Coming off the excellent "Unresolved" arc, Gotham Central delves back into the life of night shift detectives Montoya and Allen, picking up pretty close to where they left off during the "Half A Life" arc, my favorite Gotham Central arc except for "Unresolved." It's definitely a change of pace, as Rucka's stories tend to be a little more character-focused and less driven by the plot, and to be honest, I miss the strong mystery that defined "Unresolved," but I'm always entertained by the relationship between Montoya and Allen. In addition, Rucka does a great job of picking up on threads from "Half A Life" with some unusual and interesting roles for Internal Affairs cop Esperanza as well as playing up some new elements, such as the revelation of something big about crime scene investigator Jim Corrigan.
Character dynamics are the order of the day in this first issue of "Corrigan." The issue starts with a really fun scene between Montoya and Allen that shows that their partnership has weathered the difficulties of Two-Face's mind games, and serves to remind readers old and new of who and what these characters are. My early complaints that the cast was a bit too heavy and indistinguishable have vanished as the focus has fallen on only a few detectives in each story, and the heavy focus on Montoya and Allen results in a much more approachable Gotham Central. I have to admit that I find the day shift guys a little more interesting, if only because they haven't been around (and explored) as much as Montoya and Allen, but I still find these characters, and Rucka's take on them, to be fascinating.
While I enjoyed the interplay between Montoya and Allen, however, the real interesting interaction of the issue comes from the secondary characters, including the one for whom the arc is named. Jim Corrigan, of course, is the name of the original host of the Spectre, a '30s cop who has gone on to his final reward. It remains to be seen if this new Corrigan has any familial links (or anything weirder, like reincarnation) with the original, but one thing is clear from this issue: the modern Jim Corrigan is anything but heroic. His side job, while not obviously harmful like murder or robbery, definitely seems likely to cause problems, and seems more than a little sleazy even if it weren't a betrayal of trust that his job provides him, and I look forward to seeing more about the character as this story plays out. My favorite moment, however, came between Montoya's lover Daria and Inspector Esperanza, showing that Rucka isn't going for cardboard cutout villainy or even just realistic unpleasantness with Esperanza, but that he's actually doing a sympathetic, human portrayal of a guy in one of those "bad guy" jobs.
Of course, while all of this character stuff is what fascinates me, and really what drives the arc, the big moment of the issue is actually a pretty tense little action scene, perfectly delivered by Lark and Gaudiano. Gotham Central has been all about showing how the regular cops deal with the amped-up freaks of Batman's world, and seeing a villain whose tricks probably wouldn't present much trouble for Batman and his allies as a very dangerous and almost otherworldly threat to the cops makes for some great moments. Rucka has been pretty vocal about wanting more realistic violence in comics, and while I generally feel that's out of place in superheroes, it's perfect for Gotham Central, and the way the gun fight plays out here seems fast, deadly and a lot more realistic than your average comic or action movie, while still being completely gripping and interesting.
In terms of character development, a lot happens in this first issue of "Corrigan," although the plot is pretty thin so far. Rucka's approach seems to be to show the reader more than he's showing the characters, so that we generally know what's going on and have to guess at how the characters are going to react, while Brubaker tends to keep things more mysterious in terms of plot. To be honest, I prefer the latter approach, as it's much more likely to give me that "have to see what happens next" buzz that is crucial to serial comics, but beautiful artwork and nuanced characterization is nothing to sneeze at, and that's what the Gotham Central team delivers here.
