The second story arc of Gotham Central has been pretty incredible, and exactly what I was hoping for from this series. Brubaker focused for the most part on a couple of detectives, helping to make the book more accessible, and the story of a kidnapped girl that was at the center of the whole thing comes to an unexpected but completely believable conclusion. As does the story of the hunt for Firebug, in an equally surprising and satisfying manner. That the whole thing takes place in a vividly realized and realistic version of Gotham courtesy of Michael Lark is icing on the cake.
Brubaker stands out in my mind as one of the best mystery writers in comics. That was an impression formed by the first thing I read from him, Vertigo's Scene of the Crime, but it was reinforced by this arc of Gotham Central. The stories of Firebug and the murdered little girl seemed completely unrelated, but when a surprising connection is revealed, I had no trouble buying it and in fact couldn't believe it had never occurred to me before. To me, that's the mark of a good mystery, when the revelations are so believable and yet you still didn't see them coming.
Beyond finally finding out why the girl died, which was satisfying enough, I was glad to see the continued focus on the two detectives, Romy and Marcus, and how working the crimes have affected them. The closeness between a guy and a girl who are paired together is veering into cop show cliche, but on the other hand, it's a believable enough human condition that I can let that slip. What's more interesting is how driven Marcus became, musing on the girl and becoming personally involved, and the revelation of why he was so involved and how he held Batman somehow responsible made for a great final scene.
In the beginning, I wasn't so sure about Lark's art on this book, which looked a little more rough than I was used to seeing from him, but I've grown to love it. The grittier, less defined texture is ideal for the more uncertain world that these detectives live in, and he puts such character into the faces of all of them that it's like watching a well-cast cop drama on television. Special credit goes to him for his work on Gotham, as he makes it look like a believable city, reminiscent of New York but with its own architecture, something that goes a long way to providing the more real tone that the book is aiming for.
Even if it were on television, where cop dramas are a dime a dozen, the style and skillful execution of Gotham Central would make it special. In comics, where it's tackling a genre that is rarely if ever attempted, it's fantastic.
