I haven’t read his Oni work, so i didn’t know he did great stuff there.

You should check it out!
Start with White Out (first mini only, second one is lesser), and then start on Queen And Country – it’s really, really good stuff.
(And it makes me feel old that it’s almost ten years since that began!)

Brian could probably do 365 cool Queen And Country moments if he wanted to!

That said, it does end abruptly, as Rucak decided to start doing some stories in novels.
And I’ve never been able to find those novels, because although he’s a big name in comics, he’s not a big name in novels – and I reckon even Gaiman might struggle if he started something in one medium and crossed it into another.
(That said, if Rucka went all Moorecock and did a story as Hawkwind album, I’d be all for it!)

But it didn’t ruin Gotham Central to me because to me the “real” Gotham Central was Brubaker’s stuff, much like the “real” Seinfeld to me are the Larry David seasons. I just consider Rucka’s stuff the backdoor pilot for The Renee Montoya show.

My problem always was that I’d enjoy the start of the Rucka stories, because he’d have all the cops at the start, but then it always came down to being a buddy story with Allen and Montoya.
I’d keep thinking it wouldn’t, get into it, and then it was back to tough black cop with a solid Christian family and tough Latina Lesbian chick save the day. Again.

Having no notions of Rucka on DC books, knowing him only from his excellent Oni work,

I haven’t read his Oni work, so i didn’t know he did great stuff there.

Not being from America, and seeing the reality, tough Latino chick who is also a lesbian isn’t that much of an interesting character, and more of a cliché.

I totally agree. I found tough lesbian latina Montoya much more stereotypical than what she was before. Even as an American. But at least she didn’t (to my memory at least) break into Spanglish at the drop of a dime. That was the only saving grace.

In fact, for all the hype I’ve read about how good he writes that character, she seems like a straight cut out from ‘The Big Book Of Cop Clichés’.

Again, agreed.

But yeah, just to reiterate, reading it in trade, I had no idea that the fake Jim Corrigan was meant to be pointing towards a new Spectre coming, I figured it was either a) a writer refusing to change a characters name or b) Jim Corrigan had been removed from The Spectre but this was how he really was (cause everyone’s corrupt post-Watchmen).

I read it in trade too, and I agree, the Jim Corrigan thing was just a really annoying distraction for all the reasons you say. I also had no idea that Jim Corrigan was meant to point to a new Spectre coming, but the fact that his sole purpose for existing was to throw off fans by using a highly improbable and illogical coincidence (his name being the same as the Spectre’s first host, his appearance being exactly the same as the Spectre’s first host down to a white streak of hair, plus his actions leading to the creation of a new Spectre) then being told to ignore all those similarities, they mean nothing. Such dirty pool.

But it didn’t ruin Gotham Central to me because to me the “real” Gotham Central was Brubaker’s stuff, much like the “real” Seinfeld to me are the Larry David seasons. I just consider Rucka’s stuff the backdoor pilot for The Renee Montoya show.

So when I read Gotham Central in trade, I mentally partitioned it like I was reading two different series.

Having no notions of Rucka on DC books, knowing him only from his excellent Oni work, I found I didn’t need mental partitions to do that – the work split itself into two different series!

One was a good superhero based crime book looking at a group of detective, the other, as you say, was ‘The Renee Montoya Show’, a character I found more interesting the less we know about her.
Not being from America, and seeing the reality, tough Latino chick who is also a lesbian isn’t that much of an interesting character, and more of a cliché.
In fact, for all the hype I’ve read about how good he writes that character, she seems like a straight cut out from ‘The Big Book Of Cop Clichés’.

But yeah, just to reiterate, reading it in trade, I had no idea that the fake Jim Corrigan was meant to be pointing towards a new Spectre coming, I figured it was either a) a writer refusing to change a characters name or b) Jim Corrigan had been removed from The Spectre but this was how he really was (cause everyone’s corrupt post-Watchmen).

It just confused the hell out of me as to why Jim Corrigan was back and this time he was a corrupt cop.
Throw in that I thought I was reading a crime book, and I found that whole storyline to be a mess, and really helped ruin the book for me.

Well, I always considered Rucka to be the guy more in tune with Didio’s vision of the DCU, meaning I always automatically assumed him to be a worse writer on Gotham Central than Brubaker even before reading a single issue. Most of what I read of Rucka was during Infinite Crisis and it was dreck. So my expectations were low for him. Brubaker however I’ve always been a major fan of. So when I read Gotham Central in trade, I mentally partitioned it like I was reading two different series. One good series by Brubaker, and an inferior series by a guy who worked on Infinite Crisis under Dan Didio. Looking at it that way, that horrendous Jim Corrigan storyline didn’t ruin the Brubaker Gotham Central series for me. Brubaker’s Gotham Central ended as strongly as it started. And it didn’t ruin Rucka’s “The Renee Montoya Show” Gotham Central for me either since that series was never any good to begin with.

It was like the ultimate F-U to Internet fanboys, and it worked beautifally. I don’t really like what they’ve done with the Spectre since then, but that story was awesome.

I’m glad it worked there, because reading it in trade, removed from all that – message boards and also there needing to be a spectre -, it read like a piece of shit.
It just confused the hell out of me as to why Jim Corrigan was back and this time he was a corrupt cop.
Throw in that I thought I was reading a crime book, and I found that whole storyline to be a mess, and really helped ruin the book for me.

I’d agree that the man is an auteur, able to construct whatever stories he assembles into magnificent, inimitable constructions, but the man favors the poignant moment of loss and sentimentality to be too much of an author admired for the pacing of his stories, his complexity of characters, or his grasp of human conversation.

It definitely works for his oeuvre, shaving or embellishing similar characters and themes throughout his many works, but in every work besides Jimmy Corrigan, his stories are almost always straight points chronologically with the predictable moment of loss/seclusion/heartbreak resounding from the final panel.

I don’t mean to come off implying that style isn’t substance, because the opposite is very much true, especially in a visual medium, but his work, much more often than not, succeeds because of his scrupulous page design and beautiful minimalist draftmanship.

All of this is not because he plans events or tells stories in a narratively interesting manner, like, for a couple obvious examples, Mozzle when he paces a story well or Moore when he pays less attention to a work’s scrupulous formalities. Not a definite knock, but his work’s strengths are in how he presents his stories.

And part of what continues to bother me about Crispus Allen is the unexplained Jim Corrigan in the background. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, it never does, and I get annoyed that I’m just supposed to accept as pure coincidence that an identically-named character with so many similarities ot the original just happened to be instrumental in the creation of a new Spectre

I agree. If it was all done just to be a giant red herring/piece of misdirection, that would be really annoying.

And part of what continues to bother me about Crispus Allen is the unexplained Jim Corrigan in the background. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, it never does, and I get annoyed that I’m just supposed to accept as pure coincidence that an identically-named character with so many similarities ot the original just happened to be instrumental in the creation of a new Spectre.

At least Margaret Atwood’s writing is interesting.

Interesting. Did Rucka ever confirm that the writing was a response to early guesses?

I’m curious mainly because I loved the Ostrander Spectre series and the sendoff he gave Corrigan at the very end. It’s the only comic I’ve ever read where I felt you got a complete story out of the series, and it closed, THE END. I also loved how a few years later, Corrigan got a brief cameo in the “Day of Judgment” event, and it completely respected Ostrander’s ending. Again, Corrigan’s story was finished.

So I got mighty P.O.’d when it looked like Rucka was bringing him back. I understand that death and rebirth are cyclical in comics, but I’d hoped that the Corrigan-Spectre would be a wonderful exception to the rule. I’m appreciative that Rucka’s Corrigan was apparently not some twisted reincarnation of the original guy, but the number of similarities between them still left me wondering what the heck he was supposed to be.

I remember when the storyline was coming out, and NOBODY BUT NOBODY saw what was coming. Message boards here and elsewhere were alight with posters saying how obvious it was what Rucka was doing… it was like Rucka and company said, “Oh, so you think you know what I’m doing, huh? Then take THIS!”

It was like the ultimate F-U to Internet fanboys, and it worked beautifally. I don’t really like what they’ve done with the Spectre since then, but that story was awesome.

The scene where he throws the molded horse into the snow and then runs after it in tears is the most effective scene in the story.

“Red herring (idiom), a deliberate attempt to divert attention”