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For me, Jim Gordon is like the Empire State Building: a historical and cultural landmark whose legacy has been obscured by the sheer number of times it's come into my field of view. For context, I was born and raised in New York City, and I've never been to the Empire State Building. I've never felt the need to. I appreciate the Empire State Building for being what it is, a skyscraper, but it's never given me a reason to want to investigate it further. The closest I've actually been to it was when I was a teenager, scrounging around for a bite to eat and hating that I was in Midtown Manhattan when I happened to look up and notice that I was standing directly beneath what was once the tallest building in the world. I kept it moving without a second thought. The same could be said for how I've felt about Jim Gordon all these years. 

But now that I'm older and greyer and no longer feeling like I'm in an episode of My So-Called Life, I'm ready for a change. When I spoke to Matt Fraction about his upcoming run on Batman with Jorge Jiménez earlier this year, I asked him about his love of Jim Gordon, the only good cop in Gotham City. Fraction said that Gordon will be going back to being a beat cop, because "It’s fine being a detective, it’s fine being commissioner, but being a guy who knows the name of everybody up and down the street and checks in with people and all that stuff. It's great."

His sincerity about the character struck me, and I got the sense that there was something about Jim Gordon in comic book form that I've been missing, simply because I've been taking his existence for granted (like the Empire State Building). 

Matt Fraction excels at writing 'regular dude characters' like Jim Gordon

And before you start wondering if I've ever actually read a Batman comic, yes, I'm a longtime reader. But beyond stories like Batman Year One, The Black Mirror, and Death of the Family (where the Joker cuts the power in a GCPD precinct and murders Gordon's coworkers in complete darkness), I've never really felt compelled to latch onto comic book Jim Gordon. I specify 'comic book Jim Gordon' because I adore Jeffrey Wright's version of the character in Matt Reeves's The Batman. 

I also don't think it's an accident that two out of the three stories with Gordon that have made a real impression on me are written by Scott Snyder and are absolutely horrifying. The Black Mirror, which charts the return of Jim Gordon's psychopathic son, James Gordon Jr., back to Gotham City, gave me nightmares that unlocked a new fear about parenthood for me, thanks to Francesco Francavilla and Jock's artwork and Snyder's script. And then seeing the Joker race around the shadows of Gordon's precinct in Snyder and Greg Capullo's Batman #13, while ol' Jim can do nothing but helplessly wave a flashlight and gun around, had me screaming from fear. I love horror, and I'll never get tired of thrills and chills, so I'm not surprised that my conception of Gordon across hundreds of Batman comics I've read has boiled down to this. 

That said, with the Gordon moments that I hang onto closest, he's been put in a passive position. He's a regular guy who gets intruded upon by the horrific actions of other people. This isn't to knock Snyder's writing, which I enjoy the hell out of. I'm just making an observation about the framework that Jim Gordon has been presented within in his most memorable comic book moments for me. Sure, I've read lots of stories where Gordon does his detective thing. But I'm ready for that side of his character to stand out to me, just as much as his most horrifying experiences. Even though I've spent plenty of time terrified on behalf of Gordon, I still feel like I don't really know the guy the way that Matt Fraction does, at least. 

I'm ready to see a new side of Jim Gordon, from someone who really loves this character. Part of what works so well about Matt Fraction's writing is his ability to integrate characters within the communities they live in and serve. It's a language that I can emotionally connect to because of the circumstances in which I was raised. I'll admit that I didn't care much about Clint Barton before I read Fraction and David Aja's Hawkeye (listen, I hadn't yet read Steve Englehart, Al Milgrom, and Joe Sinnott's West Coast Avengers, okay!). But seeing Clint Barton, as dysfunctional as he is, stick up for his neighbors and become what my dad would call a 'stand-up guy' - that made me love his character! 

Jim Gordon is a regular dude, and so is Clint Barton. Matt Fraction is great at making the regular dudes of DC and Marvel Comics stand out because of their groundedness. Elsewhere in our conversation at SDCC, Fraction noted that he's going to explore Batman as the "world's greatest SUPER detective solving the world's greatest super crimes," which leaves plenty of room for Jim Gordon to be the world's greatest regular guy detective solving the world's greatest regular guy crimes. And I'm legitimately excited for this. I feel like I'm about to embark on a day of running errands with someone I've known for a long time, but haven't gotten the chance to actually bond with. I say this with absolutely no facetiousness, as doing regular guy stuff like running errands in the company of a friend is an experience that makes life worth living sometimes.  

Batman #1 by Matt Fraction and Jorge Jiménez will be out on September 3.