What should the age difference between Jim Gordon and Bruce Wayne be?

[K. Jones]

I never really thought about it. I like Gordon to be a fair bit older. By Year One, Batman's in his twenties and Gordon is a Lieutenant who has moved back from Chicago and a veteran detective career there ... prior to that I like the canons where he was the beat cop on duty the night of the Wayne Murders, which was something I never really thought about until Batman Begins and was probably the strongest thing that story put forward, and I even like the idea that "Solving the Wayne Murders" was something that launched Jim into becoming a Detective, the way it was the crux of "Gotham", even if he never actually is the one to solve that case and ends up moving to Chicago for whatever reason.

But anyway, if he's a beat cop when Bruce is 10 years old, he's probably at least 15, maybe 20 years older than Bruce, and I think that's the right range and remains that way. Plenty old enough to have a daughter Babs' age, which is just a smidge older than Dick Grayson, but young enough that James Jr. wasn't like "wow this old guy still having kids?" Of course aging James Jr. up to being a young man and turning him into a serial killer was probably one of the most cliched, dumbest decisions I can think of - I'm not talking about the story execution, I rather like Black Mirror, just that I then and now think the aging up was silly and dumb. (It does always beg the question of; where the heck is Jim Gordon's little boy during all these years of stories, but hey, Frank Miller, can't always know what wrinkles your story might throw into "canon")

Presently if Babs is in her 20s (probably mid) and Jim and Barbara had her in his younger days as a beat cop in that kind of normal blue collar range of "first wife, starting a family", and all that, that tracks with Bruce being in his mid to late 30s and then Jim being in his late fifties or even early sixties. He's supposed to be a veteran, old, still in good shape but he's also had a heart-attack, been shot twice, can't ever quite seem to give up smoking, quitting cigarettes but then smoking a pipe then going back to cigarettes, so not exactly "peak" shape, and like a Detective and top cop in Gotham City would have to be, just running on all the caffeine and nicotine in the world trying to deal with all the Pop Criminal and Dark Occult Serial Killer crap being thrown on his desk.

[Mace Dolex]

I give it a 15 year difference, I think Year One made it a point to de-age him and still look like he can handle himself in a fight currently at 50 I'd place him in current comics.

I think Pre-Crisis Gordon was slightly older more closer to Thomas Wayne's age and that would have made Pre-Crisis Batman around 35 and Gordon pushing 60 almost close to retirement.

[bat39]

I give it a 15 year difference, I think Year One made it a point to de-age him and still look like he can handle himself in a fight currently at 50 I'd place him in current comics.

I think Pre-Crisis Gordon was slightly older more closer to Thomas Wayne's age and that would have made Pre-Crisis Batman around 35 and Gordon pushing 60 almost close to retirement.

Pre-Crisis Gordon was definitely old enough to be Bruce's father. He was a friend to Philip Wayne (on Earth Two, according to Secret Origins # 6), and a liuetanant when the Wayne murders happened (according to Detective Comics # 500). Not to mention, being the white-haired Commissioner when Batman first showed up.

Pre-Crisis Batman was somewhere in his mid-thirties, 33 at least, by the time COIE hit (the Batman Special issue which introduced Wrath from 1984 had the Wayne murders take place 25 years ago, and Bruce was at least 8 at the time, possibly 10). Gordon was probably in his thirties then (especially if he was still engaged to Barbara Kean), making him around 60 in the present-day.

I think Gordon is currently older than that, but that's mostly because Batman himself is (logically) a lot older than 35 now.

[John Venus]

A few years younger than Thomas Wayne would be if he was still alive but still old enough to become a father figure for Bruce.

[bat39]

A few years younger than Thomas Wayne would be if he was still alive but still old enough to become a father figure for Bruce.

Which begs the question of how old Thomas Wayne (and Martha) were when they were killed? They could be anywhere in their thirties or forties.

But yeah, in general, it makes sense to me that Gordon is a contemporary of Thomas Wayne (albeit possibly younger by a few years) and of Alfred (likewise).

That said, I'm not sold on Gordon needing to be a father-figure to Bruce, irrespective of age. Their relationship as Bruce and Gordon always struck me as being a friendship, albeit possibly an intergenerational one. And as Batman and Gordon, I've always seen them as equals. Hell, Gordon doesn't even really know (well, assuming he doesn't know who's behind the cowl of course ) how old Batman is, though I guess he can safely assume Batman is likely younger than him. So it's not like he can have a 'father-like' relationship with Batman.

[Restingvoice]

Which begs the question of how old Thomas Wayne (and Martha) were when they were killed? They could be anywhere in their thirties or forties.

I'm gonna say thirties. Both are old money so they can afford to marry young.

[bat39]

I'm gonna say thirties. Both are old money so they can afford to marry young.

They can afford to...doesn't necessarily mean that they did.

The adaptations tend to lean older when it comes to casting Thomas Wayne, with actors in their forties or fifties, while with Martha, the actress is usually in her thirties.