Batman Gates Of Gotham #1

I find it interesting that DC Comics has examined Batman’s and Bruce Wayne’s lineage almost to the point of exhaustion and yet never bothered to look into the history of Gotham City-until now.

What is it that makes Gotham City what it is? Just how unique is it? Why is it that Gotham City looks so much different than other cities? For a city as old as Gotham City why is the architecture, both old and modern, so monumental? How closely tied is the Wayne family legacy tied to Gotham City?

That’s just a few of the questions entertained and partially answered in DC Comics’ latest Batman title: Batman Gates Of Gotham #1.The story begins in the later half of the 19th Century as a young Alan Wayne introduces a young architect to some of the city’s founding fathers. The architect has some revolutionary ideas, particularly when it comes to Gotham’s bridges.


Cut to the present. Someone has purchased a large amount of explosives and as Dick Grayson (Batman) attempts to track down who purchased it, a series of three explosions rip apart three of Gotham City’s bridges. Many are killed and injured.


Batman traces the explosives purchase to Chester Cobblepot a.k.a the Penguin, who admits he purchased that explosives but did not set off the bridge explosives. After all, why would he destroy a bridge his own ancestors helped finance?


A mysterious masked and suited man perpetrated the crime and he looks to be after the people whose ancestors helped build Gotham City-but why?


Batman Gates Of Gotham #1 by Scott Snyder, Kyle Higgins and Trevor McCarthy have come up with a killer story unlike any Batman story before. I’ll be interested to see where they take it from here.