January 3, 1997

Hi everyone.

Last night I finished reading Batman: Gordon's Law (a four part miniseries) and I wanted to share some thoughts on it. This story was written by Chuck Dixon, with Klaus Janson as the penciller (this guy was the inker for The Dark Knight Returns, so yes, the artwork is incredible). And what a story it was.

The whole thing revolves around a robbery of the federal reserve bank. Several police officers were killed in the process, and Gordon discovers that the heist may have had cops behind it. Because of this, Gordon goes it alone, refusing to allow Batman to involve himself. I think it was this last element that surprised me the most. I mean, the miniseries was named Batman: Gordon's Law, so you would expect Batman to be in it. He barely made an appearance, and you know what? I liked the story.

In my opinion, Jim Gordon is the strongest character in the Batman world after Batman himself (and even Jim is more predictable than Batman, I think, sometimes). Readers can rely on Jim to act predictably, to uphold his morals as he has shown them over the years. Perhaps the strongest, most recent, show of this was in Batman: Shadow of the Bat #57, where Gordon exposes his view of certain illicit drugs. Jim Gordon is like that comfortable sweater we may have - he's always there, and can always be comforting.

Perhaps it is because of these feeling we have about Jim that makes this mini stand up with any real Batman action - the strength of his character helps make it such a strong story. We care about Jim and the others involved in the story, althgough we've only met a couple of them (Bullock and Shotgun Smith). Everyone else is new, but it expands on what we know about the GCPD.

This story is so compelling because it affects Gordon so much. He wouldn't get help from anyone in the department, so he had to do it alone (although, as Sarah pointed out in one nicely-done scene, he shouldn't even be carrying a gun). Jim cares so much about his department that he sticks his neck out to find out the truth.

I'm not going to ruin the story for you by telling you what happens. But suffice to say, there are plenty of twists and turns, and you won't fully understand everyone that's going on until the last couple of pages of part four. This miniseries started with #1 in December 96, and ended with #4 being released yesterday (March 97). If you didn't get it, I recommend you do, as it is an awesome story.

Well, those are my deep, dark thoughts for today.

Patrick

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This file was last modified on June 30, 1997

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