Gotham Casts Matches Malone

Gotham has cast somebody in the role of Matches Malone, Batman’s alter ego for the criminal underworld, but also the man who murdered Bruce’s parents on the show.

When Silver St. Cloud named “M. Malone” on last week’s episode of Gotham, hardcore Batman fans went pretty nuts. Because M. Malone most likely stood for Matches Malone. And Matches Malone is the secret identity Bruce Wayne often uses to infiltrate criminal organizations to get information he might not be able to obtain merely through punching criminals as Batman.

Granted, the use of Matches Malone’s name on Gotham last week could have been a lie to throw Bruce off, but it appears to be the real deal as the show has cast actor Michael Bowen (Breaking Bad, Lost) as the infamous yet low level gangster.

But in true Gotham fashion, they’e played around with Mr. Malone’s origin a bit. Set to debut in the second half of Gotham’s current season in 2016 this Matches Malone “is a weathered, philosophical hitman who may be the trigger man behind one of the most important crimes in Gotham’s history.”

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Of course this creates some continuity problems hardcore Batman fans may not be happy with. For example, although it’s occasionally been altered, the killer of Thomas and Martha Wayne is nearly always Joe Chill. But more importantly, how is Bruce Wayne ever supposed to pass himself as a guy who is decades older than him and why would he pass himself off as he man who apparently murdered his parents?

But then again, Gotham has played really fast and loose with the established history of just about every character on the show, so this shouldn’t be a surprise. Retcons are certainly nothing new in the comic book world, so changing someone’s origin ever so slightly shouldn’t be that big a deal. We’ll just have to see what the story is behind Matches Malone when Gotham returns next year.

h/t Comicbook.com