With Arrow in its second season and Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. nearing the end of its first, the number of comic book characters on the small screen continues to grow as both shows move closer to their comic book roots, and as more shows with comic book roots head towards production.  Warner Bros. Television has just released its first set pictures from Gotham, the upcoming TV series that focuses on a young Jim Gordon fighting crime in Gotham City in the pre-Batman era (see "'Gotham at Fox"), and in addition to Ben McKenzie as the young Jim Gordon, Warner Bros. has released a shot of Donal Logue (Sons of Anarchy) as Harvey Bullock, Jim Gordon’s gruff mentor on the Gotham Police Force.
 
{IMAGE_2}Meanwhile Marvel has released shots of actor J. August Richards, who has appeared previously on the show, but who is now fully transformed into Deathlok (see "'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' Ups its Comics Character Count").  Richards will appear as Deathlok in the April 1st episode of S.H.I.E.L.D. in which the team goes after the Clairvoyant.
 






{IMAGE_3}Gotham is still in the pilot production phase.  If Fox likes the pilot, look for Gotham to debut in the fall.  Since it is appears to be more of a gritty police procedural, Gotham would appear to have an easier time getting network approval than some other properties, such as the oft-rejected attempts to create another Wonder Woman series, but nothing is a "sure thing" in the dogfight that is network TV programming.
 
Of course even when comic book characters do make it to the small screen, the changes involved don’t always please fans, or creators.  John Ostrander one of the creators of the Suicide Squad took exception to the way in which one of his creations, Amanda Waller, who Ostrander envisioned as an angry middle-aged black woman, was portrayed as a sexy, svelte, and young character on the Arrow TV show.  In a column on the Comic Mix site, Ostrander acknowledged that DC owns the character and can do what they want with her, but added that he thought "the changes (the producers of Arrow) made in her appearance are misguided.  There were and are reasons why she looked the way she did.  I wanted her to seem formidable and visually unlike anyone else out there.  Making her young and svelte and sexy loses that. She becomes more like everyone else.  She lost part of what made her unique."