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Classic Comic Compendium: BATMAN – GATES OF GOTHAM feels like a dry run for some of COURT OF OWLS

A look at one of the last Batman stories before the New 52.

02/24/2025 11:00 am

I’m a sucker for stories that build a conspiracy or secrets into the founding of a city.

Or even construction of a building. That may seem strange, given that I’m generally wary of inserts of heretofore unknown childhood friends or the like, but I like it when in the long past there was a nefarious cabal poisoning a city or a hidden demoniac building occult wards into an asylum. Especially when it also feeds clues in modern day events that characters have to discover. Maybe it’s just because I love the Arkham games or the Arkham Asylum graphic novel, but they represent some of my favourites within the Batman franchise too.

“The families will fall by the gates of Gotham.”

Batman: Gates of Gotham from Scott Snyder, Kyle Higgins, Ryan Parrott, Trevor McCarthy, Graham Nolan, Dustin Nguyen, Derec Donovan, Guy Major, and Jared K. Fletcher is one part modern day thriller with the Bat family trying to stop a terrorist targeting iconic landmarks across Gotham and one part historical drama about turning the city into one of the shining stars of the DC Universe.

The story is split between the two time frames, using the narrative of constructing Gotham as the foundation for the events unfolding in the present. Going into a bit of detail on the history of the Waynes, Cobblepots, Elliots, and Kanes. Introducing a new villain in the Architect, inspired by the brothers that did the actual design and construction of some of the city’s most famous landmarks. And how it rather humorously puts Hush into a kind of diminished capacity. With Jared K. Fletcher providing a nice cursive script for a journal document that serves as the key delivery for many of the incidences in the past.

Trevor McCarthy has an interesting art style. His characters are often angular and exaggerated, particularly in his depiction of the Penguin, with a kind of open interior shading for clothing and character shape details. It reminds me of similar approaches by the Pander Brothers and Adam Pollina, resulting in a very stylized look. It’s fairly compelling when Guy Major’s colours are applied, giving a nice moody atmosphere to the present day sequences and then a sepia-toned look for the flashbacks. The two segments are differentiated nicely, especially when it comes to the architecture of Gotham, and the designs of Anton Furst. The art’s made even more interesting to me in that for one issue, the present day and flashback sequences are split between Dustin Nguyen and Derec Donovan.

“This city was built on the bones of the innocent–”

I feel like Batman: Gates of Gotham by Snyder, Higgins, Parrott, McCarthy, Nolan, Nguyen, Donovan, Major, and Fletcher is kind of a dry run at some of the ideas that would present themselves later in the New 52 as the Court of Owls. Though this story is fundamentally different, The Architect and dealing with new, historical elements in the construction and founding of Gotham, of dealing with the wealthy families behind the surface of Gotham, share similarities.

This was one of the very last stories before the universe was rebooted, so I was always interested in what could have been if this throughline had have been followed further. And the legacy of the founding families through present day descendants, especially as Bruce Wayne technically took on two.