Warning: Spoilers for The Batman and Scooby-Doo Mysteries #11!
The question whether or not Commissioner Jim Gordon always knew Barbara Gordon wasBatgirlcan now be accurately answered. The comics seldom get a chance to delve into ifthe original champion of Gothamknows his daughter is a crimefighter, at least in recent memory. Barb is more active as an Oracle nowadays, while Gordon is usually paired in stories with Batman more often than he is Batgirl.
However,The Batman and Scooby-Doo Mysteries#11 by Sholly Fisch, Puste, Carrie Strachan, and Saida Temfonte presents a rare pairing between Commissioner Gordon and Batgirl. The ending hints that Commissioner Gordon always knew that Barbara Gordon was Batgirl.
A moment like this strikes a specific curiosity in a reader. It begs one to wonder if within the actual main canon of DC Comics lore, did Gordon ever knew that Barb was alsothe often badass Batgirl/Oracle? Examining this comic, as well as past comics from DC’s vault between the two, should bring audiences closer to better answering that question.
Did Commissioner Gordon Always Know Barbara Was Batgirl?
A Scooby-Doo Crossover Suggests the Answer is Yes
In between Batgirl duties, Barbara Gordon gets herself a job at the local Gotham Public Library, something that her friends in the Scooby Gang and her father coincidentally both decide to visit to celebrate her achievement. At this point, Barb has had frequent adventures with Scooby-Doo and his amazing friends, but she’s yet to tell her dad about being a crimefighter orher online legacy persona of Oracle, hence why she tells them to be a little discreet about her extracurricular activities.
Just then, the library is invaded by Scooby-Doo’s latest monster of the week, Grotesque, someone who puts Barb’s Batgirl skills to the test once she knocks him out. After Grotesque is subsequently unmasked, Barb makes a joke about leaving the librarian business to be a police officer. Jim quips back that their family already has a pretty good crimefighter and detective in himself. But he thenwhispers in his daughter’s ear,“and so are you,“making her ponder if Gordon might actually know she’s a superhero. As deep Batman lore would suggest, Gordon more than suspects - he’s always known.
When Gordon Knew Barbara Was Batgirl in the Bronze Age
Jim Has a Secret During 70s Era Batman Stories
Detective Comics#417 features a backup story titled, “Batgirl in A Bullet for Gordon!” by Frank Robbins and Don Heck. In it, Jim Gordon and Batgirl work together to track a cop killer who murdered a friend of the Commissioner’s. While confronting a group of mobsters, Barbara nearly slips up when her father enters the room, saying “Da- watch it … he has a gun!” Barb’s relieved when she feels like Jim didn’t catch her nearly call him dad, butthe story ends with the twist of Gordon wondering to himself if Barbara will ever confess to him that she’s Batgirl.
The preceding issues would continue expanding on Gordon’s secret knowledge of Batgirl’s secret identity, like inDetective Comics#421 when he subtly tells Batgirl that he stopped worrying if his daughter was safe elsewhere the moment he saw Batgirl. This secret would culminate inDetective Comics#422’s “The Unmasking of Batgirl!” by Frank Robbins and Don Heck. Convinced she’s failed as Batgirl, Barbara confronts her father determined to leave superheroing behind to run for Congress, butbefore she even has the chance to unmask herself, her father calls her “Babs.”
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She’s shocked to find out in the next issue that her dad has known she was Batgirl for a while, as Jim says,“After a lifetime of police work, darling – not many things escape my trained eye!“A line like this seems to suggest that Gordon may have known about his daughter being Batgirl for even longer than that initial Detective Comics issue. It plays on the fact that Gordon is almost asskilled of a detective as Batman. He may not be The World’s Greatest Detective, but unlike most officials at the GCPD precinct, he is damn good at his job and has been for a long time.
Jim Gordon Always Remembers Barbara Gordon is Batgirl, Even Post-Crisis
Timeline Alterations
FollowingCrisis on Infinite Earths, DC’s canon was rebooted, and as such, so was Batgirl’s relationship with her father. Modern DC went right back to Barbara Gordon being a crimefighter with Jim Gordon being none the wiser, at least as far as she knew. The nature of Gordon’s knowledge wouldn’t be addressed again untilBirds of Prey#89 by Gail Simone, Paulo Siqueira, Robin Riggs, HI-FI Design, and Jared H. Fletcher. This comes years after the events ofThe Killing Joke, after which sheovercomes her trauma by becoming Oracle.
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In this issue, Barbara decides she’s finally ready to tell her dad about her hero lifestyle -except, he already knew that she was Batgirl, it’s just being Oracle that comes as a surprise to him. In his own words,“I knew you had some unusual friends, Barbara. But did I think you were the great and powerful Oz? No. That didn’t occur to me.“He was, however, well aware she was Batgirl for a long time. The reasoning is the same given during the Bronze Age: Gordon is too good of a cop to not know that there is a superhero right under his nose.
Gordon’s Dynamic with Batgirl in the Modern Age
He’s Destined to Always Know About Her Superhero Affairs
DC would reboot again once following Flashpoint, which rebooted the DC Universe entirely with The New 52, then partially restoring the prior canon with Rebirth. One of the things that Rebirth didn’t bring back into canon was Barbara’s last confessing to her father about being either Batgirl or Oracle. This would lead toJoker#2 by James Tynion IV and Guillem March, whereJim Gordon proves his detective skillsbydropping the sudden bombshell that he always knew that Barbara Gordon worked with Batman.
As all of these instances would suggest, why it can never be exactly pinpointed exactly when Commissioner Gordon found out that Barbara Gordon was Batgirl,the sentiment was always that he was good enough of a detective to have eventually figured it out, even if he figured it out off-panel. When he’s standing next to a heap of superheroes, among them being the World’s Greatest Detective, it’s easy to forget just how skilled Gordon is at his job. This is proof. At least, it would make Gordon far too incompetent if he didn’t figure out on his nose thatBatgirlwas his daughter.
The Batman and Scooby-Doo Mysteries#11 is on sale now from DC Comics
