Batman: Bad Seeds – Gotham Central #1 // Review
Uni5 17 is reporting-in to command center. They’re Eastbound heading towards the Gotham City Arboretum. Command center responds. They’re letting Gordon and his partner know that he’s in violation of direct orders. Kind of strange considering that they’re investigating a murder and y’know...they ARE police officers and everything. If they’re going to be able to do anything at all, Gordon and Espinoza are largely going to be on their own in Batman: Bad Seeds – Gotham Central #1. Writer Christopher Cantwell and artist Jacob Phillips open-up an interesting experiment into the margins of Gotham City. It’s a fun addition to the Bad Seeds crossover event.
Gordon has a criminal homicide with a witness. There’s no reason why he and Espinosa should’ be investigating. And yet...things are kind of complicated in Gotham City. The mayor is kind of attacking the rest of the city. The police have all been pointed in the direction of anyone who might be working with Batman. Both the mayor and the police commissioner have both been identified as supervillains in the past.Things are not going well for the Gotham City Police Department. They’ve got to do something, though. Nobody gets out of a murder charge just because the police are having. a bad day.
Cantwell does an admirable job of the delivering street-level investigation in a world of the supernatural. Jim Gordon has been through a lot over the years across many different iterations and serials. Once again, he comes across it being a very heroic figure who is merely fearless. No superpowers. No definitely homeless skills that have been taught to him by mysterious figures on the other side of the planet. He's just a police officer with a lot of experience in one of the most mentally unstable cities on the face of the planet. It's really cool that he would happen to get a close-up during the time of a major crossover. That sort of thing doesn't often happen.
Phillips’ arc is very expressive. And it also manages to be very realistic. There is a gloopiness about the artists work on the page that feels deliciously in precise. Action, motion and motion always hurt themselves on the page in a way that feels very refreshing. Feels very engaging. However, as interesting as it all is, there isn't the kind of visual gimmick that would make it truly appealing on the page. It's really hard to get around the idea that the police officers are always sort of in the periphery of any major superhero comic book. So it's kind of hard to find a visual center to an issue that just focuses on them.
There’s dramatic potential of stories centered on normal people in a world of gods, goddesses, monsters and theatrical crime fighters. It's not often explored in great depth, though. The average person on the street would be remarkably relatable in a world where everything is completely unbalanced and there's an earth-threatening crisis every couple of months. Cantwell and company do a good job of delivering on some of that potential and the opening issue of an appealing new miniseries.
