Weekend Light Reading Review: Gotham Central, Book Two: Jokers and Madmen

A weekend light reading review…because sometimes Pastors also need a break heavy reading.

Ed Brubaker.  Gotham Central, Book Two: Jokers and Madmen. New York, NY: DC Comics, September 15th 2009. 288 pp.

5 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

This is a fun reading as a break from more serious reading.  To the end that it relaxes my mind and gave me a mental break I think it accomplished its purpose.  This is the second “Gotham Central” volume that I read.  “Gotham Central” is a series that feature stories of the police and detectives in the make-believe city of Gotham where many of the Batman stories takes place.  Specifically this series looks at the men and women who are part of the Major Crimes Unit, or MCU for short, who not only fight the typical crime one expect in a large urban city but also the “freaks,” who are the supervillains that Batman has to battle.  But what I like about this series is that it takes place in Batman’s world but it is not about Batman; in fact this volume has less appearance of Batman than in volume one.  I love how the characters that are often supporting casts for Batman comics are put front and center in this series while Batman and even the supervillains play a less prominent role.

There is a noir and detective feel to this graphic novel.  It is well written and I think the writer Ed Brubaker lives up to his reputation of being a great graphic novel writer and also mystery writer.  The suspense and the twists and turn are there in the plot.  The characters are also interesting and reflect people you might know or expect in an organization that involves with law enforcement.  There were several stories in this volume.  In the first story titled “Daydreams and believers you learn a little bit more about the lady who turns on the Batsignal.  The second story is titled “Soft Targets” and is a great story of the Major Crimes Unit trying to stop a crazed and unknown assassin who strategically killed some individuals but end up terrorizing the whole city of Gotham before the Holidays.  I love how the detectives are trying to stop this threat without bringing in Batman though Batman does makes his appearance.  Don’t miss out the twists and turn in this story!  There’s also a story titled “Life is full of disappointments” that involves crime solving that is your typical police detective story but my favorite story in this book is the last one titled “Unresolved.”  It is a story of a hostage situation that turns into a suicide by the hostage taker that reopened an old unresolved police case that involves a bombing of a high school sports team.  I love this story the most because of the characters that are involved and it’s a great exploration of what makes a great detective and also about crossing the line and the personal devotion that some detectives have in resolving cases that have burdened them for years.  The most interesting character that makes his appearance in this series is Harvey Bullock who here is portrayed as a retire cop willing to bend the rules to solve a case.  He’s the definition of “Old School” policing; I kind of like the contrasts he is in comparison to the contemporary Major Crimes Unit.  Yet there’s a great story of loyalty from his former partners who were willing to go to bat for him and even newer detectives who in the end were willing to save him from himself.  A great, great story here.