Can someone please tell me the history of ex-commisioner Gordon?

[spaz]

So Gordon was married twice? I know his second wife(Sarah?) was murdered by the Joker and has a surviving child? Also in his previous marriage did his first wife leave him and took their other child? I get really confused so if someone can clarify me the wives' names, his childrens' names, and who exactly is he staying with. Thanks

[Lorendiac]

So Gordon was married twice? I know his second wife(Sarah?) was murdered by the Joker and has a surviving child? Also in his previous marriage did his first wife leave him and took their other child? I get really confused so if someone can clarify me the wives' names, his childrens' names, and who exactly is he staying with. Thanks

One problem here is that it's been suggested that some of Gordon's family history might have "already" been retconned by "Infinite Crisis," and we just haven't heard about it yet. I saw that suggested earlier today.

But I'll take a quick stab at it.

A long time ago Jim Gordon, a young cop, married a woman named Barbara. They were living in Chicago at the time.

In "Year One" (if that's still in continuity?), when he was a police lieutenant in Gotham, they had their first-born child, a baby boy named James Gordon, Junior, after his daddy.

A long time ago Barbara divorced Gordon and left for Chicago with Baby James. So little has been heard about them in "modern continuity" that some suspect we will find out "Baby James" has been retconned into oblivion now.

Somewhere along the line, Jim Gordon's niece, also named Barbara, often called "Babs Gordon," was orphaned and he adopted her. She is the redheaded woman who became the first Batgirl, and later Oracle.

After Babs had already become Oracle, Gordon married Sarah Essen, his second wife. To the best of my knowledge, they never had any kids together, and Sarah had never had any kids by anyone else before she married him, either.

The Joker murdered Sarah during "No Man's Land" (toward the end of 1999, I think).

That's the way it's developed over the past 20 years or so. As I said, any part of that could be retconned in the wake of Infinite Crisis!

[Corrina]

That's pretty much it.

I'll just add that after No Man's Land, Gordon was shot in a crossover called "Officer Down" and crippled. Hurt in body and mind, he quit as commissioner. He's not using his cane anymore, so I guess he's either cured or the injuries never happened or something.

Brubaker made an attempt to bring him back, as a college professor of criminology in his run on "Detective" but that didn't seem to take. He appeared a bit in "Hush" and then mostly just in "Birds of Prey" until Robinson's run.

Sarah Essen, btw, was a Frank Miller created character for Year One, a fellow cop who fell in love with Gordon but eventually transferred to NYC because they both knew Gordon wouldn't leave his wife. She eventually married a NYC cop but he was killed in the line of duty.

Sarah also appears and is spoken about in Dark Knight Returns, basically only referred to as Sarah. Miller gave Gordon and Sarah a happy ending, proving that he sometimes has more heart than DC Editorial.