The Dollmaker Seems Beyond Creepy, But Who Is He?

Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock may have closed the case on the child snatchers in Monday's episode of Gotham , but the case left us with more questions than answers. Homeless kids were disappearing off the streets by the dozens — with Selina Kyle, the future Catwoman, evading capture twice — but no one seemed to know who was taking them or what they were wanted for. The only thing Fish Mooney was able to reveal is that there was a buyer that no one was willing to question. Of course, taking her word for it is a pretty stupid thing to do since Fish Mooney could be involved in the murder of the Waynes, and is an all-around unpleasant villainess either way. But Gotham seemed content to leave it at that. So who is the Dollmaker and what does he need so many children for? You won't like the way the comics answered that question.

The Dollmaker is a title that has been worn by three villains over the course of DC history, but two of them stand out the most. The first Dollmaker was a forgettable man named Marcel Mannequin who appeared in Plastic Man in June 1968. After him came Anton Schott, an enemy of Supergirl who debuted in May 2011. Schott's mother suspected his father had been abusing him, so she ran away with him only to later abandon him herself. Crazed and alone, Schott began kidnapping other children to turn into cybernetic dolls under his control. He was ultimately stopped by Supergirl when he became obsessed with reporter Cat Grant, obsessed enough to want to become her new son. Yeah, that was a thing that happened.

The third and final Dollmaker was named Barton Mathis and he debuted in Detective Comics in November 2011. Mathis was raised by a father who liked to do healthy father-son bonding activities like taking Mathis on trips to make him watch as his father killed and ate people. Thankfully, a young Jim Gordon gunned the cannibalistic father down and put an end to his reign of terror — though Mathis didn't take the loss well. Years later, Mathis emerged as the Dollmaker, wearing a mask made of his dead father's skin. That right there gives you a pretty good idea of what he was all about as a villain.

So which version of the Dollmaker is going to make it into the Gotham television series? At the moment, there’s a good chance that Gotham might go for a blend of the second and third Dollmaker. In Monday’s episode, the snatchers were exclusively targeting kids under the age of 16 to bring to the Dollmaker and Oswald “Penguin” Cobblepot did warn that a war was coming. Nothing says war like an army of street kids completely under your control and largely ignored by society.

However, the third Dollmaker is the one with the history with Jim Gordon and the vendetta against him. Considering Jim is on a crusade to clean up the streets of Gotham, it wouldn’t be surprising if he ends up shooting a member of the Dollmaker’s family or the Dollmaker himself, forcing his next of kin to rise up and get revenge. No matter what, I think we can all at least agree that the Dollmaker is beyond creepy and Gotham needs to track him down and get rid of him before he strikes again.

Image: Jessica Miglio/FOX