The "Gates of Gotham" is a five-part story that's as much as a present-day mystery as well as an origin story of Gotham City (of sorts). Reason for that is simple: the two stories are related. "But how?" you ask. Well...Someone's blowing up the bridges of Gotham City and Batman needs to find the dude responsible and make him stop (I guess he does that in every story, come to think of it). The real interesting part of this book is what happens in the late 19th century, as Alan Wayne and 2 other p...

This book delves into the history of Gotham and the four families. An interesting one to read around the time that the TV series "Gotham" just finished an arc involving one of the historical Gotham family's feud with the Waynes. In this story, it's not so much a feud with Wayne, but a historical Gotham vendetta that puts modern Gotham and its inhabitants in jeopardy. I think the artwork was very well-done, and it delves into Steampunk territory with some of the design. I would have liked it bett...

Someone is blowing up Gotham City landmarks and it points to someone with links to Gotham's founding fathers. Can Batman, Red Robin, Robin, and Black Bat stop the menace of... the Architect?After the awesomeness of The Black Mirror, this was a little bit of a letdown but still pretty good. Dick continues to adjust to his role as Batman as he pieces together the identity of the Architect with the help of his partners.Hush and the Penguin play important roles but Gotham City itself is almost a cha...

Scott Snyder is (and may always be) best known for American Vampire. His take on Batman shows that background most in the historical backdrop that adds depth to an already interesting story. As a note, the credits say that Snyder provided the story and Kyle Higgins the dialog. I suspect that means that Snyder wrote the plot and Higgins did most of the sentences that you see on the page, but there's really no telling.We all know that Gotham drives people mad. It's almost comforting to know that i...

This was okay. I didn't love it. The backstory about the Gotham families was kind of interesting. I loved the art for that era and the borders of the pages for those scenes. The story itself was a little confusing at times but it was fine. I didn't love the art for the present day stuff. Cass, Damian and Tim looked different from panel to panel. Not like, "the colorings changed" different but "who's this character standing in the exact same spot in the same exact outfit" different. It was weird....

I was fascinated at the prospect of getting to learn some actual history of Gotham City - who built it and how it ended up the way it was - but ended up disappointed with how limited this vision turned out to be: it concerned mostly of one (admittedly influential) character's personal history in it all, and most of it involved a bomb threat in the present day. Shame.

Someone in Gotham is blowing up the bridges of the city and enacting some strange vengeance against the descendants of the families who built Gotham - the Elliotts, the Kanes, the Cobblepots, and the Waynes. But who, and why?The adventure collects the three Robins - Dick Grayson as Batman, Tim Drake as Red Robin, and Damian Wayne as Robin - along with the Cassandra Cain, the Batgirl currently stationed by Bruce Wayne in Hong Kong, to stop this terrorist before more of Gotham's historic buildings...

"How can you hope to deal with Gotham's future when you know so little about its past?" Current Batman series writer Scott Snyder used to write for Detective Comics back when Dick Grayson took the mantle of Bruce Wayne as Batman. Final Crisis complications and whatnot demanded such a change in heroes; much like for today's post-Convergence event whete Bruce Wayne is once more a goner. You just have to be there to understand. In any case, this is the second major story arc collected in as a gr

It's basically the story of past and present Robins working together to solve the mystery of Steampnk Dude!Gotham's old sins have (once again) risen from the grave to haunt it.*crickets chirping*I'm not sure what to even say about this one. I didn't hate it, but it didn't make much of a lasting impression, either.It was a good solid story, lovely art, and a decent conclusion.Ta-da!There's was a bonus issue at the end about a Muslim Batman in Paris.I thought it was gimmicky, cheesy, and irritatin...

You can find my review on my blog by clicking here.Many are quick to judge Gotham as one of the worst places to live in with the omnipresent criminal activity that pollutes its alleys and sewers. They aren’t wrong. With it being the ideal dark underbelly for your most evil ambitions, you could imagine that it would be easy to blend with the rest of the criminals and not stick out as a sore thumb in a city like Metropolis for example. It’s its vile and dangerous atmosphere that ultimately leads t...

A history of Gotham, with architecture, whodunnit, revenge, and a faint Court of Owls vibe. Fantastic artwork that gives a purposeful nod to Batman The Animated Series.

"Just when I thought I was getting a handle on Gotham, I'm starting to realize how little I actually know. I may have outgrown being a sidekick, but at least it meant there was always someone else to look to for the answers." -- Dick Grayson, thoughtfully pondering the responsibilities of being BatmanHoly tedium, Batman! Even though it opens with an attention-grabbing scene - an exasperated Dark Knight (Dick Grayson, assuming the signature role long held by Bruce Wayne) dangles a jamoke from ato...

(B+) 78% | GoodNotes: It’s Gotham’s origin story as a city built from oligarchy and ambition; forever run, ruined and rescued by its families.

This was actually pretty good!It tells the tale of two brothers Nicholas and Bradley and how they the "Gates of Gotham" built this city along with the founding fathers - Wayne, Elliot, Cobblepot and Kane and the betrayal and twists and turns and how it relates to the story at present where Batman (Richard) and Robin and Cass are trying to save pople and stop the destruction of the bridges in Gotham and we learn their origins through flashback and there is this foreboding mystery at the heart of

So this was a half and half type of story. The story is basically someone blowing shit up. We don't know who, or why, until later, but the mission is to cause havoc. Dick as Batman decides to go investigate with his team of Damien, Tim, and my favorite Bat-family member, Cassandra! On their investigation they work on discovering who is behind these terrible things while we get the backstory of the villain here and why he's trying to destroy the city after being betrayed. Good: The art is pretty

A new adversary, The Architect, is targeting historical properties in Gotham City and it’s up to Batman, Red Robin, Robin and Black Bat to bring him to justice.That one sentence summary would seemingly apply to 99% of Batman stories but hey, that’s OK, it’s Batman after all. With Gates of Gotham, writer Scott Snyder, alongside Kyle Higgins, returns to the Caped Crusader to pen a follow-up to his successful Black Mirror story arc from the prior year. This time around, while we still have Dick Gra...

Batman: Gates of Gotham takes place during the Scott Snyder "Everybody is Batman" phase. That's the Batman Inc trend I am speaking of. A Batman on every corner- no skill or training required. Perhaps if you're the kind of person who finds excellence only through the elevation of mediocrity, then you are a fan of the Batman Inc concept. I am not. That's why I was so surprised by this graphic novel. While it does have some of the annoying aspects of the pedestrian, if not downright amateurish, asp...

This is the second story by Scott Snyder I've read and it was again a great read! He knows how to write a Batman story and he knows how to portray Gotham. I find it very intersting that he portrayed Gotham as a living breathing thing, a city that can corrupt someone in the Black Mirror and that here in Gates of Gotham he does the exact opposite. In Gates of Gotham Snyder emphasises on the fact that Gotham doesn't change you, it just reveals things whether you like them or not and everything else...

With Gates of Gotham, Snyder does a great job giving history to Gotham City. Though the actually mystery was set in the modern day Gotham, Snyder did a solid job building the backstory and setting the tone with an historical look into how the city was designed and created. This may attest to my ultimate nerdiness, but some of the frames depicting the early Gotham skyline gave me chills - I loved seeing one of my favorite skylines develop. This book features Dick Grayson as Batman and shows that

I really enjoyed this book, with Dick as Batman, alongside Damian as Robin, Tim as Red Robin and Cassandra Cain as Black Bat, along with very brief appearance of Bruce. The story ties together 19th Century Gotham with 21st Century Gotham and the families that built Gotham: Cobblepots (Penguin) Elliots (Hush), Kane and of course the Waynes. It also ties together a new Antagonist, "The Architect" along with introducing the brothers who helped literally construct/build Gotham. Well written, relativ...