On the eve of the premiere episode of TV's first live action instalment of anything related to Marvel comic's espionage operation S.H.I.E.L.D, Fox completely stole the spotlight by announcing a show centred around popular Batman supporting character, Commissioner James Gordon.
The show, entitled Gotham will feature a pre-Batman Gotham city and will explore the exploits of a much younger James Gordon, even younger than that of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. The rights to Batman characters were off limits to appearing in other TV or movie adaptations while Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy was ongoing. Even popular shows like Smallville were not allowed to incorporate any Batman characters into their mythology.
James 'Jim' Gordon first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in May 1939, and has been a prominent supporting character in the Batman titles ever since. He has appeared in almost every adaptation of Batman and has been the most consistent character in the Batman titles other than Alfred (The Robins kept changing, from Dick Grayson to Jason Todd to Tim Drake to Damian Wayne).
James Gordon has appeared in comics, graphic novels, games, parodies and of course has been played by a variety of actors in live action and animated TV shows and movies, Gary Oldman being the latest, portraying him in Christopher Nolan's trilogy. Gordon is generally depicted as a middle aged veteran cop and his relationship with Batman has often been compared to that of Sherlock Holmes and Inspector Lestrade. Often one of Batman's closest non hero allies and father of Barbara Gordon/Batgirl, Gordon has been on the front lines of Batman's war on crime since the beginning.
There aren't many details released on the show, except that it will feature a very young James Gordon, much before he becomes the Commissioner of Gotham's police department. Batman himself is not going to make an appearance, at least for now. Many Batman villains will make appearances on the show as adversaries for Gordon to face but it isn't clear if the rest of the Bat family will make an appearance. Although since it is a pre Batman Gotham, it's safe to say Nightwing, Robin, Batgirl and the others will not be making an appearance; but Bruce Wayne, Lucious Fox, Dick Grayson, Harvey Bullock and other prominent Gothamites might feature in later seasons.
There have already been some shows about various characters from the DC Universe. The CW previously the WB, aired Smallville which ran for ten seasons and the short lived Birds of Prey (the last Batman family show). The CW now airs the critically acclaimed show Arrow based on popular DC character Green Arrow and may have a possible spin-off show based on The Flash, who has his backdoor pilot in the second season of Arrow. Fox even aired their own DC show a while back entitled, Human Target which followed DC character Christopher Chance.
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