InsaneJournal

Moments from Gotham
In a few posts here at the comm there has been some discussion of classism in comic books, which of course means that some commenters have taken aim at Batman, or Bruce Wayne, once more. It isn't the first time I've discussion or such commentary on how Batman could do so much more for Gotham with his money instead of playing with gadgets, although I'm always amused how those comments always single Batman out. The reason, however, why I'm always a bit puzzled by that criticism is that it isn't as if it hasn't been dealt with in the Bat-books themselves, with it having been established several times that Bruce Wayne is the biggest philanthropist in Gotham, if not even in the whole world, and the Wayne Foundation is a significant benefactor in several charity project. It's not a secret, it's not a loose, it's canon. It's been dealt with several times, even if Morrison did drop that really weird dialogue in his storyline.

The discussion did however remind me of an awesome Batman story published in Gotham Knights 32, written by Devin Grayson with art from Roger Robinson. It takes place directly Bruce Wayne: Murderer/Fugitive, with Bruce Wayne having finally returned to Gotham after his innocence has been proven and with Batman having made peace with who he is. It was an interesting storyline and important one leading from NML, where Bruce Wayne failed to save Gotham, despite trying everything. It is a beatiful issue, with each page showing a moment in his life and the impact both Bruce Wayne and Batman have on Gotham, with both of them being as important. So I thought I would post some pages from the story, with it proving extremely difficult to choose which pages to include. I decided to go with scenes that show the long-term impact Bruce has on the city and the lives of different people there, although the story had beautiful moments concerning his relationship with almost all of the central Bat-Clan and awesome Bat-action.

The ending is also quite beautiful, beyond these pages of course, but posting limits, as everyone understands. Still, the great thing about this story was that each page stood alone in showing the importance of Batman to Gotham in several ways. Hope you enjoyed the scans as much as I did.