Earlier this year during Batwoman‘s panel at San Diego Comic-Con fans were hit with a big surprise: major Batman villain Tommy Elliot, aka Hush, would be appearing in The CW series. Now, roughly three months later, fans will get to see the character make his debut on Batwoman in tonight’s episode, “Down Down Down”. While Batwoman‘s take on the character is set to be a bit different from who he is in comics, showrunner Caroline Dries has called Tommy the “perfect villain” for this episode as at this point, Kate has suited up in Batman’s suit, causing Gotham to believe Batman has returned.
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But who is Tommy Elliot and what does Batman appearing in Gotham again have to do with anything for Batwoman? The answer to that comes in with the character’s comic book history.
In comics, Tommy Elliot/Hush first appeared in Batman #609 in January 2003 as part of the 12-issue Batman: Hush storyline. Created by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee, Dr. Thomas “Tommy” Elliot was a childhood friend of Bruce Wayne. Like Bruce, Tommy was part of a wealthy Gotham family but unlike Bruce, Tommy’s was not a happy one. His father was abusive and his mother, who came from an impoverished background, was submissive. Desiring his own wealth and independence, young Tommy attempted to kill both of his parents by severing the brake line of their car. While Tommy’s father was killed in the crash, his mother was saved in an emergency surgery performed by Bruce’s father, Dr. Thomas Wayne. Over the next few years, Tommy had to care for his mother.
While Tommy had already begun to resent Bruce, it was when Bruce’s parents were murdered that that resentment took new depth as Bruce inherited his family’s fortune much the way Tommy had hoped to inherit his. The financial envy grew even stronger when Tommy became involved with a woman his mother didn’t approve of and she subsequently cut Tommy off from the family fortune. That move led Tommy to murder his mother. His girlfriend, Peyton Riley, killed the lawyer and destroyed the will ensuring that Tommy ended up with the family fortune after all. Later, Tommy would offer to pay Edward Nygma/Riddler — who had discovered that Bruce was Batman — to kill Bruce, but ultimately decided to take on the persona of Hush, combining forces with Riddler to bring Bruce/Batman down.
On Batwoman, Tommy Elliot won’t be a physician as he is in comics. Batwoman‘s Tommy is described as a childhood friend of Kate’s AWOL cousin who grew up to become a real estate mogul boasting easy charm and a friendly smile, but he has the same chip on his shoulder. If the series retains any other elements of the character’s comic history, it may explain why the sudden reappearance of “Batman” in Gotham is enough to put Tommy in Kate’s orbit.
“Tommy Elliot is the perfect villain for Episode Three, because if you saw on the pilot, Kate puts on the bat suit,” Dries said. “She’s going to put it on to scare the sh** out of Alice. Once Gotham is like ‘Batman’s back,’ there are consequences to that. And one of the consequences to having Batman back in Gotham is that all of the Batman villains are going to come back and try to kill him, and Tommy Elliot has a chip on his shoulder, as we’ll learn, for Bruce Wayne and Batman, so he comes back with a very heightened agenda.”
Batwoman airs Sundays at 8/7c on The CW.
