For a while now I’ve been thinking that Gates of Gotham only exists for one reason: To test the writing chops of Kyle Higgins. Now he’s written comics before this mini, but to me I keep thinking that this is where DC knew if he was suitable to write a Nightwing comic. It really makes sense in that you have Scott Snyder, the biggest name at DC right now, who is perfect at writing Dick Grayson to help out in the mini. Now I’ve talked to Snyder about the mini and he says it’s a joint effort by both men (unlike in Project Superman where it’s very little of his ideas involved). Well whatever the real case of the mini existing is pretty irrelevent at this point: Because I think it’s one of the best mini’s to come out this year.

Let me get one of the problems with the mini out of the way first, which would be artist Trevor McCarthy. Maybe I just can’t used to his pencils, I’m not sure, but I do know his work has been very inconsistant so far. He is very good at the flashback sequences and in this issue it’s more of the same. He’s very good at giving us an ‘old timey’ feel to Gotham and his designs for the panels have a Victorian feel to them. But when we go to the present, that where the inconsistances arrive. One minute he can draw this great page of Dick walking away from Cassandra or seeing ‘The Architect’ (I guess that’s his name) hiding in the shadows. Then we’ll have a very ugly series of panels with everyone out of costume and it takes me away from the story. Tim and Damien literally change bone structures throughout the panels and sometimes the actions of characters don’t flow together. I think he does a great job with the backgrounds, whether it be a huge Gotham City landscape or inside Dick’s ‘Batcave’. But again, it’s the character anatomy that is really throwing me off this issue.

But what we have here is a very compelling and intriguing story by Higgins and Snyder. I’m loving every page of ‘Old Gotham’ and I would love to see more of the history of the city in it’s own comic. (I might just get that with All-Star Western coming up in September) Higgins and Snyder also have a great knack with Dick here and we’re slowly starting to see the seeds of why he might leave the cowl come the reboot. Here’s a guy that is seeing how unsure he is of keeping the mantle and it doesn’t help that his teammates aren’t helping much either. Even though I might have an idea where this story is gonna go, it doesn’t sway me from the fact that this is a great story that the men are writing.

While this didn’t end up being my pick this week, this was still a fantastic comic to read from a storytelling perspective. Higgins and Snyder has these characters down so well, it feels like they’ve been writing them for years. This mini is certainly piquing my interest in Higgin’s own ‘Nightwing’ book even if that’s not the intent of this mini in the first place. It’s just that the art, as good as it can be, is so inconsistant. Otherwise I’d easily call this the best mini running in comics right now. Hell it still might be that once it’s all said and done.