Hey youtubers it's Charlie and FOX just revealed Hugo Strange is going to be one of the Big
Villains on Gotham and as a result, Season 1 will revolve around the origin of Arkham
Asylum. The way they described those two details was very co-dependent. Which I guess is appropriate,
being that Hugo Strange is a psychologist.
So this video is going to be a breakdown of who that character is and a history of Arkham
Asylum.
Hello any new people, if you're just finding me for the first time I do DC and Marvel videos
every week. Be sure to subscribe to get everything. I'm planning a bunch of awesome stuff for
when they start airing Gotham episodes and there's a bunch of crazy comic con stuff going
on that I'll explain at the end of this video.
So let's explain what's going on with Season 1. It's an Origin Story for the Gotham City
of adult Batman. So a lot of places like Arkham Asylum are being developed the same way you'd
develop young Bruce Wayne into Batman.
Season 1 is going to establish how Arkham became a revolving door for super criminals
and Hugo Strange is a huge part of that. Just to be clear though, just like Arrow and The
Flash, they're telling their version of Arkham.
In the comics Strange has had a wide array of run ins with Arkham, which I'll explain.
But Gotham is going to make the continuity of that place much more linear.
So here's a quick history of Arkham Asylum and then I'll explain how Hugo Strange fits
in. Because he's been all things, a doctor and an inmate.
There's this really awesome quote from Jeremiah Arkham, the most recent person to run it.
"Arkham Asylum is not just any institution for the criminally insane. It's the Ivy League
of insanity. A "Harvard" for Psychopaths."
The name Arkham is based on a fictional city called Arkham Massachussets in HP Lovecraft's
books. In the Batman Universe it was created by Amadeus Arkham in the late 1800s after
he helped his mother commit assisted suicide. That Inspired him to create it. The name changed
to Arkham Hospital and then eventually to Arkham Asylum.
He began the tradition of Arkham doctors going insane and ending up as inmates themselves.
Which became pretty common. If the show were to ever do this character, he's the spitting
image of Robert Englund. Who also kind of looks like Hugo Strange too. Something about
villains and creepy beards....
He passed custodianship on to his nephew Jeremiah Arkham who himself hired Harley Quinzel, Jonathan
Crane, Hugo Strange our Gotham tv show villain and Lyle Bolton. All of whom went very insane
while working there, going on to become very memorable villains. Lyle Botlon wasn't super
memorable, but Harley Quinn and Scarecrow.
When Jeremiah took over he had the place renovated to resemble a classic labyrinth structure.
Nice and creepy. I can't imagine why doctors would go mad working in a labyrinth all day.
Right now Arkham is mostly known for the video game franchise, which is awesome. I know a
lot of you guys have requested I do videos for that. I might when the next one comes
out next year.
There are a lot of Arkham specific comic books that are really good at giving you nightmares.
Including Arkham Asylum Living Hell and Arkham Asylum Serious House on Serious Earth. Or
you could just read HP Lovecraft and go straight to the source. Praise Cthulu.
Hugo Strange as mentioned was a Doctor there for a long time but like a lot of comic book
characters, his history has been messed with a lot.
He was raised in an orphanage in Gotham's version of Hell's Kitchen. That was a really
shitty part of New York until Rudy Guliana cleaned it up. He becomes a brilliant professor
at Gotham University until he gets caught conducting really bizarre genetic experiments.
He turns to the mob for funding to further his research and starts experimenting on Arkham
inmates. He ends up building an army of monster men and uses them to steal a bunch of money
until Batman stops him.
Later stories took him down more of a Scarecrow path with psychological compounds. Think Scarecrow
in the Dark Knight Trilogy.
In a later story Detective Gordon even hired him to be a consultant for the Gotham City
Police. Strange of course went nuts and got taken down. But it's just another example
of how the show could use him.
The Riddler character on the show is actually a forensic scientist in Gordon's department.
That's the same job that Grant Gustin's Flash character has on his show. That's just a funny
coincidence.
At his core he's an insane psychologist and scientist obsessed with Batman. He's mostly
known as one of the few people who ever correctly deduced Batman's true identity. That was the
story they used when he showed up in the Animated Series.
Because of his dual specialties, sometimes his stories have been about experimenting
on Arkham Inmates for science or brainwashing normal people, even brainwashing other supervillains
to get at Batman. There was even a plot where he wanted to brainwash and kill Batman so
He's one of Batman's earliest villains in the comics and he really works best in psychological
stories. Which is perfect for television. It's a lot cheaper to have a villain manipulate
people's thoughts and emotions than to have Bane blow up half the city every week.
Because on the show Bruce Wayne is going to be a kid and Strange will be an adult. It's
possible that they could introduce him as Bruce's psychiatrist to help him deal with
his parent's murder.
If you want to read some good Hugo Strange stories, read Batman Prey, Batman Transference
and Catwoman The One You Love.
At the start of the series Gotham, the city itself is going to begin this slow descent
into madness that reaches it's climax when Batman puts the cowl on. So we're going to
be watching things go to shit for what I'm hoping will be 5 seasons.
Right now the biggest criticisms I've seen of the pilot episode are that it just makes
a lot of promises in terms of characters and comic book stories, that it may never get
to pay off.
Arkham will be like the Pandora's Box for freaks of the week and major villains season
to season. Because of the way it's established in the canon you can literally pull any character
out of that bag.
Another big villain they're doing is The Joker. This is a screencap of Jon Beavers he plays
a comedian working in Fish Mooney's Club. It's believed he's going to be the character
they turn into the Joker eventually. His credit just reads as "The Comedian".
But I think it's him. They just need a season or two to get to develop that persona. He's
barely even in the pilot so he's not going to be the focus of the show right now. It's
like they're setting a laughing gas bomb to explode in 20 or 30 episodes.
Speaking of other characters, Arrow is starting to take a bite out of the Batman Universe.
So in response to all the new characters that show was bringing in The Gotham producers
made it really clear they didn't think Arrow would be any characters from them. Despite
Stephen Amell making an off handed remark that if you like Batman Villains, you're going
to love Arrow Season 3."
It's a little confusing how both shows will handle everything going forward, but because
they seem like they want to cooperate, they didn't rule out crossovers. But that's a network
decision. The producers can't do something like that without sacrificing an animal to
a pagan god. Especially because its between two different networks, FOX and the CW. Fingers
crossed.
And if you really want to see how good crossovers can be, watch Arrow and The Flash. Here's
the premiere dates for all the DC TV Shows.
First Starter is Gotham, Monday September 22nd, then The Flash Tuesday October 7th,
Arrow the next day October 8th and then Constantine Friday October 24th.
I'll be doing reviews of the first episodes of all these shows this week. Be sure to subscribe
to get everything.
They're not screening the Gotham pilot till Saturday night, so my review of that will
probably post on Sunday.
Right now click here to learn about more of the Gotham Villains we'll see including Mr
Freeze and click here to learn all about the first episode of Arrow Season 3.
Thanks for watching, see you guys tonight. High Fives!