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Gotham – Commissioner Gillian B. Loeb

By Steve Lam

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On this week’s Gotham episode, titled Everybody Has a Cobblepot, both James Gordon and Harvey Bullock did some heavy investigating into corrupt Commissioner Gillian B. Loeb’s past.  What they discovered was a man moreso trying to protect his family.  This incarnation, portrayed by Peter Scolari, is quite different from how Loeb was portrayed in the past.  We did a little investigating of our own to see how Gotham‘s characterization of the current commissioner measures up to the others.

Comic Book Biography

Created by writer Frank Miller and artist David Mazzucchelli, Commissioner Gillian B. Loeb was first introduced in Batman #404 (February 1987), the inaugural issue of the Batman: Year One story arc.  Already in crime boss Carmine Falcone’s pocket, Loeb sees the young righteous Lieutenant James Gordon as a threat.

Though Loeb knew about Batman’s vigilantism, he didn’t initially see the Dark Knight as a threat because Falcone wasn’t a target yet.  That all changed when Batman attacked Falcone at his home during a dinner party.  As a result, Loeb ordered Gordon to bring down Batman at all costs.

However, when Gordon witnesses Batman’s rescuing of an elderly woman from a runaway truck, he has a change of heart.  Teaming up with young District Attorney Harvey Dent, Gordon starts to secretly help Batman in his quest to end corruption in Gotham City.  When Loeb gets wind of this, he tries to blackmail Gordon with evidence of his affair with Sergeant Sarah Essen.  But the blackmail is rendered benign when Gordon willingly confesses his transgressions to his wife, Barbara.

Loeb is later forced to resign when Batman, Gordon, and Dent expose his connections to Falcone.  The success of ousting Loeb is only temporary because he’s replaced by another corrupt official — Jack Grogan.  Years later, Gotham City would see its true white knight when Gordon famously takes the helm as Commissioner.

In the Batman: Dark Victory (November 1999 – December 2000) story arc, Loeb returns to regain his past position of power.  He tries to use the Hangman killings and his experience in dealing with such crimes as a way to lobby the city council in removing Gordon as commissioner of GCPD.  But soon, Loeb himself becomes a victim of the killer when he’s founding hanging in his mansion.

In the Wrath Child story arc — covered in Batman Confidential #13 – #16 (March 2008 to June 2008) — Loeb is seen in a flashback as a captain, who tries to have Gordon transferred to Chicago after Gordon, in self-defense, shot and killed a corrupt cop and his wife, when the two were trying to rob a warehouse.  The reason for the transfer was due to Loeb’s concern that other corrupt cops might be exposed.

When the DC Universe was rebooted with The New 52, Commissioner Loeb was brought back into the fold again as a corrupt official in the Batman: Zero Year (June 2013 – July 2014) event.  In Detective Comics #25 (January 2014) Loeb pairs Gordon up with Henshaw, a corrupt cop who wants to lead Gordon to his death via the Black Mask’s gang.  The plan fails due to Batman’s rescuing of Gordon.  Afterwards, many corrupt cops who were associated with the Black Mask are killed by the Black Mask himself.  Henshaw’s death seems to cause Loeb to have an emotional breakdown, and towards the end, it’s discovered that Loeb may not have even known about Henshaw’s corruption.  These events make Loeb question how far he allowed the corruption to go in his department.

Other Portrayals

Fox’s Gotham has been the only television incarnation — live or animated — of Loeb to-date.  The character has been portrayed by Peter Scolari and was first introduced on the show in the episode titled What the Little Bird Told Him.

On film, Loeb has been seen in both live-action and animated realms.  For live-action, he was introduced in Batman Begins (2005), where he was portrayed by Colin McFarlane.  McFarlane would reprise this role in The Dark Knight (2008).  Loeb — in this incarnation — was very different from the source material.  He’s a clean-cut African-American official who’s a stickler for rules, and is as much an enemy to organized crime as Gordon and Batman are.  Loeb’s death came at the hands of the Joker in The Dark Knight, when he drank whiskey that was laced with acid by the Clown Prince of Crime.

In animation, Loeb, voiced by Jon Polito, was a major character in Batman: Year One (2011), an animated film directly based on the Batman: Year One story arc of the comics.  There’s also a strange bit of trivia for this adaptation.  Benjamin McKenzie, who plays the lead role of James Gordon on Gotham, voiced Bruce Wayne / Batman for the direct-to-video film.

Polito would lend his voice again to Loeb in Batman: Arkham Origins (2013), part of the Batman: Arkham series of video games.  In this storyline, Loeb — still a dirty cop — is taken hostage and killed by Black Mask for keeping Black Mask’s men behind bars.  Later in the game, Loeb makes appearances in three extortion tapes created by Enigma (Edward Nygma’s pre-Riddler identity), and also a hallucination.

In literature, Loeb is mentioned in a variety of stories and printed material.  In The Dark Knight movie novelization, it’s revealed that Loeb’s first name is actually “Perry”, but the viral campaign for the actual movie still mentions his full name as “Gillian B. Loeb.”  In the Batman and the Monster Men (November 2005 – April 2006) limited comic series, Loeb’s first name is again changed.  This time it’s “Joseph”, which is speculated to be a reference to writer Jeph Loeb whose formal name is actually “Joseph Loeb III.”  In the Hitman comic series, Loeb’s name is mentioned by mob boss Moe Dubelz, who refers to Commissioner Loeb’s tenure as being the “good times his organization enjoyed” due to the corrupt official’s tendency to ignore organized crime.

Gotham‘s Portrayal

There’s no doubt that Gotham‘s version of Loeb is also corrupt.  But there’s actually a tiny bit of sympathy behind it.  The writers seem to be giving some excuses for the Commissioner’s way of doing things.  Then again, some of his blackmailing has nothing to do with his daughter’s situation.

It also seems that from Everyone Has a Cobblepot, Gordon ends up with the most leverage.  The Batman: Year One story arc may not even be adapted in any way aside from Loeb’s plans in allowing Flass to get away with everything.  First, Gordon — let alone not being married — is also not cheating on Barbara Kean with Sarah Essen.  His “scandalous” relationship (if you can even call it that) with Leslie Thompkins is publicly known.  Therefore, Loeb, if he’s seeking to get his power back, will need to find another way to blackmail Gordon.

What we haven’t seen yet is Loeb’s mingling with the underworld.  There doesn’t seem to be any meetings or fancy dinners with the likes of Carmine Falcone or Sal Maroni … yet.  Other than keeping incriminating evidence on cops and officials, Loeb acts like a total bureaucrat, always looking for some positive press.

Loeb is one of the characters I hope Gotham will dig further into and make into a main villain.  He hasn’t made much of an appearance in comics or movies, which is why the show has a huge opportunity in making this character its own.  If Gotham‘s writers play their cards right, they could make this the definitive version of Loeb.

Fox’s Gotham airs on Mondays at 8:00PM EST.

Next: Catch up on Gotham with a review of Everyone Has a Cobblepot

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