Gotham Central Book 3: On The Freak Beat (2014) - Plot & Excerpts
Freak beat builds on the story and character developments in the previous two trades and readers are rewarded with some even more amazing character development and cameos from main characters of the DCU.It took me a while to pick up the third trade, I had read/watched myself into a procedural crime overload and I needed some time off from this genre. However, slipping back into this genre with this series was like a glove. The characters, art, writing, story, world are all done so well that you wish that this was what the insanely bad Gotham tv series was based on:World: Dark, gritty, dangerous and uninviting, the Gotham that Rucka and Brubaker paint is one that people are familiar with but don't really get to see all that often. Often we see Gotham through Batman's eyes, high above soaring, or in a duel in the sewers with a villain. Here, we get to see the streets, not just the street, but the alleys and shadows. It's not a good place to be if you are a normal person, but it is an amazing place to be to find a good story. The art compliments and paints a world that is doused in dark colors, reds and blacks and browns giving it a melancholy and unsettling quality to the art, it's great.Story: A couple of great ones here, of course the big arc in this book is Keystone Kops but the rest of the tales are all super solid. Brubaker and Rucka are masters of the crime procedural genre in comic books and it shows with this entire series. Each panel is meticulously scripted, each story arc flows smoothly, it's great story telling. I don't want to ruin anything for you, as honestly if you've read two trades already you don't need me to tell you it's an amazing series. Read it!Characters: Wonderful, one of the things with comic books is that often time due to the 22 page nature of issues and the need for action the character development is somewhat stunted and often takes second fiddle, not so with this series. Characters like Montoya, Allen, Sawyer and Akins to name a few are given ample time to develop and to be fleshed out. They are strong, heroic and often flawed human beings in a really brutal and unforgiving city. The cameos by main characters of the DCU are nice, they are there enough to tie the world together but not often enough to overshadow the characters of the book. This is a really good character book.This is what I had imagined Gotham the tv series to be like and reading this again after a couple of years ago and watching that show now I am more convinced that this should have been the way to go. This is a well craft crime procedural that is not only a good comic book but just plain good storytelling.Onward to the next book! My least favorite of the Gotham Central collections. It drums up a bit of interest by having our Gotham PD characters travel to the home of The Flash in the course of an investigation but the rest of the stories are very dull. Catwoman shows up but it's not very dramatic because it's the usual "anti-hero did some crimes but not THAT crime/clear my name" routine. There's a long running plot line about a cop selling evidence that finds some amount of excitement in the next book but here it just sets up for that more exciting stuff later.
What do You think about Gotham Central Book 3: On The Freak Beat (2014)?
Still a solid series with great stories. It's a shame that there is only one Vol. left.
—Amy
Another collection of strong stories. Lots of fun.
—hightower14
