During the build up to Gotham's premiere fans were anxious to know just how much the show was going to draw on the classic, perennially underrated comic book series Gotham Central; something which star Ben McKenzie fanned further by noting it was part of his background reading for the part of James Gordon. As it turns out the TV writers haven't taken a whole lot from Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker's street-level depiction of what working for the Gotham City Police Department is like when you've got a masked vigilante and his hoards of colourful enemies to deal with (amongst your garden variety thefts and murders), effectively severing all ties with the gritty, realistic tone the comics went for. They did, however, half-inch a bunch of their characters. In the pilot we're introduced to Montoya and Allen, a couple of detectives from the Major Crimes Unit (and we admit, the fanboy in us giggled a bit every time they shortened that down to "MCU") who are wise to Bullock's propensity for being a hopelessly crooked, corrupt cop. Which means that, technically, they're the bad guys, because they could spell trouble for Harvey and Jim. Crispus Allen (played here by Andrew Stewart-Jones) had appeared in Batman comics before Gotham Central, but it was that series which fleshed him out, and he ended up getting killed by a different corrupt police officer and being resurrected as a spirit of vengeance called The Spectre. Yeah, um, we're not sure the same will happen here. And as for Montoya...
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
