The Presentation and Representation of Police Officers in comic books – The 2000’s

2000’s – September 11

Guest blog by Sergeant Clayton Brown

The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States had a significant impact on the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), and on everyone directly or indirectly. It was an event that changed the world. It changed proactive and reactive responses to emergency situations within policing. Some specific examples of this were the creation of the Provincial Emergency Response Team (PERT) and the Provincial Anti-Terrorism Section (PATS) in 2002 and the OPP Security Service at Queen’s Park Toronto (2003). These were some of the safety implementations that positioned the OPP as a leader in emergency management. In 2005 the Highway Safety Division (HSD) was introduced as a strategy to respond to the injuries and fatalities that were taking place on Ontario Highways. The HSD was created and positioned to focus on reducing the number of motor vehicle collisions and fatalities in the Greater Toronto Area. In 2007, the highly visible black and white OPP cruiser was re-introduced.

Post 2000, there are a few milestones in the world of comic books as it heads into the new century. DC Comics attempted to create webcomics and Marvel Comics launched the ‘Ultimate Universe’ as a jumping on point for comic fans that were not familiar with the last 60 plus years of continuity. This met with mixed success as it quickly became encumbered with continuity issues of its own. A new Spider-Man was introduced. Batman is now a father and Marvel scored huge with its series of record setting movies. Digital delivery of comics is growing, but has not yet surpassed print. In order to be more inclusive and diverse DC relaunched all of its titles changing some characters and their backgrounds, creating new characters and overall trying to more accurately reflect society.  Marvel soon followed with a similar overhaul. 

In the world of police officers in comic books, DC Comics introduced us to Detective Crispus Allen, in March 2000 — a forty-something police veteran transferred into Gotham City from Metropolis. He was created by Greg Rucka and Shawn Martinbrough and first appeared in Detective Comics #742.  In Gotham City, Allen was partnered with Renee Montoya on the Gotham City Police Departments Major Crimes Unit. The detective had a wife and two children who he is shown to put before his job.  Appearing in the Batman comic book, Allen viewed Batman as a necessary evil in the city — he didn’t want to deal with him, but felt he served a purpose and tolerated his presence. Allen went on to become a lead character in DC Comics’ Gotham Central, however, he was eventually killed by a corrupt police technician.  But, this was not the end of Allen’s story. After he was killed, he became the next host for the Spectre (see 1940’s Jim Corrigan for the first host of the Spectre). In their first mission together, they bring ghoulishly appropriate justice to a child molester and Allen continues in his partnership with the Spectre guiding the spirit in choosing whom to visit punishment upon.

Gotham Central began in 2003 as a police procedural comic book. The interesting thing about this book is that the police officers are not support characters to the super-heroes, rather, the Gotham City Police Department and its officers are the main characters dealing with the difficulties of its officers working in a city with super powered beings. The book was written by Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker. The book alternated between a cast of characters that work the day shift and the night shift. The cast includes detectives, their supervisors, the police commissioner and even ‘CSI’ type forensic officers. The stories (although in a comic book) also tried to stay somewhat grounded in somewhat realistic police work with storylines that included the reopening of an unsolved murder of a teen girl. The Major Crime Unit investigated the murder of an officer, dealt with an active shooter/sniper, and shone on a light on discrimination within the police department and corruption. In 2003, the book was nominated for an Eisner Award for best new series. 

Dream Police is a comic featuring Detectives Joe Thursday and Frank Stanford.  They have been partners forever and they patrol the alternate universe of dreams, nightmares and the great void beyond.  The book was created by J. Michael Straczynski for Image Comics and was first released in August of 2005 as a single issue and then restarted in April 30, 2014 as an ongoing series. 

In November 2007, Marvel Comics introduced us to Detective Brett Mahoney. Mahoney is a loyal police detective who keeps finding himself involved in the activities of superhumans. The character was created by Marc Guggenheim and Dave Wilkins and first appeared in Marvel Comics Presents #1. In the first appearance of the character, he investigated a homicide and discovered that the deceased is an extraterrestrial — because this type of thing happens when you are a police officer in a comic book. In a later investigation, Mahoney is hired by a couple of superhumans to determine who is killing their kind — basically a hate crime against super-humans.  He solved the crime and the killer is arrested. The character made the transition to the TV screen when he was portrayed in the three different Netflix series’ ‘Jessica Jones’, ‘Daredevil’ and ‘The Punisher’ between 2016 and 2019.

In May of 2011. we meet Batwing, a superhero published by DC Comics and one of several heroes patterned after Batman. Batwing was conceived by writer Grant Morrison to be the overseas ‘Batman’ in Africa. Batwing is David Zavimbe, a Congolese Police Officer and he appears within the series Batman Incorporated.

In July 2019, Tinsel Town makes its debut featuring Abigail Moore as one of the first police officers in Hollywood in 1915. Abigail looks beneath the glamorous surface of Tinsel town and dives head first into lies, greed and corruption. 

Join us next month for the wrap up of Policing in Comics through the years.