Batman: Bad Seeds – Gotham General #1: Something Different

Batman: Bad Seeds – Gotham General #1 brings a fresh point of view to a Batman event. When collateral damage from events is referred to, it is often merely referenced by the heroes, as though it is something that happened more in the distance–and that’s if it’s referenced at all. For example, Batman: Bad Seeds – Sunrise #1 really only deals with the aftermath as it relates to the main characters. Batman: Bad Seeds – Gotham General #1 does something completely different.

Medical procedurals are rare in comic books, and that’s exactly what Batman: Bad Seeds – Gotham General #1 is. Rucka delivers the equivalent of a high energy emergency room drama. After a couple pages to introduce characters, the issue jumps into high gear. It’s chaos in the hospital with injured and poisoned patients flooding the ER. This is helped along with instances of background dialogue behind the main events in many panels. These instances of background dialogue are handled well by Napolitano. Dialogue bubbles are drawn with thinner outlines and the text in the is a very light gray text. It’s a good way of showing readers that the entire hospital is working through these emergencies without overloading the reader with too many story moments.

This high energy chaos cools off near the end of the issue. The pages just before the end provide a nice respite before the issue concludes with a surprising continuation of Batman: Bad Seeds – Gotham Central #2.

Not surprisingly, there’s a lot of medical jargon throughout Batman: Bad Seeds – Gotham General #1. It’s intended to build up the urgency in every patient encounter. Paradoxically, though, this actually works against the story. The issue’s most dramatic moments come when Rucka balances the medical situation with human interaction. The latter can easily get lost in sequences when there is too much of the former.

Delpeche uses a soft color palette. There’s a rich variation of color, but it’s subdued. Fortunately the issue is set almost entirely against a white and light blue background. This background accomplishes two things–it suggests a sterility that reinforces the hospital setting and also helps everything else pop off the page despite the issue’s overall subdued coloring.

The soft colors are a very good match for Ekedal and Lieber’s art. Linework is thin and light. Outlines are thicker and darker relative to what the artists use to build detail, but even then just enough to create a barrier between characters or objects. These fairly thin outlines result in Delpeche’s coloring doing a lot of the work to distinguish everything within the panel.

Character detail is minimal–just enough to add dimension to faces and thus facial expressions. This fairly minimalist artistic style works very well for a comic that is more human oriented and comparatively lower stakes than most superhero related entries.