According to Mike’s Amazing World, the very first Batman tale came out eighty years ago this week, in Detective Comics #27. I figured I should mark the occasion on this blog with something different, so this week I’m going daily – each day, I’ll put up a post spotlighting specific aspects of Batman comics I really like.
One of my favorite things, for example, is imagining the everyday lives of Gotham City’s beat cops…
Ragman (v2) #5
As if living and working in a crime-infested city wasn’t bad enough, those sad bastards constantly have to deal with genuinely weird threats – because in Gotham crime isn’t just everywhere, it also comes in all sorts of forms, from roller-skating gangs…
Detective Comics #503
…to jai alai-playing gangs:
Detective Comics #371
And those aren’t even the most eccentric challenges!
Gotham City’s beat cops also had to face the unforgettable 1947 robot crime wave…
Batman #42
…and, of course, the 1967 robot crime wave:
The Brave and the Bold #74
Moreover, I’m sure Gotham’s bonkers architecture doesn’t make the cops’ job any easier:
Turning Points #2
Even though I don’t need a whole sub-franchise focusing on the low-ranking, uniformed police officers, I do treasure every glimpse we get into their perspective. Some of the best writers in the field have gotten quite a bit of mileage out of the fact that Gotham’s cops have to live with an urban legend about a bat-clad vigilante who keeps breaking the state’s monopoly of violence… and practically every other rule in the book, really.
This is the sort of thing that should generate some concern among the officers of the GCPD, not to mention a fair share of resentment…
Detective Comics #601
If nothing else, in the long run it’s bound to lead to a relatively jaded attitude:
Legends of the Dark Knight #2
That said, I can’t feel too sorry for them. After all, everybody knows that Gotham cops are the sleaziest, most corrupt and depraved cops this side of Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant (or, at least, this side of Werner Herzog’s trippy remake).
So, yeah, I’m sure many of them find a way to make the most out of all of this…
