Crime never stops in Gotham, not even as Poison Ivy’s ancient plants begin to overtake the city. Officer Jim Gordon and his partner investigate a murder in the botanical gardens while another beat cop is given an assignment by Commissioner Vandal Savage: bring in Anarky, who just robbed an underground gang, or lose her badge. It’s never an easy day for the GCPD. Batman: Bad Seeds — Gotham Central #1 is written by Christpher Cantwell, drawn and colored by Jacob Phillips and lettered by Becca Carey.
Will Nevin: We’re a week out from Batman Day 2026, and I hear someone is planning a trip to the cinema to celebrate.
Matt Lazorwitz: Yes indeed! I believe there are various Batman movies playing that weekend, but I will be seeing Batman: Mask of the Phantasm on the big screen, a film I saw on … I believe it was the first week of January in 1994 on the big screen and have not seen that way since. Most Batman movies I saw on the big screen multiple times, but that was a blink-and-you’d-miss-it release, so I’m excited to see it again the way it was intended.
Will: Do you think if I saw it at the local cineplex I might remember anything from it?
Matt: Where there’s life, there’s hope, Brother Will.
Bad Seeds Week 3: Crime and Crisis
For Week 1 of Bad Seeds, click here!
Matt: I was both very excited and very nervous about this new Gotham Central miniseries. Excited because it’s Gotham Central. Nervous because it’s not from the original creative team who were such a distinct voice behind that book. I am happy to say I feel my excitement was justified and my nerves were unwarranted. Because I liked this book a lot.
Will: I did too, if only because it’s given us the most Officer Gordon we’ve had since Batman #1. It’s hard to match the tone and pace of that original series given the emergency nature of the event, but it’s at least trying to give you some scope in that we’re following more characters than just Gordon. But we’re also putting them all on the same doomed subway train? Alas. I’d like this more if it weren’t so frantic, but it also wouldn’t exist if not for this frantic event. Is that a catch-22, Matt?
Matt: I think so. If this were a laid back, simple little murder mystery, it would feel out of place, or off, because you’d be doing it in the middle of a catastrophe. Maybe it’s the date I’m writing this, and pardon me if this comes off as a crass analogy, but it makes me think that you couldn’t do a Law & Order where whoever was the current lead at the time was investigating a stabbing on 9/11 and not address the wider issues. The scope of the events surrounding the characters means the pace and scope has to match the event.
I also think that Christopher Cantwell is setting up additional characters here in hopes of getting to do more with them. Not Jim and his partner, but Officer Baker, who is new, and crusty CSO Taberman. It’s been a while since we got new GCPD characters, and it’s nice to see them.
Will: Aye, ye canna have a police procedural without a crime scene tech fella! Everyone knows that. It’s also good to see that Flass is as crooked and dangerous as ever. And, speaking of consistency, this makes the second book in a row that Bullock’s design just doesn’t work. I don’t know whether it’s the weird hair or the excessive sloppiness, but I’m not feeling it.
Matt: It’s been a long time since Flass last appeared, and depending on continuity, he might have been dead, but since there was a whole arc in I Am Batman about Anarky being dead and us seeing his corpse, well, dead doesn’t mean what it once did. But yeah, I can absolutely see Flass going to Vandal Savage and getting his shield back and using that to be the scumbag he always was.
Will: Flass working hand-in-glove with Savage makes a lot of sense — if you’re Savage, you know he can be bought, corrupted or controlled better than almost anyone else on the force, and if you’re aligned with Flass’ interests, he’s going to do whatever is necessary.
Matt: We saw Anarky before over in Batman, and he’s similarly reading not the way he has been portrayed in the past. He is Lonnie Machin, so he’s the same character, but this version is less preachy and way more in line with an influencer bro who believes what he’s saying only until it inconveniences him. Alan Grant’s Anarky wouldn’t be stealing from crooks in the middle of this chaos, he’d be screwing with the TUCO patrols or some other figure of authority.
Will: Oh he’s still a talky lil’ guy, isn’t he? I suppose it’s fitting for the times. And now that I think about it, The Batman certainly features an Anarky-assed Riddler, doesn’t it?
Matt: You know, it really does? But for Riddler, there’s a personal aspect to it. All of that is because of how aggrieved he feels by the system and how he lived. Anarky is an armchair revolutionary. He’s a white, cis male, upper middle class kid, and is the worst kind of ally to the poor and disenfranchised; the kind that makes it all about himself.
Will: But he can occasionally pull his head out of his ass, and that kind of flexibility makes him a good character to have around, despite my general dislike. His story here is pretty telling for the state of policing in Gotham as a whole: He catches Savage’s ire and becomes Public Enemy No. 1 during a crisis not for any danger he’s posing but because he ripped off the Triads. As if money is going to be important when you can’t breathe! Makes me think the Bat family might be the only people around privy to the full scope of what’s happening.
Matt: Either that or Savage just doesn’t care because he’s, y’know, immortal. So he “dies” again? I’m sure he’s spent periods of the past 60,000 years buried at the bottom of the sea or something until someone accidentally dug him up, and then he killed and ate them (hopefully for them in that order) and then went on his merry way. He plays the odds and keeps his allies happy, and if it comes out on his enemies’ side, well that happens every now and then when you’re an immortal. You play a long game.
I’m curious to see down the line how Anarky found out about Torus. He’s kept himself pretty under wraps, and while we know Anarky was doing his bidding back in Batman, why would the bull guy reveal his identity to Anarky rather than work through proxies? There’s a story there.
I will give Cantwell a lot of credit for keeping this moving and working in so many plotlines. We’re deep into the review and we’ve barely talked about what Gordon is up to, with investigating a murder and winding up finding out that Arkham Tower has been breached. Dr. Zeller is sweet and well-intentioned, but boy howdy she doesn’t think sometimes. We saw Batman send Robin to check on her in the opening one-shot, and while she didn’t know that, a locked down Arkham Tower is safer than running through the streets and subways of Gotham, at least in theory.
Will: And don’t forget she’s running around with what I assume to be the secrets to the Crown of Storms and/or Joker’s brain. I’m sure that won’t come up at all during the rest of this story. Is there any chance that Zsasz isn’t our guy here? A screwdriver really doesn’t seem like him.
Matt: You know, sometimes an artist has to work with what tools are available. And he might be so worried about getting his brain scrambled he’s not … not thinking straight seems an odd choice of words for a homicidal maniac, but you know what I mean.
Will: You’re probably right. But still something I think we should put a pin in to keep watch. It’s so unbecoming of a knife pervert.
Matt: I want to make sure that we talk about this: Despite the Bullock design not being to your taste, I think Jacob Phillips does a great job with this issue. Not surprising, with his work on stuff like That Texas Blood and The Perils of the Brutal Dark, but he has a gritty style that works really well with a crime story.
Will: Let us not forget about Newburn, the crime-iest of crime stories, as well. Yes, that one gripe aside, I thought the art here was great, particularly the colors in Arkham that added to the overall sense of dread.
Matt: Phillips is one of those rare artists, along with Francesco Francavilla, who is at his best when he’s coloring himself, for sure. I really liked the layouts of the pages at the end when we’re on the train. There was just something about them that added to the claustrophobic nature of the scene.
Will: Yes! And how the framing closed in on Zsasz? Very nice touch there. The next issue should be great, even if we have to wait a month for it. Which is, you know, about what we have to grind through normally, but I want more of what’s right in front of us now instead of the four books we’re getting next week. This cliffhanger is killing me!
Bat-miscellany
- This week’s BatChat podcast takes a trip down south to Will’s home state as we read three stories either set in, or with creators from, Alabama.
Buy Batman: Bad Seeds – Gotham Central #1 here. (Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, ComicsXF may earn from qualifying purchases.)
Matt Lazorwitz read his first comic at the age of 5. It was Who's Who in the DC Universe #2, featuring characters whose names begin with B, which explains so much about his Batman obsession. He writes about comics he loves, and co-hosts the podcasts BatChat with Matt & Will and The ComicsXF Interview Podcast.
Will Nevin loves bourbon and AP style and gets paid to teach one of those things. He is on Twitter far too often.
