Gotham City: Year One #6

Every issue of Gotham City Year One delivered a compelling chapter in the style of a classic hard boiled mysterya genre that, unfortunately, is far less common in comic books now than it was decades ago. Gotham City Year One #6 excels as the conclusion to the story. The entire creative team delivers an ending that will not only thrill existing fans of this genre, but also cap off a story that will almost certainly convert some new fans. Read Full Review

Hester delivers beautiful, haunting art throughout the issue. I love the visual style of this series and how it captures the dark, shadowy world of these characters and the city itself. Read Full Review

This is probably the most straightforward of King's stand-alone series, but just as powerful as the rest. Read Full Review

Fans of noir and crime stories should snatch up Gotham City: Year One #6 and the collected edition once it's out to ensure we get more nuanced, layered stories like this. Read Full Review

Taken on its own simply as a detective story, Gotham City: Year One #6 is an incredible ending. It manages to tie up all the loose ends, meaningfully place a thematic poignancy on the characters' actions, and remain tense and exciting through to the end. If this were a standalone comic I would have almost no complaints. However, it's not a standalone comic. It's also (indirectly) a Batman story, and the way it relates its Gotham with the one we know doesn't work. Overall, Gotham City: Year One is a mostly great story that is held back by its messy connections to the titular city. Read Full Review

If the premise of Gotham City: Year One was to change Bruce's family tree, then all I can say is why? And ultimately, that's why this story lands flat. The purpose and intent get lost in what began as a fantastic story which oftentimes appears to be King's M.O. Read Full Review

This series ended in a way that makes sense for the story but would have benefited from King deviating from his usual formula just a little. Read Full Review

Gotham City: Year One #6 is a solid conclusion for a series that may have wavered for a bit, but then raced to the end. There are some weird race-related elements that hurt the final issue, but this was a rewarding ending to the series. Read Full Review

Gotham City: Year One concludes as one of the darkest tales ever told about Gotham City with nary a mask in sight and offers readers a potent spin on the familiar. Read Full Review

motorik

Mar 28, 2023

Gutted this is finished. One of King's best.

retcon_D

Mar 29, 2023

Bravo.

REYNARD

Apr 02, 2023

Great read! Would be crazy if Thomas Wayne was the secret love-child of Constance and Slam (since she might have gotten preggers from their tryst back in #4). This book made me love Phil Hester's art! I'm not sure if it was the colorist or just how suited he is for this kind of narrative, but his work here looks night and day compared to other stuff I've seen him do.

Psycamorean

Apr 05, 2023

I'm very conflicted on this series. On the one hand, it is a noir story to a tee, and that comes with it a certain appeal. On the other hand, it *is* a noir story filled with the tropes and trappings that sometimes plagued the genres in frustrating ways that make stuff like the social commentary fall a bit flat. It will point to the injustices of society, and it will muck around in those injustices and really make you absorb them, and then offer little to no resolution. Not even a genuine idea of how to battle these things. Just an exhibition of suffering and the worst of human nature, followed by "And isn't that fucked up?" Yes, it is fucked up. Thanks. And where King could inject some more nuance and depth, within his characters, he of ten just lets them be just as tropey. Slam Bradley, no matter how his character is modified in this series, that modification doesn't really change anything, even though it really should. The only big changes seem to be in motivation, but those motivations as far as I know are wholesale created for this series. Constance Wayne is perhaps the biggest example, being a cold, calculating femme fatale through and through. And does this fit the noir aesthetic? Yeah. That's the part of the book I really enjoy. The aesthetics, the atmosphere, the mood. But I hate that it comes at the expense of a broader point that I can ascertain and get behind, with characters that I've seen a million times. So this issue gets an 8/10. It's good, but I greatly dislike parts of it too. more

Ryan

Jan 16, 2025

Overall still this was good and this is going to sound bad but the race angle was just executed so stupidly. Genuinely had me questioning if King only added it in to make this more “critically applauded” or something

☭Latverian Embassy☭

Apr 01, 2023

Eh, probably the better of King's later works. Hester's art does a lot of heavy lifting (as per usual with King's books). To give some credit to King, the mystery aspect of the series was great (not as bloated as with Human Target). Although the plot itself suffers from being full of cliches with Slam and Mrs. Wayne being carbon copies of Human Target and Ice (I expected Slam and Connie to start fucking near the dead body as the scene was giving major Human Target#6 vibes. Not a big fan of King writing women lately as they feel very one-note and trope-y. The social commentary added nothing, King really didn't do a lot just scrached the surface. Like how the whole situation affected the black community, did Slam do anything or just pont ificated the whole time. I guess Gotham be like Gotham always was. more

daspidaboy

Jul 28, 2023

Tom King is one of the writers that is either a hit or miss for me. And unfortunately, this was kinda a miss for me. The story is not bad and I like the plot, but the. characters leave a lot to be desired, and I am not really a big fan of Phil Hester's work. It's an intruging noir mystery story, but the themes and plot seem very surface level. It could have been better, but it is good