These Are Their Stories

Gotham Central (2004-07)
DC Comics
Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka, writers
Michael Lark, Stefano Gaudiano, and Kano, artists

If you've never checked it out, this 40-issue comic book run is one of the best written series out there. It is set, obviously, in Gotham City, but focuses on the detectives of the Gotham City Police Department's Major Crimes Unit rather than the costumed vigilantes who also populate that fictional city. The moody artwork and muted color palette add to the crime noir feel of this series, complementing the writing beautifully.

No purse-snatchings or jaywalkers will be found in these pages; remember, this is the Major Crimes Unit. Some of the crimes the detectives of the MCU investigate include the murder of a young girl walking home after a baby-sitting job; the deaths of two women, both employees in the accounting department of the same pharmaceuticals company; an apparent suicide leads detectives to reopen a cold case that involved the murder of an entire high school athletic team; and someone killing young men after dressing them up in costumes that resemble that of Robin, the Boy Wonder.

A couple of the cases force the MCU detectives to investigate other officers, too. A pair of crooked beat cops accidentally causes the death of a young homeless girl while trying to cover up their illegal activities. A crime scene investigator long suspected of being on the take causes problems with some ongoing investigations, but both MCU and internal affairs detectives have trouble making any charges stick. And in an early story, one of the MCU's own detectives is accused of a double homicide.

Of course, major crimes in Gotham are often going to involve some of the city's more colorful criminals. One homicide the detectives investigate looks like it might be the work of Catwoman. Poison Ivy is involved in the homeless girl case. In the very first issue, two detectives following a tip on an open kidnapping case run into more than they bargained for in a rundown apartment building. Firebug and the Mad Hatter also pop up in the course of other MCU cases.

The detectives of the MCU aren't just throw-away characters created solely for this series, either. Many of the detectives had a history in DC Comics before the debut of Gotham Central in 2004. Fan favorite character Renee Montoya, for example, was originally created for "Batman: The Animated Series" as a recurring uniformed police officer. She debuted in the comics at about the same time in Batman No. 475, cover dated March 1992, and was often paired with hard-boiled police detective Harvey Bullock, a longtime supporting cast member in the comics. After spending several years as a uniformed officer, Montoya was promoted to detective and continued to be a recurring character in the pages of Batman, Detective Comics and other Gotham City-based comics.

Another featured player in Gotham Central is Crispus Allen, who debuted in Detective Comics No. 742, cover dated March 2000. This was during the time immediately following the "No Man's Land" story arc in the Bat-books, a long series of arcs that left the Gotham City Police Department severely understaffed. This was also during a time when then-Detective Comics writer Greg Rucka shifted the focus of that book so that it emphasized the detective nature of Batman's character and the Dark Knight worked very closely with a number of the GCPD's finest. Detective Allen was a recurring character in Rucka's run of Detective Comics and would eventually become Montoya's partner.

Capt. Maggie Sawyer is another name comics fans might recognize from beyond Gotham Central. Margaret Sawyer made her debut in Action Comics No. 595, cover dated December 1987, early in the post-Crisis reboot of Superman. The character's back story is that she was originally from Star City and moved to Metropolis to head up the new Metropolis Police Department's Special Crimes Unit. Sawyer was a mainstay in the Superman titles during the rest of the late-1980s, the 1990s and into the early 2000s. The character was popular enough among Superman fans that she was included in the cast of "Superman: The Animated Series" and even appeared in some episodes of the live action "Smallville" television series. In 2002, Sawyer's character moved from Metropolis to Gotham City to lead the GCPD's Major Crimes Unit.

One notable Gotham City cop not featured prominently in Gotham Central is James W. Gordon, who most casual fans know as the police commissioner in Gotham. Gordon has retired or been forced from office in elections a number of times in the history of Batman stories, but he rarely stays away from the familiar job for long. The entire run of Gotham Central hit at a time when Gordon was no longer serving as commissioner. In his stead, a man named Michael Akins serves in that role, but Gordon is still a Gotham City citizen and makes a number of cameo appearances in the title for various reasons. After all, in a city known for its often-corrupt police force, most of the detectives in the Major Crimes Unit were handpicked by Gordon for their positions, a source of pride for many of them.

Several of the other recurring detectives in Gotham Central had appeared in other comics prior to this title's debut, many of them during Rucka's run as writer of Detective Comics. These other characters include detectives Marcus Driver, Tommy Burke, Josephine MacDonald, Romy Chandler and Nate Patton and Sgts. Vincent Del Arrazio and Jackson Davies.

Of course, Batman also makes appearances in the title during the course of its 40-issue run. Again, this IS Gotham City. But the majority of the issues don't include Batman at all, and the ones that do have a specific purpose for including him, and they rarely involve more than a panel here and there. Mostly that is by design, as the writers truly wanted this series to be about the cops in Gotham City and their lives, not another superhero book, although these characters exist in a world populated by superheroes. In fact, the name Batman never appeared in the title of the individual issues, although later collected editions often were named Batman: Gotham Central.

From a storytelling standpoint, the absence of Batman is explained by the timing of the series. During a large portion of Gotham Central's three-year run, Batman and the GCPD were on the outs with each other as a result of another Bat-centric crossover called "War Games" and its sequel, "War Crimes." Rest assured, though, this run can mostly be considered a self-contained read requiring very little knowledge of events in Batman or other DC Comics of the time. In the few instances where a previous comic story is relevant to understanding a Gotham Central tale, references are available in the specific issues or in the trade collections.