Meet Kara Gordon, Daughter Of Jim Gordon

What would happen if Kara Danvers never met up with the Kent's and had never been trained by Clark so that she would one day become Supergirl?  That's what writers Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly decided to look at in their new comic book Gotham City Garage.  It's a story that takes place in an "American wasteland inhabited by DC’s younger generation of heroes surviving on motorcycles and rebellion," according to Andrew Dyce over at Screenrant.com.  The two writers talked with the site and had this to say about the direction that they are going with this particular comic:


"It’s still a coming of age story for both Kara Gordon and her sister, Barbara. A sibling duo fans could only previously have dreamed of, but one that sounds like it will do justice to the skills and agency of both. Albeit in a very, very different version of the DC Universe. Lanzing explains the new take:


We can’t give too much away because that’s a little bit of a secret in our first couple issues, but what we can say is the two got raised as sisters. Kara Gordon is the daughter of Jim Gordon who is himself still police commissioner of the LEXES city state. So while Barbara went and worked for The Bat, Kara was just a tech, she has a normal job working a totally normal nine to five.


She literally programs the little mind control machines that are in everybody’s brains. She does tech support for everyone’s mind control device. But she has always felt like an outsider; always felt like there was something different about her. She has that feeling that I think any young person has growing up into a more corporate society, when they realize once I become a cog in this machine, is that all I am? And Barbara has a place that is fulfilling for her, but Kara doesn’t. And when Kara realizes that there is more to life than this, that’s the meat of our whole first issue. She’s going to seek out something different."

The two continued:


"There’s a certain fundamental aspect of these characters that’s never going to change. Kara Gordon, whether her name is Kara Gordon or Kara Danvers, is always going to be a hero in her core. But how she gets there is going to be different depending on the circumstances in her world.


During the Dark Age, during this big event, the heroes of the world – the Justice Society, the heroes that we know – they got wiped out. So in a lot of the cases the women who were their sidekicks had to actualize without these men in their lives. So without those men to be the heroes that can be looked up to, they were forced to become their own heroes. As for the bikes of it all, well they live in the freescape – there are not a lot of ways to get around. We’re trying to make each female hero have to step up and become the hero we otherwise wouldn’t have known."


While the two don't go into much detail about the "Dark Age," they teased that people aren't really familiar with superheroes in this world.


"Kara Gordon is the first Kryptonian hero the world has ever seen. In our book, Wonder Woman is a myth. She is a word on the wind. This symbol of hope that most people don’t even think is really a thing anymore. So when she shows up, that’s going to be amazing."


I've always enjoyed these alternate universe comics.  There's one that I enjoyed where Bruce ends up becoming a Green Lantern instead of the Batman, but he basically incorporates the two personas into one.  There's another one where the Wayne family find Superman as a baby instead of the Kent's, and Clark grows up to become the Batman, but with all of his Kryptonian powers.  They're a fun read and distraction from everything else going on in comics, but they don't screw up the actual timeline.  They're just for fun.


Gotham City Garage #1 will be released on August 16 in digital format, and print copies will arrive in October.