Gotham Central Book Three: On the Freak Beat

Gotham Central Book Three: On the Freak Beat by Greg Rucka
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Montoya and Allen tangle with the Black Spider and a crucial piece of evidence goes missing. A televangelist turns up dead and it looks like Catwoman is the killer. One of Dr. Alchemy's old experiments transforms a cop and Montoya and Allen have to team up with some Keystone City cops and Dr. Alchemy himself to try to cure him. Business as usual for the detectives down at Gotham Central...

Brubaker and Rucka have wowed me again. Even this far into Gotham Central's run, they continue to impress me. This volume is just as good as the previous two.

The cases involved more superhuman elements than the previous one, including more Batman than the previous two volumes put together. Corrigan and MacDonald developed quite a bit as characters in this volume. Allen and Montoya's partnership is growing stronger and watching the two of them in action is one of my favorite parts of the series. It could have used more Detective Driver but you can't have everything.

Renee Montoya is my favorite GCPD detective by light years. You wouldn't think I'd latch on to a Hispanic recently-outed lesbian detective so quickly but I have. In a way, I wish I didn't know what 52 has in store for her once Gotham Central ends.

The Catwoman case was my favorite plot-wise, but Dr. Alchemy as Hannibal Lecter was the best character. Other parts of the book that stand out are the taking down of the Bat Signal and one of the Keystone City cops mentioning Detective Allen had a good last name for a cop in their town.

Gotham Central continues to be a home run derby of a graphic novel series as far as I'm concerned. Five easy stars.

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