By Bruno Savill De Jong — While Half a Life is Gotham Central’s famous storyline that examines the weight of Gotham upon a single cop, Soft Targets is another popular plotline that examines a single case’s impact upon the whole city. Over Christmas, Gotham is gripped by a supervillain’s terrorist threat. Now, that might sound like a typical superhero set-up. Indeed, Tom King did exactly this in The War of Jokes and Riddle (Batman Vol. 3, #25-32) a few years ago. But while I like that storyline, Gotham Central, well, centralizes Gotham in a way mainstream Batman titles cannot.

It makes Gotham more than a backdrop, turning it into a living city where the impact of supervillain schemes is felt by those on the periphery. This is evident from the first pages of Soft Targets, a meeting between Commissioner Akins and Mayor Dickerson. In a bureaucratic scene straight from The Wire, the two argue about the GCPD’s ‘overtime’. The Mayor wants to cut it, claiming Gotham’s police-force abuses a stagnant system, while Akin counters that “cops take bribes when they feel under-appreciated”. Both essentially state that Gotham’s infamous corruption comes from ‘entitlement’, with Mayor Dickerson believing this has led to them exploiting the system, while Akins argues it’s because the system has not matched them. But before they can debate further, Mayor Dickerson is suddenly assassinated via sniper-rifle.

Soon afterwards, Superintendent Purnell is also shot. Gotham’s senior officials are seemingly being targeted, and the Major Crimes Unit is aggravated over the “mess” this “red ball” (high-profile case) will be. Soon, more chaos trickles down from the top. However, during the canvass of Purnell’s crime-scene, there is another sudden shooting spree, killing a coroner and injuring Nora Fields, the widow of Detective Driver’s ex-partner. Josie Mac is able to locate the source in an apartment, wherein they discover the shootings were not politically motivated (Mayor Dickerson apparently notoriously corrupt) like first thought. The apartment does have a laptop with political campaigns, but instead of any manifesto it is “Paid for by the Joke’s On You Committee for Democracy and Pancakes and Hey Batman…”. This rambling note makes the detectives realize, with dawning horror, that this was not done by any ordinary madman. It was done by the Joker.

The Joker is unquestionably the most famous foe of Batman, perhaps of all time. While Joker has this gigantic reputation, Gotham Central smartly manipulates it so that the impact of Joker within Gotham is deeply felt. Joker is not even said out loud until the end of the issue, the stunned silent reactions of the detectives or Lt. Probson, once he is told, enough to convey his presence. Probson has previously been characterized as irritable and determined to take charge, but once he receives the phone-call he drags Stacy upstairs to light the Bat-Signal. Once there, Joker shoots at them from afar and extinguishes the Bat-Signal, relying on his reputation to draw out both them and, subsequently, Batman, who reliably swoops in to cover Stacy and Probson. Although Commissioner Akins and Captain Sawyer are both outraged by Probson using the Bat-Signal without approval, all are silenced by Probson’s blunt explanation of “it’s Joker” – the (new) Mayor even flees the office in fear. Again, Joker has not even been shown yet, but this reputation is enough to disrupt the city around him. Joker’s involvement has put Soft Targets out of the GCPD’s league, as Probson acknowledged by going immediately to the rooftop. Gotham now belongs to him and the Bat, once again a backdrop of their battles, while the citizens have to cower and wait.

Particularly telling is Detective Driver’s reaction. Returning from Nora in the hospital, Driver responds to Joker’s involvement with a heavy pause before saying he has to change his bloody shirt in the locker-room. You can feel within this heavy silence Driver’s increased resentment of Gotham’s ‘freaks’ and the damage they inflict. Earlier he had PTSD-esque flashbacks to Mr Freeze killing Charlie Fields, and now Nora Fields is not only injured, but another casualty of another supervillain, another bystander caught between Batman and his crusade on crime. Such ‘disposability’ is partly what makes Soft Targets so gripping. As Gotham Central is composed of a sprawling cast of supporting-characters, any of them could easily be killed by the Joker. With most superhero titles you can feel secure about their survival, but any of Gotham Central’s ordinary citizens (from the Mayor to a random coroner) can be taken out. In the locker-room, Detective Patton (who is also jealous of Driver’s relationship with his partner Romy Chandler) jokes about exactly this, commenting on Nora’s (and Commissioner Gordon’s) “Gotham City luck”. Such statements make Driver boil over and beat Patton. Partly it’s the insensitivity, but it also stems from Patton’s flippancy, the tendency many members of Gotham Central have to dismiss the city’s cruel unfairness with “it’s Gotham”. It’s a theme which has been occurring since In the Line of Duty, and at this moment that ability to ignore or undermine the injustice, to throw up your arms and say “it’s Gotham”, makes Driver explode.

Regardless of how Gotham mistreats its ordinary inhabitants, Soft Targets again cements the familiarity of the GCPD with their home. Soft Targets is the most expansive look at Gotham so far, showing the media journalists who interact with the police, to the Gothamites fleeing the city once the Joker publicly sets up an online live-stream of several locations alongside a countdown timer until he will strike next. This enables the GCPD to demonstrate their familiarity with Gotham, identifying several buildings and locations from the live-streams on sight. Yet all this detective work is tempered by the unspoken acknowledgement that this game is not meant for them. Each of the locations have messages exclusively for Batman, the detectives treated as insignificant. This is how the Mayor has been conditioned too, bluntly telling Commissioner Akins “we both know how this ends. We both know that Batman will take care of it, it’s just a matter of waiting for him to do it”. Therefore, the Mayor orders the GCPD to drop their leads and round-up the ‘Killer Clowns’ (fanboy clown-thugs of the Joker) for a publicity stunt. Although they provide an amusing fragment of world-building (Probson saying one looks “like a bad art school painting come to life”), it’s harshly poetic that the GCPD are saddled with the Joker’s supporting wannabe henchmen, while Batman does the actual work off-page. This Mayor, like the last one, views Gotham’s police as disposable extras. It makes it all the more shocking when, during Probson’s smoke-break, the Joker suddenly approaches and surrenders to him.

Up until now, the Joker has not been shown within the comic. Against the snowing backdrop, his green hair and colorful appearance perfectly stands out. It is easy to take Michael Lark’s naturalistic artwork for granted, but (alongside Stefano Guadino) Lark renders a wonderful Joker, being both recognizably human while also characteristically distinct (particularly his ever-present smirk). Gotham Central’s Joker is written as both cryptic and a showboat, someone who delights in teasing the GCPD detectives to his schemes without opening up. He has kidnapped TV Reporter Angie Molina as a “present for Batman”, having rigged a bomb to explode with her. The Joker in Soft Targets has no real agenda except for suffering and chaos, playing a game only Batman is invited to, the rest simply pawns on the board.

The helpless disposability and “under-appreciation” mentioned by Akins at the beginning of Soft Targets, and underlying all of Gotham Central, becomes concentrated here. When Batman appears in Akins’ office, his characteristic Gotham Central bluntness stings more because we have been immersed within the GCPD’s side. “This isn’t about anything but you and him anyway”, Akins tells Batman, “we’re just toy soldiers while you two play General. With this city as your battlefield”. Indeed, Joker’s plan is revealed to have lured Gotham’s Christmas Shoppers into a false sense of security with his arrest, and re-fill the stores that he has secretly put a bomb into. The Joker literally treats Gothamites like the “toys” they are buying, treating human lives with nonchalant nihilism, a backdrop for his sadistic jokes.

Perhaps the most tragic thing about Soft Targets is that it validates the Joker’s beliefs. In the world of Gotham Central, despite focusing on peripheral characters, they are still expendable compared to established ones. Earlier Akins had ordered Sawyer and Probson to interrogate the Joker by any means necessary (no one having much sympathy for the mass-murderer), leading to Probson beating the Joker with a phone-book. Probson surrenders his badge and abandons the police’s rules, essentially becoming a vigilante himself. But, tragically, Probson is unable to be Batman; the Joker is able to get loose and kill Probson (with a suddenness that exemplifies Gotham Central’s ‘disposability’) before opening fire in the GCPD squad-room (where, in a moment of dark comedy, he shouts “someone call the cops!”). While Sawyer manages to shoot him down, the Joker again seems self-aware of this status-quo immunity, muttering “that trick never works”. Gotham Central is the same as other DC Comics, if from another perspective, showing how Batman and the Joker can battle each other forever, no matter the causalities lost in the crossfire.

It is not only Probson, but Patton is heavily injured and comatose after he and Chandler find the bomb-rigged Molina in a toy store. Chandler can only glimpse Batman saving Molina in the wreckage, unable to know what really happened inside. From the GCPD’s perspective, all Gothamites are Soft Targets, unprotected groups completely unprepared from supervillain’s attacks. Previous Gotham Central storylines showed some vague hope of the GCPD achieving meaning from their profession, but Soft Targets is the most cynical and Sisyphean. It even concludes on the Bat-Signal, destroyed in the first issue, being replaced; the status-quo being repaired despite the numerous lives lost. Akins is left wondering if Batman is even on their ‘side’, or maybe whether he and Gotham’s ‘freaks’ is out of the GCPD’s league altogether. Soft Targets’ final panel is the Joker regaining consciousness, laughing at the cruel absurdity of the world. Again, Gotham Central shows living in a world that is not your own, undertaking an environment where justice and agency effects a select few. Much as Driver rages against it, Soft Targets ends on another acknowledgement of this, agreeing that this world may not be ‘right’, or ‘fair’;

“But it’s Gotham”.

Gotham Central: Soft Targets

Gotham Central #12-15: Soft Targets
Writers: Ed Brubaker & Greg Rucka
Artists: Michael Lark & (#13-15) Stefano Gaudiano
Colorist: Lee Loughride
Letterer: Clem Robins
Editors: Matt Idelson and Nachie Castro
"Soft Targets" Part 1! A sniper begins taking out police, politicians and civilians alike in a devastating murder spree that rocks the entire city and especially the members of the Major Crimes Unit as their own come under fire!
Buy It Digitally: Gotham Central Book 2 - Jokers and Mad Men

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Bruno Savill De Jong is a recent undergraduate of English and freelance writer on films and comics, living in London. His infrequent comics-blog is Panels are Windows and semi-frequent Twitter is BrunoSavillDeJo.