James Gordon

Deputy Mayor Gordon

## Biography

### Early Life

James Gordon was born to Anthony and Thelma Gordon in Chicago, Illinois. Anthony was a retired military and prominent defense attorney, while Thelma was a schoolteacher. Despite his father’s work in the legal system, Gordon grew up with an authority problem. At age 13, he began smoking cigarettes, often stealing them from drug stores. When he was 15, he broke his femur while running from the police, which briefly wound him up in juvie.

Thanks to his father’s connections, Jim got the incident stricken from his record, but not without consequence. In an attempt to whip him into shape, Anthony made him join ROTC. It turned out to be just what the boy needed. While he never lost the smoking habit, it put him into good physical condition, and when high school ended, he joined the Marine Corps.

In the Marines, Gordon proved to be a natural leader. When he returned from his military service, he decided to move to Gotham City and started at the FBI Academy, where he became infatuated with a fellow cadette, Sarah Essen. He joined the police force made detective quickly after he caught Joe Chill for the Wayne's Murder. Sarah became an internal affairs agent and the two began an affair of their own. He was also partnered with rookie Harvey Bullock, who had been a Hollywood reality detective and decided to come do the real thing.

After just over a year together, Jim and Sarah got married, and had their first child, James Gordon Jr (or JJ for short). Jim was worried as he saw his own history of rebellion and disrespect repeating in his son. JJ was violent and rebellious as a child. He got into fights at school, refused to sit still, and snuck out at night. Thinking that Gotham was a bad influence, and hoping his father could help him out, Gordon decided to move back to Chicago.

Once back in Chicago, Gordon discovered that his father had rapidly increasing dementia - and things for JJ spiraled out of control. They got him a psychiatrist to try to help the issues, but it didn’t appear to help. Sarah became pregnant and they had their second child, Barbara. With a young Barbara in the house, Jim saw it as a chance to right his wrongs and ignored JJ completely.

When JJ was 16, he kidnapped Barbara and took off in the car. He was caught after crashing the car, which is when Jim kicked him out of the house. JJ left the house with a threat, telling Gordon he would kill all of them. Fearful for their lives, the Gordons moved back to Gotham City. Gordon re-joined the GCPD, now as a Lieutenant, where he found himself under the command of the corrupt Commissioner Gillian Loeb.

Gordon tried to set about bringing change to the department, but every time he’d get close, there would be mysterious knocks at his door in the night, an anonymous phone call, or a new scratch on his car. His former partner, Bullock, had grown to be an alcoholic, gained weight, and become Loeb’s right-hand man while Gordon was away.

Bullock was even assigned to kill Gordon, but found he was unable to do so. He ended up teaming up with Gordon and his wife, to try to expose the web of corruption in the GCPD. Thankfully, they had a little help when Gotham’s Caped Crusader arrived on the scene.

With the help of Batman and District Attorney Harvey Dent, the two biggest mob bosses in the city were put away, and Loeb was exposed as their mole in the GCPD. As a result, Bullock was promoted to Captain, and Gordon to Commissioner.

### Commissioner Gordon

Gordon was seen as a threat to Gotham's thriving organized crime. So, an old hitman named Killer Moth was hired to kill Gordon at a Halloween gala. He failed when he was foiled by a young girl dressed in her own bat-suit and calling herself Batgirl. Unbeknownst to Jim, this was his daughter.

Gordon served as commissioner of the GCPD for a steady length of time. But, it was not without sacrifices. The Joker in particular proved to be dangerous for the Gordon family. Somehow, the clown prince of crime learned of JJ’s criminal behavior, so he brought him to Gotham and sent him after the family. JJ kidnapped Barbara, who thankfully escaped thanks to Batman and Robin, who put JJ behind bars.

In another instance, Joker held the GCPD building hostage while his gang was preoccupying the rest of the force and Batman, where Joker threatened to kill Sarah, making her choose between the lives of a group of officers and a group of babies he had kidnapped from the hospital. Sarah held her cool and was able to defeat the clown before anyone lost their lives.

And in his most famous act of psychopathy, Joker discovered where Barbara lived and shot her, paralyzing her from the waist down, in an event that also resulted in the brutal live-streamed murder of the second Robin.

Gordon beat himself up over the Joker’s actions following Barbara’s injury. He was enraged when he found out that she had been working as Batgirl and when he learned Nightwing’s team had captured the perpetrator alive. He cut his ties with Batman, which was convenient, as Batman disappeared shortly after, and focused on his family. Barbara would heal, although she would never walk again. The stress of all his years in Gotham had turned his temples grey. Gordon decided to take some time off, giving his position to Charlene O’Hara.

He and Sarah worked hard on their relationship during their time off. Eventually, Sarah decided it was time for her to step away from the GCPD, and she suggested that Jim do the same. Both became involved in politics, with Sarah deciding to run for mayor.

### Deputy Mayor

However, tragedy would strike when the League of Assassins took over Gotham City. Gordon was called back into the GCPD, as O’Hara was killed in the initial invasion. He helped lead the GCPD through the darkest era in Gotham’s history - although their were losses along the way, such as Detective Crispus Allen. During the invasion, JJ escaped from Arkham as well.

When the dust settled, Gotham was rockier than ever. Amidst a mayoral race, three of Gotham's gangs reached a boiling point in their gang war, resulting in the deaths of the Joker and Black Mask. After a GCPD officer was caught on camera murdering Anarky, who turned out to be a sixteen-year-old boy, people campaigned for Gordon’s resignation. He did so and was replaced by Christopher Nakano, who destroyed the Bat-Signal and ostracized the Bat Family from any connection with the GCPD.

Jim focused on campaigning for Sarah, and she ended up winning the election, employing Jim as her deputy mayor. He has found joy in this position of politics, and has finally been able to kick his smoking habit to the curb. He is unaware of his daughter’s continued involvement in superheroics as Oracle, he still thinks she is just an I.T girl for several superhero conglomerates. He and Batman still have a working partnership, and he is acting as a middleman to bring peace between the Bats and the GCPD, as hard as it has proven to be.

However, Jim and Sarah still live in fear that one day, JJ is going to return to make good on his promise and destroy the life they worked so hard to build.