Another Batman book - just what we need.

However, Gotham Central is a police procedural series co-written by Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka.  And that's a rather attractive prospect, so I'm giving it a go regardless.

Fortunately, the first issue is refreshingly light on Batman continuity (the main reason why I won't go within a mile of the main Batman titles).  I'm told some of these characters are pre-existing, but the book reads fine as a first issue.  All you really need to know is that this is the Gotham City police force, and they have a bloody great searchlight on the roof with a Batsignal.

However, Batman himself doesn't appear in this issue.  Instead, the approach is to have him as a behind the scenes presence who hovers over the book, but whose absence is the real plot point.  There are some good ideas here about how the poor beleaguered police department would feel about the fact that Batman singlehandedly does a better job than they do, and their desire to prove themselves by solving a supervillain-related murder without calling him in.  The cops tend to be relegated to generic walk-on parts in most superhero series, so there's plenty of potential in reversing the story and showing it from their perspective.  This issue seems to be looking at all the right aspects.

On the minus side, the individual characters aren't all that distinctive - they behave more as a group, and none of them make much impression on their own.  The art doesn't always manage to keep the characters distinct either, although Michael Lark's subdued and muted artwork generally manages to strike the right balance between realism and the superhero aspects hanging around the edge of the plot.

There are also a couple of moments where the plot practically has a neon sign hanging overhead.  ("It bothers you that much?  That I got the promotion?")  Still, there's plenty of opportunity for all that to be addressed - this still makes a promising start.

Last time I saw a story with the GCPD in, they were wearing some godawful stylised uniforms which no doubt looked lovely in the work of whichever artist designed the things, but were absolutely ridiculous to my eyes.  Fortunately, the main cast here are non-uniform officers, and the uniformed cops seem to have gone back to normal police uniforms.  Thank god.

Promising but with some kinks needing ironed out.

Rating: B+

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