A real game-changer was when Bruce Wayne was framed for murder and tossed in jail. He had to break out, and, as BATMAN, find the real killer and clear Wayne's name. He did, but just then the cops decided this was their chance to finally arrest this vigilante. But THAT was also the moment when Commissioner Gordon, who'd been around since the first page of the very first BATMAN story, whose admiration for Batman had been steadily growing for several years, decided to step forward and declare Batman an "official deputy of the Gotham Police Department".

This happened back in 1941!! (BATMAN #7, Oct'41) But I didn't read it until it appeared in a digest, sometime around 1978. I was delighted to learn how it happened.

Funny enough, one of the very ODD things about the 1943 "BATMAN" serial was that Batman was still considered a vigilante in it, and Gordon was NOWHERE to be seen! Instead, you had an arrogant Chief of Police who wanted to arrest Batman, learn his identity, and then coerce him into working FOR HIM. He clearly didn't know that someone in Washington DC working for the State Department (or was it the FBI?) already knew Batman's identity, and had secretly recruited him to fight a foreign spy ring. (Simon Templar in England also did many such favors for British Intelligence.)