Stan Potolsky

Stan Potolsky is a fictional chemnist featured on the FOX Network television series Gotham. Played by actor Daniel London, he appeared in episode 1x05, "Viper".

Biography
Stanley "Stan" Potolsky was a chemist who was once employed by the WellZyn pharmaceutical corporation, which was a subsidiary of Wayne Enterprises. Stan became disgruntled when he discovered that the synthetic drug he had created, Viper, was being farmed out to the military as a super-steroid for soldiers. To show his displeasure, Stan attempted to cut off his left ear in front of his superiors - an act which naturally got him terminated.

When Stan Potolksy left WellZyne, he knew that Viper was a very dangerous weapon. To show the world its destructive value, he began freely disseminating it to the downtrodden of Gotham City. One such individual who received a dose of Viper was a street musician named Benny. After taking just a single whiff of Viper, he grew inhumanly strong and suffered a psychotic break. He entered a convenience store, emptied a gallon of milk into his mouth and then ripped the store's ATM machine from the wall and made off with it down the street. Detectives James Gordon and Harvey Bullock interviewed the store's cashier after the crime and tracked Benny down. As they tried to arrest him, Benny lifted the ATM machine up above his head. However, at this point, the drug's dangerous side effects kicked in and his loss of bone strength caused his bones to collapse beneath the weight of the machine, killing him.

The Gotham City Police Department had their hands full as more and more lowlifes were being brought in, driven crazy on Viper. One woman, a prostitute, died from the effects right before Gordon's eyes. News spread quickly of the drug's effects and a city-wide alert was sent out across television stations.

When Potolsky realized he was not achieving the results he wanted, he decided to make an even larger statement by pumping Viper into the air conditioning ducts of a Wayne Enterprises charity event. Gordon and Bullock caught onto the scheme and went to the building. While Harvey helped with the evacuation, Gordon found Potolsky on the roof of the building. He kept his gun trained on him, but Potolsky refused to back down. Gordon shot the canister containing the Viper, which then sprayed all over Potolsky. The concentrated dose of the narcotic gave him elevated confidence and strength and he tried to escape by jumping off the roof of the building. Superhuman strength does not necessarily equate to superhuman durability however and Potolsky died from the fall.

Notes & Trivia



 * The Viper drug that Potlsky created was a precursor to Venom, which is a chemical featured in the Batman comic book titles and the drug responsible for giving the super-villain Bane his enhanced strength.