Gotham: Nathaniel Barnes Could Become One Of These Three Villains

Screen Capture from The New Batman Adventures Ep. 24 “Judgement Day”

The Judge

First Appearance: The New Batman Adventures Ep. 24 “Judgment Day”

Created by: Rich Fogel and Alan Burnett (Two-Face / Harvey Dent created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane)

My original thought, and the buzz online, is that Nathaniel Barnes will ultimately be transforming into The Judge. It made sense, and the pieces mostly fit. Barnes himself also did some on-the-nose dialogue referring to himself as “judge, jury, and executioner” before throwing Dr. Simon McKay through a brick wall. So this is a highly likely candidate.

The Judge is the “third” personality of Two-Face. In The New Batman Adventures‘ “Judgement Day” episode, The Judge is introduced right after The Penguin double-crosses Killer Croc and Two-Face. The character is only seen with a black robe, ceremonial wig, and some type of archaic weapon (e.g. sword, gavel). At this point, the show doesn’t show an explicit connection between Two-Face and The Judge.

The audience soon finds out that The Judge is aided by Corcoran, a councilman, supplying him with police files that allow the vigilante to carry out his “justice.” Batman gets wind of The Judge’s activities and tries to protect Two-Face. However, the two are almost killed with a trap preset by The Judge.

As Two-Face looks into the councilman, he discovers that Corcoran is corrupt. Batman, doing his own detective work, learns that Two-Face and The Judge are the same person (The Judge personality actually passed judgement on the other Two-Face personality—sentencing him to death). Batman gets to Corcoran just in time and also apprehends Two-Face as The Judge.

Corcoran is later indicted for his crimes and Two-Face is committed to Arkham Asylum where he repeatedly declares himself guilty via an imagined trial.

Like I said before, the pieces mostly fit. A big “however” is that Harvey Dent was already introduced on Gotham (although we haven’t really seen much of him as of late). It would be a squandered opportunity to make Barnes The Judge versus Dent. That’s why this character is a “close, but no cigar.”