3 out of 5

Detective Comics, in my mind, in my understanding of the series, should be a favorite book of mine.  When I was a youngster, I figured that there was a reason that we had Spectacular Spider-Man and Amazing Spider-Man as separate titles, Legends of the Dark Knight and Detective Comics… later I would grasp that it’s just a way to have several writers writing one character at the same time, and business-wise multiple dollars milked from those who just follow their favorites around.  But it’s too bad that Detective Comics isn’t what it sounds like – mysteries, crime comics.  Even though the title has been associated with Batman since his appearance a billion years ago, it’d be awesome to really have some pulpy one shots or short stories featuring Bats, ones where we don’t have to be concerned with how they tie into continuity or larger crossovers.  Sometimes writers or DC get on the page for this, and we’ll get some really fun little tales.  Brubaker does his best for the short time he was on the book, turning in some successful snippets of crime, but he also wasn’t bold enough to really sink into the writing, so it just seems to skim the surface of crime comics, not quite defined enough in any sense – pulpy, comicy, detectivey, Batmany – to stick out as a must-read.  But his crime roots are there, so the stories are interesting, they could just take place anywhere.  As seemed to be the case years later with their partnership on a single Daredevil story, Brubaker needed a fellow voice to shape his breed of story-telling to comics, and as such, the vibe he just hints at in Detective Comics seems to get fully realized in Gotham Central.
If all of his Detective Comics work were ever collected, it’d totes be a worthwhile investment.  But hunting these down in single issue form isn’t a requirement.