Spoiler Alert: This article spoils certain details from Absolute Batman #1-24. Reader discretion is advised.
How does one get to the truth of their father’s death when everyone else made up their mind on who the killer is? You rock a DIY tactical armor set paired with your dad’s trenchcoat, with a modified non-lethal shotgun to complete the look. For the Absolute version of Barbara Gordon, becoming The Bat is the only way to come close to getting answers on what really happened to her dad, Jim Gordon.
There’s a lot we still don’t know about Barbara Gordon’s life before the events of Absolute Batman kicked off. Her mother hasn’t been mentioned in the comic yet and it’s unknown if she’s still alive or not. Some fans theorize Barbara might be biracial since her dad, Jim appears to be white (or at least a light-skinned, white-passing Black man), but nothing has been confirmed. At some point, Barbara decided she wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps and joined the Gotham City Police Department as a rookie officer.
Barbara’s role in The Zoo/Party Animals arcs
Her story begins during the Party Animals arc (issues #1–6). Barbara was working security at a high-stakes town hall meeting held by her father, who’s the former mayor of Gotham in Absolute Universe, addressing the terrorist group led by Black Mask. When the meeting was ambushed by the Party Animals, Jim was shot but thanks to Batman stepping in, no one else was hurt.
In the weeks that followed, Batman declared war on the Party Animals. Meanwhile, GCPD Commissioner Harvey Bullock decided the department’s top priority was hunting Batman, as he believed the violent vigilante was escalating the violence. Barbara objected to that decision, especially since Batman saved everyone at the meeting. Bullock, despite being close with Jim, backed a corrupt mayoral candidate named Hamilton Hill in an attempt to secure military-grade gear for the police department.
Later, when Batman confronted the Party Animals’ leadership on a rooftop, he burned their cash and broadcast the fight to inspire Gotham. Unfortunately for him, things went downhill as he took a vicious beating and was thrown off the building. He only survived by parachuting down to safety before the GCPD rolled in with FREAKING tanks. Barbara tracked Batman to a parking garage, knocked off his cowl, and held him at gunpoint. When he told her to just shoot, she lowered her weapon. She let him walk, and even lied over her radio that he’d vanished.
Barbara in the Abomination and The Seventh Kingdom arcs
Barbara kept the abandoned Batman cowl she found in the parking garage. During the Abomination arc (issues #9–14), Bruce used the communications rig inside the cowl to contact her.
He needed her help in finding his childhood friend Waylon Jones, who’d gone missing from Crime Alley. Barbara dug through some records, where she discovered that Jones was locked up at a private island prison called Ark M for a minor curfew violation. When Barbara met Bruce at the abandoned Gotham Zoo to hand over the file, she asked why he reached out to her of all people. He simply answered that he knew she was a good cop.
Barbara continued to prove herself to be a trustworthy ally to Bruce during The Seventh Kingdom arc (issues #17–18). When a massive biological outbreak started growing over the Heart Building, Barbara was sent in along with the other officers to investigate. The source was Pamela Isley (Absolute Poison Ivy), who tried to force Batman into an alliance to stop the Joker. Trapping him in heavy tendrils, Isley threatened to spray the whole city with mutating spores if he wouldn’t evolve voluntarily.
Barbara was able to sneak her way into the Heart Building and freed Batman. She warned him that SWAT was moving in, but Bruce refused to run until the spores were destroyed. He grabbed his Modified Utility Cannon (MUC) and fired on Isley. Targeting her human heart, he forced her to neutralize the spores under threat of destroying her heart, the last remaining piece of Isley’s original body from before her lab accident. Even when Isley held up her side of the deal, Bruce fired on his cannon anyway, leaving her alive but furious at his betrayal.
As the duo escaped the building before SWAT could enter the room, Barbara asked why Bruce shot Isley after she complied. Bruce told her Isley was right about him needing to evolve (which he misinterpreted as an excuse to isolate himself from his friends and family), then jumped out the window.
Barbara’s transformation into The Bat
Barbara’s life would change forever in the Straw Man arc. Jim Gordon was manipulated by Scarecrow’s fear toxin into jumping off a rooftop. Batman grabbed him by his coat, but Jim slipped out of the sleeves and fell to his death while onlookers assumed Batman pushed him. Barbara tried to call Batman through the cowl, pleading with him to tell her he didn’t murdered her father. Bruce didn’t answer, leaving Barbara to decide for herself what to make of what had happened.
The corrupt Mayor Hill used the tragedy to launch the “Robin Program” to bring Batman to justice, a ruthless task force led by Slade Wilson who are secretly the foster children of the Joker (Jack Grimm).
After giving the eulogy at her father’s funeral, Barbara was approached by the Robins. They tried to offer condolences by promising to track down Batman for her, but they just succeeded in pissing her off. She pointed out how they demolished a whole building trying to arrest Batman, making them no different from the masked vigilante. When they tried to hide behind their “we’re just acting within the law” excuse, Barbara shut them down. She told them she didn’t even know what the law was anymore, and made it clear her dad would have taken Batman’s side over theirs any day.
In issue #23, Commissioner Harvey Bullock came to her apartment with flowers and condolences. Barbara asked him to add more detectives to her father’s case, prompting Bullock to stare at her in disbelief. Everyone in the city believed Batman killed Jim, including Bullock. To him, it’s an open-and-shut case but Barbara refused to look at it that way. When Bullock failed to reassure her that he would launch an actual investigation into her father’s death, she kicked him out of her apartment.
In issue #24, while Bruce was in the middle of a brutal confrontation with Scarecrow, Barbara was frantically trying to get him on the radio. When Bruce finally picked up, he didn’t tell her where he was. Instead, he gave her the coordinates to “Junction 359” in the tunnels under the sewers. He told her that if she wanted Batman, that’s where she’d find him.
Barbara pushed open an access panel marked with a yellow ring symbol and found his underground hideout. Inside were his tools, his gear, and her father’s old trench coat hanging on the wall. Tears streamed down her face as the reality of what Bruce had been dealing with this whole time hit her. She put on Jim’s coat, pulled on the Batman cowl, put a round into Alfred Pennyworth’s modified non-lethal shotgun, and chose to become The Bat.
When Bruce walked away from his fight with Scarecrow, Barbara’s voice came through the radio:
“Batman, are you there?”
“I am now,” Bruce answered.
“Well, it’s about time,” she replied.
What makes Barbara Gordon stand out in Absolute Batman
What makes Barbara Gordon such a fascinating character in Absolute Batman is that she seems to be one of the few people in Gotham City with some common sense. While every authority figure from Commissioner Bullock to the court system has compromised their morals, Barbara comes off as a relatively stable, rational individual who refuses to blame Batman for everything that’s rotten in Gotham. Her moral compass gives her the courage to ask hard questions when everyone else accepts an easy answer.
The rest of the city might buy into the media campaign framing Batman for Jim Gordon’s death, but Barbara is the only one smart enough to pause and look at the bigger picture. Her transformation into The Bat isn’t about vengeance. It’s driven by the corruption of the system she swore to serve as a police officer.
The author of Absolute Batman, Scott Snyder confirmed that issue #26 of will serve as a “Year One” origin story dedicated to Barbara’s shift from GCPD officer to vigilante. Meanwhile issue #27 will cover the fallout by exploring how Bruce serves as the Absolute Universe’s version of the Joker due to the chaos he creates.
In a city full of corruption and severe violence, Absolute Barbara Gordon stands out because she’s forcing Gotham to hold itself accountable for falling into the grim state it’s in.
