Gillian B. Loeb is a fictional character in the DC Universe. He 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.

Biography

Loeb is introduced in Batman: Year One as the commissioner of Gotham City's Police Department at about the time Batman begins his war on crime. He is in mob boss Carmine Falcone's pocket and immediately considers then-Lieutenant James Gordon's honesty a threat. However, he does not immediately share the same opinion about Batman, since the masked vigilante is targeting only low level criminals, and is popular with the public. One night, however, Batman attacks his house during a dinner party, which includes guests from Gotham's criminal underworld, and publicly announces that he intends to bring him down as well.

Enraged, Loeb orders Gordon to arrest Batman immediately. However, the vigilante proves frustratingly elusive, until one night in which the police corner him in an abandoned building following an impromptu rescue on the street. Loeb orders a bomb dropped on the building and a SWAT unit conducting an armed search of the rubble. As morning breaks however, Batman escapes, much to Loeb's annoyance.

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. However, Gordon confesses 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, and he justifies taking over due to his "experience". However, 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 15 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.

In The New 52 (a reboot of the DC Comics universe), Loeb is once again the commissioner, and is still corrupt. In Detective Comics #25, Loeb sets up Gordon with a corrupt partner, Henshaw, who means to give Gordon to Black Mask's henchmen. Batman saves Gordon. Many of the corrupt police officers under Loeb's command who were associated with the Black Mask gang perish, leading Batman and Gordon to theorize that Loeb has suffered some manner of emotional collapse. Later during the Zero Year storyline, the 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 on one of them. After the crisis is resolved and the Riddler is captured thanks to the efforts of Batman, Gordon, and Lucius Fox, Loeb resigns leaving Gordon to become the department's commissioner by a month later.

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