As Jim Gordon attempts to move on from his career as Gotham City’s police commissioner, he is enlisted for a dangerous new job.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Joker #1, by James Tynion IV, Guillem March, Arif Prianto and Tom Napolitano, on sale now.
If there’s one Gotham City resident who has had their life repeatedly shaken to the core the most by the Joker, it’s retired Commissioner Jim Gordon. The Clown Prince of Crime has repeatedly brought trauma and pain to the celebrated police commissioner ever since he surfaced to become Gotham’s most notorious supervillain.
And as a haunted Gordon grieves his latest familial loss from the villain’s latest rampage through the city, Joker #1 sees the retired commissioner take on a new job that will finally allow him to operate outside of the law and avenge everyone he has lost at the cackling criminal’s hands: Track down the Joker as he flees across the globe and kill him.
The recently concluded crossover event “Joker War” exacted an especially heavy toll on the Gordon family, with James Gordon, Jr. dying. The Joker’s rampage coincided with James’ sanity snapping as he murdered anyone resembling his sister before deciding to kill himself rather than risk any harm coming to Barbara. While the Joker himself wasn’t explicitly involved with his son’s death, the retired commissioner witnessed James die and attributed the tragedy both to the mayhem the Joker inspired and unleashed and the activities of Batgirl. And as Gordon quietly continues mourning, he is approached by a mysterious benefactor to hunt the Joker at his current whereabouts in Belize and kill him.
James is far from Gordon’s only family member that has been attacked by the Joker since he moved to Gotham. Gordon recalls that his life was forever changed when Barbara was temporarily paralyzed and ow they where both tormented by the villain during The Killing Joke. During “No Man’s Land,” Gordon’s wife and fellow police officer Sarah Essen-Gordon was killed by the Joker when she attempted to rescue a group of infants born while Gotham endured its long isolation from the rest of the United States in the wake of a devastating earthquake.
Gordon has always kept sight of restraint and the need to pursue the Joker using the proper sense of justice and legal procedure, even the face of the villain’s most heinous crimes. After being freed by Batman during The Killing Joke, Gordon still insists that the Dark Knight bring in the Joker by the book, even after being subjected to disturbing images of a tortured Barbara. After discovering Sarah was murdered by the Joker, an enraged Gordon shoots the Joker in the knee in retribution, temporarily giving the supervillain a limp. And during “Hush,” when Batman attempts to kill the Joker for apparently murdering his childhood best friend Tommy Elliot, a retired Gordon holds the Caped Crusader at gunpoint to get him to stand down and save the Joker’s life.
No longer leading the Gotham City Police Department, Jim Gordon is unable to find peace and solace in retirement as he endures yet another family tragedy linked to the Joker. A haunted, broken man by all the Clown Prince of Crime has cost him over the years, Gordon appears to drop his usual approach to apprehend and prosecute the Joker within the bounds of the law, intrigued by an offer to hunt down the supervillain and put him down permanently. And if there’s one lawman in the DC Universe that’s perfect for the job, it’s Jim Gordon, and he may have finally been through enough to ensure that the Joker’s next laugh is his last.
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