In Gotham, Batman is a dominating presence hanging over the criminal underworld. In Gotham Central: In the Line of Duty, we can see how he also overshadows the people involved in everyday law enforcement. In all the Batman comics, TV shows, and films, the police have been relegated to latecomers who show up when Batman has solved the crime and tied up the bad guys, leaving the police scratching their heads.

The Gotham Central comic really is completely unique in that we can get into the minds and lives of some very tough, very good cops who care about the city and protecting the innocent as much as Batman does.

In the Line of Duty contains the first five issues of the comic. A tense, well-executed storyline balancing plot development and character development is a real treat. Readers are treated to the appearance of Batman arch-villian Mr. Freeze, and a brief glimpse of the Bat himself. The art is dark and gritty and perfectly matches the setting and story.

This book does not live up to the reviews others are giving it. Of course anything tied to Gotham City will feature Batman, but, in this case, only in cameo shots (perhaps the writers were too embarassed to feature him more). This is supposed to be a "behind the scenes" kind of effort wherein the "real" heroes of Gotham City are its dedicated police officers. I cannot honestly see any point in serving up these stories. They are really very poorly written for coming from Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka; actually pretty hackneyed which would give credence to one reviewer's saying it recalled the good old days - the language seems right out of an incredibly bad Mickey Spillane pulp novel. The whole Mr. Freeze arc starts off good, but fizzles out very badly. Maybe this was better at some point as the editing seems very choppy. The art was good, but the story should be the driving force and it lacks any real suspense or drama. Look elsewhere for better (way better) stories by these writers.

Life isn't easy for Gotham City's finest; living is the shadow of the Dark Knight, and dealing with villains large and small. While investigating a kidnapping, Detective Marcus Driver sees his partner murdered right in front of him by Mister Freeze, and he is determined that these crimes won't be solved by Batman, but will be handled by good old-fashioned police work. But, there's more to this case than meets the eye. Tough times have a way of turning common people into heroes, and Detective Driver will need to be a hero before all of this is over.

I must say that I was quite pleasantly surprised by this graphic novel. Batman appears in the story, but he is a very minor character. Instead, this is the story of a group of regular police officers doing their duty, and fighting crime the way that they police must. The illustration work is done in a style that took me back to the Golden Age comics, giving the story something of a timelessness that I did not expect.

Overall, I found this to be a fascinating graphic novel, one with an interesting twist in the selection of heroes. I loved this book, and highly recommend it to you.