10 Best DC Comics #1 Of The Modern Age
5. Gotham Central #1
It was a question no one other than Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker thought to ask, what is life like for the Gotham City police? The answer would be one of the most revered and lamented comics of all time, Gotham Central.
The book focuses on the day-to-day life of the GCPD and how they deal with crime, from white-collar to masked meta-humans and everything in between. It also shows what it's like working in the shadow of Batman. A vigilante of seemingly limitless power who tolerates the law as much as it tolerates him.
The first issue starts simple enough, with two officers investigating a tip-off on a kidnapping case. What follows is a harrowing scene of two human cops going up against a super-powered sociopath with a freeze ray. The event's quickly spiral out as the rest of the force is called in to track down the killer before night falls and the Batman intervenes.
The story introduces the major players, their dynamics with each other, the city and Batman. The book even paints in the more significant political and personal issues at play.