Review by Karl Verhoven
In Batman’s present day, Gotham City is renowned as the dark and disturbing home to assorted gangsters and even more colourful criminals. The police are notoriously corrupt and most of the former grandeur is faded and decayed. According to private detective Slam Bradley it wasn’t always that way, and when he was young Gotham still had hope. Now, though, well, “I was lodged in the filthy heart of biggest crime in the history of Gotham City. I should have had an early lunch.”
In 1961 Slam is an unknowing patsy, paid to deliver a letter to the Wayne family, whose infant daughter has been kidnapped and is being held for ransom. The Gotham police are diligent and efficient – “this is Gotham where the angels rise and the devils burn” – and Slam is in well over his head.
This is Year One only in the sense that Tom King and Phil Hester have selected a moment of transition, the point at which Gotham took the dark path and how that occurred. There are few clues at first in what seems nothing more than an effectively produced noir crime drama with smartly considered dialogue, but the moment arrives, and it’s almost incidental, because by then you’re hooked into events. So, the title verges on misdirection, but on the other hand you’re reading a compelling crime drama.
Hester contributes greatly to this with dark, shadowy art reflecting the period and the people. There are murderous, brutal and sordid aspects to Year One, and Hester delivers them all in a way that’s never too flashy, yet feeling is always present. Jordie Bellaire seals the mood with swathes of dark colour, with fights highlighted in red.
The Wayne family seen here predate Bruce by two generations, and despite being the sole familiar presence Bradley hardly ranks high in the DC firmament. Beyond that the only known names are those of past Batman creators mentioned as streets or other locations. It gives King a near enough clean slate as he works his way through the twists of what Bradley knows throughout isn’t quite right.
King’s writing a noir pastiche in many respects as no character transcends their part in a tight plot, but it’s extremely readable and puzzling to the end, which is what crime readers want.
