Loeb first appeared in Batman #404, as part of the Batman: Year One story arc. He along with his successor Jack Grogan, are predecessors and foils of James Gordon.
Fictional character biography
Post-Crisis
Loeb is introduced in Batman: Year One as the commissioner of Gotham City's Police Department at about the time Batman first appears in the city. He is in mob boss Carmine Falcone's pocket and immediately considers then-Lieutenant James Gordon's honesty a threat. Loeb does not immediately share Falcone's concerns about Batman, since the masked vigilante is targeting only low-level criminals and distracts the public from their activities. One night however, Batman breaks into Falcone's mansion during a dinner party, the guests at which include Loeb and several other Gotham elites, and publicly announces that he intends to bring them down as well.
Enraged, Loeb assigns Gordon to lead a task force with the sole purpose of arresting Batman. The vigilante proves frustratingly elusive, until the GCPD finally manages to corner him in an abandoned building following an impromptu rescue on the street. Loeb fakes a demolition order to have a bomb dropped on the building before sending in a heavily armed SWAT team to search for a body. Batman manages to escape, though not before humiliating Loeb further by easily overcoming his pursuers.
When Gordon (alongside assistant district attorney Harvey Dent) begins surreptitiously helping Batman, Loeb blackmails him with evidence of his extramarital affair with Sgt. Sarah Essen. Gordon is able to thwart Loeb's plan by confessing his indiscretion to his wife Barbara.
Eventually, Batman, Gordon, and Dent expose Loeb's ties to the Falcone mob and he is forced to resign. According to Gordon, Loeb's replacement, Jack Grogan, is just as corrupt. Gordon becomes the department's commissioner a few years later.
In Batman: Dark Victory, Loeb returns, hoping to use the Hangman killings as an excuse to try to get the city council to remove Gordon from his position as commissioner. His overall goal is to regain his former position, arguing that his "experience" makes him more qualified. Before his plans can be fulfilled, he becomes a victim of the Hangman Killer himself.
A younger Loeb appears as a captain in flashbacks in "Wrath Child" (Batman Confidential #13-16), where he arranges Gordon's transfer to Chicago for fifteen years after Gordon shot a corrupt cop and his wife in self-defense. Loeb fears the news could bring him and other corrupt cops down and threatens Gordon with the death of the cop's son to force him to accept the transfer.
Loeb is referred to in DC Comics' Hitman series. Moe Dubelz, one of Gotham City's most powerful mob bosses, says that Loeb helped his criminal empire to flourish by keeping the police at bay, in return for generous payments. Dubelz remembers Loeb's term as commissioner as the "good times" for his organization.[1]
In 2011, The New 52 rebooted the DC universe. Loeb is once again the corrupt commissioner of the GCPD. In Detective Comics (vol. 2) #25, Loeb assigns Gordon to partner with a crooked detective, Henshaw, who means to give Gordon to Black Mask's henchmen. Batman saves Gordon. Many of the corrupt police officers under Loeb's command known to be associated with the False Face gang perish, leading Batman and Gordon to theorize that Loeb has suffered some manner of emotional collapse.[2]
Later during the Zero Year storyline, Riddler attacks GCPD blimps, while taking over the city's power grid and allowing the city to be flooded by a hurricane, causing many to crash; Loeb is among those killed as a result.[3] After the crisis is resolved and the Riddler is captured thanks to the efforts of Batman, Gordon, and Lucius Fox, Gordon is appointed the department's new commissioner a month later.[4]
In other media
Television
Gillian B. Loeb appears in Gotham, portrayed by Peter Scolari. This version is secretly and initially allied with Carmine Falcone before defecting to Sal Maroni. Additionally, Loeb had a mentally-ill daughter named Miriam, who killed her mother in a fit of jealousy twenty years prior.[5][6][7][8][9] Following a failed attempt at forcing Jim Gordon to resign from the Gotham City Police Department, Loeb resigns and is succeeded by Sarah Essen.
Film
Gillian B. Loeb appears in Darren Aronofsky's script for a planned Batman: Year One film, in which he was the master of organized crime in addition to being commissioner of the Gotham City Police Department.[10]
Gillian B. Loeb appears in Batman Begins, portrayed by Colin McFarlane. This version is a kind-hearted African American policeman and commissioner who initially disapproves of vigilantism in Gotham City before changing his mind after Batman saves Gotham from Ra's al Ghul.
Gillian B. Loeb appears in The Dark Knight, portrayed again by Colin McFarlane. Amidst the Joker's attack on Gotham, Gillian is assassinated by him and later succeeded by Lieutenant James Gordon.
Gillian B. Loeb appears in Batman: Arkham Origins, voiced by Jon Polito. This version is allied with Black Mask and personally assigned Detective Harvey Bullock to serve as Captain James Gordon's partner. After disguising himself as Black Mask, the Joker mounts a mass breakout at Blackgate Penitentiary, during which he takes Loeb hostage and kills him via a gas chamber. Having failed to save him, Batman suffers hallucinations of Loeb while thwarting the Joker's plans.
Miscellaneous
Gillian B. Loeb, renamed Perry Loeb, appears in The Dark Knight's tie-in novelization.
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