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'Gotham City: Year One' #6 offers answers and reveals a femme fatale
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Comic Books

‘Gotham City: Year One’ #6 offers answers and reveals a femme fatale

‘Gotham City: Year One’ #6 closes out its murder mystery with a culprit and plenty of answers.

The finale of a grand mystery is here this week in Gotham City: Year One, which promises answers to the murder mystery that rocked the Wayne family. Slam Bradley knows the truth, and he’s knocking at the door of Wayne manor looking for answers – or maybe it’s repercussions. A baby is dead, a Wayne husband is a known cheater, and Slam’s week has been hell. Does this final issue deliver, or does it swing and miss?

Gotham City: Year One #6 comes out swinging from the start, as Slam fights off one of the Wayne bodyguards after entering the manor. Meanwhile, Gotham is on fire as the city mourns the loss of the Wayne baby. If you’re a fan of noir, this is an excellent culmination of many of the genre’s themes. The world is on fire, death has happened, and the detective with too big a heart needs to find some justice.

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We get pretty much all the answers we need, along with a major twist or two by the end of the issue. If you’re reading this series for the juicy connections to Batman and Gotham, you’re in the right place. Similar to a past reveal of why Crime Alley has its name, we get info about Acme chemical and other reveals I won’t spoil here.

There’s a lot of explaining to do, but Phil Hester and Tom King lay it all out under a very tense scene. It’s Slam vs. Mr. and Mrs. Wayne. Going in, we know the husband’s been cheating, but the wife is much more of a mystery. Similar to the best noir, there’s a femme fatale within her, but she’s also a victim on some scale. The complexity is fun to untangle as truths are revealed.

Hester, Jordie Bellaire, and Eric Gapstur continue to delight with striking visuals. The stark contrast of heavy blank amongst silhouettes of red and blue can be seen throughout. Bellaire adds so much atmosphere, be it a blue light lighting or a green one, that seems to suggest an approaching kiss is wrong. In a key scene when a gun goes off, the use of white to convey the light of the bullet firing looks fantastic, with the characters drenched in an unrealistic but vivid red. Between them is Mrs. Wayne sitting calmly, which shows just how in control she is as they struggle with the gun.

Gotha City: Year ONe #6

Chaos in the streets!
Credit: DC

My only complaint with the art of this issue is the opening fight scene, which is confusingly juxtaposed with the chaos of rioters in the streets of Gotham. It’s not immediately clear where Slam is fighting as he’s getting punched in a starkly white space. It made me question where we left off or if I missed some pages. It’s revealed eventually where he is, but it’s a confusing way to start. One might argue that’s on purpose to create a sense of chaos, but story-wise, it took me out of the book.

If you’ve been reading this book expecting some huge revelation about Batman and Slam, you might feel slightly disappointed. Only slightly, since there are revelations tied to Batman, just not him as a character. That said, the evil this story has uncovered and where it is buried has implications in a symbolic way surrounding Gotham. It was always a story without Batman, and his inclusion is more there to remind us an entire city can crumble and fall because of a few poor choices and ill intentions. Some of the reveals in this series were more fun nods than anything else, though.

Fans of noir and crime stories should snatch up Gotham City: Year One #6 and the collected edition once it’s out to ensure we get more nuanced, layered stories like this.

'Gotham City: Year One' #6 offers answers and reveals a femme fatale
‘Gotham City: Year One’ #6 offers answers and reveals a femme fatale
Gotham City: Year One #6
Fans of noir and crime stories should snatch up Gotham City: Year One #6 and the collected edition once it's out to ensure we get more nuanced, layered stories like this.
Reader Rating1 Vote
8.9
A strong finale that gives us answers and even more reveals about Gotham City
Striking art continues to impress, especially with color and the use of stark blacks
The symbology of what is revealed is compelling
Opening fight scene doesn't establish where Sam is making it confusing as it's juxtaposed with chaos in Gotham
Doesn't deliver the big revelations about Batman some might expect
9
Great
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