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Darcey McLaughlin - Geek World

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When you're a comic book fan you are often asked by non-comic fans to recommend something they might like. It's tricky. Many fans are very quick to rattle off a list of super-hero comics, but if someone thinks guys running around in capes and skin-tight spandex is silly, it's a lost cause.

So when I'm asked, I generally consider the person before recommending a comic.

That being said, when I get asked I usually recommend Gotham Central.

The comic was the brain child of writers Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka, with artist Michael Lark. The first issue was released in 2003.

The comic is a gritty police drama focusing on the Gotham City Police Department. It shows how ordinary human police officers deal with fighting crime and keeping the peace in a place where Batman and his villains are constantly at war.

For example, in the opening pages of the graphic novel two detectives are investigating the kidnapping of a 14-year-old girl. Following a lead to a seedy motel, they burst into a room to find Mr. Freeze, and one of the detectives is immediately frozen and killed.

It sets the tone for the entire series as ordinary cops try to go about their jobs in an very non-ordinary world.

Brubaker and Rucka, two of the best writers in comics today, focus most of their attention on the personalities of the cops in the department — their conflicts, their lives.

Gotham Central is written and drawn in a very gritty style. There's little in the way of bright colours, as gray, black, brown and navy dominate the panels and many of the stories are told at night.

Like a good police drama, the series often focuses on cops investigating a particular crime. For example, when Det. Charlie Fields is killed by Mr. Freeze, the department investigates one of his unsolved crimes, tracking down leads, talking to witnesses and generally going about their duties as police officers.

The people at the department do this while there is a giant Bat Light on the roof. There is also a cop at the department who steals evidence from cases involving Batman villains so he can sell them online.

Rather than writing the series together, the writers each focus on one of two shifts in the department.

Personality conflicts also play a large role in Gotham Central. In Half a Life, detective Rene Montoya is outed as a lesbian by a fellow officer, a photograph of her kissing another woman posted on cork board at the station.

The Half a Life storyline is the probably the best of the series and won numerous awards.

In fact, Gotham Central was one of the best-reviewed comics to enter the market in many years, and the winner of some of the comic industry's most prestigious awards. Despite that, the series never sold well. DC kept the comic going from 2003 until 2006 mainly because it was cheap enough to produce that they didn't lose money on it, and let's face it, it's hard to cancel one of the best books on the market.

Unresolved Targets show the department dealing with a sniper who is targeting cops and civilians. The story is tense and dramatic and a great read.

The series did end, not because DC wanted to get rid of it but because Lark moved on to other projects and Brubaker left to join Marvel. Rucka kept the series going for a while, but eventually he let it go.

Still DC has collected the entire series an numerous graphic novels that are readily available recommended reading.

For a while there was talk of a Gotham Central television series, which in the right hands could have worked quite well. However, the failure of the horrible Birds of Prey series on The WB killed any talk of a Gotham Central series.

Be safe out there

That's my shift for the week. As usual contact me at mclaughlin.darcey@miramichileader.com or look me up on Facebook.