Every week we spotlight the various characters, phrases, objects or events that eventually became notable parts of comic lore. Not major stuff like "the first appearance of Superman," but rather, "the first time someone said, 'Avengers Assemble!'" or "the first appearance of Batman's giant penny" or "the first appearance of Alfred Pennyworth" or "the first time Spider-Man's face was shown half-Spidey/half-Peter." Stuff like that. Here is an archive of all the When We First Met features so far! Check 'em out!

Today we look at the debuts of various notable members of the Gotham Police Department!

First off, the obvious one that really doesn't count for a feature like this (as he is too famous), but eh, it just seems wrong to mention the GCPD without mentioning Commissioner James Gordon....

I love that Bruce Wayne is just hanging out at Gordon's house.

Next we see the debut of Harvey Bullock, who was a Lieutenant when he debuted in Detective Comics #441 by Archie Goodwin and Howard Chaykin...

Renee Montoya was invented for the Batman Animated Series but actually debuted many months before she showed up in the cartoon. She first showed up in Batman #475 by Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle...

And no, you are not imagining things, they did, indeed, have her say "Madre De Dios!" Oh boy.

Next we have Lieutenant Sarah Essen, who debuted in Year One by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli...

One of the more recent cool additions to the Gotham Police Department was Cripus Allen, who debuted in Detective Comics #742 (Gordon had JUST returned to work after his wife was killed, so his reaction to another Gotham cop being killed made him more than a little edgy and sent him actually on to the street to investigate things)...

Like Montoya, Chief Clancy O'Hara was invented for television. Unlike Montoya, he never really made it much into the comics (except for, of all places, the Huntress back-up in Wonder Woman during the early 1980s). He was first mentioned soon after the show debuted in World's Finest #159...

and was first sort of seen in Detective Comics #461 ten years later...

Finally, for the two other people who are fans of Mackenzie "Hardback" Bock, here is his debut in Detective Comics #681 by Chuck Dixon, Graham Nolan and Klaus Janson...

If there's any debuts YOU folks want to see, just drop me a line at bcronin@comicbookresources.com