Shut Up, Batman! You’re Not My Dad!

I know, I know. I still need to review Saga 4 & 5 for real since a TON of people seem to be clicking on my “ha-ha, boobs!” post in the hopes that someone, somewhere, is talking about that amazing book.

Today’s post is for all y’all who saw The Dark Knight Rises, or any film in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy. Today, I’m talking about Gotham Central. If I were to put things in “this is this meets that” terms, Gotham Central is The Wire meets Batman. Sheeeeeee-it.

A more in-depth description of the premise is this: Inspired by Batman, Commissioner James Gordon has done his best to clean up the corrupt Gotham City Police Department over the years. During his term, anyone who has made the rank of detective has been hand picked by him. Detective Marcus Driver, who’s giving Batman the stinkeye in the above panels, was the last detective picked before Gordon’s retirement.

Now, the series isn’t entirely about Driver, but it’s about a bunch of cops like Driver. Cops who want to do their best to solve crimes in Gotham City without resorting to putting a spotlight in the sky to summon “The Batman” to do their job for them.

Or to simplify things again, “Shut up, Batman! You’re not my dad!” (Sidenote: Batman IS your dad, and you better respect that).

The first five issues of the series are collected as Gotham Central Volume One: In The Line of Duty. The first arc introduces Mr. Freeze from the point of view of the major crimes unit, and ultimately, he’s still someone they (reluctantly) need Batman for.

Mr. Freeze…hell, wait a minute. Let’s talk about something. Mr. Freeze is the Warren Buffet of super villains. Gimme a minute, this kind of makes sense. Take Doctor Doom, for example. Dude didn’t even graduate college and he runs around making people call him doctor. Mr. Freeze went to college, got his doctorate, THEN became a super villain, and he still says “call me Mr.” Now, he’s not gonna say “Oh, please, call me Victor,” but he’s not so full of himself that he’s going to make you call him doctor, just like I assume Warren Buffet doesn’t make you call him Warren Buffet, Billionaire.

But anyway, forget Mr. Freeze. Cause it’s not about him, it’s not about Batman. It’s about the cops. Co-writers Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka, along with artist Michael Lark create a cast of characters that you give a damn about. They make you want to stand up and say along with Detective Driver, “shut up, Batman, you’re not my dad!”

Where can I buy such an amazing comic that will make me forget all about Batman and his rogues gallery? Well my friend, you can of course purchase this comic on Amazon, at your local comic book store, and…can it be purchased digitally? YES! Yes you can, and the first issue is only 99 cents!