There are a lot of comics out there, but some just stand out head and shoulders above the pack. With “Don’t Miss This” we want to spotlight those series we think need to be on your pull list. This week, we’re exploring the past of one of the most iconic and terrifying places in all of comics with the limited series “Gotham City: Year One”
Who Is This By?
The book is written by Tom King, who is one of the best known comic book writers working in this day and age. While he is perhaps most famous for a very long run on Batman where he was responsible for the storyline where Batman and Catwoman attempt to get married, he has carved out a niche for himself doing some solid work on limited series starring some of DC’s lesser known characters including Adam Strange, the Human Target, and an excellent Supergirl story. While his work is known for being incredibly sad and psychologically draining, he has built a solid reputation as a quality writer.
The artwork comes from Phil Hester, who is another well known name in the comic book world. Hester has been drawing and coloring comics for a while and to list all the books that he’s done would take ages but they include work for almost every major publisher in the American comic book scene with plenty of independent work thrown in for good measure. Hester brings a minimalist, angular style that utilizes extremely heavy contrast and shadows, along with a deceptively simple color palette to evoke a classic noir story in more ways than one.
What’s It All About?
Believe it or not, Gotham City used to be a nice place to live. Thanks to the brave men and women working in the city and the Gotham Police Department, along with the generous pocketbooks of families like the Waynes, Gotham was a place where a man and his family could live a prosperous life in peace and where anyone’s dream could come true with a bit of hard work and determination.
At least, that’s what the people at the top want you to believe. Oh sure, Gotham is a genuinely nice place to live, but that peace is bought with violence, corruption, and selfish interest at the highest levels. Sure, you can live in the city of dreams; just as long as you remember to tow the line and stay in your neighborhood or else the Gotham City Police will pay you a not so friendly visit. Sure, Gotham has their favorite sons in the Waynes who love the city and have built it from the ground up, but behind the scenes the Waynes are petty, greedy rich jerks who aren’t afraid to leverage their influence to get what they want.
All of this corruption and violence under the surface is brought into the light when Richard Wayne’s baby daughter is kidnapped, and it’s up to ex cop and private detective Slam Bradley to uncover the mess that led to this horrible crime and come face to face with a city that is on the precipice of oblivion.
What Makes It So Great?
While Batman has been everywhere and done everything in his long publication history, you could say that he’s at his best when placed in a crime noir story set in the 1940’s or 50’s. He was a character that was created when more people were living in cities than in rural areas for the first time in human history and the idea that someone could just be randomly shot dead in the street was strange and terrifying. A lot of people didn’t know how to react to this new world, so the idea of a detective who asked hard questions and hit the bad guys even harder was certainly appealing so of course a hero like Batman resonated with a lot of people.
While other great Batman media like the excellent animated show of the 90’s understood this, “Gotham: Year One” takes the idea of the noir detective story and distills it into its purest, simplest, and most violent form. All of the tropes are there from the femme fatale, the hard bitten detective with a grudge against the world, and plenty of intrigue at every level of society. There’s even a bit of history in it as well, with the kidnapping of the baby Wayne calling back to the Lindbergh kidnapping of the 1930’s.
Continued belowWhile this isn’t Batman’s origin story it’s something better, it’s an origin for Gotham and the environment that created Batman in the first place.
How Can You Read It?
The series is currently ongoing and can be found online and any and all comic book stores. Plus, it’s a Batman story, so you won’t have to look too hard to find it.
