Gotham City: Year One

 Issue #1

Yeah Constance is hysterical. Gotta give her grace with having a kidnapped kid I guess. I feel like this art does a great job at transporting you to a different era. The Bat-Man symbol and alias made me roll my eyes. I wonder how that’s gonna work contextually. That ending does a lot, I liked it. Why is Batman talking to Slam? How does Slam know his identity? 

Issue #2

I like these rare but “normal” murders. Cool to see a Gotham that’s sort of purer, at least one that isn’t being torn apart at the seams and is being held together solely through the efforts of Bruce Wayne. I don’t know if you can call it noir sensibilities or just general detective stuff but I love the way Slam is written. “I heard you. They’re serious people, Sue. Fine. I’ll make sure not to laugh too much at their funeral.” Ice cold. Kinda cool how hateable the Wayne’s are here. Okay let’s go with dislikable considering the stress level, but I wonder if they brought this on themselves somehow. I like that Slam has his own Catwoman (who is currently written better than I remember King writing actual Catwoman.) Didn’t he and Catwoman have relations in that Darwyn Cooke comic? This comic is so readable, I’m thoroughly enjoying this same same but different world.

Issue #3

Why did I think they left Helen at Sam’s house for some reason? Smh. Biracial or adopted Slam is looking to be an interesting angle. Wow we’re dealing with dead babies. And wrapped with the owl blanket is foul, no pun intended. I wonder if Constance or someone close to the Waynes arranged this so the South could be gentrified.

Issue #4

Wow, that crashout makes even more sense now. It wasn’t just about revenge, it was personal. I like how this book is a lot about personal crimes and misdeeds. Also super fascinating that while early Gotham has an “effective” police force, the corruption was still there. I also like the fact that, according to Slam at least, his brother did steal. The crime didn’t matter in terms of whether it was committed or not, the police failed at their job and went beyond their jurisdiction. Actually based take from King there. I still don’t like the Bat-Man alias AND direct symbol so far, waiting for it to be explained, but I absolutely love the legend of Crime Alley. Sometimes it’s the first suspect. I really didn’t believe someone, especially a Wayne, would be that ruthless though so I barely considered that. Wow. Best issue so far.

Issue #5

Dang even Johnny was corrupt. WOW Constance who was an even earlier oddity being the mastermind? Bravo bravo bravo. Funny how I thought it was gonna be that she knew the baby was dead because she was involved, but then I was like mother’s intuition duh. Funny funny switch. I mean, what other character are at play here? Sleeping with Slam after killing your own child is the craziest move ever. Just when I thought issue 4 was crazy…(it still is.)

Issue #6

Guess I misinterpreted and that was just another Black man being brutalized by the police when Slam cracked. Wow this race stuff is being handled excellently. The original Batcave being a sexual conquest trophy room. I don’t hate it, but not everything has to tie into Batman. What an awful, tragic, story. Very emotionally vivid, juggled its small cast brilliantly. One of the only things I didn’t like was how Batman included it had to be with the Bat-Man and the Batcave, though I thought the Ace Chemicals and Crime Alley stuff were good for symbols of the corruption. Even the physical presence of Batman as a figure to be the audience for the orator felt meaningless to me. It felt like just for marketing purposes and was more distracting than anything. Even so, I thought it was amazing to see the Wayne’s’ role in the degradation of Gotham through the eyes of Slam Bradley, who was just a pawn in the face of this unimaginable empire. It memes sense that the Wayne’s aren’t pure good and makes good storytelling that their issues bled into the rest of Gotham. Fantastic cast and a wonderful prelude of a world we know well.