The other midnight shift steps up to the plate.
Creative Staff:
Story: Ray Fawkes
Art: Ben Templesmith
What They Say:
Strange doings are afoot in Gotham City, but Jim Corrigan and his fellow members of the GCPD late-shift are on the case, no matter how mysterious or magical it may be.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As is the case with a lot of comic book fans, you can get a bit frustrated with the strong focus on certain areas where there’s such a larger world to work with. Batman books dominate DC Comics for the obvious reason – they sell. It’s easy to stay away from them, but they’re definitely all over the place. I’m not reading any Batman proper books at the moment, but I got drawn into Gotham Academy to see what that was all about and that lead me to trying Gotham by Midnight. Gotham itself is one area where I do feel there’s a great deal of material to delve into that’s outside of the Bat, which is why I find it a draw. Gotham Central certainly showed that and we’ve had other areas as well. Gotham by Midnight looks like it’ll be a good blend of a couple of things.
The premise of the book is simple but solid as we’re introduced to Precinct Thirteen, which is known as the GCPD Detailed Case Task Force, affectionately known as the Midnight Shift. The precinct was set up awhile ago by Gordon but has a nebulous form about it when it comes to the rest of the police understanding it. To help guide us, the new reader, through it, the story is explored from the eyes of Sergeant Rook of Internal Affairs. He’s come to this dilapidated building on the outskirts of town where everything has a rough and falling apart kind of feeling that’s wholly appropriate. The precinct is a small one of just five people as run by Lieutenant Weaver where he has two other offices and two consultants. As Rook points out, they’ve been at this for awhile and haven’t made any arrests and none of the case files make any sense, which has him thinking the whole thing is a scam.
It is, of course, a division designed to deal with the supernatural.
That’s something that someone like Rook can’t wrap his head around, even existing within the larger DC Universe and all the weirdness that exists within it. Rook is essentially given the tour that makes him want to burn the place to the ground, meeting Doctor Tarr and Detective Corrigan. There’s also the consultant Justine, who is a Sister of the church. The group is rounded out by officer Lisa Drake as well, who has a pretty good role as they go through the first story here. There’s even a small Batman appearance, a given to be honest, that works well in setting the tone as it’s another angle that he can pursue with the kinds of weird cases that exist in Gotham and can find a proper home to be dealt with, especially with someone like Corrigan there as he’s really the greater spirit known as the Spectre.
The opening issue has the team dealing with a missing kids case that has gotten weirder due to some of those being found not acting right, but the police unable (or not interested) in doing anything further with. There’s a supernatural element to it that comes into play that works really well as it’s ramped up slowly until the reveal, which is creepy as hell and definitely leaves you wanting more, from that, from the group and to see what Rook will do or believe once all is said and done. Ray Fawkes plays this as a standard procedural in a sense but provides all the right trappings to make it something more due to the characters assembled and the portrayal of it all. But as good as it is, what elevates the story even more to make it something utterly engrossing is Ben Templesmith’s artwork. While it could work in a more “traditional” sense of what an artist would bring, as I think of certain 70’s style of comics horror, what Templesmith brings here is essentially an old school Vertigo style that makes this book feel like the perfect blend of the mainline DC Comics world and something utterly separate and unique.
In Summary:
I had no idea what to really expect with Gotham by Midnight as I really picked it up on a whim because it was a new series and had some decent buzz from what I could casually see. What I got was a book that’s obviously familiar in a sense with what it’s doing, but it’s beautifully and smoothly executed in a way that it feels like a book that’s been worked at and polished for years. There’s an ease about this that leaves you want to really dig into it and get to know these characters more. The situations they find themselves in will obviously be the main thing that goes on, but the potential for so much more with the cast, the setting and the precinct itself has me excited and hopeful that the book runs for quite awhile. Very, very recommended.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: November 26th, 2014
MSRP: $2.99
