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"I want to see the look on his face when I tell him, in three months he won't have the tallest building in Gotham anymore. Hmm. Think he'll recognize you with that caterpillar on your top lip?"
—Barbara Kean to Jim Gordon[src]


Barbara "Babs" Kean is a former art gallery owner in Gotham City's art district, the mother of Barbara Lee Gordon and the ex-fiancée/ex-lover of Jim Gordon. Barbara is also a former Arkham Asylum inmate and a former Maniax member. After attempting to kill Jim's girlfriend, Lee Thompkins, Barbara was sent to Arkham Asylum where she was later broken out by Theo Galavan. She later kidnapped Jim and Lee and held them hostage in Gotham Cathedral. After this ordeal, she fell out of a window and was put into a coma. After waking up, she was studied by Hugo Strange and released from Arkham. She later opened The Sirens nightclub with her partner Tabitha Galavan until she was defeated and killed by the latter. League of Shadows' leader, Ra's al Ghul, used the waters of the Lazarus Pit to revive her. After having run a weapons dealership and sold weapons to the gangster of Gotham City, she reopened the Club with Tabitha and Selina Kyle.

As Ra's successor, she could emit glowing energy from her hand to summon the League of Shadows' members, making her the new Demon's Head, but when Tabitha was about to get killed by a revived Ra's, Barbara chose to give up her powers to save her; however, the female members of the League of Shadows, the Sisters of the League, chose to continue following her. She later killed Ra's a second time with Bruce Wayne's help, causing the male members of the League to pledge themselves to her, but she instead chose to have them killed. While villains claimed territories all around the city, she and Tabitha decided to continue running The Sirens nightclub and also decided to no longer accept men in their territory.

After Tabitha's death by Penguin's hand, Barbara made it her priority to take his life. After having a one night stand with Jim, Barbara became pregnant with his child and attempted to get into his good graces until the return of Lee Thompkins. She then discovered that Penguin and Ed found a way out of Gotham and formed a distant alliance with them, for the sake of her unborn child.

After the child's birth, Lee and Barbara became friends but, shortly after, Barbara was captured by Nyssa al Ghul, who wanted to avenge her father's death and complete his mission. However, Barbara manages to take part in defeating Nyssa and her subordinate, Bane, naming her baby daughter "Barbara Lee Gordon", dedicated to the people that her daughter can rely on and ended up being on good terms with Jim Gordon and Lee Thompkins. Ten years after the No Man's Land incident, Barbara became a legitimate businesswoman and left her life of crime behind; even having her own company building that; is a competitor of Wayne Enterprises.

Biography

Early years

Growing up Barbara had a strained relationship with her parents, causing them to be estranged more or less.[1] At an unknown point in her life she entered a romantic relationship with Renee Montoya, though it ended after a year.[2] Several years later Barbara later got into a relationship with Jim Gordon while he was in Gotham's Police Academy. Eventually, they fell in love and he proposed to her and she became his fiancée.[3] At some point in their romantic relationship, Jim took Barbara on a date to the Gotham Clock Tower.

Jim Gordon's fiancée

Jim arrives at Barbara's penthouse, while entering the room, Barbara tells him that he looks good in his new uniform and that she lied about liking the one he had before, they then kiss. Barbara is ready to go out but Jim asks her to stay at home because he's tired, she accepts and says he owes her. Jim then shares with Barbara the details of the investigation of Bruce Wayne's parents' murder. He admits that he feels out of his depth but she says she doubts it, before kissing each other.

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Barbara greets Jim.

Later, Renee Montoya pays Barbara a visit and attempts to convince her that Jim is morally corrupted, she tells her that Jim murdered an innocent man, Mario Pepper, and that he killed a gangster named Oswald Cobblepot for mobster Carmine Falcone, which is actually not true.[3]

When Jim tells Barbara about the child snatching case and admits his frustration that he can't go to the press. Barbara grabs the phone and anonymously phones the newspaper.[4]

When Montoya enters her home with the keys that Barbara had given her some time before while they were still together, Barbara comes out of the shower with a marijuana cigarette and confronts Montoya. Barbara takes the keys back from Montoya and tells her that she is just trying to lie to her so that she would leave Gordon and return to her, but the two kiss briefly before Montoya leaving the penthouse.[5] Barbara is then introduced to Oswald Cobblepot under the alias of "Peter Humboldt" before he's walked out to the street by Jim. Later at her penthouse, Barbara asks Jim who is Oswald Cobblepot.

Barbara ends up confessing that she and Renee had previously been in a relationship that only lasted a year.[2]

Barbara confronts Montoya and offers to tell her anything that she might find out in exchange for her leaving Jim alone. However, Montoya refuses because she already had a witness and a warrant for her Gordon.[6] After Oswald Cobblepot is discovered to be alive, Barbara is held captive at the hands of Butch Gilzean. Butch begins harassing her and reveals that Jim did not kill Cobblepot as he was told. Gordon returns home and ends quickly defeats both Gilzean and his associate. Fearing for Barbara's life, Gordon takes her to the bus station where he asks her to leave for a few days until he gets to solve the situation. Finally, she reluctantly listens to him. She later returns to beg for Jim's life to Falcone, and he has Victor Zsasz watch her. Zsasz later brings her out to Gordon, and she apologizes to Jim.[7]

Barbara, totally consumed by her fear of Zsasz, gets Jim's spare gun after drinking several glasses of wine. He then tries to calm her down, lying to her and telling her there were no monsters. Barbara later calls Jim, he tells her he was going to call her back as he was in the middle of something. She later leaves when she realizes that she couldn't bear the burden of which Jim had to carry.[8]

Barbara Kean and Renee Montoya in bed

Barbara and Montoya.

Barbara leaves the town and leaves a note for Gordon saying she's afraid and can't be brave enough to stay. Barbara later listens to Gordon call as she sleeps in bed with Renee Montoya.[9]

Barbara was shown to have regretted leaving Gordon as Renee tries to convince her to let her talk to Gordon. Renee then decides to leave Barbara since they used to do drugs when they were together years before and she was afraid to make that mistake again. When Barbara later calls up Gordon's penthouse, Ivy Pepper answers the phone and states that she is a friend of Gordon. Mistakenly assuming that Gordon has another woman in his life now, Barbara tells her to "Go to Hell."[10] Barbara goes to see her parents and asks if she can stay at their house for a few days.[11] She later comes home to find Selina Kyle and Ivy Pepper in her apartment.[12] After Selina and Ivy give her advice on what to wear to impress Jim, Barbara goes to the GCPD to see Jim just to find him kissing Dr. Leslie Thompkins.[13] Barbara, disappointed after having lost Jim, redirects her attention to Selina attempting to advise her on how to use her beauty as a weapon against men. Selina expresses little interest in this.

Kidnapped by The Ogre

Whilst sitting in a bar, still depressed from her breakup with Jim, a man approaches her and introduces himself as Jason Lennon, unknown to Barbara, he is - in fact - the serial killer known as The Ogre.[14] He is about to kill her, but he then realizes that she is the one for him.

After going to "The Wayne Charity Ball" together, The Ogre kidnaps and psychologically tortures Barbara. Making her choose his next victim: which under duress she selects her parents. Jim and Harvey Bullock deduce this and upon arriving at her parents house, The Ogre presses a knife to Barbara's throat. Jim shoots the Ogre, whose knife slides across Barbara's throat, cutting her. Leslie patches Barbara up and she thanks Jim for rescuing her.[15]

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Barbara proves to be mentally unhinged after her encounter with the Ogre.

While chatting with Leslie in a therapy like session at Barbara's house, Barbara kept asking Leslie how her relationship with Jim was going -- when Leslie refocuses the discussion on processing the trauma Barbara reveals that she was the one who killed her parents, not Ogre. Leslie recognized that Barbara had become unstable and tries to flee, but Barbara chases her with a knife, and the two women get into a fight. Leslie manages to knock Barbara out.[1]

Working with Galavan

Abduction from Arkham

Barbara was taken to Arkham Asylum, which was mostly populated with men. Jerome Valeska advises her to make a friend, so Barbara seduced Aaron Helzinger, and asked him to protect her. She later approached Richard Sionis and asked for a phone. Sionis says he helps his friend if they help him. Barbara got access to a phone and called Jim. She attempted to convince him that Leslie was the one, who attacked her, but Jim hung up. Barbara and the other inmates were later sprung by Theo Galavan and offered the chance to become a group that would terrorize Gotham. However, Sionis explained that he wanted to leave and take Barbara with him. Theo seemed to agree with him and began to untie him until his sister, Tabitha, jumped on him and began stabbing him until he died.[16] Barbara later began a relationship with Tabitha and whilst Theo was talking to the male members, they whipped Mayor Aubrey James together. Barbara said she was bored and wanted to know when her time was coming. Theo said soon and asked her to tell him about Jim. Whilst working in the GCPD, Jim received a phone call from Barbara who lured him away while The Maniax attacked the GCPD. Jim cornered her in an alley and told her she was sick and needed help. Helzinger attacked Jim, and beat him up, into Barbara ordered him to stop. Barbara told Jim she wasn't sick; she was free. She teasingly told him she should get back to work, and implied something happened while he was absent.[17]

Charity Gala

Barbara later accompanied Jerome Valeska into holding the people at the fundraiser at the Gotham Children's Hospital hostage. The two dressed up in disguises with Barbara acting as Jerome's assistant. However, once Barbara removed a sheet from one of Jerome's tricks, her mask fell off, revealing her face to Lee who was also attending the fundraiser. Once their cover was blown, Jerome murdered the deputy mayor in front of the crowd and Barbara placed Lee on a spinning wheel. She then intimidated Lee by explaining how she and Jim will be back together within a year. However, in order to make himself look good, Theo murdered Jerome and made it look like he saved everyone. When Barbara realized it was time to make her exit she ran towards a small box and lowered the curtain. When Jim reached it he saw that she got away through a hole in the stage.[18] After this incident, Barbara and Theo watched the report about Jerome's death and began to speak flirtatiously to each other, not realizing that Tabitha was watching them.

When Theo was talking with Oswald Cobblepot, Barbara entered his office and admitted that she and Penguin had met before. She then gave Cobblepot her drink.[19]

When Butch Gilzean comes before Theo Galavan looking for a job after becoming sick of working for Penguin, Barbara mentioned that he had held her hostage previously. Though she and Tabitha excitedly suggested things to put on his stump.[20]

Kidnapping Jim and Lee

After waking up from a terrible nightmare about her wedding rehearsal, Barbara opened a present that she received from Theo and when she confronted him about he explained that it was her time to kill Jim Gordon. Later, Barbara entered the GCPD, surprising everyone as she greeted Jim. She was then escorted to the interrogation room and questioned by him. With Lee watching, Jim kissed Barbara in an attempt to get her to talk and she revealed that she would show him. Once he left the room, Barbara stared through the one-sided mirror at Lee, smiling. Jim and Harvey then take her in a police car to whatever she wanted to show them until a truck hit the side of the car and they were ambushed. Tabitha managed to stick a needle in Jim's neck while Barbara watched.

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Barbara attempts to coerce Jim into loving her.

He later woke up in Gotham Cathedral as Barbara walked down the aisle in her wedding dress and held a shotgun to him. After talking, Tabitha wheeled in a captive Lee which caused Jim to gain the strength to attempt to break out of his trap. Just as Barbara was about to slice into Lee's face with a knife, Jim managed to break loose and grabbed the shotgun, holding it to Barbara who encouraged him to shoot her. When the police raided the church, Tabitha escaped while Gordon followed Barbara up to the top of the church. The two got into a scuffle which ended with Barbara falling out of the church window, Gordon just being able to grab her hand before she fell. However, after telling Jim she loved him, Barbara let go and fell several stories into bushes, which broke her fall and put her into a coma.[21]

In a coma

As a result of the fall, Barbara was placed in an induced coma and it was unknown if she would ever wake up. When asked if he would accompany her on the way to the Arkham Asylum medical wing, Jim simply replied that he wouldn't and went back to the GCPD.[22]

Barbara was still in a coma at the time when Jim and Lee had Nora Fries held in Arkham Asylum's medical wing as part of a plan to keep Victor Fries from getting to her. When Lee saw her, she grabbed Barbara's face and simply called her a "bitch" and went back to tending to Nora.[23]

Awakening from her coma

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Barbara awakes from her coma.

News of Jim Gordon being found guilty for the murder of Carl Pinkney was heard on the radio at Arkham Asylum's medical wing. This caused Barbara to awake from her coma as a nearby nurse discovers this and arranges for Hugo Strange to be informed.[24]

Barbara was part of a group therapy that was overseen by Hugo Strange and Ethel Peabody. She expressed remorse for her actions stating that she was manipulated by the voices in her head and that her coma got her rested from them. Hugo Strange then releases Barbara from Arkham as he tells Ethel that he plans to study her. Barbara later found Gordon at his current place of residence.[25] Barbara told Jim she was all better now, but Jim still didn't trust her. Barbara wanted to help Jim with his investigation of the Wayne murders, but he threw her out of his apartment. Barbara later shows up at the women's club when Jim attempted to interrogate "The Lady", who ran an assassination business. Barbara earned her trust and helped her capture Jim. She talked "The Lady" into revealing what Jim wanted to know about the Wayne murders by acting like she wanted to kill him and use this last piece of information to taunt him, and then helped free him. Jim asked why Barbara wanted to help him, and Barbara said he was the first thing she thought of when she awoke from her coma. She thought if she helped him, he would look at her the way he used to. Jim says this changed nothing and leaves Barbara heartbroken. Barbara later shows up on Butch Gilzean's and Tabitha's doorstep, and Tabitha takes her in.[26]

After being creeped out by her strange behavior, Butch kicked her out of his mansion.[27] Barbara was invited back to the mansion when Oswald Cobblepot returned to Gotham. Oswald wanted her help in figuring out where to position a lamp, made from the decomposing head of Grace Van Dahl. She later went to the GCPD to find out from Jim where Hugo Strange was hiding. She quickly realized that it wasn't Jim when he made inappropriate comments to her, and she slapped him, revealing him as an imposter to the GCPD. Barbara phoned Oswald from the GCPD to tell him what she found out.[28]

Nightclub Owner

Barbara and Tabitha continue to be in a romantic relationship and open "The Sirens", their own high-end nightclub. On the club's first night open, Barbara was visited by Penguin, who agreed that the club looked great. He then asked if Barbara had considered his offer of extra protection but, as Tabitha entered the conversation, she told him that they can take care of themselves. Penguin then made it clear that he still despised Tabitha for killing his mother and when Butch began to get nervous around her he told him to sit down. After Tabitha got ready to begin to curse at Oswald, Barbara just told him that they would think about it. He then told them that he wanted Fish Mooney delivered to him, alive or dead. Later, before the club is opened, a group of thugs entered and told Barbara that she built on their land and that the club belonged to them. When she told them to leave, one of them hit her across the face and she began to act like a vulnerable victim but slowly transitioned into a psychopath and began laughing uncontrollably. Tabitha then came up behind them and slit the throats of two of them and let Barbara beat down the third with his own gun. After this ordeal, they called Penguin and Butch and when they arrived Barbara revealed that Butch had sent them in hope that they would call him and he could impress Tabitha. Penguin then shot the thug in the head much to the delight of Barbara, and before he left, threatened Tabitha one more time.[29]

Looking to find Selina Kyle, Jim entered The Sirens Club with Valerie Vale and Barbara was delighted to see him. She then showed off her new club and asked how Lee was doing and seemed happy to find out that they weren't together. Valerie then butted in and Barbara assumed that she was Jim's new girlfriend and when they both quickly deny it, she laughed. When asked where Selina might be, Barbara explained that her only price was a kiss, which he ultimately refused. She then gave in and gave them a location. However, before Jim left, Barbara described a disturbing dream that she had about him and he quickly left, clearly disturbed.[30]

At The Sirens, Barbara and Tabitha managed to get Jervis Tetch as a performer. He hypnotized many of the club's guests and when they awoke they remembered none of it, which intrigued Barbara. During his second performance when hypnotizing a man, Barbara asked if he could make him do anything at all which caused him to ask if she had something in mind and then quickly finished his act. He then spoke to Barbara and Tabitha and when he was finished and told them about himself, adding that he could only make people do what they secretly wished for.

A few days later, Jervis hosted another show in the club and used Barbara as a volunteer. Once hypnotized, she was told that once he counted down from three, she would find him irresistible and be madly in love with him. He counts down, waking up her and causing her to begin flirting with him. The two kiss, with Tetch pulling away and comedically reject her. Out of anger she then grabs a customers glass, smashes it and holds it against his neck. Tetch recognizes the danger, and quickly counts down from 3, clapping his hands and commanding her to awake. She then wakes up, looking confused and dazed as Tabitha addresses the audience.[31]

When looking for a now wanted Jervis Tetch, Jim entered the club and questioned Barbara on his location. She told him that she had seen him the night before at Jervis' show but he was so rude to have not said hello. When she began to tease him he grabbed her arm and asked for a favour which caused her to believe that he was in serious need of help and confessed that she had hired some muscle for Tetch which he stated he "needed for a performance". On Jim's way out, Barbara blew him a final kiss.[32]

Barbara attends Penguin's meeting

Barbara attends Penguin's meeting.

After the Red Hood gang decapitated the statue of Penguin's late mother, he called a meeting with all the families, which Barbara attended. After one of the attendants complained about the subject of the meeting, Penguin smashed his face into the decapitated statue head, causing Barbara to laugh abruptly. He then ordered his men to find the Red Hoods and that he was hosting a victory party at The Sirens for being elected mayor. Barbara then stood up and told everyone in the meeting that they weren't invited. Later, at The Sirens, Tabitha complained to Barbara that they shouldn't be hosting Penguin's party as they weren't his number one fans. Barbara simply told her that it was good for the club and that it will get them on his good side. The two then opened a freezer in the kitchen of the club which was revealed to be the place they were hiding their informant on the Red Hoods, the Ballistic Bomber. Tabitha explained that he bought the same smoke grenades that the Red Hoods used on Penguin and the two waited for him to talk.

After this, when Butch, who was leading the Red Hoods the whole time, was explaining their plans for the night at The Sirens, Barbara and Tabitha busted in and Tabitha took one of the thugs hostage with her whip. Barbara then walked up to Butch and pulled a grenade, stating that they should talk alone. The two took Butch back to The Sirens and Barbara insisted that they hand him over to Penguin but Tabitha, who still had feelings for him, asked why he would turn on Penguin now. He explained that it was never his intention to harm Penguin but only to set up a problem and save him, to make himself look like a hero and gain Penguin's respect again. Barbara then left the choice to turn over Butch to Tabitha and left the two to talk.

Barbara welcomes her guests

Barbara welcomes her guests.

That night at the party, Ed had already figured out about Butch leading the Red Hoods and manipulated him into teaming up with him. Barbara then got on stage in front of the crowd and welcomed everybody to her club. She announced that they were celebrating Mayor Cobblepot, stating that he had saved everyone from the Indian Hill monsters and called him up to make a speech. Before he could properly begin, however, Butch shot up at the roof dressed up in a Red Hood mask, causing a panic in the crowd. When he tried to shoot Oswald, it was revealed that the gun was loaded with blanks and he was shot in the back by Zsasz and his hood was ripped off by Ed. Penguin then began to shout at him and when Butch attempted to argue back he was slapped by him, causing Barbara to let out a laugh. He then travelled back up to the microphone and announced that he was going to prosecute anyone who would threaten Gotham and Barbara picked up a bottle of champagne and cheered, causing the crowd to cheer as well. When they attempted to take Butch away, Tabitha came up through the crowd with a knife held into her attacker's back. Butch then broke free and began to choke Nygma. When Barbara screamed "best party ever!", Penguin grabbed her champagne bottle and smashed it over Butch's head which caused Tabitha to begin running to his aid only to be held back by Barbara. After all the guests had left, Tabitha left to help Butch escape from an ambulance. Barbara asked if she needed a hand but she simply told her that she had it.[33]

At the club, Barbara and Tabitha discussed Butch and Tabitha explained that she had broken him out of an ambulance truck and was keeping him in a safe house uptown. Barbara then pointed out that Tabitha needed a plan as Penguin would've been able to find out who broke Butch out. Before they could discuss this further, Jim busted through the door and Barbara immediately began teasing him, only for him to throw one of the glass bottles into the corner and ask where Jervis Tetch had taken Valerie Vale. When she began to tease him further he took out his gun and shot another bottle only for Tabitha to point her gun at him. Barbara then lowered both of them and finally confessed that she told Tetch about Jim's previous relationships. He then ran off with Barbara shouting that she'd send him a bill.[34]

At Lee Thompkins' engagement party, Barbara got in uninvited as a plus one and confronted her. When she approached Lee, she attempted to bury the hatchet and explained that she'd forgiven her for beating her unconscious and wanted them to start anew. However, Lee quickly attempted to get someone but was stopped by Barbara and asked if she missed being with Jim. Lee told her that she was no longer in love with Jim and was about to be happily married to Mario Calvi. Barbara laughed in her face and knew she was lying then left the party.[35]

After the disappearance of Tabitha and Butch, Barbara went to the Van Dahl mansion to confront Penguin, believing they were taken by him. When she entered, she seemed offended at the fact she wasn't invited to the meeting that was going on at the time and then pulled a gun on Penguin, which caused all the other criminals sitting at the table to stand up and hold all of their guns at Barbara. Penguin denied all the claims of kidnapping Butch and Tabitha but before Barbara could say anything else, Penguin's maid, Olga, entered and Barbara realized that she could get information out of her. She lowered her gun, apologized for her interruption and left. Later, Barbara returned to the mansion and questioned Olga about Butch and Tabitha's whereabouts. After a bribe, Olga explained that a receipt for suspicious supplies arrived at the mansion for Edward Nygma. Barbara then went to investigate the store the receipt came from, "Stocks and Bondage".

When she arrived, she questioned the cashier and pretended to have the last name "Nygma" but when he told her that the Nygma package had already been delivered and she acted as if she wanted to buy something. She came across a medieval stock and asked the cashier to test it out for her. When he did, she locked him in it and tortured him in order to get the combination to a safe which had the rest of the details of the delivery. He eventually gave her the combination and she realized where Tabitha and Butch were being held. When she arrived, Tabitha's hand had already been chopped off by a guillotine and Nygma quickly left, suggesting Barbara to Tabitha's severed hand in ice. On the way to the hospital, Butch told Barbara about the reason Nygma kidnapped them, the murder of his girlfriend, and when they got there a nurse quickly took Tabitha away to reattach her hand. Meanwhile, Barbara put the pieces together using the information Olga gave her and realized that Nygma's girlfriend was murdered by Penguin out of jealousy. She then told Butch her plan of not going to war, but starting one between Nygma and Penguin.[36]

Destroying Penguin's empire

With the new information she obtained, Barbara travelled back to the Van Dahl mansion to find Nygma working on something for Penguin and told him not to worry as she wasn't there to get revenge for Tabitha. She then asked why he wasn't working on finding out who killed Isabella and he revealed that he had spies all over the city looking for the murderer. Barbara then coughed the word "Penguin" and opened Nygma's eyes to the truth. She told him that Penguin was in love with him and, at first, he didn't believe her but she convinced him to investigate Penguin. After an investigation into Oswald, Ed entered The Sirens Club which immediately caused Tabitha and Butch to get ready to kill him but the two were stopped by Barbara, who told them to allow Ed to explain. After describing all the things he planned for Penguin, Barbara explained that he needs to apologize to Butch and Tabitha first. When he tried, Tabitha didn't accept his apology and attempted to stab him but Barbara quickly got everyone drinks.[37]

After Ed hired Clayface to impersonate Penguin's late father, Barbara and Tabitha met him under a bridge in secret and Barbara applauded his plan of making Penguin look insane on live TV, which went perfectly. After explaining how he pulled it off, Ed told Barbara that after they had left Penguin broken and alone, they would kill him and she would get to rule his empire.[38] Barbara later came up with the plan of pretending to try and help Penguin so that he wouldn't suspect her. At the Van Dahl mansion, Barbara woke Penguin up by reading him the news story of his outburst on national television and explained that the crime families were losing respect for him. She then pretended to call of the families to The Sirens Club to talk to Oswald but in actuality, never called any of them in order to make it look like they all gave up on Penguin. Later, when Penguin arrived at the club, he doesn't believe that Barbara called any of them and takes out a knife.

Barbara plots against Penguin

Barbara plots against Penguin.

However, the phone then began to ring and when she picked it up she handed it to Penguin and said it was Tommy Bones. On the other end, Bones explained to Oswald that he didn't work for him anymore and he got extremely angry and promised to kill him and all the others who opposed him. Once Penguin left, Barbara called the number back and Bones handed the phone to Tabitha, who was holding him hostage and who forced him to say that to Penguin. After Barbara told Tabitha that Penguin bought it, she shot and killed Bones. Later in the club, the families argued as Barbara and Tabitha watched on. After discussing their plans, Tabitha asked if they were going to betray and kill Ed after they were finished with him. Barbara then sealed it with a kiss and asked what they were going to do about the other families who were arguing. They both went with option B as Barbara called Ed on the phone and the two talked as Tabitha gunned down the families in the background.[39]

After Butch and Tabitha successfully kidnap Penguin, they brought him to the club and pretended that they were betraying Ed. Barbara then confronted him and revealed her involvement and her plan to take over the underworld. Barbara then asked Penguin to call Ed so that they could kill him but Penguin refused, not knowing that she was still working with Ed. When he refused, Ed walked out of the shadows and Barbara questioned his smarts as he expected Penguin to give him up. Not long after this, Ed took Oswald to the Gotham Docklands and shot him. Barbara then became the queen of Gotham's criminal underworld.[40]

Queen of Gotham

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Barbara as the queen of Gotham.

After becoming the Queen of Gotham, Barbara collects profits from other families. When the head of one of the families gives Barbara the wrong amount of money, she hands the stack to Tabitha and she too agrees that he would need to be punished. Barbara then takes off her shoe and exclaims that she needs more money for new stilettos, hitting him across the face with it. However, before she can move on to the next person, her phone rings and when she picks it up she is delighted to hear Jim's voice on the line and guesses that he is calling to ask for another favour from her. He tells her to go to the docks and obtain information on a shipment coming into Dock 9C.

When she arrives at the dock, Barbara and her men take one of the dock workers hostage and interrogate him on the shipments. The worker ends up revealing that there are shipments coming in from Indian Hill for a mysterious organization. When Barbara asks for a phone number of the organization, they all hear a noise behind the crates and her and her men point their guns in the direction of the sound. When one of the henchmen go to investigate, he is slaughtered by a masked attacker who then proceeds to slaughter the rest of the henchmen as Barbara and Tabitha make their escape. After this ordeal, Barbara feeds the information to Jim but is still curious about the "shadowy organization" who has more power than her.[41]

Still curious, Barbara visits Ed at his lair, who now goes by "The Riddler". Barbara then asks Ed if he knew anything about a mysterious organization who have full power over Gotham. However, he knows nothing about them. She explains her whole situation to him and he mentions that Hugo Strange talked about a mysterious organization and that he would get Barbara the answers she wanted. At the Sirens Club, Tabitha asks how Ed's latest actions help them and he quickly enters and explains that it helps him become more famous. Tabitha then begins to threaten him but Barbara quickly shuts her down and asks what Ed's real plan is. He explains that he is going to kidnap Mayor James and asks Barbara and Tabitha to set up a bomb in a biker bar in a low neighbourhood in the city. The two agree and Ed goes off to kidnap the mayor. Once the mayor is in their hands, Barbara and Ed interrogate him in Ed's lair. When he refuses to say anything about the organization, Barbara begins talking to him and he recognizes her voice from when he was kidnapped by Theo Galavan.

She suggests that they put a box on his head like Theo did before but he quickly begins to talk. He tells them that the organization go by "The Court" and Barbara is disappointed that that's all he knows but Ed applauds him and tells him he was very helpful. She questions him but he exclaims that they're going to use Mayor James to send a message to The Court. Tabitha then enters, visibly annoyed and hands Ed a piece of equipment he asked for. Barbara then attempts to speak to her but Tabitha explains that Jim was at the club and he knows everything and that they shouldn't have gotten Ed involved. After Barbara and Ed's plan fails, Barbara angrily enters the club and when offered a drink by a waiter, grabbed the bottle and hit him over the head. She then confronts Tabitha about it and she reveals that she told Jim how to disarm the bomb because Barbara broke her promise of killing Ed. She then screams in Tabitha's face that as long as The Court is out there, she'll never be in control and storms off, severing her friendship with Tabitha.[42]

In order to maintain control, Barbara comes up with a plan to kidnap Jervis Tetch, who is needed to make a cure for the Tetch Virus that has engulfed Gotham. Unfortunately for Barbara, Ed double crosses her and takes Jervis to make an exchange for Oswald with Jim. Barbara, Tabitha, and Butch show up, and a gunfight breaks out. Nygma flees, and Barbara tells Tabitha and Butch to let Nygma go, and focus on getting Jervis back. Jim, Harvey, and Jervis eventually flee to an abandoned warehouse, being chased by Barbara and her gang the whole time. As they look for Jim, Barbara tells Jim she knows he and Lee have the virus, and that Lee wants to "take her head off". "Is it weird that kind of makes me like her?" Barbara quips. Suddenly, Barbara hears a scream and finds Jervis with a large cut in his throat.[43]

Barbara about to shoot Butch

Barbara questions Butch's loyalty.

Barbara and her gang pack up to head to their safe house, knowing that all of Gotham will be after them. Barbara confronts Butch and says she knows they were planning to kill her. Butch says that if it wasn't for Tabitha, she would have been dead a long time ago. Barbara asks if he is saying Tabitha wasn't involved, and Butch says she wasn't. He was going to kill her and then play dumb when they reached the safehouse. Barbara sneered that he would be playing to be his strength. Butch said she was always making fun of him because of all her tough talk, she missed Tabitha, who made her a better person, and Barbara gave that all up, so she could play queen for a day. Butch tells Barbara she's pathetic, and pulls out a switchblade, saying Barbara never deserved Tabitha. Barbara shoots Butch through the head and says "we'll see".

Death

Later, Tabitha walks into the old, wooden safe-house calling Butch and Barbara's name, with no reply. She sees a small metal box on the table, she opens it to find Butch's metal hand inside. Before she can react to the sight of Butch's hand, Barbara walks up behind her, pointing a gun at her, and asking if killing Nygma was really that important to her. Tabitha ignores the question and asks if Barbara killed Butch. Barbara avoids the question saying Butch told her Tabitha had nothing to do with trying to kill her and whether that was true, to which Tabitha replies that it doesn't matter.

When Barbara requests for the pair of them to forget this ever happened and go back to being partners Tabitha again asks if she killed Butch as she needs to know if they can move forward. Barbara hesitantly replies that she did kill him but she wasn't given a choice. Tabitha almost breaks down in tears before exclaiming that there is always a choice before throwing the metal hand at Barbara.

Barbara drops to the ground as the hand shatters the wooden wall behind her. Tabitha grabs her whip and restrains Barbara's hand, causing her to drop her gun and then pulls Barbara towards her. She stops Barbara from falling to the ground, and then immediately throws her into one of the walls which she falls through before being picked back up and slammed against another wall where the pair briefly share a passionate kiss before Barbara headbutts Tabitha away. Barbara tackles her into another wall, but Tabitha quickly throws her off. Barbara tries to climb away on her hands and knees, but Tabitha grabs her head and slams her into another wall, choking her for a few seconds before Barbara removes one of her own earrings and slashes it across Tabitha's face, forcing her to retreat momentarily.

Barbara then grabs a sharp piece of wood from the wall and runs at Tabitha but she ducks and hits Barbara through another unstable wooden wall. Barbara notices her gun just feet away from her, she goes for it while Tabitha retrieves her whip. Tabitha attempts to hit the gun out of Barbara's hand but appears to have "missed". Barbara then laughs and taunts her by saying "How many times have I told you not to bring a whip to a gunfight?!". With the smile still on her face, she notices too late that Tabitha's whip is coiled around a large lamp which she pulls down at Barbara's feet, on top of a large puddle of water, causing it to break and electrocutes her to death. Barbara falls to the floor, smoke pouring off of her pale, burnt skin. Tabitha looks at her body with little to no remorse on her face, stating that now they can move forward.[44]

Working with Ra's al Ghul

Resurrection

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Barbara's resurrection.

Her body was later recovered by Ra's al Ghul, he used water from the Lazarus Pit to revive her, first rubbing some on her forehead and then pouring the water into her mouth. She awoke and took an extremely deep breath, Ra's told her that he knew she had a very troubled mind that no one liked her. Barbara, looking terrified, explained that no one likes her but she doesn't know why. Ra's then told her that in the event of his death she will become the next Demon's Head. After this, Ra's trained Barbara in the art of hand-to-hand combat for at least 3 months and then sent her out into Gotham as his eyes and ears. Using Ra's al Ghul's resources, Barbara built a new business dealing in weapons trading as a means to an end of remaking a name in Gotham's criminal underworld under The Penguin's control.[45]

Mending relationships

She sought out both Tabitha once more and Selina Kyle and offered them an "opportunity" to work alongside her in the weapons business. Barbara clearly having changed somewhat seems calmer than previously which is what stayed Tabitha's hand against her as she refused her offer. Not soon after The Penguin heard the rumors of her survival and plans to open an illegal weapons business, offering her the chance to operate the business so long as she acquires a license under his jurisdiction and pays running fees. Reminding her that he will be keeping a close eye on her to crush any idea of her attempting to usurp or turn against him again. After the convincing of Selina, Tabitha returned to Barbara with an ultimatum as collateral in return for Tabitha and Selina working alongside her as well as proving her loyalty, Tabitha would cut off her hand. Just as Penguin had done to Butch two years prior and just has Nygma had done to her less than a year ago. Barbara is willing if it will prove her loyalty, but as Tabitha brings a butcher's knife down on her wrist she misses purposely stating that she'll start Monday.[46]

Under the orders of Ra's Barbara was instructed to retrieve a special knife from Penguin. Selina Kyle was sent to Penguin's shipping boat but came back empty handed. Barbara stated she was not mad and decided to retrieve the knife herself. She arrived at The Iceberg Lounge and asked Penguin to give her the knife and even offered to triple the price given at auction, Penguin laughed and refused to give it to her. At the auction, Barbara first offered up $100,000 but was quickly beat down by Bruce Wayne who offered up $100,001. It wasn't long before she got extremely irritated at Bruce, even calling him a "spoiled brat", Bruce then offered up $2,000,000 and before Barbara could offer up any more money Penguin swiftly sold the knife to Bruce, Barbara, annoyed, congratulated Bruce and left the auction. Later, Barbara was visited by Ra's who asked if she had the knife, when she explained Bruce Wayne had it, Ra's told her that it was fine and he wasn't mad, he explains the knife is the key to everything. Barbara explains not everything and they both kiss.[47]

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Barbara and Ra's.

Ra's shows up at Barbara's lair and apologizes for being late and Barbara complains that his guests, Anubis and The Hunter, don't do much for the vibe of her place. Ra's explains they wouldn't be necessary if Barbara got the knife when she was first asked, she asks why this knife is so important and Ra's explains it was made 10,000 years ago. Barbara just nods along as Ra's give Anubis something to track down the knife. Later, Jim enters Barbara's building and she wants to catch up, but Jim asks if she had anything to do with the murder of Niles Winthrop, who had the knife in his possession when he was murdered. Barbara explains to Jim that she was running her business the night Mr. Winthrop was murdered and she had witnesses. Jim asks who she got the money to open her own business from and she tells him that she got it from a client, Bruce storms in and asks if she got it from Ra's al Ghul. Barbara tells him she doesn't know who or what he's talking about, Jim grabs Bruce and they both leave.[48]

When Ra's gets captured and taken to Blackgate Penitentiary Barbara visits him. She asks what the end goal of all of this was but gets no answer, she then proposes that she will break him out and they go back to her lair but Ra's declines the offer. He asks Barbara to put her hand on the glass between them and she does so, as their hands glow with a mysterious light for a second and she pulls away swiftly. Barbara asks what just happened and he explains she will see, as he tells her goodbye and she walks off.[49]

The Sirens

At her lair, Barbara explains to Tabitha and Selina that she is shutting down her weapons business. She tells them that Ra's was bankrolling her but now that he's dead she has no chance of keeping her business alive. Later, while Barbara is giving Tabitha her final pay cheque, Tabitha gets a call from a nervous Selina who tried to steal money from a motorcycle gang. Tabitha hangs up and asks Barbara to come with her to save Selina, Barbara refuses and an annoyed Tabitha quickly leaves to save her friend. While there Tabitha and Selina both get cornered until Barbara walks in, she asks if the thugs ordered Thai food they tell her they didn't and she quickly announces that she doesn't have any and guns them all down. She snatches the money from Selina, takes some and begins to walk off. Selina asks her if this means they're over, Barbara tells them that they're both coming back to "The Nest" and the three walk off.[50]

Gotham-4x8-Stop-Hitting-Yourself-Sirens

The Sirens in Cherry's.

While in The Iceberg Lounge, Barbara, Tabitha and Selina are confronted by one of the thugs they stole from and he demands that Penguin get rid of them. They argue until Mr. Penn walks in and explains to Penguin that Ed is making fun of him in a clown show in The Narrows. In a fit of rage Penguin murders the thug that was arguing with The Sirens and asks them to go to The Narrows and bring Ed to him by nightfall, they agree. While going there Barbara asks Selina what goes on in Cherry's and Selina explains that it's a fight club. Tabitha exclaims that she can't wait to get her hands on Ed and Barbara agrees. Once at Cherry's the three are shocked at Ed's clown show as it is really not like him to do something so dumb, Tabitha wanders off to find Butch, who now goes by Solomon Grundy, while Barbara goes to talk to Lee. She puts her hands around Lee's eyes telling her to 'guess who' when she turns around with a gun. Lee then hits Barbara across the face with her gun. Barbara asks if she'd like to do it again but she refuses. Barbara then asks what Jim thinks of the new Lee, she simply replies with "Jim who?" Barbara tells her that the conversation was interesting and walks off. While searching for Ed Barbara comes across Selina who has him tied up and is ready to leave, Barbara is surprised that she could do it so fast and they both go to find Tabitha. They find her trying to restore Grundy's memory but he sees that Barbara and Selina have Ed and gets angry. Barbara tells Grundy to back off until Selina proposes that Butch fight Tabitha and the winner can take Ed, everyone agrees.

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Barbara kills Cherry.

While Tabitha is getting ready to fight, Barbara suggests she takes a weapon but Tabitha tells them she'll be fine. During the fight Grundy begins to overpower Tabitha and knowing that she could die, Barbara tosses a weapon into the ring and Tabitha hits Grundy across the face, she does this a second time which knocks him to the ground. Barbara and Selina jump into the ring and Barbara grabs Ed and holds a gun to him. Firefly charges in and makes everyone back off, Barbara is pleased that Penguin sent backup and smiles at Ed until Firefly tells her that she missed the deadline. Barbara explains that they got Ed and they could just bring him to Penguin right now. Firefly smiles and is about to burn them until Lee shoots her in the back sending her flying into the wall. Lee reveals that Cherry is the one who brought Firefly into her club to get Ed and everyone turns on her. Cherry tells them that The Sirens work for Penguin and that they are the problem, Barbara then shoots her in the head and exclaims they just quit working for Penguin and everyone cheers. The Sirens then quickly escape the club but not before Barbara takes one more look at Lee, who smiles back, Barbara then runs off.[51]

Working with Sofia Falcone

While Sofia Falcone is attempting to use her car to escape Penguin's attempt of killing her, she is grabbed and knocked out by The Sirens with Barbara remarking that "things are finally looking up". They take Sofia back to their lair and explain that they plan to use her to get Penguin to back off, not knowing that Penguin and Sofia were at war. Sofia quickly tells them that she has been using playing him for months, trying to take his empire from him. Barbara and Tabitha don't believe her at first but Selina thinks she could be telling the truth.

Barbara knows that the Falcones are amazing liars so she doesn't trust Sofia. Barbara plans to still blackmail Penguin into leaving them alone and knows that Penguin will want Sofia whether she's his friend or his enemy and asks to get him on the phone. Penguin gets the phone from Zsasz and Barbara greets him with a friendly hello. He asks what she's doing with Sofia, she explains to him that they thought Sofia was his best friend at the time they kidnapped her. Penguin asks for a price for Sofia and Barbara tells him that she wants to keep her gunshop, not share profits with him and that they work alone from now forward. Penguin agrees and tells her he'll send Zsasz to collect Sofia. The Sirens are suspicious of Penguin as it didn't take him long to agree to their offer and sense that he is plotting against them, Sofia explains that he couldn't wait for Barbara to hang up the phone and that they need to get out of the building. Selina tells Tabitha and Barbara that they should listen as Zsasz is standing outside with a rocket launcher. He shoots the building and it goes up in flames with The Sirens and Sofia just narrowly escaping. Barbara promises to snap Penguins beak in two.

Later, They kidnap Penguin's friend, Martin, and bring him into their car. Barbara thinks he's cute but Tabitha just calls him creepy. They bring him to a secluded location and wait for Penguin to arrive, once he does Barbara watches as Sofia and Penguin throw insults at each other but Sofia ultimately lets Martin go. The Sirens and Sofia think they've won until Penguin blows up the car Martin was in and begins shooting at them, they all duck for cover behind a car. Back at Sofia's mansion, Sofia begins explaining their future plans and how they're going to overthrow Penguin, Barbara tells her that she had her shot and missed. The Sirens begin to leave until Sofia tells them that they have nowhere else to go except with her and they stay.[52]

At the Iceberg Lounge, Mr. Penn is getting ready to leave with some of Penguin's henchmen when The Sirens break in and take them all out, leaving Penn defenceless as Sofia reveals herself. Tabitha then tortures him, looking for a way to locate Penguin, Tabitha finishes and explains that he doesn't know where Penguin is when Sofia gets a phone call to meet her father at Falcone Manor, worried, the four hurry there. When they arrive Barbara asks if Sofia is ever going to tell them why there at the manor when Carmine Falcone walks out in front of them. He kisses Sofia on the forehead and greets Barbara, saying it was good to see her again after the last time he kidnapped her. Sofia then tries to explain to him that Gotham rightly belongs to her and it is her birthright, showing obvious disappointment on Falcone's face, causing him to slap her. Carmine asks her if sleeping with Jim Gordon was really a good part of her plan, Barbara shows shock at the fact that her new partner slept with her ex-fiancée. Sofia attempts to finally get him to understand when Penguin walks out and Zsasz appears and points his guns at The Sirens, Sofia attempts to shoot him but is unsuccessful as her father stops her. The three then get taken to another building by Penguin's men who are attacked and begin being shot at by the GCPD, when Barbara asks one if they could just let them go since they already have their hands full he turns and is about to shoot one of them until he is shot in the back of the head and killed. The Sirens then have an idea as his gun drops next to Tabitha, she tilts her chair until she falls, grabs the gun and kills the other two henchmen and the three escape. Later, after Penguin is arrested, Barbara and Tabitha head back to the Iceberg Lounge that they now own again, decorate it and officially reopen it as The Sirens Club again.[53]

They eventually make a commercial for it, which leads the new Ivy to the Club, making Barbara wonder who she is. Jim later pays Barbara a visit, he asks her who and where is The Doc, Barbara tells him that she works with Ed Nygma and that she is in The Narrows. Barbara stops Jim before he can leave and warns him that he doesn't wish to find what he's looking for.[54]

While searching for Selina, Jim stops by the Sirens Club and asks Barbara if she had seen her around. Barbara quickly attempts to get Jim out as she is busy with Sofia until Sofia tells her to let Jim in. Looking for some privacy with him, Sofia asks Barbara to give them a minute and she agrees, leaving her office. When he later spots Selina in the club, Barbara sarcastically tells him she went that way.[55]

The Demon's Head

Barbara surprised by Butch

Barbara is surprised as Butch reveals he is himself again.

When sitting at the bar in The Sirens, Barbara begins to experience a severe migraine and when Tabitha asks about it she takes a pill. When a stench then fills the club, Barbara and Tabitha a now fully awakened Butch dragging Nygma in by the feet, when Barbara then begins to make fun of Butch, remarking he smells like old dentures, he lets her know that he is now awake and can talk normally, scaring her and making her hold a cork screw to his face. He then reveals that Nygma was supposedly working with Penguin to take down Sofia and leaves, much to the dismay of Tabitha. Barbara then has a huge sudden migraine which makes her stumble, almost falling completely to the floor with Tabitha asking if she was okay. She then tells Tabitha her plan to hand Nygma over to Sofia. Later back at the club, after Sofia is gunned down into a coma by Lee, Tabitha attempts to ask Barbara what they should do now that the underworld has no leader, only for Barbara, annoyed by her migraine, to snap at her. When Tabitha walks away, Barbara notices the palm of her hand begin to glow and turns around to see a vision of Ra's walking towards her until he gets close enough and walks into her.[56]

Inside Barbara's office, she is still suffering from migraines as Tabitha paces behind her. She then snaps at Tabitha to turn the radio off as it is making her pain worse. When Barbara is asked about her migraines she quickly takes a pill, thinking it would help and when Tabitha then brings up her hand, Barbara pulls up her glove and looks down at it nervously, revealing that she has been reading books about mysticism in order to discover what is happening to her. When she brings up her resurrection she suffers a huge migraine that almost knocks her to the floor, she reveals to Tabitha that whenever she tries to remember her death and resurrection, her migraines hurt too much. After Tabitha tells her that she should let nothing get in her way of what she wants, Barbara sits at her desk and begins to remember what happened to her, remembering being electrocuted and Ra's resurrecting her and telling her that she will be the next Demon's Head. Realizing what she is now, she tells Tabitha that the League of Shadows is on their way.

Later, the two women exit Barbara's office and when Tabitha asks if they should get ready for the League's arrival, Barbara reveals that they are already there and the lights turn on to reveal an army of assassins, searching for their new leader. When one of them asks where the new Demon's Head is Barbara raises her hand and shines her light at them. One of the main League members shows that he is disappointed that Ra's chose a woman to lead the League and attempts to cut off her hand and become the leader himself until he is countered by Barbara and killed. When she asks if anyone else would like a chance to kill her they all raise their weapons at Barbara and Tabitha. However, when she steps forward they all take a step back and Barbara realizes that they are afraid to take orders from a woman and forces them all to bow down to her and they proceed to until the lights are shut off and all of the male members are gunned down by the females, surprising Barbara and Tabitha. The women tell them that the men were unfit for a new leader and needed to die, when Barbara complains that they're short on members the leader of the women, Lelia, tells her that there are many more and after Tabitha suggests that she decline, Barbara ignores her suggestion and asks Lelia what she needed to do.[45]

At The Sirens, when Tabitha is attempting to deal with a gang leader who is angry at her for beating his brother, Barbara walks in with the League and as the leader and his gang are about to kill them, the assassins throw multiple throwing stars at them all, killing them. When Barbara remarks about using her army for personal gain, Lelia walks over and stabs the dying gang leader in the back with her katana while glaring at Barbara. When she asks Lelia what's wrong, she responds by asking if Barbara intends on continuing Ra's' legacy which piques her interest and the League takes Barbara and Tabitha to one of Ra's' many lairs.

Barbara and Ra's painting

A ancient painting of what appears to be Barbara and Ra's.

When they arrive, Lelia tells them that Ra's owned the house for as long as Gotham had existed and that he kept many secrets hidden within the house behind a locked door that had no key. Looking at her glowing hand, Barbara realised that she needed to use the light to open the door and does so, revealing a room full of ancient relics and a painting that appears to be Ra's and Barbara 400 years ago as a king and queen, shocking her and making her feel like she's finally home. When looking through Ra's' old books, Barbara began to tell Tabitha about his travels until she is shut down by Tabitha who believes that Ra's was only a cult leader who had brainwashed Lelia and the other members. Barbara asks if she thinks that she thinks that she's brainwashed. She then begins to think that she can bring Ra's' changes in history to light and shows Tabitha a book which contains recipes for potions and incantations that are said to raise demons. Tabitha becomes very annoyed with Barbara and tells her that the woman in the portrait looks nothing like her, enraged, Barbara orders the assassins to throw Tabitha out onto the street, betraying her.[57]

Ra's al Ghul's Return

Whilst admiring the portrait of her and Ra's, Barbara is attacked by masked assailants and after fighting off many of them she is held with a knife to her face only for one of the attackers to remove their mask, revealing it to be Lelia. Barbara questions them for attacking her and they seem surprised that she couldn't sense their presence as that is one of the Demon's Head's powers. Barbara then believes that they are doubting her just like Tabitha and they explain that what they did would help her unlock her newfound powers. After Tabitha uses Selina to kidnap Bruce Wayne, Ra's is resurrected and is hellbent on stealing the Demon's Head back from Barbara. Whilst looking through some of Ra's' old relics, Barbara is startled to see a newly resurrected Ra's enter. He asks what she has done with his gift of the Demon's Head, she replies that she plans to take over Gotham and make everyone treat her like a queen. Disappointed, Ra's asks her to give him back the Demon's Head but she quickly refuses and the two begin to fight.

Before she could do anything, Barbara is held by the neck by Ra's and then thrown across the room, hitting her head as soon as members of her League enter and start attacking Ra's. He is able to stab and murder most of them but before he can kill Lelia, Barbara hits him over the head with one of his relics. Lelia then commands one of the assassins to get Barbara out of the building and she is pulled out onto the streets of the city. When Barbara pulls out of the assassins hold, Ra's throws his sword through the assassin's heart, killing her. However, before he can kill Barbara, Bruce and Tabitha pull up in Bruce's car and Barbara quickly gets in and they speed off. At Wayne Manor, Barbara is pacing back and forth panicking about Ra's being back and that he just tried to kill her. Tabitha tells her that she could've just given him the "Demon's Paw" but Barbara quickly corrects her and demands that it's hers, also pointing out that Tabitha betrayed her. After fighting, Selina, Barbara, Tabitha, Alfred and Bruce come up with a plan to steal back the Balahsi knife that Barbara had already attempted to obtain at an auction and use it to kill Ra's.

After Tabitha, Alfred, Bruce and Selina successfully steal back the knife, they meet back up with Barbara in a warehouse. When she asks Selina to hand it over she is stuck between helping Barbara and Tabitha and helping Bruce. After Barbara pulls a gun on Alfred, Selina gives Barbara the knife who then shoots the tyres of another car and steals Bruce's, ordering Selina to get in. After remarking that it was nice doing business with them, The Sirens speed off. They return to the club and the remaining members of the League who weren't killed by Ra's enter and they are on Barbara's side. After discussing the plan to kill him, Selina explains that they won't win and is sent off by Barbara who begins to doubt herself only to be reassured by Tabitha who is back on her side. She then summons Ra's using the beacon in her hand and he arrives quickly after a few lights flicker and many of the remaining male members of the League enter.

Barbara is Stabbed

Barbara is stabbed.

She slowly makes her way over to Ra's and tries to get him to say that she really was special and that she meant something to him in order to distract him. This works and she is able to stab him in the chest with a knife, however, this has no effect on him and he grabs her and throws her through the window of her office and the other members of the league and Tabitha attempt to go save her until Lelia stops them all, exclaiming that Barbara must win by herself. She quickly gets back up and the two begin to throw punches at each other with Ra's being able to block most of Barbara's hits until he grabs hold of her neck and hand, attempting to take the Demon's Head from her. Despite her best efforts, Barbara faints into unconsciousness but is saved by Bruce and Selina. They run in and Bruce hits Ra's, knocking Barbara to the ground. However, Lelia pulls Bruce and Selina back still letting Barbara fight for herself and she ends up being stabbed in the back by Ra's, appearing to be killed until she finally unlocks the power of the Demon's Head and is able to rewind to before her death and then dodge the attack and knock Ra's to the ground.

She has a short victory as he quickly gets up and puts the knife to Tabitha's throat, giving her the choice of keeping the Demon's Head and letting Tabitha die or saving her friends life but lose the Demon's Head. At first, Barbara chooses power and Ra's slits Tabitha's throat. Barbara, clearly distraught, screams and rewinds again but is too slow as Ra's is still able to take Tabitha as a hostage. The second time, Barbara chooses her best friend and gives up her power, he then lets Tabitha go and regains the Demon's Head, restoring him back to his normal appearance. Bruce then asks Ra's to let him kill him only for Ra's to break the knife and disappear along with the male assassins. Later, while mopping the floors of the club, Barbara is approached by Tabitha with a confused look on her face and Barbara only explains that she would've done the same for her. The female assassins then enter and the two get nervous as Barbara is not their leader anymore and are convinced that they're here to kill them. However, they say that Barbara is worthy and that they will continue to serve her, no matter what path she goes down.[58]

Alliance With Penguin

After the Gotham Clock Tower exploded and seemingly killed Jim, Barbara and Tabitha watched from the club and Barbara remarked on how Jim took her on a date there once and now they're both up in smoke. Just as they raised their glasses to celebrate Penguin breaks in with Butch, causing all of the League to surround Barbara and Tabitha with their swords out. Penguin suggests that they team up in order to defeat Jeremiah Valeska, twin brother of the late Jerome Valeska, who has gained complete control of Gotham and has also scattered bombs throughout the city. At first, both Barbara and Tabitha are completely against the idea until Penguin proposes that when they obtain enough money, they would pay Hugo Strange to revert Butch back to his normal self, making Tabitha force Barbara to agree and the group discuss their plans.

Later, they all confront Jeremiah while holding one of his men hostage. They demand $50 million from Jeremiah and he strangely agrees very fast, however, he then throws a grenade at the group and they back off with their hostage being blown up. Jeremiah then tells them that he is detonating the bombs earlier than scheduled just because they messed with his plans. After their defeat, the group return to the Sirens Club and Barbara gives Tabitha and Butch a full bottle of alcohol, Penguin then explains that it was worth the risk and Barbara threatens that he should limp out while he still can. However, as he begins to leave, Butch stays behind as he doesn't even know where Strange is but Penguin explains that he knows and gets held up by the throat by Butch, angry that he didn't tell him. Butch then demands Penguin to take him to Strange but Penguin doesn't know how they will pay them. Tabitha then threateningly explains that she can be very persuasive.[59]

While preparing to conquer abandoned territory after the evacuation of the city because of Jeremiah's bombs, Barbara's assassins are taken out by an unseen force, which then reveals itself to be Ra's. She attempts to shoot him but he quickly manages to disarm her. She then pulls out a knife and demands to know what he wants and he explains that he is leaving Gotham and wants her to come with him. She laughs at his request and he tells her about the vision he had about the city turning to ash and he then tells her that he thinks a bit of the Demon's Head is still inside her. He also tells her about the woman in the painting and explains he actually loved her and only said he did it to get under Barbara's skin. He tells her to take up the offer and they could rule the League together and he leaves.

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Barbara and Bruce kill Ra's.

When discussing what to do about Ra's with Tabitha, Alfred rushes in and demands to know where Ra's is. Barbara assumes that Ra's had kidnapped Bruce and the three agree to team up and kill Ra's and Jeremiah. They prepare to leave until Penguin walks in asks who he gets to kill and the four set off on their mission. As Ra's and Jeremiah are discussing their plans for Gotham with Bruce, Barbara walks in and tells Ra's that she doesn't believe that he'll never return to Gotham again and reveals that she reforged the knife and she prepares to attack. Ra's then laughs at her as she appears to be severely outnumbered until she also reveals that she brought backup in the form of Penguin, Tabitha and Alfred and the fight begins. Barbara attempts several swings at him and he quickly tells her that the knife has to be held by Bruce Wayne and she screams back that she gets it. Eventually, she grabs Bruce's hands and they hold the knife together and stab Ra's in the stomach and he congratulates her and turns to ash as an explosion goes off behind them. Barbara, Penguin, Tabitha and Alfred watch on as Gotham is destroyed.[60]

No Man's Land

The Beginning

Later, at The Sirens, the male members of the League bow down to Barbara as their leader is now dead and she sarcastically thanks them. Two thugs then walk in with an injured Tabitha who explains to Barbara that Penguin shot her and betrayed and killed Butch. Barbara then becomes very angry and tells everyone in the room that the real reason why Gotham is so corrupt and awful is men and then explains how The Sirens Club is now a men free zone and her assassins murder the male members of the League and the two thugs. She then hangs the League member's corpses at the entrance of her turf with a giant sheet that reads, "SIREN'S TURF, NO MEN!"[60]

Day 87

During day 87 of No Man's Land, Barbara and Tabitha still ran their club and also used it as a safe shelter for women in Gotham. However, men could only use their money to purchase windows of time to be allowed into the club, once that window closed, they were required to leave immediately. When one man refused to leave, Tabitha held her blade to his throat. Later, the two were visited by Arthur Penn on behalf of Penguin who offered a trade, a few pounds of steak for a thousand pounds of ammo. Tabitha then argued with Barbara and refused to hand over anything to Penguin after what he did to Butch. Barbara then asked to bump it up to two thousand and after Tabitha left the room, eventually bumped it up to three thousand.

Barbara swears to avenge Tabitha

Barbara swears to avenge Tabitha.

The two continued to argue at the bar of the club until they saw a Wayne Enterprises chopper flying over the city with supplies. After the chopper is shot down, Tabitha immediately travelled to the location and attempted to murder Penguin, who had beaten them there. However, her gun did not fire properly and he managed to stab her in the chest and kill her just as Barbara entered. Enraged and saddened by Tabitha's death, Barbara began to fire at everyone in the warehouse until she was shot in the arm by Penguin and floored. He then stood over her and pointed his gun in her face, ready to pull the trigger, until Jim made a deal with him to split the supplies and let Barbara go. After he refused, Jim shot him in his leg and took the supplies, allowing Barbara to make her escape. Later, at the club, Barbara kissed Tabitha's body on the lips as goodbye and put a sheet over her. She then swore that she would be the one to murder Penguin and avenge Tabitha.[61]

Dealing; with Tabitha's death

Whilst Barbara's club was open for business, Jim entered and she sarcastically greeted him. When he asked her for a favour, she laughed at him and questioned why he did nothing as her best friend was stabbed through the heart. The thought of Tabitha enraged Barbara and she screamed at everyone in the club to leave. Jim then asked to borrow her trucks in order to enter the dangerous sector of the city, full of gangs. She laughed, knowing he would most likely be killed by them and allowed him to borrow her vehicles. As he left, she screamed at him and when she was left alone, she took a drink of whisky out of sorrow.

Later, Jim managed to rescue an orphan named Gabriel and two other small girls. However, they were being hunted by Sykes, who was holding them captive in order to force them to work and wanted them back. Just as they were arguing, another gang lead by Ramos Silva emerged from the fog and ordered Jim to come with them instead. When Ramos approached, Jim shot her in the head and eventually, Barbara emerged from the fog in a giant monster truck and gunned down every gang member that was surrounding them. As she left the vehicle, Barbara exclaimed that she was harsh with Jim before and wanted to follow up on his deal. Just then, Sykes got up and attempted to shoot Barbara but was shot in the head by Jim, flattering her. She exclaimed that they needed to do what had to be done and kill Penguin. Jim suggested that they should focus on getting the orphans to safety first and so, Barbara, Jim, Harvey and the three orphans then travelled to the new safe haven established by Lucius Fox. When the kids were safely left there, Barbara headed for the exit but reminded Jim that they had unfinished business.[62]

When the Haven was overtaken by Penguin and the Street Demonz, Harvey went to The Sirens Club for help when a knife was suddenly held to his throat by Barbara. She reminded him of the no men rule in her club and even taunted him about being Jim's sidekick. At first, she refused to help rescue Jim but once Harvey had mentioned that Penguin was there, she was quick to agree and the two travelled to the Haven. When they arrived, Penguin had helped Jim rid of the Demonz and he was in the midst of letting Penguin go until Barbara held her gun to him. Jim quickly got in between the two, refusing to move out of the way and let Barbara kill Penguin. She appeared to not want to shoot him, even tearing up, when the entire Haven exploded, knocking everyone outside back and presumably killing everyone inside. After everyone had recovered from the blast, Barbara spotted Penguin and was about to shoot him but noticed all the victims of the explosion around them. Realizing enough damage had been done to innocent people, Barbara left Penguin alive and quickly fled the scene.[63]

Pregnancy

Barbara and Jim kiss

Barbara and Jim share a kiss.

The day after the tragedy at Haven, Jim suspected Barbara had something to do with it since she fled the scene so quickly. However, when he arrived at The Sirens she was shocked that he would actually believe she was capable of killing all those innocent people and she reassured him that she wanted the person who did blow up Haven to be captured. She then explained that she heard rumours of a "shady guy" lurking around outside of Haven just before it exploded and even managed to get an address. Just before he left, she asked him if he really thought she could've killed all those people but he only replied that he didn't know and left. Later, all of the remaining survivors of the Haven explosion went to Penguin's side for protection after Barbara's tip didn't work out, leaving Jim alone. She met him in his office at the GCPD and offered him another tip that might work. He took it and Barbara teased him about being all alone again, getting extremely close to him and caressing his cheek. She pulled away at the last second and began to walk away until he grabbed her arm and pulled her into a passionate kiss.[64]

When Bruce Wayne came to The Sirens looking for Selina, Barbara asked him to follow her. She then asked everyone to raise their glasses to Selina: the killer of Jeremiah Valeska. Later, the Sisters of the League managed to kidnap Ed Nygma and brought him into Barbara's office. She immediately held a knife to his throat, willing to kill him in order to avenge the victims killed in Haven as it was revealed to the city that Ed was the one who committed the act. However, he explained to her that it was Hugo Strange that had healed his stab wound and one something to his brain. In exchange for letting him go and giving him Strange's location, Ed offered Barbara information that she required and she ended up accepting the deal.[65]

After Jim is attacked by Ed (being mind controlled by Eduardo Dorrance), he brings Ed to The Sirens for refuge. They are soon found by Eduardo and his Delta Team, and, after a trick by Ed, they escape. Barbara, Jim, and Ed then met up with Alfred, Bruce, and Lucius and they devised a plan to rescue a captured Lee Thompkins, and also release the information of Walker being responsible for the Haven bombing to the mainland. Later that night, Barbara came into Jim's office, where Harvey and Jim were trying to inform Lee of what was going on, and informed Jim that she had big news; she's pregnant.[66]

After Barbara revealed her pregnancy to Jim, Lee and Harvey, she travelled to the hospital where Lee had taken a job and asked her to be her obstetrician. Lee quickly declined and reminded Barbara that she had attempted to kill her, twice. Barbara then complimented her and explained that she was the best doctor in the city and that she wanted the best for her child. When Lee brought up Jim, he entered the room and she quickly left to allow him and Barbara to talk. When he asked if going to Lee was about getting to him, Barbara seemed shocked and exclaimed that she wanted no involvement from him, causing him to sigh. She questioned if he believed that she wasn't fit to be a mother and he only sarcastically asked what she thought, causing her to become angry and walk off.

Later, Selina met up with Barbara at The Sirens and explained her situation of pretending to work with Penguin. When she explained that they could take his loot and leave the city, Barbara began to consider it but noticed Selina worrying about her pregnancy, causing her to quickly shut her down. After learning of Penguin's escape plan, Barbara waited for him in City Hall and when he arrived with Ed, she pointed her gun at him, ready to shoot. Before she could, Ed noticed that she was "glowing" and exclaimed that she was pregnant. She then readied the gun again but, for an unknown reason, she was unable to shoot Penguin and when he offered that she come with them out of the city, she reluctantly agreed. As she left, Penguin sarcastically asked who the father was and Barbara simply told him to shut up.[67]

On one of The Siren's busiest nights, Barbara was greeted by two male cops who wanted to spend the night at her bar. She told them they were only permitted to stay and drink if they gave good Intel and even though their Intel was basic, she let them stay for one drink. After they went to the bar, Barbara noticed another "man" walk over to them and stab them. By the time she reached the bar, the cops were on the floor, bleeding out. After clearing the place out and by the time it was morning, Barbara called Jim and Harvey to come to investigate the murder and described what she saw. The two deduced they had to talk to another cop by the name of Dix but before Jim left he asked if Barbara was feeling alright due to her pregnancy and she sarcastically told him that she fine. He explained to her that the unification with the mainland was going to happen and that she should think about who she wants to be when it happened.

Jane Cartwright takes Barbara hostage

Jane Cartwright, as Barbara, takes the real Barbara hostage.

Later, Barbara discovered her bartender overheard something the perpetrator said before stabbing the two cops and delivered the information to Jim. Afterwards, she asked if she would be arrested when the unification happens and the army entered Gotham and assumed that's what Jim wanted since he would get the baby. However, before he could answer anything he went to question Harvey and Barbara left the building. While outside, she was attacked and her coat was taken by Jane Cartwright, who shapeshifted into Barbara and ran back into the GCPD, exclaiming that she was the one that had just been attacked. When the real Barbara entered again, she told them all that she was the real one. However, when Jim asked a question only Barbara would know, Jane held a gun to her head and ordered everyone to stay back so she could leave. However, before Jane could don anything, Barbara elbowed her in the stomach and fell to the ground while Jane fled the scene. Jim made sure she was alright before taking off after Jane.[68]

When Jim wanted to send a message to the remaining gangs, Penguin hosted his speech at City Hall where Barbara attended. She questioned where they're getaway submarine was but Penguin simply stated that building a submarine from scratch takes plenty of time. Just then, Jim entered the building and Penguin allowed him to speak but before he could finish his speech, Jim was shot by an unknown shooter, much to everyone's shock. After taking Jim back to the GCPD to be treated by Lee, Harvey returned to the scene of the crime to question Penguin and Barbara. He firstly asked Penguin and when he denied it, Harvey punched him in the stomach and moved on to Barbara. He assumed she did to keep the child for herself but she assured him that she would never try to kill her child's father. He continued to map out the scene and eventually found the bullet, promising to find the shooter as well but before he left, Barbara asked if there was anything she could do to help and he told her to keep the gangs under control until Jim was back on his feet.

Later, it was revealed that the shooter was Victor Zsasz under the control of Ivy Pepper and when Jim woke up, he married Lee. Back The Sirens, in Barbara's office, her and Penguin discussed their next move and Penguin told her that trying to get close to Jim again never would have worked and that all she was to him was the dangerous woman carrying his child. She then told him that she had better be long gone before he could get his hands on the baby. When Penguin acknowledged that he would hunt her no matter where she went, Barbara was willing to let him.[69]

After many months, when the submarine is finally finished and Barbara is at the end of her pregnancy, she met with Penguin and Ed at the dock, prepared to leave. However, before they could board, Barbara went into labour and Penguin told her to drive to the hospital and they would wait for her at the dock. She then left to give birth but not before she took a vital component of the submarine as she knew that they would leave her. When she arrived, Lee put her on a hospital bed and called Jim and told him to get the hospital right away. While Lee was checking if the baby was healthy, she noticed that Barbara was trying to rush her but didn't know why and tried to push the fact that the only really important thing was the health of the baby.

Barbara with her baby and Lee

Barbara with her newborn baby and Lee.

Later, Penguin and Ed busted into the hospital room and demanded Barbara to hand over the part of the submarine that she took and Lee discovered why she was in such a rush. However, before they could find the submarine part, the hospital was broken into by Bane who threatened Barbara and ordered her to come with him. In order to avoid him, Lee, Penguin and Ed attempted to take Barbara out of the building on a wheelchair while she was still in labour and the two men offered to distract Bane while Lee took Barbara outside. However, on their way out, the corridor was swarmed with soldiers who Barbara managed to take out with guns while screaming in pain due to labour. When they made it to the parking lot, Lee questioned why Barbara wanted to leave Gotham and she told her that Jim would never let her see their child but Lee exclaimed that she would be allowed to see them, no matter what. Before they could begin moving again, Barbara realized that the baby was about to be born and Lee quickly got her on a gurney and helped her give birth to a baby girl. However, before they could get out of the parking lot with the baby, Bane landed beside them after jumping from a high window. The women held on to each other before Alfred and Selina hit him with their car. Barbara and Lee then got into the car and drove off to safety.[70]

Kidnapped by Nyssa

The two reached The Sirens Club but were ambushed by Nyssa al Ghul who was angry at Barbara for killing her father. She knocked Lee unconscious and kidnapped Barbara and the baby.[70] In City Hall, Nyssa played with the baby, causing Barbara to threaten to turn her to pile of ash just like her father. When she got too close to the baby with a knife, Barbara told her about Penguin and Nygma's submarine at the dock's which was full of gold. She ignored this fact and once the general entered the room, she told him to go up and give the order to destroy the city and continued to play with the baby, much to Barbara's anger. Later, Jim managed to sneak into City Hall and worked together with Barbara to take down the two guards and get her untied. However, Nyssa discovered them and more guards came in, holding the two at gunpoint. In order to keep the baby safe, Barbara was forced to let Nyssa beat Jim, much to her horror. She was about to stab Jim with the same Balahsi knife used to kill Ra's but he managed to knock it out of Nyssa's hand and kick to Barbara, who then used it to take out the remaining guards and stab Nyssa in the stomach with it. Realizing her plan would fail, Nyssa forced the general to kill himself and escaped the scene.

Jim was able to get the door opened but Nyssa was already gone by the time he did. Barbara then showed him their baby and he stared at her in wonder. The two made it back to the GCPD and Jim told Barbara to escape with the civilians through the tunnels underneath the building. Before she left, she gave Lee a hug and thanked her for everything she had done for her and her and Jim's baby. Lee told her to escape and left to join Jim in the war against Bane and the army but Barbara didn't leave and lead the civilians up to the war as well. This worked and the army turned against Bane. After everything was over and the unification was going to happen, Jim spoke with Barbara and held their baby again. When he wondered what to call her, Barbara proposed the name "Barbara Lee Gordon" to allow her to share all three names of the people who she can rely on. The next day, Barbara and the baby attended the police ceremony in which Jim was appointed commissioner.[71]

After the entire No Man's Land ordeal, Barbara left her criminal past behind her and became an extremely successful businesswoman. She also shared custody of her daughter with Jim and Lee and the three maintained their good friendship.[72]

10 years later

Stopping the Riddler

Gotham Finale - Barbara, Riddler & Selina

When viewing the construction work for her company's new building, Barbara noticed Jim enter to pick up Barbara Lee for ice cream. She jokingly told Jim to inform Bruce that he would no longer have the tallest building in the city anymore and kissed her daughter goodbye. Later, at the event for the opening of the new Wayne Enterprises, Barbara ran into Selina and complimented her dress, telling her that Bruce would wish he never left. Selina instructed Barbara to follow her into the kitchen where Edward Nygma was holding Aubrey James hostage. Barbara confronted him and distracted him while Selina snuck up behind him and hit him over the head with a pipe. They then freed James and brought him back out to where the event was being held while Jim ordered everyone to evacuate the building as there was a bomb. Barbara, Selina Kyle, Jim, LeeLucius and Alfred stayed behind in order to disarm the dangerous weapon.

Encounter with Mr. J and Ecco

With help from Lucius, Lee was able to do so and with a clue that they found, the group was able to deduce the culprit behind everything was Jeremiah Valeska. Barbara took Barbara Lee back to her abandoned club in order to receive a weapon from her desk drawer. As she did so, she assured Barbara Lee that everything would be fine when the lights in the main area turned on. Barbara instructed her daughter to remain in the office while she searched for an intruder and when she exited her office, she discovered Ecco standing at the bar with her back facing Barbara.

Barbara watches Jeremiah

Barbara watches as her daughter is taken hostage.

She was then ambushed by Jeremiah who pushed her into Ecco who then held a knife to her throat but before they could do any damage, Barbara Lee threw an object at Ecco, allowing Barbara to stab her in the stomach, and then began to hit Jeremiah. However, Jeremiah then shot Barbara in the leg and then shot and killed the wounded Ecco. He held the gun to Barbara as he also held Barbara Lee hostage, and instructed Barbara to deliver a message to Jim when he arrived at the club and knocked her out, taking Barbara Lee hostage. When Jim arrived, she awakened and informed him that Jeremiah wanted him to meet with him at "the place where he was born again." Jim ended up stopping Jeremiah with the help of "the bat vigilante" and saving Barbara Lee.[72]

Personality

"She's kind of crazy."
"That's the best part about her.
"
Tabitha Galavan and Theo Galavan[src]

Barbara initially appeared to be a kind, caring, selfless and moral individual, as she risked her own life to save Jim, by going to Carmine Falcone and pleading for Jim's life. She has an addictive personality, as she is shown to have been addicted to alcohol and drugs in the past. She ended her relationship with Jim Gordon because she did not feel that he included her in his life; and he did not provide emotional support for her after she was held captive by Carmine, as well as the fact that she is afraid of being around the dangers that Jim brings as a police detective.

Upon leaving she resumes a relationship with Renee Montoya, who breaks up with her because Barbara had relapsed into abusing drugs, she goes to see Jim at the police precinct but finds him kissing Leslie and flees.

Unknown to anyone at the time, Barbara is (secretly) mentally unstable.

After Barbara was forced to kill her parents (off-screen) by Jason Skolimski, her unstable nature had awoken, she tells Lee that she killed her own parents, attacks Lee and tried to kill her with a knife - because Lee is now Jim's girlfriend.

Since Barbara's psychotic break; she has (openly) become arrogant, aggressive, violent, immoral, unstable and delusional.

After Barbara comes out of her coma, she (apparently) has guilt and remorse for her actions, as she (apparently) horrified at what she had become/done. Although she claimed she was sane after being released from Arkham, she seemed to suffer another psychotic break after Jim rejected her.

After being broken away by Jim, Barbara's psychotic personality resurfaced, as she is proven to be cold and conniving, she has little respect for authority of any kind and is prone to a violent and sadistic nature.

Following Barbara's resurrection, she is proven to be calm and now possesses much more comprehension than before.

During her brief time as the new Demon's Head, Barbara became filled with delusions of grandeur but ultimately limited ambition. Even so, after awakening the Demon's Head she gave it up back to Ra's to save Tabitha, showing that despite the self-interested criminal she is she still values those she cares about and it was this display of loyalty that earned her the continued loyalty of the female members of the League of Shadows.

After the Cataclysm and Tabitha's death, Barbara became vengeful but after seeing most of the destruction and innocent lives that were being lost, she slowly began to obtain some of her humanity back. After becoming pregnant with Jim's child, she seems to have become much more sympathetic and worries over how to get her unborn baby out of the city, even being unable to shoot Penguin whilst she had a huge open window.

Powers and Abilities

Former powers

  • Mystical energy: As Ra's' chosen successor, she could emit glowing energy from her hand, which acted as a beacon to summon the League of Shadows' members.
    • Precognition: Using the Demon's Head, Barbara was able to see into the future and saw Tabitha and herself being killed by Ra's al Ghul while the former was fighting him, but was able to prevent these events from happening.

Abilities

"Barbara Kean does not give up easily."
Oswald Cobblepot to Bruce Wayne[src]
  • High-level intellect/Expert tactician/Leader: Barbara has shown to be highly trained at coming up with plans and tactics in order for her and her team to come out on top. She is also a very skilled leader and was able to run the underworld of Gotham and be the leader of The Sirens. After killing Ra's al Ghul (with Bruce Wayne's assistance), the members of the League of Shadows swore their allegiance to her.
  • Network: As a prominent figure in Gotham and its underworld, Barbara has connections to many other crime families and this fact is known to most people as Jim always goes to her when he needs answers. She has become well known in Gotham's criminal underworld.
  • Skilled manipulator: Barbara has good skills in the art of deception and manipulation, as she was able to lead Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock into a trap.
  • Expert hand-to-hand combatant/Martial Artist: After being resurrected by Ra's al Ghul, Barbara was trained alongside the League of Shadows and was later able to fight against Ra's.
  • Expert markswoman: Barbara is highly trained in using firearms has been able to shoot people directly in the head from very long distances such as when she shot Cherry.
  • Expert knife-wielder: Barbara is highly trained at using a knife. This seen when she killed a League of Shadows member with his own knife and during both of her confrontations with Ra's.

Equipment

  • Guns/Firearms: Barbara has used a variety of firearms such as handguns and shotguns. She has primarily used a golden handgun on several occasions.

Former equipment

  • Knives: Barbara has used different types of knives such as kitchen knives, combat knives, spring-assisted knives, and switchblades. She used the Kurdish dagger in both her confrontations with Ra's. She later stabbed Nyssa with he Kurdish dagger as well and ten years later, she stabbed Ecco with her own knife.
  • Cattle Prod: Barbara briefly used a cattle prod to knock out the Lady and her associate to save Gordon.
  • Hand Grenade: Barbara used a hand grenade in order to intimidate some enemy henchmen.

Gallery

Main Article: Barbara Kean/Gallery

Appearances

Appearance List for Barbara Kean

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Season 5

Gotham: A City Gone Mad

Novels

Trivia

  • Originally it was stated that; Barbara would be an Emergency Room Doctor. But this appears to have been changed as it was revealed in "Pilot", that; instead, she is the owner of an art gallery. It is possible that; the idea of Jim Gordon having a love interest; who was a doctor was used to bring the character of Lee Thompkins; into the show; instead.
  • The show's version of Barbara is the first to be presented as a bisexual character.
  • Barbara's character is based on Barbara Gordon, the first wife of Jim Gordon, but she has many similar attributes to Harley Quinn. At one point, the writers considered actually; making her Harley Quinn, as well as Magpie, the latter of; which would later appear, while the former was adapted into another character named Ecco. Magpie herself was also introduced for an episode in season 5.
  • The animated tv series Harley Quinn version of Barbara Eileen Gordon is possibly inspired by some aspects of Barbara Kean. In the animated series she is shown to be constantly cheating on Gordon and even wants a divorce despite that version of Gordon doing everything in his power to appease her.
  • Barbara shares some similarities; with Fish Mooney;
    • Both women attempted to overthrow the crime boss running Gotham at the time as Barbara wanted to overthrow Oswald Cobblepot and Fish wanted to overthrow Carmine Falcone.
    • Both women were killed by people they worked with and both were later resurrected, with Barbara being killed by Tabitha Galavan and Fish being killed by Oswald.
    • Both women became friends again with the people who killed them, with Tabitha and Barbara teaming up again with Selina Kyle and Fish Mooney teaming up with Oswald Cobblepot, Bridgit Pike and Victor Fries.
    • Both women owned nightclubs that were taken over by Oswald Cobblepot, as Fish lost the Mooney's and Barbara The Sirens Club to him.
    • Both women are also mortal enemies of Cobblepot, although Fish Mooney later became Penguin's ally again.
    • Both women had powers involving glowing hands, with Fish Mooney's mind-control powers and Barbara's Demon's Head powers. Also, both gave up their power in order to save their life, Fish Mooney's powers slowly killed her while Barbara and Tabitha would have been killed by Ra's al Ghul.
  • Barbara is the only member of The Maniax to have found redemption.
  • Barbara Kean, Jim Gordon, Bruce Wayne, and Harvey Bullock are the only characters to be in all 12 episodes of Season 5.

Behind the scenes

  • The character of Barbara Kean was created by Frank Miller and Dave Mazzucchelli and first appeared in Batman #404 (February 1987), the first part of the Batman: Year One story. She is known to be the first wife of James Gordon and mother of his children. The character has been known as Barbara Eileen Gordon & Barbara Kean-Gordon (depending on the writer). An earlier version of the character, who was simply referred to as Barbara Gordon, first appeared in World's Finest #53 (August 1951), created by David Vern Reed, Dick Sprang and Charles Paris.
  • Barbara's mental instability and her status as a criminal is a nod to her sociopathic son in the DC comics, James Gordon Jr..
  • The numbers on the plate number for Barbara Kean's car on the show is shown to be 5381. This was possibly made to reference James Gordon's wife's first appearance on World's Finest #53, while 81 refers to the year where she was first referred to as Barbara.
  • In the episode "Heroes Rise: Heavydirtysoul", Barbara was originally going to be revived in one of the Lazarus Pits by Ra's al Ghul. The scene in the Yuyan Temple was filmed, but later deleted. It is not included on any of the DVD and Blu-ray sets and only survives via two promotional photos.[73][74] This deleted scene was later rendered obsolete and entirely non-canon when a flashback featured in the episode "A Dark Knight: One of My Three Soups" included a different version of Barbara's resurrection.
  • In "A Dark Knight: One Bad Day" Barbara explains to Tabitha how she loves the Gotham clocktower and how Jim took her there on a date once. This is most likely a reference to Jim and Barbara's daughter with the same name who used the clock tower as her apartment and base while fighting crime as Oracle. In "The Beginning..." this is further explored when Barbara Kean is shown working on reconstructing the clock tower while her ten year-old daughter Barbara Lee hangs out with her.

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  40. Hull, Robert (writer) & McKenzie, Ben (director) (May 1, 2017) "Heroes Rise: These Delicate and Dark Obsessions". Gotham. Season 3. Episode 16. FOX.
  41. Lilien, Steven & Wynbrandt, Bryan (writers) & Vrvilo|, Maja (director) (May 8, 2017) "Heroes Rise: The Primal Riddle". Gotham. Season 3. Episode 17. FOX.
  42. Cannon, Danny (writer) & Hope, Nathan (director) (June 5, 2017) "Heroes Rise: Destiny Calling" Gotham. Season 3. Episode 21. FOX.
  43. Hull, Robert (writer) & Bailey, Rob (director) (June 5, 2017) "Heroes Rise: Heavydirtysoul" Gotham. Season 3. Episode 22. FOX.
  44. 45.0 45.1 Huston, Charlie (writer) & McKenzie, Ben (director) (March 29, 2018) "A Dark Knight: One of My Three Soups". Gotham. Season 4. Episode 16.
  45. Cannon, Danny (writer) & Milito, Lous Shaw (director) (September 28, 2017). "A Dark Knight: The Fear Reaper". Gotham. Season 4. Episode 2. FOX.
  46. Lilien, Steven & Wynbrandt, Bryan (writer) & Tonderai, Mark (director) (October 5, 2017). "A Dark Knight: They Who Hide Behind Masks". Gotham. Season 4. Episode 3. FOX.
  47. McKenzie, Ben (writer) & Fink, Kenneth (director) (October 13, 2017). "A Dark Knight: The Demon's Head". Gotham. Season 4. Episode 4. FOX.
  48. Chun, Tze (writer) & White, Scott (director) (October 19, 2017) "A Dark Knight: The Blade's Path". Gotham. Season 4. Episode 5. FOX.
  49. Blake, Peter (writer) & Behring, John (director) (November 2, 2017) "A Dark Knight: A Day in the Narrows". Gotham. Season 4. Episode 7. FOX.
  50. Huston, Charlie (writer) & Bailey, Rob (director) (November 9, 2017) "A Dark Knight: Stop Hitting Yourself". Gotham. Season 4. Episode 8. FOX.
  51. Lilien, Steven & Wynbrandt, Bryan (writer) & Milito, Louis Shaw (director) (November 23, 2017) "A Dark Knight: Things That Go Boom". Gotham. Season 4. Episode 10. FOX.
  52. Cannon, Danny (writer) & Stephens, John (director) (December 7, 2017) "A Dark Knight: Queen Takes Knight". Gotham. Season 4. Episode 11. FOX.
  53. Cannon, Danny (writer) & Culpepper, Hanelle M. (director) (March 1, 2018) "A Dark Knight: Pieces of a Broken Mirror". Gotham. Season 4. Episode 12
  54. Chun, Tze (writer) & Stephens, John (director) (March 9, 2018) "A Dark Knight: A Beautiful Darkness". Gotham. Season 4. Episode 13.
  55. Boston, Seth (writer) & Copus, Nick (director) (March 22, 2018) "A Dark Knight: The Sinking Ship, The Grand Applause". Gotham. Season 4. Episode 15.
  56. Cannon, Danny (writer) & Copus, Nick (director) (April 12, 2018) "A Dark Knight: That's Entertainment" Gotham. Season 4. Episode 18.
  57. Blake, Peter & Sosa, Iturri (writer) & White, Scott (director) (April 19, 2018) "A Dark Knight: To Our Deaths and Beyond" Gotham. Season 4. Episode 19.
  58. Chun, Tze (writer) & Bailey, Rob (director) (May 10, 2018) "A Dark Knight: One Bad Day" Gotham. Season 4. Episode 21.
  59. 60.0 60.1 Stephens, John & Boston, Seth (writer) & Hope, Nathan (director) (May 17, 2018) "A Dark Knight: No Man's Land" Gotham. Season 4. Episode 22.
  60. Stephens, John (writer) & Cannon, Danny (director) (January 3, 2019) "Legend of the Dark Knight: Year Zero" Gotham. Season 5. Episode 1.
  61. Milto, Louis Shaw (writer) & Cannon, Danny (director) (January 10, 2019) "Legend of the Dark Knight: Trespassers" Gotham. Season 5. Episode 2.
  62. Chun, Tze (writer) & Bailey, Rob (director) (January 17, 2019) "Legend of the Dark Knight: Penguin, Our Hero" Gotham. Season 5. Episode 3.
  63. Fiveash, Chad & Stoteraux, James (writer) & Hope, Nathan (director) (January 24, 2019) "Legend of the Dark Knight: Ruin" Gotham. Season 5. Episode 4.
  64. Sosa, Iturri (writer) & Tonderai, Mark (director) (January 31, 2019) "Legend of the Dark Knight: Pena Dura" Gotham. Season 5. Episode 5.
  65. Boston, Seth (writer) & McKenzie, Ben (director) (February 14, 2019) "Legend of the Dark Knight: 13 Stitches" Gotham. Season 5. Episode 6.
  66. Chun, Tze (writer) & Stephens, John (director) (Febuary 21, 2019) "Legend of the Dark Knight: Ace Chemicals" Gotham. Season 5. Episode 7.
  67. Boston, Seth (writer) & Fink, Kenneth (director) (February 28, 2019) "Legend of the Dark Knight: Nothing's Shocking" Gotham. Season 5. Episode 8.
  68. McKenzie, Ben (writer) & Richards, Erin (director) (March 7, 2019) "Legend of the Dark Knight: The Trial of Jim Gordon" Gotham. Season 5. Episode 9.
  69. 70.0 70.1 Stoteraux, James & Fiveash, Chad (writer) & Fink, Kenneth (director) (March 21, 2019) "Legend of the Dark Knight: I Am Bane" Gotham. Season 5. Episode 10.
  70. Chun, Tze (writer) & Banker, Carol (director) (April 18, 2019) "Legend of the Dark Knight: They Did What?" Gotham. Season 5. Episode 11.Chun, Tze (writer) & Banker, Carol (director) (April 18, 2019) "Legend of the Dark Knight: They Did What?" Gotham. Season 5. Episode 11.
  71. 72.0 72.1 "The Beginning..."
  72. "'Gotham' Promotional Photos: Heavydirtysoul" - Far Far Away Site
  73. "'Gotham' Promotional Photos: Heavydirtysoul" - Far Far Away Site
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