{"id":21426,"date":"2020-01-06T08:00:29","date_gmt":"2020-01-06T08:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=21426"},"modified":"2020-01-03T14:47:07","modified_gmt":"2020-01-03T14:47:07","slug":"gotham-central-book-3-on-the-freak-beat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2020\/01\/06\/gotham-central-book-3-on-the-freak-beat\/","title":{"rendered":"Gotham Central Book 3: On the Freak Beat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" \"\"
\nBy Greg Rucka<\/strong>, Ed Brubaker<\/strong>, Michael Lark<\/strong>, Stephen Gaudiano<\/strong>, Jason Alexander<\/strong> & various (DC Comics)
\nISBN: 978-1-4012-2754-8 (HB) 978-1-4012-3232-0 (TPB)<\/p>\n

One of the great joys of long-lasting, legendary comics characters is their potential for innovation and reinterpretation. There always seems to be another facet or corner to develop. Such a case was Gotham Central<\/strong>, wherein contemporary television sensibilities cannily combined with the deadly drudgery of the long-suffering boys in blue in the world’s most famous four-colour city.<\/p>\n

Owing as much to shows such as Homicide: Life on the Streets<\/strong> and Law & Order<\/strong> as it did to the baroque continuity of Batman<\/strong>, the series mixed gritty, authentic police action with a soft-underbelly peek at what the merely mortal guardians and peacekeepers had to put up with in a world of psychotic clowns, flying aliens and scumbag hairballs who just won’t stay dead.<\/p>\n

This compilation – available in hardback, soft cover and eBook editions – collects Gotham Central<\/strong> #23-31 (spanning November 2004-July 2005) and opens with a handy double-page feature re-introducing the hardworking stiffs of First Shift<\/em>, Second Shift<\/em> and the Police Support Team<\/em> of the ‘Gotham City Police Department, Major Crimes Unit’<\/em> before the dramas start to unfold.<\/p>\n

Gotham City is a bad place to be a cop – even a crooked one. If you’re a straight arrow it’s even worse because then both sides of the street want you dead. When Detectives Crispus Allen<\/em> and Renee Montoya<\/em> turn their attention to corrupt Crime Scene Investigator Jim Corrigan<\/em> it sets them both on a path steeped in tragedy and loss… and bloody betrayal. ‘Corrigan’<\/em>(originally published in issues #23-24) is by regular team Greg Rucka, Michael Lark & Stephen Gaudiano.<\/p>\n

The same team bring us ‘Lights Out’<\/em> (issue #25) as, in the aftermath of the War Games<\/strong> debacle and resultant bloodbath (see Batman: War Drums<\/strong>; War Games: Outbreak<\/strong>, Tides<\/strong>, Endgame<\/strong> and War Crimes<\/strong><\/a>), new police commissioner Akins<\/em> severs all official ties to the Batman and has the Bat-Signal removed from Police Headquarters roof.<\/p>\n

Ed Brubaker & Jason Alexander take us ‘On the Freak Beat’<\/em> (#26-27) as Detectives Marcus Driver<\/em> and (secretly psychic) Josie MacDonald<\/em> investigate the murder of a televangelist. Despite all the leads and evidence pointing to Catwoman<\/em> as the killer, their dedicated efforts take them into a sordid world of hypocrisy, S&M, lies and real estate chicanery before the truth comes out and the real culprit is brought to justice\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Keystone Cops\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em> (issues #28-31) is another superb blend of the procedural and the outlandish as beat cop Andy Kelly<\/em> is horrifically mutated by a super-criminal’s booby-trap whilst rescuing kids from a fire. Montoya and Allen must cross jurisdictional boundaries and moral landmarks to obtain the assistance of deranged Flash villain Doctor Alchemy<\/em> if there’s any hope of curing their comrade\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

With the most chilling exploration of a super-villain’s motivation in many a year and a generous tip of the hat to The Silence of the Lambs<\/strong>, this is a moody masterpiece with an unsuspected kick in the tail. Rucka writes and Gaudiano graduates from inks to pencils with the embellishment falling to the capable Kano & Gary Amaro to conclude this stunning deep dive into urban atrocity in unforgettable style.
\n\u00c2\u00a9 2004, 2005, 2010 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Greg Rucka, Ed Brubaker, Michael Lark, Stephen Gaudiano, Jason Alexander & various (DC Comics) ISBN: 978-1-4012-2754-8 (HB) 978-1-4012-3232-0 (TPB) One of the great joys of long-lasting, legendary comics characters is their potential for innovation and reinterpretation. There always seems to be another facet or corner to develop. Such a case was Gotham Central, wherein … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Gotham Central Book 3: On the Freak Beat”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,75,76],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-batman","category-crime-comics","category-dc-superhero"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-5zA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21426\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}