For someone who likes cop-shows in the vein of Homicide: Life On The Streets (they even have The Board), and Batman, this hits the spot pretty well. If anything a bit too much Batman. ( )

With the new TV series Gotham currently being cast there has been a bit of buzz around what the storyline is going to be about. Unfortunately it is not going to be based upon this excellent series by Brubaker and Rucka. This would actually be a great way to do a non-Batman series, especially as it would be able to use the recent Nolan films as a lead in.

I guess people who read will be the only ones to appreciate a series focussed on Gotham city police trying to work in the shadow of Batman. ( )

Very good comic. That's what I'll tell anyone who asks about this book. The story and dialogue all flow nicely. You don't need to have any knowledge of the characters in the story. It's still very enjoyable. I look forward to reading the next volume. ( )

One of the best of the graphic novels I read thus far, the mix of mundane police business with over the top comic book villains was both entertaining and human. ( )

Been planning to read this series straight through, starting with the couple of volumes I already had read. I am, just to cut to the chase, sad this series didn't catch on. To me, it is one of the best Batman series, if not the best Batman series, since Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. It is Gotham as seen from the point of view of cops, and not just cops, but very much the sort of cops we recognize from TV serials. And that's a compliment. This is as engaging as the best cop dramas -- from NYPD Blue to The Shield -- and the way it employs Batman is truer to the character than most contemporary renderings. Most Batman comics make much of how remote a figure Batman is, yet keep him front and center -- they try to have it both ways, and fail at both. Gotham Central treats him as a truly unusual presence. Issues go by during which he isn't even seen, and the cops, embarrassed that they depend on him to solve the tough cases, do their best not to mention him. Brubaker and Rucka are very different writers, yet they seem so sold, themselves, on the series' unique conceit that their tales really do meld together, much as TV series like Lost and The Wire have managed to have known writers on board who, despite their seasoned voices, put ego aside and serve the overarching story.