Batwoman may be hinting at Commissioner Gordon’s fate in the Arrowverse. The Gotham City of Batwoman is strangely familiar, modeled after (and shot in) Chicago, like the Nolan films. Recent episodes have blended this with elements of Tim Burton’s Batman films, even mentioning that the Penguin was mayor of Gotham for a time.
And yet, there’s one sense in which Batwoman is different; because this version of Gotham is bereft of many familiar faces. Batman isn’t the only one to be mysteriously absent from the Arrowverse’s Gotham City. The Arrowverse has confirmed the existence of both Robin and Oracle, but neither seems to be active anymore. Even Batman’s civilian friends are missing, including Commissioner Gordon himself.
The latest episode of Batwoman, “I’ll Be Judge, I’ll Be Jury,” offered an important clue to Commissioner Gordon’s fate. Throwaway dialogue revealed that he’s not in charge of the GCPD anymore; the head of the GCPD is apparently one Commissioner Forbes. Comic book readers will immediately recognize the name, because in the comics Jack Forbes was the head of the GCPD’s Internal Affairs department. He was as corrupt as they come, willing to work with crime families like the Falcones, and he took charge of the GCPD after Commissioner Gordon was framed with responsibility for a horrific subway accident.
It increasingly looks as though someone took all of Batman’s closest friends and allies off the table; the same episode revealed that Lucius Fox was murdered, and the culprit seems to still be out there. That raises the possibility that whoever neutralized Fox was also responsible for framing Gordon for some sort of tragedy, ensuring that he was removed and replaced with a more sympathetic commissioner. Of course, there do currently seem to be differences between Batwoman’s Commissioner Forbes and his comic book equivalent; the crooked cop from the comics was opposed to vigilantes, where the Arrowverse’s Forbes has taken to using the Bat-Signal. But he could easily be part of a plot to draw Batwoman out in order to make her vulnerable.
The mystery of Batman’s disappearance - and of his missing allies - is perhaps the most interesting aspect of Batwoman. And the mention of Commissioner Forbes may be a vitally important clue, because it introduces a corrupt figure from the comics who could well be involved in a grand conspiracy to take all the Dark Knight’s friends out of play. It will be fascinating to see how this plays out, and whether Commissioner Forbes proves to be a trustworthy ally or not.
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