Gotham City: Year One by Tom King and Phil Hester

[Hypo]

Phil Hester Talks Gotham City Year One

[thwhtGuardian]

Now, before I go any further, I'll say that Tom King is a good writer and more than capable of spinning an entertaining yarn; for instance I loved his take on Dick Grayson as a master spy in Grayson, and his Batman/Elmer Fudd one shot was seriously one of the best Batman stories I've ever read...but like that rhyme about the little girl with a curl down the middle of her head, while Tom King can be good, when he's bad he's rotten(I'm looking at you Supergirl and Human Target).But this was a book with Slam Bradley as the lead and I love Slam so I took the chance. Now, this issue isn't rotten by any stretch of the word but it does play heavily into what dragged down some of his previous missteps in that much of the plot is blatantly stolen from elsewhere(and with out attribution) with only the thinnest of veneers plastered over it to make it look original. In this case, rather than stealing the plot from a well known movie he copies the events of the notorious Lindbergh abduction down to a tee, including every specific element from who discovered the missing child and the cobbled together ladder straight down to the exact text of the ransom letter...only changing the odd circular symbol to a crudely drawn bat-symbol. On top of that, King throws in Slam getting bagged for the death of his partner which is taken right from the Maltese Falcon right down to the body being found at the bottom of a muddy hill. It's a fun setting, and he really does have a good handle on the techniques of telling a proper crime noir story...but it kills me just how much is "borrowed" from other sources. Other than inserting Slam Bradley, setting in Gotham and involving the Wayne family everything else of note is wholly unoriginal. It's slam though, so unlike Human Target where I dropped it when I saw how bad it ripped D.O.A. I'm going to try and stick it out a little bit longer.

On the art side, there are no buts about it: I love it!Phil Hester is one of my all time favorite artists and I have never understood why he doesn't get more work. In this issue in particular, Hester's art does an utterly amazing job of making the story feel like a real deal pulp detective story. The bold lines and dark shadows are perfect for capturing that city lights through a pair of blinds look that is typical of a proper noir film...and unlike King, although Hester captures that aesthetic none of his images are actually traced directly from a film scene which makes it all the better.

Hopefully as the story progresses King borrows less but I won't be holding my breath.

[MajorHoy]

Now, before I go any further, I'll say that Tom King is a good writer and more than capable of spinning an entertaining yarn; for instance I loved his take on Dick Grayson as a master spy in Grayson . . .

But King wasn't the only writer on Grayson. He co-wrote that series with Tim Seeley. While there may have been some issues where King was the sole writer, he was working with somebody else for the overall direction of the series.

It was disappointing to me how those two worked so well on Grayson, but their Rebirth solo efforts (Batman for King / Nightwing for Seeley) were so much less enjoyable for me.

[HsssH]

I do wonder at what point it becomes a plagiarism?

[thwhtGuardian]

I do wonder at what point it becomes a plagiarism?

When you don't cite the projects you're taking from in the book.

That's really all he needs to do, put a "based on the Lindbergh kidnapping" at the start and then in the scene where the partner gets killed and rolled down the hill into the mud with Slam's gun on him put an asterisks and say, " Based on The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett."

But he doesn't and DC seems to let him do it without a care.

[JBatmanFan05]

Can't say I'm a fan of Tom King not going with Bruce's grandfather Patrick Wayne (created in 1997). And Patrick has some up a bit in different media.

[Hypo]

Gotham City: Year One #2 Preview
Writer: Tom King
Artist: Phil Hester

[Frontier]

Not a nice look for good ol' Slam.

[Rzerox21xx]

Anyone read the 2nd issue, this premise is interesting I heard Tom King lately been doing better on his recent stuff than his solo Batman and the 12 issue Batman Catwoman. so just wondering if theres any recommendation for this title.

[thwhtGuardian]

Anyone read the 2nd issue, this premise is interesting I heard Tom King lately been doing better on his recent stuff than his solo Batman and the 12 issue Batman Catwoman. so just wondering if theres any recommendation for this title.

He's still ripping off other stories without any attribution, if that doesn't matter to you it's a decent read and the art by Hester is absolutely amazing.

[Hypo]

Gotham City: Year One #3 Preview
Writer: Tom King
Artist: Phil Hester

[Rzerox21xx]

Well read the new issue, pretty good stuff, love the noir and historic feel to it. it does show that the Wayne family wasn't squeaky clean, atleast until Thomas started running things, What you think.

[Vordan]

He's still ripping off other stories without any attribution, if that doesn't matter to you it's a decent read and the art by Hester is absolutely amazing.

He goes on podcasts and openly says he’s basing such and such on a noir film he’s seen, Word Balloon specifically had him do that plus acknowledge he was basing the story of Year One on the Lindbergh kidnapping. But the idea he has to “cite” his influences is silly. Does George Lucas have to open every Star Wars movie by acknowledging he’s ripping off Flash Gordan, Joseph Campbell, and a whole bunch of other stories? Does James Cameron have to put “I ripped off Dancing with Wolves” at the start of Avatar 2? Scott Snyder’s Batman run was pretty repetitive of Morrison, but I didn’t see a citation from him at the start of every issue.

What King is doing is extremely common and as long as he isn’t stealing a script someone else wrote for Gotham City Year One, he can get away with it just like everyone else.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

I dug it as a film noir take. spoilers:

Is slam supposed to be narrating it to Bruce in the modern day?

end of spoilers

[Hypo]

Gotham City: Year One #4 Preview
Writer: Tom King
Artist: Phil Hester