Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Gotham Central: Dead Robin


And so it ends. And like expected, not with a bang, but a whimper - but at least the whimper was from someone unexpected...
So before I get into more specific details, let me just talk about the series as a whole. If I was to pitch this I would say it's "The Wire with Batman". Now I know it's not fair to compare things, especially in different mediums, but I think it's a fair assessment. Not in in the way that it examines the different sides of a city or even simply the law, it just sticks to the police really, but just in it's grittiness. If Gotham existed with all the insanity of the 'freaks' in it - this is what it would be like to be a cop there. So for those of you who are missing 'The Wire' this is about as close as you're going to get from the cop angle.
So this final book is called 'Dead Robin' but that's not even the story that's the most interesting, it's the final, brutal story which, thankfully, is Batman free. How ironic that I feel that way. I always enjoy when he pops in in this series, but I ALWAYS want the cops to solve the case before he does. And that's a huge accomplishment.
I don't want to give away specific details except to say that this is writing that just demands to be read. You can't put it down for very long - and that's a good thing. Brubaker only pulls half duty here - but I'll definitely read anything he's got his pen on. Can't wait to dig into more of his 'Criminal' work.
So I recommend this series about as highly as I can. It's wonderful. Please please please read it. But start from the beginning.

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