6/11 — Gotham Central: Corrigan
The final volume of a stellar series, Corrigan brings together several threads of DC lore in subtle and satisfying ways. It will probably be easiest to explain this in chronological order: first, in Green Lantern Rebirth, we saw Hal Jordan relinquished from possession by the Spectre so he (Hal) could resume being a Green Lantern. This left the Spectre without a host, which caused him to go a little crazy and attempt to destroy all magic in the universe, which we saw in Day of Vengeance, culminating inthe destruction of the Rock of Eternity and the murder of the wizard Shazam.
These Gotham Central stories take place in the immediate aftermath of Day of Vengeance. A crooked CSI named Jim Corrigan is tampering with evidence and helping fellow cops get away with murder. Detective Crispus Allen is investigating Corrigan, and getting dangerously close to obtaining the proof that will put him away for good. Allen’s partner, Renee Montoya, has already scuffled with Corrigan, and feels disenfranchised by the amount of corruption going unchecked in the GCPD. She’s on a downward spiral, and grows increasingly disconnected from Allen, leaving him more or less on his own.
Allen’s investigation lands him in hot water when he finally catches Corrigan and his crew in the act of committing a crime. He ends up getting shot in the back and dying, with Montoya left to try to pick up the pieces of his investigation. The end of the story is that Corrigan gets away with everything, but ends up begging for his life when Montoya puts a gun to his head and threatens to kill him. She doesn’t pull the trigger, because she’s a hero with a conscience. She quits the GCPD instead, as the series ends.
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The coda to all of this was in Infinite Crisis, when Spectre finally chose a new host - it was the freshly-dead Crispus Allen. And the tie that binds all of this is the name of Spectre’s original host, before Crisis on Infinite Earths, before Hal Jordan, for decades dating back to the original Justice Society: he was a cop on the take during the mafia era.
His name was Jim Corrigan.
Ed Brubaker’s and Greg Rucka’s talent for noir, street-level storytelling will be forever tied to this series. I greatly appreciate the progression from straightforward police procedural to a book that fully embraced the Batman lore, to a book that fully embraced everything going on in the wider DCU, all while never losing that original plainspoken sensibility. These characters live on as well: Maggie Sawyer remains Captain of the Major Crimes Unit, Renee Montoya, ex-cop, is still alive and out there, somewhere, and of course Allen will be Spectre from now on. Ex-Commissioner Gordon didn’t appear in this volume, but there was talk of Commissioner Akins running for Mayor, so we might see Gordon get his old job back eventually.
As for what else is going on with Batman, we’ll see shortly, but for now it must be acknowledged that Gotham Central is a very special book, likely never to be replicated, cementing Greg Rucka as one of my very favourite writers. I look forward to seeing his name again. I’m not sure if Brubaker has anything more for DC or not, but his work on Batman, Catwoman, and Gotham Central left an indelible mark on the mythos, and this potent combination of irrevocably human characters in a heightened, superhuman world won’t be forgotten anytime soon.
