It has the lowest crime rate in the country and poised to become even greater with Richard Wayne close to opening a state of the art chemical plant that will thrust the city to even bigger heights. The comic fell onto my desk like a sledge hammer coming down on a boulder – no one could tell you how exactly it would end up, but it was definitely going to leave a mark.

What’s revealed is that Tom King went a step further and created a metaphorical, if not literal predecessor to Batman in Richard Wayne. For everyone else, it's a wait-and-see to find out if King injects more originality into the premise. Despite her calm demeanor, there is a righteous fury that exudes from her has she talks about the ways Richard treated her. With a tragic turn of events and a city on the edge of burning, can this hard-boiled private detective close an impossible case? While this book does tackle some issues like segregation, policing, and gentrification that are huge factors in why present-day Gotham has the issues it does, this story just does not do it justice.

I freely admit part of the would be nostalgic as I grew up on PI shows like Mike Hammer and (the original) Magnum PI. I've always liked the Slam Bradley character and this one does him justice, even with his sins on full display.

We get pretty much all the answers we need, along with a major twist or two by the end of the issue. Year One stories in DC are always important origin stories and it’s pretty cool to now present one for the most popular fictional city in pop culture. Gotham City: Year One collects issues 1-6 of the DC Comics series written by Tom King, illustrated by Phil Hester, and colored by Jordie Bellaire. And having ranted, do I now find myself in a similar situation by using "N-word" and "fuck" in the same paragraph? In a key scene when a gun goes off, the use of white to convey the light of the bullet firing looks fantastic, with the characters drenched in an unrealistic but vivid red.You cannot help walking into this book with the memory of its spiritual successor, Batman: Year One. The warm color tones in the beginning seemed in conflict with the jaded detective narration that were overlaid on top of them. One might argue that’s on purpose to create a sense of chaos, but story-wise, it took me out of the book. Richard was with Sam, and Queenie gave evidence that she was headed out of town with the cash during Helen's murder. If you’ve been reading this book expecting some huge revelation about Batman and Slam, you might feel slightly disappointed.

It’s Richard’s infidelity and subsequent conspiracy which causes the veneer of Gotham’s presentability to fall apart. The purpose and intent get lost in what began as a fantastic story which oftentimes appears to be King's M. Here at its final moments, she manages to calmly control the conversation even while Slam and Richard struggle over a gun.After Constance tells Sam what happened, she turns and shoots Richard in the head, killing him instantly. Superstar creators Tom King and Phil Hester team up for the first time to tell the definitive origin of Gotham how it became the cesspool of violence and corruption it is today, and how it harbored and then unleashed the sin that led to the rise of the Dark Knight.