Batman: Gates of Gotham #5 – Review

By: Scott Snyder, Kyle Higgins, Ryan Parrott (writers), Trevor McCarthy & Graham Nolan (artists), Guy Major (colorist)

The Story: Side-effects may include dizziness, shortness of breath, and murderous rages.

The Review: The tagline on the cover of this issue goes, “The secret history of Gotham revealed!”  Honestly, I don’t see why they even bother.  Every week there’s at least two or three titles on the stands from any company promising to reveal secrets of some kind.  A good many of them wind up obvious, underwhelming, just plain random, or some combination of the three.

You can consider the “secret history of Gotham” a numbing mix of random and underwhelming.  Rather than devise some substantial reason for the Gates’ downfall, Parrott (or Higgins, or Snyder, or whoever is writing this thing now) goes for the ol’ “Turns out, he was crazy!” yarn.  Those diving suits they fashioned may have all sorts of Steampunkery coolness, but spending too much time in them can apparently produce an extreme, mind-bending version of the bends.

If you can take a calming breath, the idea in itself has some interesting possibilities.  Sadly, the story squanders them all by never once laying down the groundwork for this revelation to make sense.  According to Dick, Bradley Gates’ prudent skepticism of his well-to-do employers was really the result of “delusions—hallucinations—and paranoia,” while Nicholas’ homicidal thoughts of revenge (ill-founded to begin with) came from the same, but exacerbated conditions.

But possibly the most tortured stretch of logic in the issue comes from Dick’s defense that Gotham’s first families didn’t cover up what happened to the Gates to destroy them, but to “protect them.”  All so the city-dwellers wouldn’t associate their skyline with “murder” and “madness.”  The premise just assumes a little too much in how seriously people take their architecture.  Five people died constructing the Empire State Building, and no one sees it and thinks, “Look at that.  A constant reminder of the proletariat crushed for social glory.”

Batman: Gates of Gotham #4 – Review

By: Scott Snyder, Kyle Higgins, Ryan Parrott (writers), Dustin Nguyen & Derec Donovan (artists), Guy Major (colorist)

The Story: Dammit Tim, I’m a detective, not a historian!

The Review: With DC’s top creators on blistering track to launch their new lineup come fall and maintain a steady release pace afterward, it’s little wonder the current titles all have a rushed, cobbled-together quality about them.  You must have noticed the record number of fill-in writers and artists on everything, even on the three-issue Flashpoint tie-ins.  While some of these fill-in jobs have been acceptable, even praiseworthy, quite a lot more have been anything but.

For a while, Higgins as the executor of Snyder’s story worked out very well.  After it came out that Higgins would work on the upcoming Nightwing, Parrott came in as his backup. Gates of Gotham remained seemingly unaffected; last issue seemed on track for a great conclusion.  But, as in Supergirl #62, the grim effects of the lead creators taking less responsibility for the title sneak up on you, and here you get ambushed by any number of writing missteps.

For one, several principal characters experience dramatic personality changes.  While Nicholas Gates going into a very Gothamesque, homicidal bent makes some sense in light of his brother’s death, Alan Wayne revealing a sinister condescension feels inexplicable and forced, almost laughable.  Too bad his mustache isn’t a bit longer, because he might as well be twirling it as he haughtily tells Nick, “…secrets are influence…and influence is power.  But I don’t expect you to understand that.  After all, you aren’t one of us—and you never will be.”