10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Commissioner Gordon
8. His Son Is A Psychopath
James Gordon Jr. was institutionalized as a teenager after disfiguring a school bus driver who insulted him. Released years later, he committed a series of brutal murders and attempted to frame the Joker for them. After nearly killing his mother and capturing his step-sister Barbara, James Jr. was captured by the Commissioner and Dick Grayson's Batman, and incarcerated in Arkham Asylum.
After escaping from Arkham, James Jr. stalked Barbara. He had always viewed her as a rival for their father's affections, and it was revealed that he deliberately caused the divorce between James Sr. and his wife, Barbara. The younger James had killed a cat that had been purchased for the newly adopted Barbara, and he threatened to do the same to his new “sister” if she didn’t leave the family.
In Batman: The Black Mirror, James Jr. returned, claiming to be taking antipsychotic medication. Barbara warned her father not to trust her brother, but James Sr. wanted to allow him to pursue an upcoming job at Dr. Leslie Thompkins' clinic. Barbara tested James Jr.'s medication and found that it increased his psychopathic tendencies, and he was using his job at the clinic to turn thousands of infants into psychopaths like him. Batman hunted the James Jr. down, and Gordon shot his son in the legs to stop him from jumping off a bridge.