Gotham versus the comics: Batman without Batman

Adapt the prehistory of a character rather than the character. Decryption source by source, without disclosing the outcomes.

As in each article in this series, only verified information (creators, distribution, dates, publishers) is stated; the comparative analysis is ours, without reproducing dialogue or protected images.

1987: Gordon becomes a character

James Gordon appears from Detective Comics #27(1939), in Batman's first adventure. For almost fifty years, there was only one function: the policeman who turned on the projector and supplied the cases.

It is Batman: Year One(1987), by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli, who makes him a character. The arc tells in parallel two arrivals in Gotham: that of Bruce Wayne and that of Gordon, transferred from Chicago to an entirely corrupt police force.

The Gordon of 1987 is the real subject of this arc, more so than Batman. An honest man in an institution that is not, forced to compose, and whose courage is ordinary - he has neither power nor fortune, only obstinacy.

It is this character that the series takes as its point of view, and its choice is coherent: Gordon is the only one in this mythology who does not need any costume to be interesting.

2014: prehistory as a subject

The bet of the series can be summed up in one sentence: to tell Gotham Before Batman.

This body of work examined adaptations that rejuvenate their hero —The Batman (2004),Smallville— but they kept the hero at the center. Here he is a secondary child. The story belongs to Gordon, the police, the gangsters, and especially the future villains.

The series therefore adapts something that does not exist on paper. The comics tell the origins of villains retrospectively, in fragments, long after their first appearance. No title has ever shown them forming simultaneously, in the same city, at the same time.

This is an invention of the series, and its main source of problems.

The price of simultaneity

Creating an entire gallery in five years creates a difficulty that paper has never had to face.

In the comics, Batman villains have appeared over decades: the Penguin in 1941, the Scarecrow the same year, the Riddler in 1948, Mr. Freeze in 1959, Ra's al Ghul in 1971, Harley Quinn in 1993. Each arrived in a different editorial context, with its own logic. Their cohabitation is the product of accumulation, not of a plan.

By making them appear together, the series must justify this concentration. His answer is to make Gotham a city that product monsters — a defensible, and even fruitful, thesis, since it gives corruption a narrative rather than decorative function.

But the thesis has a cost, visible as the seasons pass: outbidding becomes obligatory. Each new villain must surpass the previous one, and the urban thriller of the beginnings gives way to assumed excess. This corpus has observed this movement elsewhere; it is particularly clear here, because the rhythm of introduction is imposed by the concept itself.

The characters, from paper to screen

• James Gordon— The character from 1987, honest in a corrupt police force.
• Bruce Wayne— Child, withdrawn, spectator of his own prehistory.
• The Penguin— Promoted to lead role, biggest gap.
• The gallery— Formed simultaneously, backwards over fifty years of paper.
• Gotham— City producing monsters, thesis of the series.

What the police point of view brings

There is a benefit to this device that the criticism of the time little noted, and which deserves to be formulated.

A superhero story places the viewer on the side of the one who can act. The hero arrives, observes, resolves. The police are a backdrop, sometimes an obstacle, never a point of view.

By taking Gordon as its protagonist, the series adopts the perspective of someone who can't solve. He has neither the means nor the authority; he must go through a compromised hierarchy, negotiate with criminals, accept half-victories. This changes the nature of the issues: the question is no longer “how to win” but “what can still be done”.

This is the big subject of Year One, and the series delivers on it — at least in its first seasons. It thus offers something that neither the films nor the animated series had offered: Gotham seen from below, by someone who works there.

For the reader, this represents an angle rarely explored in print. Gotham Police Titles Exist —Gotham Central is the best known - but they are few in number, and that's a shame: they are often the best stories of this mythology, precisely because impotence produces better stories than omnipotence.

Five seasons to get to the first issue

The series poses a question of structure which distinguishes it from all the rest of the corpus: it is entirely conceived as a waiting.

Its term is known in advance – Bruce Wayne will become Batman – and the viewer knows it from the first minute. The suspense is therefore not about what will happen, but about how it will be achieved.

This corpus found a comparable structure with the stories of the announced future, but the orientation is opposite: there, a catastrophic future gave weight to the present; here, a known and desired future makes the present transitory. All we see is, by construction,the above the real story.

This is the risk of the origins story extended over five years. It demands that prehistory be worth it in itself, otherwise the viewer simply waits for the end. The series succeeds in this as long as it remains a thriller about Gordon, and much less so when the one-upmanship prevails.

The comic reader will recognize a familiar problem. “Before” stories are a constant temptation in publishing – they allow you to exploit a character without disturbing their status quo – and they fail for the same reason: you cannot put into play what you already know the outcome of.

The Penguin, the only real winner of the operation

A final word on the character that the series has transformed the most, because his case illustrates a mechanism that is valid beyond that.

The Penguin of Detective Comics #58(1941) is an elegant gangster, with a memorable attribute – the umbrella – and relatively thin. It has gone through eighty years of publication without ever reaching the front row of the gallery, occupied by the Joker and a few others.

The series makes him a protagonist: an ambitious little thug whose rise we follow. It is not an adaptation of what it is on paper, it is an promotion— the character receives a place that no comic had given him.

The mechanism deserves to be named, because this corpus has encountered it without formulating it. An adaptation does not simply transpose a hierarchy: it redistributes. A secondary character on paper can become central on screen, simply because it lends itself better to the format chosen – here, a criminal rise over five seasons.

And this redistribution then goes back to paper. A character who becomes popular on screen gets more pages, more covers, more stories of his own. It is the same mechanics as that of the inverted flows identified in this corpus, applied not to the creation of a character but to its rank.

For the collector, the consequence is direct and practical: the odds do not only follow the first appearances of new characters, they also follow the promotions of ancient characters. A second knife who lands a main role on screen sees his first appearance – often old, often rare, often long ignored – change category.

Collection side: which numbers to aim for after the series

Batman: Year One(1987) is the obvious read and purchase. The arc was published in Batman #404-407, issues that were accessible and often found in batches: the 1987 print run was large, and the value is based on reputation rather than rarity.

Detective Comics #58(1941), the first appearance of the Penguin, is the golden age key that the series highlights the most — the character is promoted to the forefront. It is a sought-after issue, significantly less expensive than the very first Batman, and its profile is solid: the demand comes from a character established for eighty years, not from a recent adaptation.

For the police angle,Gotham Central #1(2003) is the title to know. It's a modern, mainstream, very approachable comic — and it's the best gateway to what the series is trying to do. This body of work recommends it without reservation to anyone who liked the first seasons.

As always, condition and gradation determine value; relying on real recent sales is strongly recommended.

Where to start reading

Batman: Year One(1987) first, for the Gordon from which everything stems. Then Gotham Central #1(2003), which exactly extends the angle of the series: Gotham seen by those who don't have a cape.

Timeline to know

• 1939— Detective Comics #27: Gordon exists, but is only a function.
• 1941— Detective Comics #58: First appearance of the Penguin.
• 1987— Year One makes Gordon a character in his own right.
• 2003— Gotham Central tells the story of the city from a police perspective.
• 2014— The series takes this point of view and removes Batman.

Its place in the saga and for the collector

This series will remain as the only adaptation of the corpus whose subject is not the hero but the training your gallery— and as one who adopts the point of view of someone who cannot resolve, which changes the very nature of the issues. It comes up against the problem inherent in the extended origins story: we do not put into play what the outcome is known, and the simultaneity of the gallery imposes an escalation. For the collector, it leads to Year One, to Detective Comics #58, and especially to Gotham Central — modern, current, and the best extension of what the series attempted.

The verdict: the point of view kept, the chronology compressed

• Loyalty: the Gordon of 1987, the city as a character, the murder of the Waynes, the gallery drawn from the catalog and corruption treated as a subject.
• Freedoms: all the villains formed simultaneously, a Bruce Wayne still a child, rewritten origins, a drift towards excess and a Penguin promoted to leading role.
• Collectible numbers: Batman #404-407 (Year One, 1987), Detective Comics #58 (1941), Gotham Central #1 (2003).

Fifty years of creation reduced to five years of fiction: this is the constraint that the series gave itself, and the one that caught up with it. But as long as it remains a thriller about an honest cop, it offers the only look from below that this mythology has received on screen.

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