Editor’s Note: This is the second of a weekly series examining each story arc in the classic DC Comics series, Gotham Central.

By Bruno Savill De Jong — “The problem with motiveless crime is that there’s always a motive”, Detective Marcus Driver tells his temporarily assigned partner Romy Chandler, “we just can’t see it. ‘Cause no one kills someone with no reason”.

Detective Driver believes that there is an order to the world, even if that ‘reason’ is (like his former partner Fields, who haunts Driver throughout this case) being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s the same argument Sergeant Davies makes at the beginning of “Motive”, Gotham Central’s second storyline, that “most people think they’re doing the right thing, no matter how sick it is”. The universe is not meaningless, but runs on causation, regardless of how deranged or hidden the logic. And “Motive” focuses on how the Detectives attempt to shine light upon order within the seemingly incomprehensible Gotham City.

While “In the Line of Duty” established the dynamic between Batman and the GCPD, “Motive” allows Gotham Central to settle into its procedural premise, and let the detectives prove themselves with actual casework. “Motive” specifically focuses upon the Major Crime Unit’s day-shift under Lieutenant Probson, written solely by Brubaker, as he and Rucka would write the alternating shifts individually as the book progressed. Probson introduces two priority cases.

One is the re-emergence of Firebug, a minor Batman arsonist supervillain (not to be confused with Firefly, as the detectives intentionally do later) typical of Gotham, and his case is assigned to ‘Sarge’ Davies. The other case seems relatively pedestrian, returning to the kidnapping of Bonnie Lewis that Driver and Fields were chasing in Gotham Central’s opening arc. Driver is assigned Chandler to clear Fields’ last case from the board, with them discovering a discrepancy between Bonnie’s time of death and her ransom note, meaning that the case should be upgraded from botched kidnapping to straight homicide.

Like many teenagers, Bonnie was secretive. At least to her father, who did not even know she had a diary. It leads the detectives to Bonnie’s high-school classmates, who reveal Bonnie had been hiding a stolen Batarang. Taken from a fight between Killer Croc and Robin (who the classmates think might go to their school), this piece of Batman paraphernalia is like a flung seedling that sprouts up its own troubles wherever it lands. Although the Batarang is technically a dead-end, it reinforces the idea that these super-heroics are not contained to the fights we see in typical comics, but rather, their influence spreads throughout the city. This links to the Firebug case, as Sarge tracks down the former Firebug who claims to have sold his suit online as “memorabilia” in an “underground auction house”.

Sarge got his tip on the former Firebug’s location from Harvey Bullock, a long-time Batman supporting character who in this book had recently resigned from the GCPD (after intentionally revealing the shooter of Gordon in “Officer Down” to the mafia, indirectly executing him). Bullock’s mixed reputation within the GCPD is strongly felt, particularly as some of the squad hang around for post-work drinks. In its second storyline, Gotham Central gets to relax somewhat, observing the internal dynamics between its officers. A minor rivalry is shown between Probson and Sarge, who teases the Lieutenant with his lack of progress. “Motive” also shows a developing love-triangle between Driver, Chandler, and her regular partner Nate Patton. The relationship between Patton and Chandler is seemingly one regularly suspected, so much that Chandler is “getting tired of the question”, even if she refuses to outright deny it. Another secret out in the open.

Ultimately it is revealed that the Firebug and Bonnie cases are the same. Bonnie is revealed to have been “nosy”, snooping around her babysitting employer’s closets, revealing their secrets. One of these was the Firebug suit in the closet of Harlan Combs, the “yuppie” Bonnie was working for the night she died, who killed her to preserve his secret identity. Earlier Driver was despairing at their lack of progress, lamenting “this girl’s just dead and nothing jumps out at me and says why”. It felt like an unsolvable burden, disconnected from all logic. But not only was Bonnie connected with Firebug, allowing the GCPD to close its two top cases at once, but it also resolves the “bad luck” Driver and Fields faced with Mr. Freeze, since it was Comb’s fake kidnapping which led them to that fatal tip. For this case at least, Gotham is connected together for the better, allowing resolution and order to be found.

Yet Driver is not satisfied with simply solving the case. He wants to prove to Batman they did it without his help. Earlier when chasing down Firebug, Driver was determined to enter the burning building to rescue its tenants himself, but Batman beat him to it. Batman gets the heroic blaze of glory (the fiery sequence emphasized by Lark’s drawings and Noelle Giddings’ colors), and Driver is again left silently staring upwards, powerless. While you can sympathize with Driver’s attempts to prove himself being constantly thwarted, Gotham Central never permits total superiority over Batman. When Driver tells Batman about Firebug, Batman thanks him, tells him to only use the Bat-Signal for emergencies, and flies away again. For Batman it’s not about the recognition, even if he gets an undue amount, but the work itself. His own secret identity is insignificant next to the hidden crimes and motives he and the detectives uncover, even if the focus on ‘secret identities’ will reappear in the next arc, the Eisner Award-winning storyline, “Half a Life”.

Editor’s Note: While we love Gotham Central, we also appreciate how its representation of police does not directly address the critical real-world injustices prevalent in U.S. police departments. If you would like to help support the correction of these systemic injustices, we recommend doing so via donations to Black Lives Matter.

Gotham Central: Motive

GOTHAM CENTRAL #3 - 5: “Motive”
Writers: Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka
Arist: Michael Lark
Colorist: Noelle Giddings and Lee Loughridge
Letterer: Willie Schubert
Editors: Matt Idelson and Nachie Castro
A new storyline begins in this gritty look at the non-costumed heroes of Gotham City. With the effects of the GCPD's first adventure still hanging heavy over the squad of Gotham's Major Crimes Unit, Firebug returns to rain terror and flame across the city! Meanwhile, the investigation into the child kidnapping continues.
Buy It Digitally: Gotham Central

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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.