By Bruno Savill De Jong — Following the long dramatic storyline of “Half a Life”, it seems the single-issue “Daydreams and Believers” will be a relaxing break. Brian Hurtt temporarily replaces Michael Lark with a softer and rounder art-style, and Lark himself gives an Alex Toth/John Romita Sr/Romance Comics tribute cover between Batman and Stacy, a fantasy which loosely frames the story. Stacy, the GCPD’s secretary, narrates “Daydreams and Believers” (a focused focalization rare to Gotham Central), which operates like a backdoor-introduction to the GCPD staff seen from her perspective. As Stacy is a supporting character in Gotham Central, “Daydreams and Believers” is like a spin-off of a spin-off. Yet, in a way, this only accentuates some of Gotham Central’s core themes. Despite its one-shot nature, “Daydreams and Believers” contains some pivotal scenes that extend beyond this single issue, and support the fundamental principles of the entire series.

Stacy explains (her narration being a letter to her friend Meg) her romantic daydreams about Batman are a result of her job, and how “it’s starting to seep into the rest of my life”. “Daydreams and Believers” is an issue about consequences, or how societal aspects organically grow into other areas. Stacy’s romantic fantasies are an unintended after-effect of Batman’s presence, a humorous and harmless parallel to how Batman’s mere presence (or, as Stacy explains, the GCPD’s official explanation for the owning Bat-Signal) is meant to act as “a deterrent. To scare the bad guys” – Stacy viewing him as masculine protector. Of course, police in Gotham Central will often blame Batman for causing the proliferation of supervillains too. Actions may have consequences, but they can’t always be controlled.

This theme is highlighted in “Daydreams and Believers” central ‘case’, wherein convicted prisoner Tiny Maxwell escapes during his mother’s funeral, stealing an unrelated hearse. Although Sarge was able to track both the prisoner and hearse down, the coffin and corpse of Sven Peterson has gone missing, his family unable to bury him, “a loose end to a much bigger case that [Sarge] already closed”. The Petersons are unintended victims of unrelated crimes. Those that stole Sven’s corpse are not directly sadistic, but simply dumb jocks who thought a real corpse would improve their ‘Haunted House’. Like Tiny Maxwell they did not think of how their actions would affect others, which in some ways is just as bad as intentional pain.

It makes Stacy remember an anecdote of Commissioner Gordon, who delivers perhaps the central statement of Gotham Central. Similar to his wise cameo appearance in “In the Line of Duty”, and echoing Sarge’s own thoughts from “Motive”, Gordon opines that “a lot of criminals aren’t really all that bad at heart… they just don’t think through the ramifications of their actions”. For Gordon, “there’s no excuse for that kind of mindless ignorance when you live in a society”. Society is a collaboration between individuals, all of whom need to work together to make it function. Within Gotham Central, all the pieces matter, the working mortal police just as important as those caped vigilantes and supervillains fighting above them.

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Another pivotal scene tied to this perspective occurs in “Daydreams and Believers”. Here, Detective Driver provides court testimony against Mr. Freeze for the events of “In the Line of Duty”. This brief scene is not only important for emphasizing a sense of continuity and realism to Gotham Central, how the after-effects of Gotham Central’s very first scene is still playing out within the justice system, but also how such supervillains have lasting human impact. Mr. Freeze obviously affects police by injuring them, but beyond that, him and his ‘freak’ colleague’s constant, seemingly unchanging, presence in Gotham mentally wears down its citizens. Driver’s tirade against Mr Freeze’s “insanity plea” may not be entirely fair, but that is not really the point. Rather its an example of how Arkham Asylum’s ‘revolving door’ (how “you’re just going to cart him off to Arkham until he gets the chance to do this all over again”) leaves a psychological toll on Gotham’s supposed guardians. Stacy appreciates seeing the Detectives working to solve cases, “even if I know each arrest is just another drop of the bucket”. For Driver, it feels like even these drops are being taken out. As Gotham Central shows, Gotham is not simply a backdrop, but a living environment that actively impacts those living within it.

Stacy is, somewhat literally, a bridge between the city and its institutions. She describes how she “work[s] for a civilian organization… so I’m not actually a city employee”, even if she functionally is. This bureaucratic detail is so Stacy can touch the Bat-Signal, given the ‘city’ cannot officially acknowledge Batman’s existence. So, Stacy is an intersection within Gotham, a link in its chain that connects Batman to the GCPD without them touching. Similarly, Stacy finds the ‘gallows humor’ of the GCPD ironic, how “they walk through bloodbaths looking for answers for dead people… and yet they spend half their time cracking up”. This seemingly indicates a blunt separation between their work and attitude. Yet, “Daydreams and Believers” shows that such compartmentalization is not always possible. Stacy’s work-place proximity to Batman begin affecting her fantasies, as her dreams creep into the day during her commute, a liminal space between her home and her job. Sarge cannot help going the extra mile to recover the Peterson’s coffin. Operating within a society means its individual components cannot remain separate.

Sometimes they just seep through into the rest of it.

Editor’s Note: While we love Gotham Central, we also appreciate how its representation of police does not directly address the critical real-world injustices prevalent in U.S. police departments. If you would like to help support the correction of these systemic injustices, we recommend doing so via donations to Black Lives Matter.

Gotham Central: Daydreams and Believers

GOTHAM CENTRAL #11: “Daydreams and Believers”
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Brian Hurtt
Colorist: Lee Loughridge
Letterer: Willie Schubert
Editors: Matt Idelson and Nachie Castro
Meet Stacy, the only civilian member of the Major Crimes Unit and the only person in Gotham allowed to activate the Bat Signal--a seemingly simple task that actually deeply affects Stacy's emotional life. Featuring guest art by QUEEN & COUNTRY'S Brian Hurtt!
Buy It Digitally: Gotham Central #11

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Bruno Savill De Jong is a recent undergraduate of English and freelance writer on films and comics, living in London. His infrequent comics-blog is Panels are Windows and semi-frequent Twitter is BrunoSavillDeJo.