With a new mayor in Gotham City comes new changes to the law. Batman has faced corrupt politicians in the past, but this is one of the few times where someone in a legal position of power is gunning for the Bat-Family without malicious intent. Christopher Nakano was among the first of many who began to believe that the masks in Gotham are causing more problems than they are solving. But his start down the path to mayor, and eventually to the creation of the Magistrate from Future State, began when Nakano blamed Batman for a personal tragedy.
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Debuting in the short story “A Gift” in Detective Comics #1027 by Mariko Tamaki, Dan Mora and Tom Napolitano, Christopher Nakano was a member of the GCPD. At the start of the Joker War, Nakano and his partner Bart were alerted to a break-in at Wayne Enterprises. As bad luck would have it, Batman had also received the alert and went to investigate. What none of them realized was that by then the Joker had assumed control of Wayne Enterprises and its technology. The Dark Knight and two of Gotham’s Finest were heading into a trap.
Batman got to the scene first (as he always does), but triggered several unexpected defense mechanisms, forcing him into a room where Nakano and Bart found him. Making the assumption that Batman was the intruder, Bart made the move to arrest Batman. This triggered one last trap laid by the Joker. A small explosive was detonated beneath Bart, killing him instantly and taking out one of Nakano’s eyes. Batman managed to save Nakano’s life, but having just lost his partner, Nakano blamed Batman for the incident and vowed to bring him to justice in Bart’s name.
Ever since then, Nakano has been gunning for the Bat-Family. He launched a successful mayoral campaign that saw him get the top office in Gotham City. Even more impressive, Nakano did it without compromising his personal morals by refusing help from the very thing his platform was against: the masks of Gotham. It proved he was a man of intelligence and integrity, two things that undoubtedly won him the election and made life for Gotham’s vigilantes that much harder.
Nakano is not a fool though. He doesn’t blame Batman specifically for the bomb that killed his friend. What he holds Batman accountable for is everything that has happened since his first appearance. Every criminal with a gimmick that has attacked the city, every life lost, that is what Nakano holds Batman responsible for and because of that he wants to make sure it never happens again.
This explains his policies against masks in Gotham City, but he isn’t shortsighted enough to only blame the heroes of Gotham. His new laws also target Gotham’s criminals (though how effective his new methods are have yet to be seen). And he hasn’t even reached the biggest decision that changes Gotham’s future. It’s no secret that Nakano was the one who authorized the use of the Magistrate in Future State, but what became of him after is still unknown. What is known is that it turned Gotham into a police state that stymied even the officers Nakano was trying to protect.
He’s already been approached by the Magistrate program’s creator, Simon Saint. Even though the organization was pitched as merely a small taskforce, Nakano showed wisdom and refrained from making any major decisions about an elite group of soldiers to police Gotham. But as the city’s problems grow without the assistance of the Bat-Family, Nakano may end up caving under the pressure and greenlighting the Magistrate into existence. He’s come too far to fail now after all. But that unwillingness to accept that Batman might be necessary for Gotham’s safety may end up dooming it to an even worse fate.
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