Sentenced: 02-16-2014

Shiri is Sentenced by: pg. 53, panel 6 of Gotham Central, Book One: In the Line of Duty by Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka, art by Michael Lark

“Okay, so then Hitler… he thought genocide was the right thing?”

              “That’s it… end of discussion.”

“What?”

              “You know the rule — all debate ends when it gets to Hitler…”

The Context: A conversation between two MCU detectives regarding the nature of criminal motivation: are the wrong-doers evil or simply misguided?  Are they doing what they think is right in their own twisted minds or is there a fundamental wrongness about them?  In an odd twist, it’s the cop who doesn’t, “think the bad, guys, for the most part, think that they’re actually evil… most people think they’re doing the right thing, no matter how sick it is…” who ends the conversation when it enters Hitler territory.

The Why: I was engrossed in the comic before I hit this conversation, but it was this very tiny moment, this four line exchange, that locked me in because I could hear it in my earholes as my brain transmitted the letters to my frontal lobe.  This is the moment where the comic came alive and Gotham established itself as a world.  One four-line conversation created a reality where before there was none.  The fictional to the real, the real to the fictional, attached Gotham to us and us to Gotham.  So tiny and so significant, meta and intimate, private and public, quiet and resonant, and all other sorts of dichotomies.  This is what dialogue is for.  This is how it should be done.  Take note, kids.  I know I am.