Butch Gilzean (born Cyrus Gold) is a criminal in Gotham City. He originally worked for the Falcone Crime Family under enforcer and nightclub owner Fish Mooney, before later becoming associated with Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin. After being shot and put into a coma by Barbara Kean, Butch is later dumped in Slaughter Swamp by the hospital where he is resurrected after being exposed to chemicals originating from Indian Hill. He is revived as a ghoulish being, and undertakes the identity of Solomon Grundy.
Butch was also romantically involved with Tabitha Galavan on and off. He is killed for real by Penguin, who murdered Butch as revenge against Tabitha for murdering his mother Gertrud Kapelput.
Biography[]
Butch Gilzean was born as Cyrus Gold, although he later had his name changed to Butch Gilzean later in life for unknown reasons. He become involved as a mobster for the Falcone Crime Family, and became a close friend and ally to nightclub owner Fish Mooney. He conspired with Fish to bring down Carmine Falcone so she could take his place as the don of the family and the ruler of the Gotham City underworld. But their plans were thwarted by Falcone's mole Oswald Cobblepot, a former umbrella boy of Fish.
Butch and Fish were taken away by Falcone's associates to be tortured and murdered for their treachery, although Butch managed to escape captivity and rescued Fish. They returned to her nightclub (now under the ownership of Cobblepot) to get revenge on him. But Falcone's hitman Victor Zsasz arrived to capture the pair, although Butch helped Fish escape the club, at the expense of him being captured by Zsasz. Zsasz took Butch to his home and tortured and brainwashed him to become a willing servant to Cobblepot, and Butch got appointed as Cobblepot's right-hand man.
During a mob war between the Falcone crime family and Sal Maroni's crime family, Butch briefly allied himself back with Fish Mooney, who returned to Gotham City with her own crew to bring down Falcone. During a shootout between the two families, Butch stumbled upon Cobblepot and Fish battling on a rooftop, although his brainwashing prevented him from shooting Cobblepot. Conflicted and confused, he shot the pair of them, although not fatally. An injured Fish comforted a guilt ridden Butch, although their reunion was only short lived as Cobblepot pushed Fish off the rooftop and into the Gotham river to her death. With Maroni and Fish dead and Falcone exiled from Gotham City, Cobblepot declared himself the "King of Gotham".
Butch continued serving as Cobblepot's second-in-command, as he is still under the influence of the brainwashing. After Theo Galavan and Tabitha Galavan kidnap Penguin's mother Gertrud to have leverage over him, Penguin sends Butch to infiltrate the Galavan family, even going as far as to cut off Butch's hand to make the story of his betrayal look authentic. But the plan backfires when Theo and Tabitha see through the scheme and capture Butch, with Tabitha removing him brainwashing. With his free will back, Butch lures Penguin to a building where his mother is kept in order to be killed. To Butch's shock, Theo has Tabitha murder Gertrud in cold blood, despite Penguin offering up his life for his mum's. Penguin escapes the Galavans and goes into hiding, now a wanted man due to Theo being the mayor-elect of the city. Butch splits from the Galavans and starts up his own crew and begin operating at a bar, although are visited by James Gordon and Harvey Bullock to get information on Galavan. Penguin sends Victor Zsasz and his crew to assassinate Butch, forcing Gordon and Bullock to fight them off. During the chaos, Butch manages to escape.
Following Galavan's death and Penguin's arrest and incarceration at Arkham Asylum, Butch took over the Cobblepot crime family and became boss. He later got joined by a lonesome Tabitha, and they formed an alliance and began a romantic relationship. They were visited by Penguin following his release from Arkham, where he revealed he was cured of his psychopathic behaviour and asked Butch for forgiveness for the way Penguin treated him. Butch spares Penguin, although does allow Tabitha to tar and feather Penguin as punishment.
Butch is devastated when a resurrected Theo Galavan (now going by the name "Azrael") stabbed Tabitha and put her in hospital. When by her bedside, he is visited by Penguin, who offers an alliance with Butch to get back at Theo Galavan. Butch accepts the union, and the pair track Theo to Wayne Manor where Butch shoots him with a rocket launcher and blows him to pieces. Butch allows Penguin to take back the reigns of the Cobblepot crime family and willingly becomes his second-in-command. They later ambush an Arkham Asylum prison bus as Penguin hopes to capture and get revenge on Hugo Strange, although they are stunned to come across a resurrected Fish Mooney. Mooney's presence causes Penguin to pass out, and Butch and Oswald's gang flee in terror.
Butch stands by Penguin during his campaign against the monsters of Gotham City, who were escapees from the prison bus him and Penguin had blown off the road months before. By this point Tabitha was recovered from her injuries, although had rekindled her relationship with Barbara and opened a nightclub known as the "Sirens". Butch and Penguin rally citizens against the monsters at an abandoned mansion, at which point Penguin attempts to kill Fish, although he later spares her life and allows to to escape the city.
Butch supports Penguin for his run of mayor of Gotham City, although becomes jealous when Penguin has Edward Nygma released from Arkham Asylum to help him out with his campaign. Butch attempts to rig the election to help Penguin win, although Nygma undoes this, feeling that Penguin will win fair due to being loved and supported by the citizens of the city. Nygma's prediction comes true as Penguin wins the election. Penguin coldly dismisses Butch for not believing in him, and appoints Nygma as his Chief in Staff, much to Butch's fury. Wanting to win Penguin's approval, Butch creates a second Red Hood Gang to make threats against Penguin and even decapacitate a statue of Penguin's late mother. Butch goes to meet the gang, but realising that Penguin has worked out the location of their hangout, betrays and guns down the gang members, making himself look like a hero and winning Penguin's approval. During Penguin's celebration party, Nygma tricks Butch into betraying Penguin and threatens a captured Tabitha's life, and exposes him as the mastermind behind the Red Hood gang. Butch is taken into custody by the police, although he is busted out by Tabitha and taken to a safehouse.
Nygma later captures Butch and Tabitha, believing the former to be responsible for the murder of his girlfriend Isabella, and proceeds to torture them. Nygma threatens to slice off Tabitha's hand unless Butch confesses to being responsible for Isabella's death. In desperation, Butch makes up killing Isabella, and creates a false story about how she begged for her life. Nygma realises that Butch isn't the culprit as it doesn't match up to how she died, although it is too late to stop Tabitha's hand from being cut off. Nygma turns them loose and allows them to go to hospital, allowing Tabitha's hand to be reattached on time. Nygma discovers Penguin is responsible for her death, as Penguin was in love with Nygma. Nygma forms an alliance with Butch, Barbara and Tabitha to bring down Penguin's empire. They eventually overthrow Penguin and hand him over to Nygma, who then shoots Penguin and pushes him off a peer to his presumed death. Barbara proceeds to takeover the Gotham City criminal underworld.
Butch planned a coup against Barbara, and wanted Tabitha to join him. Barbara is so obsessed with taking out the Court of Owls that she begins to neglect Tabitha for the sake of wanting power in the city. Barbara also refuses to kill Edward Nygma (now going by The Riddler), due to him being a worthy ally in her quest to take over the city. When Barbara finds out about their planned betrayal she shoots Butch in the head, putting him in a coma. In the hospital, the medical staff find out about his birth name, Cyrus Gold.
Due to shortages of beds, the hospital arranges to have an unconscious Butch transferred upstate. But the ambulance drivers decide to dump him in Slaughter Swamp rather than carrying out the journey. Slaughter Swamp contains chemicals from Hugo Strange's experiments at Indian Hill, which mutate Butch and revive him to life. However he appears as a grotesque pale skinned creature, although develops super-strength and durability. Unfortunately for Butch he loses his memories, and later adopts the name "Solomon Grundy" which he hears playing when attacking a nearby camp.
Butch makes his way back to Gotham City and later bumps into Edward Nygma. Nygma is spooked by Butch's return, although is more relaxed having discovered he has lost his memory. When Butch helps Nygma fight off some attackers, Nygma takes Butch to The Narrows to be a fighter in an underground fighting ring. At some point later Butch regains his memories and captures Nygma and delivers him to Barbara and Tabitha as a parting gift, although Nygma later manages to escape his captivity.
Butch is approached by Penguin to join Jerome Valeska's team of supervillains, with the promise that he will help him return to normal. Butch agrees, and joins Jerome's group "The Legion of Horribles". Butch didn't take much direct involvement in the Legion of Horribles crazed activities, and the group is eventually dissolved after the death of Jerome. Butch continued to reside with Penguin in his mansion.
Penguin managed to get Hugo Strange to cure Butch of his ailment and returned him back to being a normal human being. An emotional and grateful Butch is reunited with Tabitha, however Penguin shoots Butch. Due to Butch no longer being super-powered, he dies of his wounds. It turns out that the whole scheme getting Butch cured was to simply execute him in revenge against Tabitha for her killing Penguin's mother years prior. An angry Tabitha tries to attack Penguin, but he shoots and wounds her and has his men throw her out, vowing that one day he will finish Tabitha off.
Months after Butch's demise, Tabitha attempts to kill Penguin in revenge, however he manages to get the upper hand and murder her instead.
Trivia[]
- Butch Gilzean was an original character created for the series Gotham. In the second season, Drew Powell was promoted to a regular cast member. In the finale of season 3, Butch was revealed to be canonical comic book character Cyrus Gold, and undertook Gold's alias of Solomon Grundy in the fourth season.