2. Two Great Tastes That Taste Great Together
Dark City is a great Batman story because it's got loads of awesome Batman action but all of the fighting, gadgets and heroic acts wouldn't work unless it didn't have the character work to back it up and make it important to the reader. And one of the best things in Dark City is the way Snyder writes Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon's relationship. Since Zero Year started Bruce and Jim haven't been sympatico, which goes back to the day Bruce's parents were murdered. Jim busts Bruce who's playing truant to go watch Zorro at the Monarch Theatre. In the back seat, Bruce watches as Gordon's squad car parks outside a clothes shop and Jim's partner, Corrigan, goes in, talks a minute and comes out with new trench coats the same one Gordon still wears today. To Bruce, who didn't see what Gordon did later when he challenged Corrigan and wound up fighting, and killing, a number of dogs meant for gambling matches, it meant Gordon was part of the endemic corruption within the GCPD, rather than one of the few good cops on the force. Gordon inadvertently gets his chance to set things right when he tells Batman (not knowing he's Bruce) what the trench coat means to him: to remind the others that he hasn't forgotten that day, and neither has he. Besides the trench coat story, the other notable moment between the two that symbolises their burgeoning friendship is after Jim helps Batman, who's just barely escaped from the GCPD, into his boat and Jim hands Batman his glasses. He tells him to take off his cowl before it burns his eyes out and that he won't see his identity because he's practically blind without his glasses. Batman does remove his cowl and so begins to slowly trust Gordon. Gordon is one of Batman's greatest allies so it's important that he play a significant part in his origin story his scenes in Dark City (and presumably in the forthcoming Savage City) reinforce the character's importance in the Batman mythos that Snyder crucially gets so right. Plus Gordon is a wonderful character and fans of Batman are almost always fans of Gordon so his inclusion always makes a Batman story better!