| “ | I just can't shake the suspicion that I'm the same cog in a different machine. First Jacob Kane's, now yours. What's the difference? What's in this... for me? | „ |
| ~ Russell Tavaroff to Black Mask. |
Russell Tavaroff is the secondary antagonist of season 2 of Batwoman.
He is a corrupt former high-ranking agent of Crows Security and the archenemy of Luke Fox. After Jacob Kane disbands the Crows Tavaroff and several of his colleagues join Black Mask who transformers Tavaroff into the supervillain Menace.
He was portrayed by Jesse Hutch, who previously played Officer Daily in Arrow.
Biography[]
Russell Tavaroff had become a Crows Security agent at an unknown point in his life and stride to move himself up the ranks even if it meant cutting corners. He is seen having a meeting with Commander Jacob Kane about the incident involving the False Face Society when Sophie Moore entered the office and told of her failure during her undercover infiltration mission. Commander Kane removed Sophie from the case and gave command to Russell, though Sophie believed that Russell's tactics were not suitable for the mission. The next evening, Russell ordered the Crows to chase a speeding car that was suspected of being involved in a theft. Later, Russell and the Crows investigated a warehouse where Batwoman, Sophie, and Black Mask fought; watching security footage, Russell noticed that Batwoman was hit so hard, her mouth was bleeding. Russell went to the puddle of blood and collected a sample which he gave to the Crows' DNA lab to have it analyzed and ran through the criminal database to uncover Batwoman's identity. However; the computer revealed that she is not in the database much to Tavaroff's disappointment.
The next evening, Tavaroff led a squad of Crows to a location where Batwoman was fighting a group of gang members; he and the Crows surrounded her with weapons drawn. Russell told her to surrender, but Batwoman gave a speech about how she was not the enemy and how the Crows were disrupting her operation to learn the identity of Black Mask. Suddenly, Batwoman escaped using a variant of a Grappling gun.
Two days later, Tavaroff protested Agents Moore's suggestion on how to deal with the snakebite cannibals terrorizing Gotham, citing the boundary and that Commander Kane had not given the order. Sophie sternly reminded Agent Tavaroff that she was second-in-command and that he was to follow her directive to protect the citizens. Russell then led his squadron to a church that was the epicenter of the cannibal attacks; they started shooting everyone they saw. When Sophie asked why she heard gunfire on his radio, Russell said the cannibals were beyond saving, so he was eliminating the problem. Later that evening Russell and a fellow agent came across Luke Fox arguing with a man named Eli he recently met in jail; attempting to hijack his car. Eli told Tavaroff that Luke was trying to rob him of the vehicle, but Luke said Eli was lying and reached into his vest to retrieve his phone. Tavaroff foolishly believed Luke was about to pull a gun on him and shot the man in his chest.
Shortly after the shooting, Russell was brought in for questioning by the Crows Security higher-ups and falsely explains that he shot in response to seeing a gun, he was commended by one of the higher-ups, though Commander Kane asked for his body cam footage before telling Tavaroff to bring in Agent Miller, who was also present at the scene. Later, a pressured Commander Kane brought Russell in for further questioning in his office, where Russell attacked Kane after the latter suspended for not believing his story. Tavaroff and his fellow Crows confined Kane to a room with plans to force him to overdose on Snakebite, but their plan was thwarted by the Batwoman, who was able to take them down, saving Jacob's life.
Russell was sent to Blackgate Penitentiary, but was released on bail several days later. He then went to a poker tournament where Luke Fox confronted him and started to beat him outside in an ally after Luke humiliated him in a poker game.
Russell was among the former Crows agents that joined the False Face Society for money, but when he stated that he would just be a "cog" in someone's device, Black Mask offered to make him a "machine" instead. Black Mask experimented on Tavaroff using a combination of Bane's Venom and the Snakebite, which didn't work at first, causing Black Mask to have his body disposed. Russell would later regain conscious in Mary Hamilton's clinic and pursued her for the Snakebite that was taken off him before being defeated by Batwing. He was arrested and rightly incarcerated at Blackgate after his involvement with the False Face Society was exposed to the public.
Personality[]
Russell Tavaroff is a selfish individual, that only cares about himself and his reputation. He has little regard to the chain of command within the Crows, evident as when he insulted Sophie Moore when she gave him a direct order as an acting commander, and even though he complied in the end, he disregarded her orders of using non-lethal force. Another example was, that when he was called out by Jacob Kane to answer for his actions, he assaulted him and attempted to kill Kane by injecting his commander with an overdose of Snakebite.
Russell was also somewhat of a racist, and had a "shoot first, ask questions later" -way of thinking. When he intercepted Eli and Luke Fox with a car theft, he instantly pulled out a gun on Luke when he went for his pocket to show him photographic evidence on his phone. Whether Russell actually thought it was a gun, is unclear, but he nevertheless had the evidence of the incident doctored to save his own skin. He was also more inclined to believe Eli that Luke was the thief, only because Luke was black.
Trivia[]
- Russell Tavaroff shares similarities with Miguel Robles, both are rogue Crows agents who were involved in an incident pertaining to a member of the Fox family and covered it up by framing someone. Also, both of their actions caused Crows Commander Jacob Kane to question the legitimacy of his organization and both were sent to Blackgate after their misdeeds had been exposed.
- Jesse Hutch previously appeared in Arrow as Officer Daily.
