GCPD: The Blue Wall

What you'll think of this may depend a lot on what you expect it to be. It's a story about the Gotham City PD, but it could just as well be any large urban American police force... although, clearly, making it a fictional one gives a greater degree of freedom to the writers. So if you're expecting costumed villains or similar craziness, you may well be disappointed - Batman, for instance, isn't in it and is barely even mentioned.

The story is about Renee Montoya, recently having replaced Jim Gordon as Commissioner, and trying to make the GCPD better. She's haunted by memories of Two-Face (the only other significant character from the Batman mythos to appear) and struggling to get her life together in the face of her new responsibilities. But the focus is perhaps even more on three new recruits who illustrate, in different ways, just how large a challenge she faces as they make their way through the grimier side of police life.

Despite the standard 13+ rating, it's a dark story, with some uncomfortable themes. The characters swear a lot (although the rating means that the actual words are blanked out) and there's alcoholism, overt racism, and gun violence that seems all the more real because of the plausible background. It's a grim read in places, without much in the way of hope, but the characters are well-written and varied, trying to do the right thing in a world that mostly doesn't care.