Um. Anyone know why Gotham by Gaslight is now under the Master of the Future heading instead of Gotham by Gaslight, where I posted it, and GbG seems to be wiped out from the database? Just curious. --CDM.

In 1988, 100 years after Jack the Ripper appeared--and disappeared--DC Comics decided to solve the crime once and for all, with some help from their best and most famous detective: Batman.

Set in the Gotham City of 1888, Gotham by Gaslight is a short mystery story chronicling the return of Bruce Wayne to Gotham City after a 5-year absence (us Batman readers know what he was doing during his trips abroad) only to find someone else has joined him on the boat over from England. A woman is murdered on the streets of Gotham and a postcard is sent to the police.

"Dear Boss, Hello to America, hello to Gotham City. Truly the streets are paved in gold, though they'll run red 'fore I'm thru. My knife is as sharp as ever and NO WH*RE is safe even if she don't take money--HA HA, yours truly, JACK THE RIPPER."

Now, I've never been one to read a lot of Jack the Ripper stories because in fiction they're a dime a dozen, really. Everyone's got their own take and a lot of them, to be honest, suck. But Brian Augustyn and Mike Mignola, in bringing Jack to a Gotham of 1888, have given us something to finally sit up and take notice of. The plot is tight and well-thought out, logical--as logical as it can be in a world where Batman stalks the streets of 19th-century Gotham in a hand-sewn cloak and hood--and Mike Mignola's art--as always--is a pleasure to see. Mignola has always been an artist who relies heavily on shadow and dark places, and that makes him the perfect choice to illustrate this story. He creates a Gotham City you'd expect to have never seen the sun--even in the few daytime scenes, Gotham is a dark, forbidding place. His Batman, always in the shadows, is a sinister figure, bulky, but never bogged down. This is a Batman you can almost believe in, devoid of any of the modern or futuristic gadgets the present day Batman relies on. He throws knives instead of Batarangs. His cape is a simple cloak you'd expect to find on anyone from that era. And when Batman is in action, breaking up a robbery, leaping from rooftop to rooftop, you can practically hear the Indiana Jones theme in your head.

Also making appearances are Inspector Jim Gordon, not yet Commissioner, and Harvey Dent (pre-Two-Face) as Bruce Wayne's lawyer (why is Wayne in jail? He is, naturally, suspected of being the Ripper). There's also a glimpse of a "merry-widower", a man who marries rich old women, then poisons them with strychnine. Upon his capture, he tries to take some of his own poison to finish himself off before he can be taken in. His attempt fails, and instead of death, his face is simply paralyzed, frozen into a wide grin. The Joker.

Fortunately, only Gordon has anything near a real role in this story, Dent and the Joker thrown in just for the sake of a bringing the entire Batman mythology into the 1800s.

In prison, days before his hanging is set, Gordon brings Bruce all the evidence they have on the Ripper murders (would this EVER happen, even if, as in this story, Gordon believes in Bruce's innocence?) and over the next few days, just as Bruce is about to admit defeat, he gets an epiphany and knows who the Ripper is.

The confrontation is beautifully rendered and when Batman tells the Ripper, "Go ahead. Run. You will not get away," we believe him. A chase on horseback through the dark, foggy streets of Gotham leads to the cemetery where Batman reveals the killer, the killer reveals his reason, and everything--from Batman's origins up to that very moment--is brought full circle.

I won't reveal the truth--you'll figure it out for yourself halfway through the book, Augustyn doesn't work too hard to keep it a secret and anyone with a knowledge of how mystery stories work will get it soon enough--I'll just tell you that even now, almost 15 years after it was first published, Gotham by Gaslight is still a joy to read, a great action story with a well thought-out plot, and some of the best Batman art this side of Norm Breyfogle's work in Detective Comics. Definitely a must-read for any comic book lover, or just someone interested in a new, and probably more interesting, Jack the Ripper story than what they're used to.

Recommended: Yes