In Clayface, Tom Rhys Harries' Matt Hagen was on top of the world after being nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars. Unfortunately, when he went to celebrate at a nightclub, he made the mistake of sleeping with the girlfriend of David Dencik's Markos Szabo, one of Gotham's many mob bosses. In retaliation, Szabo cut up Hagen's face, ruining his life and career, all while the mobster swayed the court with a handful of bribes and threats to walk away from Hagen's mutilation clean.
Considering how he flagrantly flaunted his influence over the courts and police throughout Clayface, one would be led to believe he was one of Gotham's more notorious mobsters from the comics, but no, Markos Szabo is actually an entirely original creation for this supervillain origin.
While there doesn't exist a Markos Szabo in the comics, nor a Szabo crime family, the latter does appear in a single episode of the superhero crime drama Gotham. A series that revolved around Ben McKenzie's Detective James "Jim" Gordon shortly after the Waynes were killed in Crime Alley, which also showed the origin of Batman's rogues gallery of villains.
The boss of the family, Janos Szabo, who, coincidentally, looks like Clayface's Szabo without a beard, tried to lead the criminal organization, but simply couldn't compete with supercriminals like the Penguin that were on the rise. In another coincidence, this is what Markos Szabo indirectly represents in Clayface: Gotham's changing status quo.
When Monsters Replaced Mobsters in Gotham
While Batman's influence was sadly not felt at all in Clayface, he was supposedly still active during the time this prequel takes place. It's unknown how far back Clayface goes in the timeline, but it likely happened during Batman's earlier career, when he was still fighting mostly mobsters rather than superpowered criminals.
In the comics, when Batman began his career, he took down most of the more influential crime families in Gotham, creating a power vacuum that was filled by literal monsters like Killer Croc and Poison Ivy, along with more theatrical supervillains like the Joker and Riddler. The balance of power simply shifted as Gotham's criminal underworld adapted to Batman's presence.
However, it seems like the supervillains are disposing of the old guard themselves in the DCU. The best example of this was in Creature Commandos, when Episode 6, "Priyatel Skelet," revealed that Doctor Phosphorus had killed mob boss Rupert Thorne in the past, even taking over his criminal empire in Gotham as his own, only to be stopped by a burly Batman.
So, it's interesting that we have another example with Clayface and Matt Hagen taking out Markos Szabo in brutal fashion. It's difficult to tell where Szabo would have fit in the hierarchy of Gotham's criminal families, but considering his staggering influence over the Gotham City Police Department, it must have been signifigant.
The DCU is certainly setting itself apart from Matt Reeves' more grounded interpretation of Gotham and its criminals, with even Penguin being toned down. It's also laying the groundwork for Andy Muschietti's The Brave and the Bold, in which a long-established Batman protects Gotham.
It wouldn't be a surprise if it's revealed that the Falcone and Maroni crime families hadn't survived to the present day, replaced by the likes of Bane, who himself has an upcoming movie teaming up with Deathstroke. Perhaps these two will cut down even more of Gotham's former criminal royalty.
