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After watching 28 episodes of Gotham so far (22 first season, 6 second season), I have fallen in love with the concept. Robin Lord-Taylor's portrayal of Oswald Cobblepot as he transforms into The Penguin is amazing, Cory Michael Smith makes a delightfully quirky Edward Nygma, and Ben McKenzie has shown that James Gordon is definitely in over his head, with only more problems to come.

However, as I re-watched Season 1 of Gotham, I realized that this was the only time I had ever heard of characters like The Balloon Man and The Spirit of the Goat. Are these two characters in any previous canon, perhaps Batman: The Animated Series, or possibly one-shot villains from the comics?

After all, I know that Fish Mooney was created to advance Penguin's storyline, but I just wasn't sure about these other two. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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  • Is there anyway I can improve my answer?
    – Rogue Jedi
    Jun 20, 2016 at 14:54

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Yes, both characters were created specifically for the show. Neither have any major similarities to any past Batman villains, of any medium.

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  • Wouldn't balloon man be kind of similar to kite man?
    – CBredlow
    Oct 29, 2015 at 23:01
  • @CBredlow Not really. Baloonman is a vigilante who ties his victims to balloons, while Kite-man is a villain who uses kites to fly. Their methods and goals are pretty different.
    – Rogue Jedi
    Oct 30, 2015 at 0:10
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In DC comics, Metal Men do have a villain named Balloon Man later known as Balloonatic Post-Crisis. But he have nothing in common except the name.

For the Spirit of the goat, bustle.com suggests it might be inspired from Goatboy:-

He could be inspired by "Goatboy," a comics villain and successful assassin who hunts down and shoots the fifth Robin the Boy Wonder, Damian Wayne (Bruce's son with Talia al Ghul). The two share a name and a penchant for killing influential sons, but Goatboy is, obviously, placed much further down on the Batman timeline

Both are long shots but still can be considered as inspiration.

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