GANGS OF GOTHAM #1 / Script by CHRISTOPHER CANTWELL / Art by MIKE HENDERSON / Colors by TRISH MULVIHILL / Letters by BECCA CAREY / Published by DC COMICS
Vigilante Lonnie Machin (aka Anarky) is a joke on the streets of Gotham. Even the GCPD don’t consider him a threat. Things get even worse when Lonnie is captured by corporate criminal Minotaur and given an ultimatum; work for me and unite the gangs on Gotham’s infamous East End, or die.
It’s a distasteful situation for all involved. However, it’s even worse for Batman, as Lonnie manages to blunder his way into a role the Bat already had an undercover agent working to take over. This leaves Lonnie with an unknown ally, even as all hell threatens to break loose…
I should note at the start that I am not a fan of Anarky. The pet creation of the late Alan Grant and the late Norm Breyfogle, Anarky was the sort of concept that could only be imagined by an actual anarchist who got his start with Judge Dredd at the height of the Dark Age of Comics. That is to say, a 12 year old super-genius with a super-suit that hides his age, who commits crimes to “help the people.” I do not use the terms “Mary Sue” or “Marty Stu” lightly, but Lonnie Machin is a prime example of the phenomena. How else can one describe a character who steals a Green Lantern ring under the nose of multiple heroes, talks Darkseid into giving him a Mother Box, and earns the begrudging respect of Batman?
The irony is that the use of Anarky by other creators led to anarchy, as far as his personal history and motivations went. The good news is that Christopher Cantwell restores Anarky to his original concept as a teenage idealist, spinning out of his recent revival in Matt Fraction’s Batman. The bad news, at least for Anarky’s cult-following, is that I’m not sure Cantwell is trying to make Anarky likeable or sympathetic.
Gangs of Gotham #1 does not paint Anarky as a desperate genius fallen on hard times. Indeed, he comes off like Holden Caulfield but somehow whinier. Frankly, I love this portrayal and the idea that most of what Lonnie accomplishes is due to dumb luck and Batman saving him in secret. Would that I could be more certain this was intentional given Cantwell wrote Doctor Doom as a similarly hapless anti-hero. (Granted, showing him writing a letter to Batman begging for help while on the toilet doesn’t help.)
The art, at least, is clear and crisp. As a former Wolverine and Daredevil artist, Mike Henderson has experience drawing urban settings and depicting the action centered around more physical heroes. Unfortunately, he doesn’t vary up his character designs and the only thing that distinguishes Magpie from a new female Cluemaster is their hair colors. So thank you colorist Trish Mulvihill for that and the other little details like the sickly green sheen of Gotham City’s nighttime sky. And a tip of the hat to letterer Becca Carey for the little things like Anarky’s distinctive scrawl in his narration/letter.
Overall, there’s very little of interest in Gangs of Gotham. Only die-hard Batman completists interested in the structure of Gotham’s underworld post-Bad Seeds are likely to care about the story. Anarky fans will likely be annoyed to see him portrayed as the twit most fans see him as. About the only point of interest is who the female Cluemaster is and the only reason I even knew that’s who she was meant to be is trying to puzzle out what “Clu” was short for. I’ll give Cantwell credit for the tease, but this book is in trouble when that half-mystery is the most engaging part of the issue.
