Gotham Central, Vol. 2: Half a Life

Gotham Central continues to be a winner with these stories focusing on Renee Montoya. It's always dangerous for a comic book writer to out a character, but Greg Rucka does a marvelous job of it here, really letting us into Montoya's life for the first time. Tasteful, exciting and well executed on all fronts.

The focus of this book is Renee Montoya, a member of the G.C.P.D.'s Major Crimes Unit, and her relationship with Two-Face. To add to the depiction of this relationship, there are a couple pre-Gotham Central stories from Batman comics showing Montoya. The first of these, "Two Down," is neat enough, with a premise of what would happen if Two-Face's coin just kept on coming up heads, and he kept on doing good. Two-Face helps Montoya in rebuilding the city after it's been ravaged by an earthquake, and she even intervenes against Batman to stop him from taking Two-Face down, pleading that she knows Two-Face can do good if she wants. A good story, but it's brought down by Jason Pearson & Cam Smith's overly cartoony art, which doesn't really show more fit the tone of the story. The other one is "Happy Birthday Two You...", set about a year later, on Montoya's birthday. It's a day in Montoya's life, a day where she's gone unappreciated by any one other than... Two-Face and Bruce Wayne? It's a solid little story on its own (there are only two colors, and that works fantastically), but it also sets up what's to come...

The bulk of Half a Life is taken up by a story called, appropriately enough, "Half a Life." This story is pretty famous-- it got all kinds of awards-- because it is the story that revealed Renee Montoya was a lesbian. Now, mind you her superior officer Maggie Sawyer had been revealed as one some time prior, but Montoya's was kind of a shocker reveal, and the whole story is about her forced coming-out. Two-Face reveals her in an elaborate plot to destroy her entire life so that he's all she has left. I like Montoya as a character: she feels real, a woman struggling not only to be a cop in Gotham City (which is tough enough), but to hide a second life from her colleagues-- not exactly the most tolerant bunch-- and her very conservative, Catholic family. The story draws some parallels between Montoya and Two-Face that work well. I also like the subplot about Montoya's partner, Crispus Allen, coming to terms with the fact that Montoya's been hiding all this from him. The art is great as per usual-- if anything, Michael Lark is better here than in In the Line of Duty, with his inks not quite as thick as in the first.

However, I have some reservations. Or rather, I think the story's pretty good. Above average, even. But great? Not quite. It's on the whole a competently executed cop story, with some nice Batman bits thrown in. (He once again saves the day. You could accuse it of being a deus ex machina, but that's the whole point of the series.) If you subtracted the lesbian component, I'm not convinced there's be anything memorable about. But that means my problem's not so much with the story as the way it's been represented. I liked it; I just don't know that I'd give it any awards. But in the often-homophobic world of superhero comics, this thing was ground-breaking in 2003, and that's kinda sad when you think about it.

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Renee Montoya takes the spotlight in this collection of Gotham Central. Greg Rucka does a great job with her story, one of the best I've seen. I'm not surprised that it won an Eisner Award for Best Short Story. It took DC a long time to get some gay characters into their books, but when they did, it was very well done. Renee is outed maliciously. She has to deal with homophobia at the police department and from her family. She also finds out who her friends truely are. The story is realistic. It is not over dramatic, nor does it sugar-coat the pain of being forced to come out before one is ready.

This is a book that can stand alone, too. So, if you are not interested in following the entire series, but would like to read Renee's story, show more read this one. I highly recommend it. show less

Who cares about superheroes? Gotham cops are a million times more interesting. Rarely in comics will you find writing and art of this quality, especially together in one book. Renee Montoya is the most interesting, emotionally complex character that DC has produced in years. See 52 and Crime Bible for a continuation of her story.

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