Why Gotham High could have actually been a good show.
So, for awhile, Warner Brothers seriously considered making yet another Batman animated series. While the classic 90s series and Batman Beyond were both great: they wanted to make an animated show where Bruce Wayne goes to high school, with all of his future villains, I guess. The actual premise has Alfred sending Bruce to a public school in an attempt to make friends to take his mind of his ever increasing obsession with building things to stop crime. (I love this premise). The picture above shows all the characters final teenaged designs (which I will go into further into this blog). While most fans were overjoyed when the project got canned, Im almost disappointed it did. Theres alot of potential here for a solid teen-drama with familiar characters and could have used their unique back stories to explain their own suffering as well as various other high school issues. Hit the jump!
Before you read any of this, please acknowledge that I am completely aware of how outlandish the idea of Bruce Wayne attending high school with every individual who has ever vowed to kill him is dumb, but suppress your Bat-disbelief for a few moments and see what I have to say.
Ok first off, Im gonna go over the character designs for the show. Right of the bat theres a couple of things I would immediately change.
Bane: As much as I love his design (lovable, unexpectedly smart jock would be his character) as well as the nice foreshadowing to what he becomes via his beanie, Id take him out of the show completely. Bane never had a chance at a normal childhood, let alone an adolescence. He spent his time in an abusive prison living out a sentence that wasnt even his. To protect himself, he would have to hide a shiv inside his teddy bear named Osito. Him being in this show conflicts too much with Banes character.
All the characters with visible extreme abnormalities (Freeze, Ivy, Joker, Croc Two-Face ect): Make them look like "normal" human beings. All the characters change into their villainous roles do not occur until adulthood. This should reflect that. I mean is no one in the administration worried that one of thier students has BLUE skin, or a completely white face?
Joker: Dont make him Joker. He can still be in the show, but it should be subtle. I would imagine him as a kid who rarely gets screen time and is often ignored by the other students because they find him incredibly boring. That or he has so much emotional baggage on him that none of the students even want to deal with him, lest they become his vessel for venting. Hell Id even say make him crack a joke or too (but make it scarce).
Scarecrow: I actually really like the design, but get rid of his noose. Im pretty sure that kind of thing would put everyone on suicide watch.
Penguin: If you can ignore the fact that he would probably not be attending public school because of how rich the Cobblepots are, Id make him dress snapier. Hes rich, and hes not afraid to show it.
Riddler: Look at the above picture. Edward is getting his shit handed to him by Croc because I guess hes the scrawny nerd character? Wrong. Riddler needs to be the tall handsome smartass know-it-all. The guy who always tries to be the best at whatever he does. But gets beat everytime by -- you guessed it, Bruce.
Clayface: While the visible homage to Clayface is clever (with the ceramic-class apron and all that) Matt Hogen is a bad choice. Instead it should be Basil Karlow, the actor who later became Clayface. Karlow would also serve a much better teen drama-esque character: hed be the drama kid who constantly finds himself frustrated because he always gets the second biggest parts in Gotham Highs school productions, never the lead.
Now that we have our cast of characters, I can already imagine some high school scenarios our lovable villains could be cast in. Take the following picture for example:
Here we see Two-Face and Ivy brawling it out in a school presidential debate. As Harv points at Pamela with I can only imagine him saying "You cant vote for HER, shes a huge slut!" as his only retort. These characters can easily implement their future selves into current situations.
I can see Scarecrow bringing a fake gun to school, to scare his bullies. (Ah yes I forgot to mention, Scarecrow would be consistently bullied throughout the show. I would also have Bruce stick up for him once or twice, just for dramatic purposes). With this scenario we can cover the school shooting requirement of our show, except we wont have a now somewhat famous rap artist in a wheelchair.
Ivy can become that annoying school hippy who tells the school and everyone inside of it to "go green!" (Get it, cause she will be green, eventually).
We can have an episode where Bruce tries to help Freeze talk to his crush, a cute girl in his class named Nora. (Do ho ho!)
We would obviously have an episode where Selina (catowman) tries to bone Bruce, and the episode would end about how you shouldnt have sex until youre ready.
The point is, there is obviously potential to be had here, plus the show would probably be incredibly awkward and probably would not last longer than a season for its complete lack of action. But hey, we can dream right? To conclude, heres a picture of Ivy and Harley as cheerleaders. (By the way all this art was official art, for the time that the show was being pitched).
jbbartram-illu
gummygunk
baratheonpilled
blakekathryn
jacobvanloon