Gangs of Gotham #1 // Review
Lonnie Manchin is watchingas they clean-up Gotham City. Recetn events in the city have been weird and dark...more so than usual. And THAT’S saying something for a city like Gotham. Citizens are getting paid $23 per hour to clean-up all the dead plant life. The stuff may be toxic, but for the prices they’re paying a lot of people are jumping a the chance to psosibly get “super cancer” or something. As Lonnie looks on, he’s composing a letter to Batman in Gangs of Gotham #1. Writer Christopher Cantwell opens a new series focussing on the common end of Gotham City’s underworld with rtist Mike Henderson and colorist Ariel Olivetti.
Lonnie Manchin has come a long way from his early days as Anarky...the dark ant-hero of Gotham City. He's looking out at the East End at night. Lonnie is dressed for the street. He's not looking too good. Maybe he's too lost and thought. Maybe that's why the clean cut kid with the glasses was able to sneak up on him. Beat the hell out of the guy. All Lonnie had on him was a quarter. Lonnie's not doing too well. Things are about to turn around for him.
Cantwell takes a look at one of the more prominent aspects of Gotham City in a way that feels like it's actually part of a larger city. So often Batman stories and related stories tend to isolate the hero and focus on him rather than the environment in which he inhabits. All too often and any superhero account book. The average person on the street is ignored. And this is particularly strange as it is the case that life in a world of superheroes is going to be really difficult for most people. Especially those in big cities. So it's nice to see. Cantwell taking a glance at the plate of the average person in one of the most awful places the US East Coast in the DC universe.
Henderson and Olivetti Bring a striking sense of realism to the page. There's a cluttered grit about everything. Architectural renderings are just as detailed as they need to be in order to get across the overall feel of the city. However, one gets the feeling that both writer and artists have done a lot of work on the background of their setting.
One gets the feeling that there's probably pages and pages of notes on Gotham's East end that they put together for architectural styles and socioeconomic conditions in this particular section of the city. They probably haven't. But one does get the impression that they have. It really feels like I thought out and well grounded narrative package. It's strange. For a city that's been as focused on as it has, there really is in a comprehensive look at what the place is and how it works on a political or socioeconomic level. Even the history of it isn't really well developed. There's been the occasional look at that. But it really should be more pains taking lead detailed. It's nice to see another attempt at something deeper here.
