Playing by the rules is no easy task in Gotham City, where most other people threw the rulebook away years ago. But newly-minted Detective James Gordon (Ben McKenzie) is determined to stand up for the law, even if no one else will, in Fox's upcoming Batman prequel Gotham. Set to air this fall, the show will depict Gordon in his early years as he tries to come to terms with the fact that Gotham's police department (including his own partner, Harvey Bullock) is almost as corrupt as the streets that he's supposed be patrolling.

At one point it sounded like Gotham was simply going to be a police procedural that happened to be set in one of the DC universe's most famous cities, but the show's growing cast of child characters is starting to give the impression that the show could turn into Batman: The Rugrats Years. Or possibly the Batman version of Smallville, considering that Bruce Wayne actor David Mazouz is already in his teens.

It does make sense that showrunner Bruno Heller would want to include as many characters from the comics as possible, in order to win Batman fans over with the Gotham pilot. Case in point, a new set of character posters for Gotham (published by Entertainment Weekly) welcome another kid version of an iconic Batman character to the fold: the infamous Ivy Pepper. Wait, who?

Gotham- Fish Mooney character poster
Gotham - Poison Ivy character poster
Gotham - Riddler character poster
Gotham - Penguin character poster
Gotham - James Gordon character poster
Gotham - Harvey Bullock character poster
Gotham - Catwoman character poster
Gotham - Bruce Wayne character poster

The more savvy DC readers are probably already aware that Poison Ivy's real name in the comics is Pamela Isley, not Ivy Pepper, and many fans have already taken to Twitter to complain about the name change. Whatever the reason for it, Ivy Pepper will join young Selina Kyle and Bruce Wayne as part of Gotham's cast of kid characters. Ivy will be played by Clare Foley (Sinister), and was also seen in the very first cast photo for Gotham, standing next to Edward Nygma and wearing a rather tatty green and black striped jumper.

As Gotham progresses we can also expect to see more iconic characters emerging from the cracks in Gotham's sidewalks. Pilot director Danny Cannon recently confessed that he has "a big pitch" for a storyline concerning Mr. Freeze that he's hoping to win Heller and DC Entertainment's Geoff Johns over with.

The only potential problem with introducing too many super-powered (or super-powered-to-be) characters to Gotham is that the traditional "comic book" elements might end up drawing attention away from the central police drama. Do you think that the show would be better off keeping the focus on Jim Gordon and his colleagues, or is it more fun to explore the early days of Gotham's heroes and villains?

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Gotham will air Mondays on FOX beginning in the fall of 2014.

Source: Entertainment Weekly