Commissioner James W. Gordon(Earth-31)

James Gordon was a police officer in Chicago. However, he was an honest cop working for a dishonest system. After uncovering evidence of corruption from within the police department, Lieutenant Gordon was alienated by his peers. He decided to transfer from Chicago to Gotham City with his wife Barbara. Gordon quickly became infamous for being an honest cop in an otherwise corrupt department again. The press, however, hailed Gordon as a hero. After the debut of Batman, he was assigned to capture the vigilante. However, Gordon began to question if he should even arrest Batman and the two became partners in the war on crime. Gordon eventually became Police Commissioner. At some point, he was even privy to Batman's secret identity. Gordon divorced from his wife, Barbara, and eventually married again, to Sarah Essen.

At some point, Gordon's wife made him quit smoking. After decades of service, Gordon was set to retire at age 70. With one month left on the job, Gordon was occupied with the return of Two-Face and Batman and an escalation in the conflict with the Mutant Gang, who issued death threats. During the case against Two-Face, Gordon and Merkel reactivated the Batsignal. Gordon passed along information about the theft to two helicopters, indicative of Two-Face's M.O. and they figured out his target, the Gotham Life Building. Amid Batman's conflict with the Mutants, Gordon shot and killed a 17 year old Mutant, inside a mini-mart near his west-end apartment, who was about to do the same. As the Mutants gathered at the Pipe, per Batman's plans, Gordon offered to call in the National Guard. Instead, Batman asked he release the Mutant Leader from his jail cell in Gotham Central. After the Mutant Gang was fractured by the humiliation of the leader by Batman, Gordon turned in his badge and gun. He was succeeded by Captain Ellen Yindel.

The official changing of the guard took place at a formal dinner. Gordon offered his sympathies in the impossible task she would have to face and reaffirmed his support of Batman. After the Joker's alleged murder, Gordon refused to help Yindel in capturing Batman. He was then sent to the market to get food for dinner. However, the Coldbringer soon plunged the U.S. into panic and chaos. Gordon rallied his community to save their neighborhood then ran back home to his East Side apartment only to watch it explode. Mrs. Gordon had already evacuated and reunited with Gordon.