Contains Spoilers For Gotham City: Year One #2!Gotham City has often been a portrait of misery, crime-ridden and destitute, and one series is revealing just how involved Batman was in making it that way. The city wasn’t always a hellhole, but the actions of the mysterious "Bat-Man" might change it for the worse forever.
Nothing is more emblematic of Gotham City’s ruin than the deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne, victims of circumstance. There’s always been an implicit feeling in Batman comics that his parent's death were the straw that broke the camel’s back in cementing Gotham’s horrible reputation, and it was certainly the moment that Bruce Wayne was forced to grow up. However, the newly released Gotham City: Year One paints a picture of a different Gotham, approximately fifty years ago. The city is still rain-drenched, but crime is down, at least for now. The book follows private detective Slam Bradley as he’s hired to investigate the kidnapping of Helen Wayne, the infant daughter of Constance and Richard Wayne, Bruce’s paternal grandparents.
In Gotham City: Year One #2 by Tom King and Phil Hester, it’s revealed that in the days before Batman, Gotham City was one of the safest places in America, but it seems like that will be changing thanks to the actions of the kidnapper, the "Bat-Man." There’s always been a contingent of fans who believe that Batman’s very presence fuels crime in Gotham, and it seems like Tom King is literalizing this idea, just with a very different "Bat-Man" in a very different time. If the Bat-Man’s kidnapping of Helen is the missing piece that pushes Gotham from lawful to lawless, then it confirms the old adage, "Batman creates crime in Gotham," just not how anyone was expecting.
Gotham City Was Once A Wonderful Place to Live
The idea of Gotham having ever been idyllic in mainstream continuity is a fascinating one. Previous Batman stories have always portrayed Gotham as a city of constant strife. From the witch trials of the 1600s, to demon worship of Barbatos, to the Court of Owls, Gotham has never been nice to live in. Seeing it in a new light from the first issue of Gotham City: Year One throws readers off balance and makes them question what they know, and how or if this fits into previously established continuity. This new look at Gotham might not be a formal retcon however, and more a matter of perspective, and a trick of the series’ own storytelling format.
As much as Gotham City: Year One paints the older Gotham in a more positive light, there are hints that not everything is as rosy as suggested at first glance. Gotham’s fall is framed around Helen’s kidnapping, but readers are shown plenty of signs that things aren’t so great in Gotham even beforehand. In the second issue, Slam Bradley is interrogated by the police after the murder of his partner, and the issue digs deep into a different side of Gotham. The police are shown to be brutal and sadistic, and attention is deliberately drawn to the racial inequality of the city.
With the series’ narration coming directly from Slam long after the fact, it’s difficult to say how rose-tinted his view of Gotham is, or whether he’s playing up its good reputation for effect in-universe. It’s likely that as the case deepens, Slam might confront the idea that his city has never been as shiny and nice as believed it to be. As Gotham City: Year One continues, and Slam Bradley continues to recount his tale to Batman, readers too might begin to unravel the truth from the lies about Gotham City and how perhaps wasn’t so bad once upon a time.
Gotham City: Year One #2 is on sale now from DC Comics.
