The first blush look at the evil(s?) that lurk in Gotham.
Creative Staff:
Story: Ray Fawkes
Art: Ben Templesmith
What They Say:
Internal Affairs Agent Rook is learning the midnight shift really does have the hard cases– and Jim Corrigan may not be able to bail him out– at least, not without some divine intervention!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Gotham by Midnight blew me away with its first issue both with the style of the writing and the artwork. There’s an almost endless variety of ways that you can tell stories within Gotham, while rarely if at all using Batman. There are ways to use him in things like this as well, which we saw in the first installment, but that doesn’t make this a Batman book. This is a strong Gotham book that gives us a look at another side of the city, the people who live there and the absolutely strange, creepy and disturbing things that go on. Using this to complement other titles that more heavily feature the Batman characters and titles like Gotham Academy is definitely exciting since it means we can get involved in it all without being wedded to one character that’s able to be all things to all people.
With the first issue giving us our introduction to this group through the arrival of the internal affairs character of Rook, he’s ended up seeing a lot of things that really blows his mind. Which went even bigger at the end when he and Corrigan ended up in the Slaughter Swamp where they found a lot of missing girls and one disturbing supernatural nun that even has Corrigan freaked out. His intensity is well presented here, both in dialogue and illustration, and it really works to highlight the freakout that Rook is going through as well as Corrigan tries to get him to save the kids before he changes into the Spectre and some really big stuff goes down. Through Corrigan, we get a solid look at aspects of the nun and what she really is, but it all comes across as a facade for something much larger, darker and sinister that’s lurking around out there, which is why this and the first issue are just launching points to the first main narrative of the series.
While we get a lot of that there and some time with detective Drake back at Gotham Heights, the real focus of this issue is on Sister Justine. While she came across as a bit of a gruff hardass in the first issue, here we get a good bit of her back story that explains why she’s a part of all of this. Seeing her being a rather young, pure, nun who was trying to do right where she was assigned only to be assaulted by demonic creatures, you can understand why she might end up going off the deep end. But seeing her encounter with Corrigan back then, and him using his powers in a way that reveals just how truly pure and innocent she is, made her an ideal person for Corrigan to work with to help balance things out, especially in a dark organization like this. Of course, she can’t help that the kids are freaking out in the present over her because she looks like the thing in Slaughter Swamp, but you can understand her being upset by it all the more once you understand just how good she is, or at least was, and how much good she wants to do in this world after seeing such darkness.
In Summary:
There’s a lot going on in this issue, but it’s more an exploration of Sister Justine more than anything else while also revealing that there may be a number of dark things ahead for this particular group to investigate. Corrigan gets to be a bigger player in this issue and his time with Rook is well done, though I’m curious to see how much more of Rook we might end up seeing. The focus on Justine is good as you really feel like you know her more after all of this and can understand why she works in this precinct and works with these somewhat unsavory characters. There’s a really great look and feel to this book across it with the writing and artwork, and especially the color design that really drives it home in an even more intense way. I’m not sure where this series is going or what it wants to really do, but it’s opened up a door to a fascinating side of Gotham that I want to see more of – and especially without much in the way of capes.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: December 24th, 2014
MSRP: $2.99
