"This is no place to raise a family. Maybe Gotham's all I deserve now. Maybe it's just my time in Hell."- Jim Gordon, Batman: Year One
Growing up, all I knew of Gotham City Police Commissioner James Gordon was the version from the 1960s Batman TV show: An old dude with a cool red phone that he used to call Batman when trouble was afoot... not a bad guy, just kind of an elderly male damsel in distress. He had a better portrayal on Batman: The Animated Series, where he at least saw some action and wasn't stuck in his office all the time. By no means Dirty Harry, but better than he was 30 years earlier.
Then I read Frank Miller's seminal Batman: Year One and disregarded everything that came before. Miller's Gordon is AWESOME, some kind of highly-trained, black ops bad-ass that is transferred to Gotham from Chicago, and is literally the only good man in the entire police department. He takes down street punks, psychos and corrupt coworkers with ease, but can't manage to track down some loon in a bat costume-- the one person he's obsessed with catching may be the only ally he has.
And so began my love of the character.
Completed in June 2013, this is actually my second attempt at Gordon for my Gotham's Most Wanted "universe." This version is a Wild Bill head (he always looked dead-on like Gordon to me) on a Professor X body, AKA THE BEST SUITED BODY EVER!! with a cloth coat from the Star Wars line.
The earlier incarnation utilized the exact same head, but on a Cobra Trooper body with movie Cobra Commander legs. While doing the photo shoot for the figure, I was displeased with the paint job and decided to start over completely with a new body.
Unused Jim Gordon Mk 1
Commissioner Gordon in my universe is very similar to Miller's, as well as Gary Oldman's fully-realized take on the character in Nolan's brilliant trilogy. He has the same bad-ass background, the same faults, and the same sense of honor and integrity. He's waging an intentionally losing "war" on The Batman... every officer has been ordered to arrest the vigilante on sight, but nobody has ever done so.
I've always loved the friendship between Gordon and Batman, and felt that James Gordon is who Bruce Wayne would have become, had he become a cop instead of a vigilante... but Wayne is too damaged for that...
Chasing a suspect in The Narrows
The hunt continues in a Narrows tenement...
Suspect apprehended
GCPD lock-up
"What about escalation? We start carrying semi automatics, they buy automatics. We start wearing vests, they buy armor piercing rounds... and you're wearing a mask and jumping off rooftops. Take this guy: armed robbery, double homicide. Got a taste for the theatrical, like you. Leaves a calling card. Calls himself The Joker."
COMING UP: WHO KNOWS WHAT EVIL LURKS IN THE HEART OF MEN?
