- Gillian B. Loeb
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Commissioner Gillian B. Loeb 
Gillian B. Loeb as seen in Batman #405 (March 1987)Publication information Publisher DC Comics First appearance Batman #404 (February 1987) Created by Frank Miller (script)
David Mazzucchelli (art)In-story information Team affiliations Gotham City Police Department Abilities None 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.
Contents
History
Loeb is introduced as the commissioner of Gotham City's Police Department at about the time Batman begins his war on crime. He is corrupted under the influence of Carmine Falcone 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 aggravation.
When Gordon begins surreptitiously helping Batman, Loeb blackmails him with evidence of his extramarital affair with Sgt. Sarah Essen. However, Gordon thwarts this by confessing his indiscretion to his wife and a later attempt to kidnap their child fails due to the Gordons and Batman's interference.
Eventually, Batman, Gordon, and District Attorney Harvey Dent expose Loeb's ties to the Falcone mob, and he is forced to resign. Another corrupt officer, Jack Grogan, replaces him. 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 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 to transfer to Chicago for fifteen years after Gordon shot a corrupt cop and his wife in self-defense when he caught the couple attempting to rob a warehouse, fearing the news would bring him and other corrupt cops down. Loeb threatens Gordon with the death of the cop's son to force Gordon into accepting the transfer.
Other media
Film
- Gillian B. Loeb appears in the 2005 film Batman Begins and its 2008 sequel, The Dark Knight. He is played by British actor Colin McFarlane in both films. Unlike in the comics, the Loeb in these films is African-American and apparently an honest cop, more closely resembling the comics' Michael Akins. In "Batman Begins," he first appears to notify the young Bruce Wayne that they have caught Joe Chill. Though shown to be at odds with Batman (launching a police task force to arrest him), Loeb is portrayed more sympathetically in the films, with no indications that he is corrupt or under the influence of Carmine Falcone. In The Dark Knight, Mayor Garcia's office received a series of angry letters and phone calls from the citizens of Gotham expressing dissatisfaction as "a number of policies that he enacted as commissioner were unpopular." Loeb is killed when he drinks from a liquor bottle containing a poison planted by corrupt police officers working for Joker. After Loeb's death, Mayor Garcia promotes James Gordon to the vacant post of Police Commissioner.
- Gillian B. Loeb appears in the Batman: Year One animated film, voiced by Jon Polito.
Novel
- In The Dark Knight movie novelization, Loeb's full name is given as Perry Loeb rather than Gillian Loeb. In The Dark Knight viral campaign however, he is referred to as Gillian B. Loeb as in the comics. Loeb's first name is given as "Joseph" in Matt Wagner's limited-series comic Batman and the Monster Men (2005–2006), a likely reference to writer Jeph Loeb, whose first name is Joseph.
- Gillian Loeb is referred to in DC Comics' Hitman series. Loeb is mentioned by character Moe Dubelz (one of Gotham City's most influential mob bosses) remembering him as the reason their illegal operations flourished as he was being paid to avoid police interference. Dubelz remembers Loeb's term as commissioner as the "good times" his organization enjoyed.[1]
See also
References
Categories:- Fictional criminals
- Fictional police officers
- Fictional African-American people
- Comics characters introduced in 1987
- Film characters
- Characters created by Frank Miller
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