BATMAN #26: Bruce dislikes Jim

[starwolf_oakley]

The first page of BATMAN #26 has Young Bruce Wayne watching a Zorro movie in a theater... by himself. He is confronted by uniform officer James Gordon. The rest of the issue in the present (which is also the past) is Doctor Death fighting Bruce Wayne and Lucius Fox and Gordon rescuing them. Bruce wakes in the hospital with his foot handcuffed to the bed.






The Nu52 YEAR ZERO Commissioner Loeb does not seem to be as bad as the YEAR ONE Commissioner Loeb.






And he still has the coat all these years later? Huh.



There's something to this. Gotham City only got so bad because the police department let it get so bad.





The whole "I will become a Bat" instead of "I will become a philanthropist and let the cops handle the criminals" makes more sense now. Making James Gordon dirty, or dirty at one point in the past, is a little confusing. For decades, James Gordon is such a great cop he even makes other cops better (like Harvey Bullock). Making him younger and somewhat dirty is interesting but confusing.

Comments

[darkknightjrk]

After reading the latest issue, I will say that Gordon wasn't really a full on, capital-D Dirty Cop. "Complacent," maybe, but not for long.

But yeah, as much as I don't think we needed an "origin" for Gordon's coat, it does make an interesting wrinkle in the relationship.

[qalchemist]

Is he explicitly noted as having been dirty? Or was Corrigan dirty and he was just ignorant or reluctantly going along with it?

[kamino_neko]

Gordon's not dirty. Not ignorant, either. Just hopeless.

[psylynce]

IIRC Corrigan was as bad as they come pre-nu52. No reason not to continue that here.

[kamino_neko]

The majority of Gotham cops are corrupt at this point in pretty much every continuity. Gordon and Bullock are about the only ones who've been shown to be clean in Zero Year.

[psylynce]

I take it Montoya is not around?

[kamino_neko]

She hasn't even made an on-panel appearance in the present (though she's been mentioned in passing). Given that Bullock is still a rookie during Zero Year, and I've always taken him for a few years older than Montoya*, I'd be surprised if she showed up during the arc.

* Granted, seeming younger may just be because she takes better care of herself...but on the other hand, Bullock's pinballed around between 'dirty', 'barely competent', and 'fairly average' over the years, so the fact that they made Detective at the same time also suggests he's been around for a bit longer.

[espanolbot]

Preboot Renee was about 16, 17 years old when Batman debuted, so chances are Bullock's a good ten-ish years older than her.

[starwolf_oakley]

That was Jim Corrigan from GOTHAM CENTRAL, not Dan Corrigan. For whatever reason, he had the same name as the Spectre.

[psylynce]

Damn. Sorry! They should put out a who's who for the Gotham PD.

[icon_uk]

Given the usual lifespan of a cop in Gotham, they'd probably have to write the who's who in pencil, and leave an eraser handy.

[espanolbot]

In the Gotham Central trades they have a who's who, explaining who is on each shift etc. :) ...'Course Infinite Crisis invalidated most of that, with the exception of Maggie Sawyer. Bah.

[espanolbot]

I think that it was because after Hal stopped being the Spectre they knew it was only a matter of time before he got a new host, but they took the route of rather than being a murdered good cop called Jim Corrigan, they decided to make him a good cop (Crispis Allen) who is murdered BY someone called Jim Corrigan.

[espanolbot]

Kind of ironic, as the previous cop called Corrigan in the DCU was so good at his job he was sealed in a concrete-filled oil drum and rolled off a pier.

[janegray]

Never heard of that. Poor guy :/

[espanolbot]

Ironically the stuff he did to his murderers AFTERWARDS was actually pretty horrific in its own right... Even unrelated criminals seemed to have horrible stuff happen to them, some worse than others.

[janegray]

Wait, so this Corrigan guy was an actual character? I assumed he was just a throwaway character mentioned for the sole purpose of indicating that Gotham is a dangerous city.

[espanolbot]

Yup, he was the Spectre.

[crimsonmoonmist]

Huh, I didn't exactly like this when I started reading as Bruce seemed kind of like a rebellious dick, but I actually don't mind where it went.

[captainbellman]

"A vigilante who's popular is an embarrassment to him."

Those editors and letterers are really putting in the hours, huh...

[donnblake]

It looked wrong to me at first reading as well, but upon rereading, it made sense.

At first I assumed it was meant to be "a vigilante whose popularity is an embarrassment to them,"

But then I read it as "A vigilante who *is* popular is an embarrassment to them," which seems fine.

[mrstatham]

This. I read it as being wrong at first, like Loeb was somehow jealous of Batman's popularity, but it is meant to be read the way you state.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Sorry, Bruce... not liking the hair one bit. Not on you, anyway.

[korvar]

I like the hair - I just don't like where the hair isn't.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

I can agree with that.

[darkknightjrk]

It just seems...odd on him. But I can accept it as being the look for the younger, more brash Zero Year Batman.

[monkey12]

Is there any particular reason why Bruce is drawn to look like a stereotypical jarhead in this title?

[espanolbot]

He's less interested in creating the smooth Bruce Wayne persona, and is more focused on being Batman at this point, so he has his hair cut short so it can go in his helmet/cowl without having to worry about it sticking out all over the place?

[zapbiffpow]

His first HQ - a brownstone near Park Row/Crime Alley - got blown to sh*t by the Red Hood Gang, a few weeks ago, I think.

He got quite a few head injuries from that little fiasco, so I guess he shaved his hair to keep it from irritating the healing skin. Or maybe to ward off the stink of charred hair.

[althechi]

Well, at least it's now abundantly clear this isn't that same Jim Gordon in BATMAN: YEAR ONE who categorically rejected a bribe so hard he made a priest pale.

[darkknightjrk]

Well, Gordon does pull something hardcore to show he isn't dirty in the issue after this, so I wouldn't write him off completely...

bah, humbug

[7dialsmystery]

Commissioner Gordon hasn't been a good cop since they invented James "Sociopathic Serial Killer" Gordon Junior.

Re: bah, humbug

[starwolf_oakley]

When that started, I really wondered if they were going for a "James Junior has a mental illness, but he isn't dangerous." Then they changed it to "James Junior is the blandest serial killer ever." (And I'm counting Dexter Morgan. Dexter seemed to enjoy the hunt more than he did actually killing people.)