided

Gotham – Who Is The Manager?

By Steve Lam

facebooktwitterreddit

On Monday, Gotham‘s latest episode, The Blind Fortune Teller, Fish Mooney showed off her negotiation skills and was able to get a meeting with the Manager — supposedly the big kahuna who’s running the prison.  Audiences are probably questioning who might this mysterious figure be.  Well, in late January of 2015, Deadline brought us news that actor Colm Feore was cast as Dr. Francis Dulmacher, a.k.a. The Dollmaker, and that he’ll be appearing in the seventeenth episode of Gotham, which is the one happening right after The Blind Fortune Teller.

More from TV

The Dollmaker, if you recall, was referred to in Selina Kyle by the two kidnappers, Patti and Doug, employed by him.  So, is the mystery of the identity of the Manager solved?  It seems like it.

The Dollmaker has never been a major villain in the Batman mythos, but he eventually became one of the most twisted.  The name “Dollmaker” is actually a name taken by three different villains.  The first Dollmaker (Dollmaker I) was Marcel Mannequin.  Yes, I know it’s very clichéd to have a birth name that refers to an inanimate object that resembles a human figure.  But that was the 1960s, and that era also gave us the campy Batman television series.  Created by Arnold Drake and Jack Sparling, Dollmaker I made his first appearance in Plastic Man #10 (June 1968).  Dollmaker I was specifically designed as an antagonist for Plastic Man, whose comics were lighthearted anyways.

The second Dollmaker (Dollmaker II) was Anton Schott.  Created by Sterling Gales and Jamal Igle, Dollmaker II made his first appearance in Supergirl #58 (January 2011).  Dollmaker II was revealed to be the estranged son of the Toyman, Winslow Schott.  Shown no compassion from his own father, and taken away by his mother (who was under the impression that Winslow was a pedophile), Anton had abandonment issues which later turned him into a sadist.  As Dollmaker II, he would surgically alter children and turn them into cyborg assassins.  Anton would later kidnap Cat Grant, hoping that she would become his new mother.  With the intervention of Supergirl, Anton was captured and sent to Arkham Asylum.

The third Dollmaker (Dollmaker III) was Barton Mathis.  Created by Tony S. Daniel, Dollmaker III made his first appearance in Detective Comics #1 (November 2011).  Probably the most twisted of all the comic incarnations of the character, Barton Mathis got his start by watching his father, Wesley, kill and cannibalize people.  Wesley would later be killed in front of Barton by a young James Gordon.  After a time in foster care, Barton disappeared for years.  He would later make his reintroduction as the Dollmaker — wearing a mask that was made from the skin of his dead father.

Only one other villain would be twisted enough to be infatuated with Barton — that would be the Joker.  The Joker purposely got himself caught and put in Arkham Asylum so he could meet with Barton.  But that plan backfires when Barton cuts and peels off the Joker’s face.

Barton’s exploits as the Dollmaker were more akin to Hannibal Lecter, where he would meticulously remove his victims’ organs and sew living bodies together.  Barton also proved to be a great adversary to Batman, as he was able to capture and imprison the Dark Knight for a brief time.

On television, the Dollmaker first appeared in animation on Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show in the episode titled The Case of the Dreadful Dolls.  The first live incarnation would be of the twisted Barton Mathis on The CW’s Arrow.  Portrayed by Michael Eklund in the episode titled Broken Dolls, Barton Mathis would murder young girls by pouring a flexible polymer down their throats, and then dress and pose them as bisque dolls.

We already know from the two latest Gotham episodes, The Scarecrow and The Blind Fortune Teller, that the prisoners are being selected for experimentation and vivisection  — the typical modus operandi of the Dollmaker.  We just don’t know what his ultimate end goal is.  Is this incarnation of the Dollmaker creating cyborgs?  Is he using his experiments to perfect Venom even more?  Or is he doing this as a mix of twisted science and sick pleasure (like the artistic piece created by Barton Mathis from the comics)?  We’ll just have to wait and see what Fish Mooney will discover, and how she intends to negotiate her release.  Or, most likely, how she’s going to fight her way out.

Fox’s Gotham airs on Mondays at 8:00PM EST

Next: Catch up on Gotham - The Blind Fortune Teller Recap

More from Bam Smack Pow

Home/TV