LOWDOWN:
The first ten issues of the Eisner and Harvey Award-winning series is collected in hardcover for the first time! Written by Ed Brubaker (Captain America) and Greg Rucka (Detective Comics, 52), this series pitted the detectives of Gotham City's Special Crimes Unit against the city's greatest villains – in the shadow of Batman himself.
This volume collects two cases of the Gotham Special Crimes Unit. In the first, a cop is killed by Mister Freeze, and the squad is in a race against time to bring him in without the help of the Dark Knight. In the second story–the acclaimed, award-winning “Half a Life”–Detective Renee Montoya is outed as a lesbian and finds her work environment and personal life turned upside down. Things only become more complicated when she’s kidnapped by Two-Face. This debut volume features an introduction by acclaimed mystery author Lawrence Block.
If any series ever deserved the hardcover reprint treatment, Gotham Central is it. The book is as good as any police procedural on television, giving names and personalities to the Gotham police force that up until that point had been relegated to minor background characters and cannon fodder for Joker, Two-Face and the like. A tragic run-in with Mr. Freeze in the opening pages is enough to suck readers in, and Rucka and Brubaker continually drive home the cost of being a good cop in a city that relies on Batman for protection. Honestly, Batman's portrayal during this era of comics was never great, often crossing the line from being edgy and gritty into just being unlikable. Gotham Central really puts this in perspective with the cops only asking for assistance from Batman as an absolute last resort (a theme that intensifies in the next volume). Also spotlighted this volume is the relationship between Renee Montoya and Two-Face, which Rucka had been steadily building since Batman: No Man's Land, Vol. 2.
I am very please with the product by DC and the team. Brubaker, Rucka, and Lark created characters that are three-dimensional, and not the same out boring cops. Every character has their flaws, and some more than others. This is not a pretty world that the cops live in with the madness that is Gotham City. There are egos, conflicts, and that just in the department.
TEMPLAR NOTE:
A great read for adult Batman fans. There's not much of the Bat, but I found that refreshing. It focuses on the cops, and their resentment toward Batman for solving the crimes they cannot. I really started empathizing with each of the characters. The art is also very nice, and evokes a Year One quality. Highly recommended. I'd love to see this made into a TV show on HBO.
-Brian Lansangan
follow me on Twitter @MrSnugglenutz84
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