Reviewer: Tim Stevens
Story Title: Nature
Written by: Greg Rucka
Art by: Steve Lieber
Colored by: Lee Loughridge
Lettered by: Clem Robins
Editor: Matt Idelson
Publisher: DC Comics
I covered this book last week in my column and was a bit…underwhelmed by it. I spent most of the brief paragraph explaining that Gotham Central and I have drifted apart a bit. A series that formerly had been high on my list has slowly but surely fallen down the chart. And that’s true.
For this review, however, I decided to revisit issue #32 and try to read it not as a former superfan, but as a causal reader instead.
And you know what? Gotham Central is still pretty damn good.
Rucka’s story explores new territory, focusing on the cop on the beat instead of Major Crimes. It also forgoes the typical “cop as tortured martyr” that the series has focused on in place of those corrupt individuals who have given the GCPD a lousy reputation in the first place.
He is ably aided and abetted by none other than his old partner, Lieber, who does a bang up job and has the perfect style for Gotham Central.
Only Poison Ivy showing up is detrimental to the proceedings as she is, apparently, dead. But a casual fan probably wouldn’t be bothered by it at all, so no points lost there.
