—and that’s when I noticed that Ed Brubaker has an interesting tendency to start a new scene’s dialogue in mid-sentence. There’s a scene in this issue that begins with Chandler saying “You don’t really think that, do you?” and then Driver says “I guess not,” which seems a little jarring. I did some cursory googling (I actually use DuckDuckGo, since I’ve tried to remove myself from as much of the Google ecosystem as I can, but you don’t care about that), and I couldn’t find anyone else talking about that or why Brubaker does it. I assume it has something to do with making the dialogue seem more natural. Like, these characters aren’t always giving exposition all the time, sometimes they’re just making casual conversation, and sometimes a scene just happens to start in the middle of idle chatting.

It reads a little weirdly, but I’ve convinced myself that I like it — especially because, in that cited example, it’s specifically teasing the ongoing GCPD office rumors about Chandler being in a relationship with her partner, who is obviously in love with her (which you can tell because he gets quiet and scowls whenever she has to go work her kidnapping/murder case with Detective Driver). It’s not crucially relevant to the plot, but it’s just a bit of background color.

Speaking of, the murder case doesn’t move very much in this issue, with Driver and Chandler tracking down a pair of teen bullies who had upset the murder victim before her death. They run from the cops at first, but it’s not because they murdered their girl. It’s because they stole a discarded Batarang from her that she swiped from the aftermath of a battle between Robin and Killer Croc. With that lead apparently being a dead end, the detectives pick up a man who had been living in the park where the girl went missing and who she supposedly had talked to, just as the ever-suspicious Harlan Combs (who the girl had been babysitting for before her death) drives by. Boy, he sure is suspicious!

Meanwhile, the rest of the cops are still investigating a string of arsons connected to a loser nobody Bat-villain called Firebug. Off-screen (or, you know, off-panel), one of the GCPD detectives meets with (now-former) GCPD legend Harvey Bullock (from Batman: TAS!) and finds out where a guy named Joe Rigger has been hiding out. Rigger is the classic identity of Firebug, but when the cops break down his door, he’s just some old guy watching TV. He jumps out a window, getting injured in the process, and the cops are like “I guess we saved the day?” (Spoiler alert: There is a part three of this story arc, and they haven’t caught the kidnapper/murderer yet.)

There’s also a neat scene involving Driver’s ongoing moping, where we find out that a new detective is joining the Major Crimes Unit (I won’t be using the acronym, because it’s too confusing these days) and that she’ll be the first member who wasn’t hand-picked by the (now retired) Jim Gordon. As it turns out, Driver was the last guy who was hand-picked by Gordon, which presumably explains part of the chip on his shoulder about being a good cop who doesn’t necessarily depend on the Batman for everything.

It’s interesting that characters like Driver and Chandler never really broke out of this book, but I guess there is a Crisis Event looming at the end of Gotham Central that kind of mucks things up. A thing about living in the DC Universe is that you always have to be on the lookout for a publisher-wide reboot.

The Untitled Comic Book Newsletter Book Society continues next week with the fifth issue of Gotham Central. Read along at home! Email me your questions or comments if you can find my email!