Again, this is a character who only appears very briefly in the pilot, but she ends up becoming a very important part of the Batman comics and, in particular, the life of Detective James Gordon. In Gotham we see Jim happily married to Barbara, an arrangement that's mirrored during his move to the city in the pages of Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli's Batman: Year One. Somewhere along the line things start to look a little less rosy for the couple (thanks to the usual strains of being a police officer's wife, compounded by all the superheroes and villains flying around, in the most corrupt city in North America), and eventually that takes its toll on the marriage. Permanently. The Sarah Essen we meet in the Gotham pilot is very different to the one in the comics. Here we see her at the start as she gives Jim and Harvey their first big case. She's their captain, and she's a few years older than them. In the comics, it's the other way around; by that time Gordon has become Comissioner, and she's twelve years younger than him. Despite the age difference and the fact that, as a Lieutenant, Gordon is technically her superior, they engage in an extramarital affair that spells curtains for the Jim and Barbara show. We'll see if a similar fate befalls the love triangle here although, honestly, we're not sure where they'll find the time when there's so many more villains to introduce as fresh-faced teens.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
