Although Batman fights on the side of justice, his methods and phenomenal track record for stopping crimes and capturing criminals embarrasses the police by comparison.

The results of this event would lead the boy to become the first Wrath, a cop killer with a costume and motif inspired by Batman, who would come after Gordon for revenge years later.

A man of integrity, Gordon finds that Batman is his only ally against the corrupt administration, which is in the pocket of mob boss Carmine Falcone.

It is also added that he is a special forces veteran who is capable in hand-to-hand combat; he retaliates against an intimidation attempt by corrupt fellow officers with equal violence.

Gordon then uncovers evidence of rigging in the city council election and brings down two of his fellow officers, which leads to his commander transferring him to Gotham.

He then cages Gordon in the freak show of an abandoned amusement park and forces him to look at enlarged photos of his wounded daughter in an effort to drive him insane, thus proving to Batman that even seemingly normal people can lose their minds after having "one bad day".

Despite the intense trauma he has endured, Gordon's sanity and ethical code are intact; he insists that Batman apprehend the Joker without harming him in order to "show him that our way works".

This event later lead DC Comics to partner with the American Heart Association to create a public service announcement to raise awareness of the danger of tobacco smoking and how it would threaten one's health.

[7] He also still has contacts with the country's law enforcement agencies, through which the sheriff's departments request Gordon to contact Batman for help investigating a series of unusual murders on a suburb territory outside the city's limits; it turns out to be a paranormal case involving black magic, occult rituals, and the supernatural.

During the Blackest Night crossover, while mourning the passing of the original Batman, who was apparently killed in action during Final Crisis, Gordon and his daughter witness Green Lantern crash into the Bat-Signal, after being assaulted by a reanimated version of the deceased Martian Manhunter.

It is later shown that Alfred Pennyworth tends his wounds (Gordon is unconscious, thus protecting the team's secret identities) along with Barbara's at the bunker's infirmary.

In this new timeline, Jim Gordon is still the commissioner of the GCPD and a former Marine but is younger than his traditional portrayal; he still has the red hair and mustache from Batman: Year One.

[16] However, despite his doubts, Gordon decides to remain in prison, concluding that Gotham is still worth saving and simply musing that he may just be getting old and made a mistake.

There is usually the implication that Gordon is intelligent enough to solve the mystery, but chooses not to in order to preserve Batman's effectiveness and maintain his own plausible deniability.

When Hugo Strange attempted to determine Batman's identity early in his career (in a story written in the post-Crisis era), he began his research by focusing on muggings and murders committed in the last few years based on the idea that Batman was prompted into his current role by a traumatic loss as a result of criminal activity, prompting Gordon – upon learning of Strange's research – to reflect that Strange had already made a mistake as he was underestimating the physical demands that would be required for Batman to have reached his current level of skill by looking at crimes committed such a short time ago, suggesting that Gordon had already considered such an avenue of investigation (even if he may or may not have followed it up).

After unsuccessfully trying numerous passwords with relevance to the Batman universe he inputs "Bruce Wayne" and is granted access to the file contents.

As in most continuities, Gordon decides in the Christopher Nolan trilogy that he prefers to remain ignorant of Batman's identity and agrees that his anonymity – even in death – has sociological value.

Following Batman's apparent death in a nuclear detonation, Gordon attends Wayne's empty-casket burial with Blake and Wayne's/Batman's confidants, Alfred Pennyworth and Lucius Fox.

Gordon is also referred to in the first issue of the series, All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder, set in the same universe as and prior to The Dark Knight Returns.

In a world where Superman was never found by the Kents, reference is made to Gordon having been murdered shortly before the events of the story, resulting in Gotham's police department being granted extra powers of authority in his absence, although these are never fully explained.

In the Elseworlds title Batman: Gotham Noir, Jim Gordon is an alcoholic hard-boiled private detective who had left the police force following a failure to solve the disappearance of a judge.

In the Elseworlds story Batman: In Darkest Knight, Jim Gordon is an honest cop who distrusts Green Lantern (who in this reality is Bruce Wayne) because of his near-limitless power.

Dracula captures him, but he defies the vampire even as he is bled from a cut on his neck, with a now-vampiric Batman arriving in time to save Gordon from death.

The story concludes with Gordon being crushed by debris from the Batcave roof after explosives are planted to destroy it, thus exposing Batman to the sunlight and ending his reign of terror.

[37] In the graphic novel by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank, Batman: Earth One, Jim Gordon is featured as a central character.

[38] In the sequel, Gordon begin his alliance with Batman to combat the Riddler, who plots to takeover the remnant of Oswald Cobblepott's criminal empire.

[39] In the prequel to the video game Injustice: Gods Among Us, Gordon learns via Superman's x-ray vision that he has terminal lung cancer.

Batman's inside man Lex Luthor notes that Gordon's cancer is worsening due his taking "super pills" that give people superhuman abilities.

Gordon takes two of the super pills to save Barbara from Cyborg on the Watchtower, as he is scanning to find her location, accelerating the cancer to the point that he has only minutes to live.

In the follow-up book, Echoes, his daughter Barbara becomes Captain of the GCPD and decides against prosecuting Bruce after discovering her father had learned Batman's secret identity at some point after the events of the first film but refused to disclose it.