Fan Fridays: Is Hush the Bruce Wayne Clone of Gotham's Third Season?

When the second season of Gotham ended, a cornucopia of villainy descended upon Gotham City when the creatures created by Hugo Strange were let loose upon the city. A combination of freaks, monsters, and recently resurrected foes swooped out of their restraints and promised big changes for the third season of the Fox series which will be premiering on September 19.

The most curious among these is a young man who is the spitting image of one Bruce Wayne, emerging from the labs and presenting far more questions than answers for this upcoming season. Comic book fans however may already know the answer to this teen's identity as many point to this Bruce Wayne doppelganger as being none other than the Batman villain, Hush.

Could Tommy Elliott be returning this season to join the cast, now with a different face? Let's look at the facts.

First here is some background on Hush: Thomas Elliott was a childhood friend of Bruce and acted as something of a reflection to him. Tommy, unlike Bruce, had a father who was physically and emotionally abusive, making Elliott's childhood a nightmare. In retaliation, the young Hush cut the brake lines of his parents' car, resulting in an accident that would ultimately kill his father. Tommy's mother however, had survived thanks in part to Thomas Wayne using his medical training - something young Elliott wasn't thrilled to see. Sparking a fire that would eventually grow within his mind, Tommy's hatred grew so large for Bruce that he eventually became a super villain in his own right, taking up the moniker, "Hush", along with bandaging his face to complete the appearance.

Hush, after his premiere story, underwent plastic surgery to make himself look like the spitting image of Bruce Wayne in order to take over Wayne Enterprises, and generally mess up Batman's life.

Incorporating Hush into the third season of Gotham would continue the trend of the series to introduce nearly any and all villains that have plagued the Dark Knight during his career, albeit portraying them all as much younger than what we know. While the Bruce Wayne clone could simply just be that, incorporating the Hush storyline would be a nice nod to the fans and to one of the biggest Batman storylines to date. Tommy Elliot after all has already appeared in the series as a rival to Bruce, so showing up with his face is the same storyarc, albeit sped along a bit faster.

ComicBook.com Gotham expert Lucas Siegel went on a set visit last month, and said that the Hush incorporation is still fan speculation.

"All we know about Bruce Wayne's doppelganger for sure at this point is that he looks like Bruce Wayne, and has his own motivations and mission to complete," Siegel said . "Whether he's another Wayne, a wholly new creation, a servant of the Court of Owls, or Tommy Elliott, those facts all still fit.

"Keeping in mind that Gotham showrunners and executive producers Bruno Heller, Danny Cannon, and John Stephens have all talked at length about their long-form storytelling, planting seeds in season one to play out two or three seasons later, it stands to reason that Tommy didn't appear back in the eighth episode of the series as just a throwaway Easter Egg."

Of course, how the show presented the Bruce Wayne doppelganger isn't precisely how these events took place in the DC Comics universe, but Gotham has been known to take a number of liberties when it came to the source material. Gotham has presented us with a (maybe) Joker kid, a Riddler who is part of the Gotham PD, and a much more criminal version of Mr. Freeze along with a bevy of other changes along the way.

Bringing Hush into the series in this way would work seamlessly with the show's current architecture and would make for a nice subplot against the overarching threat that is the "Court of Owls". Now just give us a younger version of Bane and we pretty much have all the Bat baddie bases covered.

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