Character Profiles - Gotham City Police Department - Commissioner James Gordon
Real Name: James W. Gordon
Occupation: Commissioner For The Gotham City Police Dept.
Weight: 168 Lbs
Height: 5ft 9in
Eyes: Blue
Hair: White
Base Of Operations: Gotham City
Group Affiliations: GCPD
Marital Status: Divorced/Widowed
Relatives:Barbara Gordon (first wife, divorced), James Gordon, Jr. (son), Barbara Gordon ("niece," adopted daughter), Sarah Essen (second wife, deceased), Roger Gordon (brother, deceased), Thelma Gordon (sister-in-law, deceased)
First Appearance: Detective Comics #27
Created by: Bob Kane
PRE-CRISIS
In the original pre-Crisis version of his history, Gordon was a police detective who initially bitterly resented the mysterious vigilante's interference in police business. Although the Batman seemed to fight on the side of justice, his methods and phenomenal track record for stopping crimes and capturing criminals embarrassed the police by comparison. Eventually, Batman met up with Gordon and persuaded the detective that they needed each other's help. Batman was deputized and worked with Gordon as an agent of the law.
POST-CRISIS
James Gordon was a good cop in a corrupt Chicago. He and his pregnant wife Barbara were uprooted after he offended one of the more powerful crime families in Chicago, and transferred to Gotham City. Gordon arrived, and was greeted by Lieutenant Flass, one of the most corrupt cops in Gotham. The force was held under the sway of Police Commissioner Gillian Loeb, who was directly in the pocket of Gotham’s untouchable crime boss Carmine “The Roman” Falcone.
Gordon’s incorruptibility put him at odds with the forces within the GCPD, and it became harder for him when he was put at the head of the task force to bring in Gotham’s new vigilante, the Batman. He was teamed with Sergeant Sarah Essen, and the two worked well together. One night, while working late, the two shared a kiss, and began an affair. Although Gordon was attracted to Sarah, he chose to stay with his wife. But Loeb’s men had gotten a picture of Gordon with Essen, and threatened to reveal the affair to his wife. Gordon would not bend, and the affair was revealed to Barbara. Sarah chose to leave Gotham, rather then be used against Jim, and him against her, but Barbara was still crushed, and the couple entered marriage counseling.
When their scheme didn’t work, the powers that be decided to kidnap Gordon’s newborn son, James Jr. With the aid of the Batman, Gordon was able to save his son, and the two began working together. Gordon and Batman had helped clean up the GCPD, and Gordon was promoted to captain. The newly made Captain Gordon and his new ally added a third member to their group, District Attorney Harvey Dent, and they began working on a plan to take down The Roman and his crime family.
While this plan began to work, Gordon’s personal life began to fall apart. Barbara left him for a time, taking James. Gordon began working on the Holiday murders, investigating who was killing Gotham mobsters. Eventually, Gordon was forced to face down his old friend Harvey Dent, who had been scarred hideously and changed into the villainous Two-Face.
With his success in bringing in Holiday and Two-Face, Gordon was promoted again, this time to Commissioner. A new killer was plaguing him now, the Hangman, who was killing cops. Gordon gathered a small group of what he considered to be honest cops, and he began using them to root out the corruption that remained in the force, and trying to bring in the recently escaped Two-Face. During this time, Gordon and Barbara had their last fight, and they separated permanently, eventually divorcing.
Gordon’s relationship with Batman began to grow, and the two moved beyond mutual respect into the closest thing they could have to a real friendship. He also took in his niece, Barbara, who had been orphaned after Jim’s brother died in an auto accident. He adopted her, and the two formed their own happy family.
Jim Gordon did his best to clean up the GCPD and the rest of Gotham’s government. He stayed on the job through numerous mayors, some honest, some corrupt. He found an ally in Harvey Bullock, a gruff Gotham cop who was as honest as Gordon himself. And slowly but surely, Gotham became a better city for it.
One day, while Barbara was visiting him, there was a knock at Gordon’s door. Barbara got up and opened it, and on the other side of the door was the Joker. He shot Barbara and kidnapped Gordon to his current hideout. There Joker began torturing Gordon psychologically, all as part of his war on Batman. Eventually Batman arrived and freed Gordon, and Gordon made Batman promise to bring Joker in by the book, once more reaffirming his belief in the system.
Gordon’s life began to return to normal after this ordeal. He helped Barbara get used to her new situation, as the Joker’s bullet had paralyzed her from the waist down. He made a new ally and friend in beat cop Rene Montoya, who became first his assistant and then a valuable member of the Major Crimes Unit. Finally Sarah Essen returned to Gotham. The two met again, and they went out on their first real date. Gordon was happier then he had been in a long time. But right afterwards, years of smoking and living a less then healthy life caught up with him, and Gordon had a heart attack.
Gordon recovered, and began running the GCPD with new vigor. His relationship with Sarah deepened, and the two eventually married. When Bruce Wayne was temporarily crippled and replaced by Jean-Paul Valley as Batman, Gordon knew it was not his old friend, and refused to work with him. This began the rift between Gordon and Gotham’s then mayor, Armand Krol, who approved of the more brutal Batman. When Bruce returned as Batman, Gordon was not sure if he could trust his old friend, who he feared would again disappear without a word.
The problems between Gordon and Mayor Krol reached a head, and Krol demoted Gordon and promoted Sarah in his place as commissioner. This put enough of a strain on their marriage that Jim moved out for a while. He decided to run for mayor to counter Krol, and Sarah stepped down as commissioner, refusing to play Krol’s game. Bruce Wayne decided to not back Gordon as mayor, instead throwing in with Marion Grange, with the assurance Jim would be made commissioner again, as he believed Gordon would be best for the city in that position.
When the Clench virus struck Gotham, the officers of the GCPD refused to follow Krol’s puppet commissioner and sought out Gordon to lead them. During this incident, Gordon and Batman reconciled, and with Marion Grange now mayor, Gordon was back in the commissioner’s chair. He led the GCPD through the big Gotham earthquake and its aftermath, but when it looked like the city would be declared a No Man’s Land, Gordon tried to leave. He found that many considered him a joke, dependent on an urban legend to keep his city in line. With the choice of a life away from the law, or staying behind, Jim and Sarah chose to stay in Gotham, and try to protect the city from those monsters that preyed on it as No Man’s Land.
Gordon organized the “Blue Boys,” the remnants of the GCPD who stayed behind as well. When Batman finally returned after three months away, Gordon refused to deal with him, feeling betrayed. Gordon instead made a deal with Two-Face, who helped him take more territory from the other, less noble gangs. But eventually Gordon wanted nothing to do with Two-Face, and sent Montoya, who Two-Face had grown infatuated with, to tell him the deal was off. Two-Face kept Montoya captive, and eventually kidnapped Gordon and put him on trial for betrayal. Batman came and saved Montoya, but it was Jim asking Harvey Dent to be his defense attorney against Two-Face that saved the day, causing the schism in Dent’s psyche to get him to surrender.
Batman and Gordon had a conversation about trust and where they were and where they were going, and Batman offered to reveal his identity to Gordon. Gordon refused, but the two again became friends. On Christmas Eve, with Gotham nearly reinstated to the USA, the Joker returned. He had kidnapped all the infants he could find, and threatened to kill them. Batman’s allies and the GCPD split up to search for the infants and the Joker, and while Gordon and Sarah were searching, their walkie-talkie broke. Sarah headed back the Gotham Central to get a new one, and while she was gone, Gordon got word that the Joker was at Central. He rushed back, but too late to save Sarah. The Joker had shot Sarah to death. Gordon came close to killing him, but Batman stopped him.
With Gotham returned to its old status, Gordon took over as commissioner again, although with Sarah’s death he seemed to have lost a step. He was tasked by Gotham’s new mayor with bringing in Catwoman, and he succeeded. On her escape from jail, Catwoman, who’s mind had been broken by the combined effects of imprisonment and Scarecrow’s fear toxin, kidnapped Gordon and planned on killing him, but he was saved by Batman.
One night, Gordon took his most trusted officers out to a bar for a drink and a night away. One exiting the bar, someone was waiting for him, and shot him in the back repeatedly. Gordon was rushed to the hospital and pulled through, but he now walked on a cane. It was revealed the man who shot him was Jordan Rich, a GCPD officer who was an ex-con who Gordon had arrested in his Chicago days, and had received the job as part of witness protection. This was the end for Jim, who finally took retirement from the GCPD.
Since retiring, Jim has traveled, but he still calls Gotham City home. He can be found exercising, teaching criminology at Gotham University, or puttering around his balcony garden, talking to the Batman, who still seeks his aid and counsel.
Jim Gordon is a crack shot and has a great deductive mind. For a man of his age, even after being shot, he is in excellent health. His greatest attribute is that he is a born leader of men, drawing not just the loyalty of his men, but true respect and admiration.
As part of DC's One Year Later Gordon has returned to the role of Commissioner; as of the year-long jump he has been back in the job for 3 months. The circumstances behind this are currently unknown, though there have been allusions to extreme corruption within the GCPD.
Parts of this bio came from:
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