Here is the latest in our year-long look at one cool comic (whether it be a self-contained work, an ongoing comic or a run on a long-running title that featured multiple creative teams on it over the years) a day (in no particular order whatsoever)! Here's the archive of the comics posted so far!

Today we look at the Gotham Central storyline, "Soft Targets," by Ed Brubaker, Greg Rucka, Michael Lark and Stefano Gaudiano ...

Enjoy!

I don't want to spoil the story too much, as there are some really crazy twists as the story progresses, so I'll just show you stuff from the first part.

The story begins here, as the Commissioner visits the Mayor (remember, Gordon was not the Commish at this point in time)...

Pretty striking opening to the story, huh?

So a sniper starts picking off public officials, and after waiting for a long time until enough emergency crews were on the scene of the second murder, the sniper strikes again...

And then the "killer" twist...the sniper is...

Yep, the Joker. This puts the Gotham cops directly into the midst of one of Joker's more deadly schemes (all the more scary because of the sheer RANDOMNESS of the killings) and they must put aside their differences with Batman to work together to stop the madman.

Really gripping, top-rate writing by Brubaker and Rucka and oh man, the art!! Lark began the story on his own, but the great Stefano Gaudiano joined him as the story went on. The art is beautifully moody and evocative no matter whether Lark worked by himself or if Gaudiano was working with him. This is monthly comic book work at its best. Gotham Central is one of the best co-written comics pretty much ever (not counting Lee/Kirby as "co-writers").