Batman and Superman, slightly askew: The Village Voice looks at Gotham Central: In the Line of Duty and It's a Bird:

"In a Voice interview, writer Greg Rucka speculates on the independence of fictional characters, asking, 'Are the villains in Gotham City there because Batman's there, or would they be there anyway?' Regardless, the costumed psychopaths live only to engineer Batman's demise. They taunt him, and the working stiffs of the GCPD get caught in the crossfire: Mr. Freeze snaps the ear off a detective he's just transformed into an ice sculpture, tosses the gruesome talisman to the cop's wounded partner, then gives a preening lecture: 'I just want to instruct our friend here in Gotham's more advanced curriculum . . . the tragedy of surviving loss.'"