Character created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger
“Elseworlds” tale by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
Somehow, no matter how many twists and turns the on-going DC Comics’ Batman saga takes, it never seems to entirely shake its roots in the hard-boiled detective pulps of the thirties and forties.
A case in point is the 2001 graphic novel Gothan Noir, an “Elseworlds” tale by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, wherein WWII vet JAMES GORDON, instead of rising through the ranks to become police commissioner, is forced to resign from the force under a cloud, and becomes an alcohol-sodden private eye with a bad case of PTSD.
As always in the Elseworld line, as the standard DC line goes, “… heroes are taken from their usual settings and put into strange times and places — some that have existed, and others that can’t, couldn’t or shouldn’t exist.”
In this case, the place is still crime-ridden Gotham City, and the time is 1949. But Gordon is a fallen hero, a disgraced former cop and WWII vet with a busted marriage and a career as a private eye that’s heading right into the crapper. One of his few remaining friends is nightclub owner Selina Kyle (Catwoman in standard Batman continuity), who left Gordon when his career hit the skids. Now she’s married to Bruce Wayne, a handsome but slightly-thick millionaire war hero, and a former friend of Gordon’s. Also along for the ride are a pre-Two Face Harvey Dent as a crusading DA, and a pre-Joker Jack Napier as a low-level crook playing a dangerous game of go-between between two rival crime factions.
But costumed heroes and villians are non-existent in this Gotham. Even Batman himself is dismissed as mere urban myth.
Except that Gordon thinks he’s seen him.
Maybe.
Or maybe this giant bat he’s seen is just another hallucination brought on by too many hits from the office bottle.
This is a great little story, a treat for mature Batfans, or anyone who appreciates a good old-fashioned pulp story. There are colourful gangsters, slimy politicians, betrayals, deceptions, long-hidden secrets, a femme fatale or two, and a flawed hero framed for a murder even he’s not quite sure he didn’t commit.
And DC didn’t try to pass this off as canon, a small mercy.
If you’re into the Bat, this one’s a treat.
Unlike recent events (as of 2020-2025), which have seen both Commissioner Gordon and Harvey Bullock booted off the GCPD for assorted reasons (they seem to vary) and becoming private eyes, both separately and as partners in their own detective agency. Whether they’ll remain there or the whole thing is passed off as a dream, or shunted off to some dodgy alternate universe retcon (Earth 492, maybe?), remains to be seen. As private eyes, they’re mostly just hovering in the background in Batman continuity, rarely doing much of interest, although in one memorable instant, Bullock is hired, at least briefly, by Batman.
And if it whets your whistle, check out Nine Lives: Who Killed Selina Kyle?, which imagines Dick Grayson as a P.I. or Gotham City: Year One, which plops DC’s original private eye Slam Bradley in an Elseworlds tale of his own, in early sixties Gotham where Bruce Wayne hasn’t even been born. You might also want to check out Wayne’s own short-lived career as a private eye.
ABOUT THE CREATORS
Writer Ed Brubaker was initially probably best known by readers of this site for Scene of the Crime, a superb 1999 mini-series he did with artist Michael Lark. Brubaker, however, along withcomrade-in-arms Sean Phillips, have since moved on to bigger and better projects, most notably Criminal, a long-running series of comics and graphic novels following a loose collection of crooks, cartoonists, thieves, dreamers and schemers, and losers and winners. But mostly losers. They’ve also collaborated on Reckless, a series of graphic novels which relate the adventures of former CIA agent turned beach bum private eye Ethan Reckless.
Brukaer’s frequent partner-in-crime, artist Sean Phillips, dishes up some very tasty artwork in Gotham Noir, bold and straight-up, but also at times murky and mysterious, full of shadows hinting of menace and betrayal. He’s also responsible for the great cover painting, complete with pulp-like lettering.
GRAPHIC NOVELS
- BATMAN: GOTHAM NOIR | Buy this book | Kindle it!
(2001, DC Comics)
Written by Ed Brubaker
Art by Sean Phillips
Colourist: Dave Stewart
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- The Thrilling Detective Web Site: Detective Comics
A listing of all the private eyes who have shown up in DC Comics.
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
