11 Essential Comics To Read If You Love Batman

2. Gotham Central

One of the greatest things about Batman isn't so much the character himself, but the world he inhabits. Gotham, as Scott Snyder will tell you, is a beast in itself; a cauldron of violence with a massive history to boast. Having the opportunity to see it through other, non-Bat eyes, then, is a pretty interesting concept to contemplate, and one that was explored fully in Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker's Gotham Central.

Unlike Gotham (which really should've followed the formula of this series), Central is a police procedural/crime drama through and through. The focus of the action is Renee Montoya, a character introduced in Batman: The Animated Series and the eventual successor to The Question as well, as she navigates the internal politics of the GCPD and the perennial crime scene that is the city itself.

The series was most famous for its depiction of Montoya, who's outed as a lesbian early on and forced to deal with horrendous levels of homophobia from both her colleagues and family alike. Today, she's an LGBT* icon of the medium, and one who really came into her own in this particular comic.

It's an amazing series, and illustrates quite brilliantly that there's more to Gotham than just Batman.