Comic review: Gotham by Midnight #1- Stupid cop show in comic book form

Writer: Ray Fawkes
Artist: Ben Templesmith
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 26th November 2014



I haven’t read a Batman book in over six months, but I noticed that Ben Templesmith was the artist on this one so decided to dip back in, and see what was going on. I shouldn’t have bothered.

I forgot why I stopped reading these stupid comics in the first place, but was quickly reminded on the first page, and fourth panel of the book where the often repeated lie that is the background to all Police dramas was repeated.

That lie is that the Police are there to protect you. I’m sorry, but the Police are not there to protect you. That is not their job. Their job is to control you, to intimidate you, to protect the moneyed classes and to maintain the status quo whilst stifling all dissent from the enslaved masses. That is the role of the Police, and when they are portrayed as heroes in the mainstream media it always makes me wince.

I couldn’t enjoy this book from that fourth panel on, as all it is doing is following cops around as they mess around with ‘supernatural cases.’ I didn’t care for the characters involved, at all. It’s not that I hate cops, because I don’t. I just feel sorry for them, as I do for any duped person, but the characters in this book bare no resemblance to real life cops. They are television cops, television characters, television lies. I can’t read this stuff. I’m not stupid enough, not childish enough, and not ignorant enough either. I like reality, it interests me, and this book is not reality, it’s television.  I can’t get any enjoyment out of the story here. Narratively, thematically and intellectually there’s nothing here for me to grab a hold of, there’s nothing there for me at all.

I think I might get the scissors out on this one, as some of the large panels by artist Ben Templesmith have this creepy gothic feel to them that I really like. He’s a great artist is Mr Templesmith. His work always looks so distinctive. He has this knack of creating an atmosphere that can transcend the banality of the actual story itself. Yeah, I think that I will get the scissors out. This comic book story is completely boring, but the art doesn’t deserve to be shut away at the bottom of my ‘bad comic’ file. I guess the book wasn’t completely worthless then, and it’s a good reminder to myself of just why it was that I stopped reading so many mainstream comic books in the first place.

So, to sum it up. Gotham by Midnight #1 is a stupid ‘supernatural’ cop show in comic book form. Batman hangs around in the background whilst the cops defend the poor innocent civilians from Ghosts. No, they can’t help themselves, don’t be stupid. People helping themselves? We can’t have that in our comic books now, can we? After all, if people looked after themselves what role would the ‘authorities’ have in their lives? I’ll tell you what role. The role they should have. No role whatsoever. Is the book worth checking out for the art alone? Nah, not really. You might be tempted to read the book whilst you look at it, and trust me, you don’t want to be doing that.

Rating: 2/10 (for the art)