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| Gotham Central Vol. 4 |
*** Potential Spoilers Below***
Gotham Central is by far, my favorite complete comic/graphic novel series I’ve read to date (However, Locke and Key isn’t finished yet and that’s nipping at it’s heels).
With the exception of that strange Infinite Crisis story line imposed within the middle of this collection, this was a perfect finale to a great series. I can’t even give it less than five stars due to how excellent the Corrigan and Die! Robin, Die! stories were.
The Robin story line was one of my favorites in the series, especially when it came down to it’s conclusion. When Batman confronts the man behind the deaths, he turns up the intensity and intimidation to eleven. I loved that he told them to kill the lights, cameras and recordings as he just threatened, beat and terrified the criminal until he got what he wanted! The Corrigan story was excellent as well, he was written like a real scumbag; a dirty cop you love to hate.
I didn’t realize that this had been the end of the series and when I realized that my experience within the Gotham City Police Department was effectively ending, the ending became that much more heartbreaking. My God, Montoya has to be one of the most tragic characters I’ve read in quite sometime. Just when you think she’s finally reached bottom, Brubaker and Rucka just keep taking from her until she becomes the broken mess we’re left with.
This series is criminally under rated and the fact that it needed to fight to get a full 40 issue run is mind blowing. DC struck gold with this series but finishing out as strong as it did is certainly a rarity in today’s world. So, at least there’s that. I guess.
Every Read Thing 
When Gotham Central closed, it was one of my biggest pains as a comic reader, along with the closures of Generation X and Steel.
I still remember how shocked I was, when I found out Gotham Central was about to close: a DC staff member told me that at a convention, and I simply couldn’t believe it. I felt the need to sit and to think about the reason why a so wonderful and critically acclaimed series had been cut. The answer never came.
90s and 00s didn’t give us much to be thrilled about, but the series I mentioned were simply over the top.
I admit it, I’m an 80s nostalgic. At those times colour wasn’t digitally added, superheroes did not look like a bunch of body builders and they did not hold ridiculously oversized weapons. Actually, they didn’t need any weapon at all: when they had to solve a problem, they used their brain instead of violence.
The stories were better as well – of course we can find something good and something bad in each era, but at those times there was more irony, more deepness, and, most of all, more hugely talented authors. Nowadays, even if you find an ironic author, he’s ironic in a Tarantino way, like Garth Ennis. And even if he/she is talented, he/she will never reach the level of authors like Frank Miller or Chris Claremont.
Anyway, the 10s started in a very good way. Both Marvel and DC are printing some high quality stuff (Animal Man, Green Arrow, Hawkeye, Vibe and so on), and even the other publishers, like Image (Witchblade) and Dynamite (The Black Bat), are regularly offering something intriguing.
Thanks for the comments! I feel you did a better job than I did writing about Gotham Central 🙂
It’s certainly sad that this series had to end so soon, then again, it went out as a near perfect series without running on too long. I agree on the stuff about today’s work. I only really started reading comics regularly in the last few years and DC have been putting out some excellent stuff. I think with how crazy popular the films have been in the last 10 years, people started to up their game with more and more talented writers giving comics a shot.
Exactly. Luckily a lot of people do not consider comics as something childish anymore, and this evolution widened the comics fandom and persuaded a lot of remarkable writers to express their talent in this field too. Thank you for your reply! : )