James Gordon's retirement

[Static-Pulse]

How long has James Gordon been retired? Did he retire right after NML or was it later? As of the Birds of Prey: Catwoman and Oracle, which came out in 2003, he was retired. How long before that, though, had he stopped? Thanks!

[Jkid099]

He retired at the end of the 2001 Bat-storyline "Officer Down," when he was shot. He's been retired ever since. There were rumors that he was going to come back as Commissioner during "War Games," but they proved to be false.

[Static-Pulse]

Thanks a bundle! I forgot all about "Officer Down" -- thanks.

[pennywisdom]

I would love for him to come back. The GCPD isn't the same without him.

Static-Pulse: Also, Bullock quit after an incident with IA. He was replaced by former Metropolis cop Maggie Sawyer. Just to catch you up. :)

[Apathy Boy]

I'm pleasantly surprised that the Bat-office has had the balls to keep Gordon retired as long as they have. I like Commissioner Akins, and it's a nice change in the status quo.

Having said that, if the Bat-office isn't using Gordon, they should be lending him out to the other DC editors. This is JAMES FRICKIN' GORDON, one of the best and most famous characters in comic book history. He deserves better than comic book limbo.

It'd be interesting to see him interact with someone else in the DCU. He'd be a good cast member for GREEN ARROW.

[ouiyahtsiouiyah]

I like how it is in Gotham with the shoot on sight order, it gives a lot of great plot elment potential and stuff.

Jim being in another book would be cool like maybe a 6 issue arc so he could show of his detective skillz and all around badassedness,

STATIC PULSE check out Evolution TPB its after NML and James goes for one last ride as commissioner...Batman Makes an apperearance too j/k ;)

[Cyke]

I'm pleasantly surprised that the Bat-office has had the balls to keep Gordon retired as long as they have. I like Commissioner Akins, and it's a nice change in the status quo.

Having said that, if the Bat-office isn't using Gordon, they should be lending him out to the other DC editors. This is JAMES FRICKIN' GORDON, one of the best and most famous characters in comic book history. He deserves better than comic book limbo.

It'd be interesting to see him interact with someone else in the DCU. He'd be a good cast member for GREEN ARROW.

Damn straight. Some of my favorite Jim Gordon scenes are when he's talking to Superman, while they're both simply waiting for Batman. Jim Gordon's a regular cop, with tons of experience, and he's unfazed by the fact that he's having a one-to-one with Superman, Earth's #1 celebrity. Hell, not only that, but he *commands* Superman's respect.

[dancj]

He'll be back. They've kept him retired for longer than I expected, but he'll still be back eventually

[Captain Jim]

I don't mind him being retired, but I *do* mind him going unused. Brubaker brought him back in a new supporting role near the end of his Detective role, but when Ed left, that was the end of it. And now, of course, since the end of War Games, Jim has even left Gotham. Don't like this one bit. :mad:

[Baron Banter]

I don't mind him being retired, but I *do* mind him going unused. Brubaker brought him back in a new supporting role near the end of his Detective role, but when Ed left, that was the end of it. And now, of course, since the end of War Games, Jim has even left Gotham. Don't like this one bit. :mad:
Did they say where he went to or just out of Gotham?

[Matt]

I disliked it when Gordon retired but, oddly enough, it made sense due to the story and plot.
I was pleasantly surprised when it was revealed he'd started a career in lecturing and thought that could be a nice little avenue for exploration - but as far as I can tell, we haven't seen anything substantial since then.

What I'd like to see is have Gordon start up a private investigation agency; even if he doesn't do much footwork himself he'd still be an excellent organiser/boss type character. Hell, don't even have his agency in Gotham and it would still work well.

Obviously, if it was in Gotham it would work a great deal better. Imagine the face offs Gordon could have with the current Police Commisioner over police policies, Usurping the loyalties of GCPD officers, etc etc.

[Captain Jim]

Did they say where he went to or just out of Gotham?

Just that he was following Barbara, I believe.

[Baron Banter]

Just that he was following Barbara, I believe.
Thanks! I stopped reading Batman about three issues after Loeb and Lee's run ended because I didn't like the new creative team. I just started picking it up again.

[Corrina]

Having said that, if the Bat-office isn't using Gordon, they should be lending him out to the other DC editors. This is JAMES FRICKIN' GORDON, one of the best and most famous characters in comic book history. He deserves better than comic book limbo.

It'd be interesting to see him interact with someone else in the DCU. He'd be a good cast member for GREEN ARROW.

I have no objections to Atkins but for someone who's been around at least four years now, he's really got no discernable personality.

Gail used Gordon a few times in BoP and wrote him very, very well.

Also, Ed Brubaker wrote the "Made of Wood" storyline in TEC around the retired Jim Gordon, givine him a new job as a criminology professor.

Except the epilogue to War Games seemed to say that idea had been dumped by the wayside, because Gordon said he was leaving Gotham completely.

I keep hoping he'll turn up as a regular supporting character in BoP down the road.

At least All-Star Batman should have Gordon.

[Lorendiac]

What I'd like to see is have Gordon start up a private investigation agency; even if he doesn't do much footwork himself he'd still be an excellent organiser/boss type character. Hell, don't even have his agency in Gotham and it would still work well.

Obviously, if it was in Gotham it would work a great deal better. Imagine the face offs Gordon could have with the current Police Commisioner over police policies, Usurping the loyalties of GCPD officers, etc etc.

You're stirring up all sorts of nostalgic memories from my childhood. You seen, it's been done - the private eye part, at least. Lasted several months and then went away, but it did happen :)

I remember it well. 1982, I was just a slip of a lad, I was just starting to buy several DC titles regularly, which included Batman and Detective Comics. As I came in, Gordon had just recently lost his job after a mayoral election in which a slick character named Hamilton Hill had been elected. Hill was actually in the pocket of Rupert Thorne, "Boss" Thorne, who was coming back into an active role in the comics after having been offstage in a sanitarium ever since the Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers run years earlier (not that I knew anything about their run at the time).

So Hill appointed another flunky of Thorne's, a guy named Pauling, as the new Commissioner, and Jim Gordon was out in the cold. As I came in, he had just agreed to go partners with private eye Jason Bard in his detective agency. (Bard had actually been a well-established, if minor, character in the Bat-continuity for awhile before that, but I didn't know or care about that at the time.)

Bard was a red-headed man who walked with a cane because one of his legs had been wounded in action (Vietnam, I think?) and never completely regained its strength. The two of them were going to spend at least some of their time digging into some real peculiarities associated with the recent election - the rival candidate shot himself in the foot when he took at face value some photos that were "leaked" to him that seemed to show Batman was actually a Gotham crime boss who must only pick on his competitors in order to strength his own market share as he took over their territories or something. This was then proven to be totally false, and candidate Arthur Reeves took a humiliating landslide defeat on Election Day. Gordon smelled a rat and wanted to find out where those phony photos actually came from.

There was a stark moment - don't remember which issue - when Bard and Gordon were walking down the sidewalk and three uniformed GCPD cops ambushed them. Started by talking tough, then started shoving them around, then abandoned all pretense and just beat them up without provocation. One of them mentioned that years earlier, Gordon had tried to get him thrown off the force, but couldn't make the charges stick. Obviously, it was revenge time! (Also, I strongly suspected Hill and Pauling had sent them to do this.)

As these cops ran off down the street, a battered Gordon was pushing himself up off the sidewalk, muttering, "Slime. Beating up an old man and a vet with a bum leg. If this is the kind of city Hamilton Hill wants, maybe we ought to just let him have it."

Despite which, Hamilton Hill eventually ended up offering Gordon his job back, and Jason Bard promptly faded out of continuity, by and large, for years to come now that he was no longer Gordon's partner. And for the next few years, as written by Gerry Conway and then by Doug Moench, Gordon was in the exciting position of being a) leader of a big-city police department, but b) subordinate to a sleazy mayor who hated his guts and wanted to set him up to take the blame for anything that went wrong, even going to the lengths of dumping a new assistant on him . . . a thuggish, tough-talking, disloyal slob named "Harvey Bullock" who went out of his way to harass his nominal boss, Jim Gordon, for awhile, and couldn't be fired because the Mayor wanted him there. (Bullock later got rehabilitated, to some extent. After one of his "practical jokes" literally gave Gordon a heart attack, he began to wonder if perhaps he had taken it just a trifle too far?)

(Heck, during the regime of Commissioner Pauling, there was even a shoot-on-sight order out on Batman for a little while, and one cop did in fact gleefully shoot him in the back with a rifle. I think the cop in question may have been one of those guys who had beaten up Bard and Gordon earlier. So you can see that the current situation I've heard about, with a commissioner having a shoot-on-sight order out on Batman, is just retreading old, familiar ground!)

[Sean Walsh]

Just that he was following Barbara, I believe.

Following Barbara out of Gotham, or following Barbara?

Suddenly, the thoughts of Jim Gordon popping up in Birds of Prey every so often make me glad I buy that book (amongst other reasons)...

[Matches Malone]

(Heck, during the regime of Commissioner Pauling, there was even a shoot-on-sight order out on Batman for a little while, and one cop did in fact gleefully shoot him in the back with a rifle. I think the cop in question may have been one of those guys who had beaten up Bard and Gordon earlier. So you can see that the current situation I've heard about, with a commissioner having a shoot-on-sight order out on Batman, is just retreading old, familiar ground!)

McCloskey was the cop's name. He was one of the guys who beat up Gordon and Bard. He also ended up shooting Thorne iirc.

When Gordon retired, I'd hoped they would set up Gordon & Bullock as PI's.

[Sean Walsh]

McCloskey was the cop's name. He was one of the guys who beat up Gordon and Bard. He also ended up shooting Thorne iirc.

McCloskey?!

Wasn't the cop who Michael Correlone shot in The Godfather named McCloskey too?

[Corrina]

I remember it well. 1982, I was just a slip of a lad,

Me too.

Just not the slip of a lad part. :)

But didn't Sarah Essen get temporarily appointed Police Commissioner in this arc, somewhere? Or am I thinking of another one?

[Matches Malone]

Essen was appointed Commissioner in 1995. Different story.

[Corrina]

Thanks, Matches.

After a while, the Batman stories just run into one long arc for me. Though now I have to remember about the new twist with the dead one being back.

Maybe I'll wait. With the Crisis coming, it'll probably be explained differently in a few months and I'll have to forget the first explanation and remember the second.

Better to be ignorant for now.

[Captain Jim]

Following Barbara out of Gotham, or following Barbara?


Leaving Gotham in order to be close to his daughter.