Gotham City is a busy place, with a lot going down each and every week. In this monthly column, Joshua Lapin-Bertone helps you stay on top of it all by letting you know what you should be paying attention to within the Bat-Family…and why.

Gotham City has had its fair share of trouble. The city has survived a plague, an earthquake, a flood, multiple villain takeovers and whatever madness the Joker has planned on a particular week. Gotham has had so many natural disasters that my colleague and buddy Alex Jaffe was able to write an entire House of List-ery covering them, and those were just the highlights!

Bad Seeds is the latest in Gotham’s never-ending streak of bad luck. If you’ve been away for a while, or you missed my column last month, Poison Ivy was elected mayor and things kind of spiraled out of control. Ivy has given Gotham to the Green, and now the city is overrun with giant carnivorous plants. The expanding flora is changing the city’s environment so rapidly that the oxygen will be unbreathable for humans by sunrise (unless Batman and his allies are able to stop it).

In other words, Gotham City citizens aren’t having a good time right now. Personally, I can’t help but wonder what kind of psychological toll these constant disasters have on the population. Has the constant stream of near-death experiences left them all traumatized, or have they become numb to it? Batman: Bad Seeds – Streets of Gotham #1 is a 48-page one-shot anthology that explores some of these questions. While the main titles all focus on the activities of Batman and his allies, Streets of Gotham shows us Bad Seeds through the eyes of Gotham’s everyday citizens, and what we see is very revealing.

The issue opens with an interesting story titled “The Party” written by Mariko Tamaki and penciled by Bruno Abdias. With power out in the city, the residents of one apartment building decide to have a rooftop barbeque before their food spoils. They seem unbothered by the carnivorous plants that have overrun the city and talk about the danger the same way one might talk about the weather.

“You think those plants things can get up this high?” one resident asks.

“I checked the scope a minute ago,” his neighbor replies. “Nothing’s been spotted closer than two miles from here.”

I have to imagine that the residents of this building are used to this type of thing by now, and they have no doubt that Batman will take care of whatever problem the city is having. Rather than hide in fear, they’ve decided to make the most of their situation with a blackout barbeque because that’s just how you adapt in Gotham.

“The Long Walk Home,” written by Matt Fraction and penciled by Rossi Gifford, focuses on a woman named Beth who helps a young boy find his way home. Danger lurks on every corner, but the people of Gotham survive by helping one another. Luckily, Signal steps in when things get too dicey with the plants, but it’s nice to see people like Beth who step in when they see a lost child.

“Pitch,” written by Mariko Tamaki and penciled by Steve Lieber is another standout story that focuses on a group of marketing executives trying to come up with a new advertising campaign to promote Gotham City tourism. The world is ending around them, but these marketing executives are still stuck in the office, hoping to find the perfect pitch, despite having no power.

Once again, life doesn’t stop for Gotham’s citizens just because they’re in the middle of the latest Bat-Family crossover. Yes, their meeting is interrupted when their office is destroyed by one of Ivy’s giant plants, but that doesn’t stop them from coming up with the perfect campaign slogan: “Gotham: It can only happen here.”

And these are just a few of the stories in the anthology. Every citizen of Gotham is different and everyone is experiencing Bad Seeds in their own way, but these stories are a fascinating look at how the everyday people of Gotham perceive these major events.

If it’s not clear by now, you shouldn’t write off Batman: Bad Seeds – Streets of Gotham #1 as filler or a crossover cash-in. Anthologies like this are one of the best things about crossover events, at least in my humble opinion. Streets of Gotham allows us to see the city through the eyes of the everyday people living there, rather than its strongest champions. In doing so, it fleshes out Gotham City, making it feel more real, and giving the rest of the crossover emotional stakes.

Gotham City has been through a lot, but if Streets of Gotham is any indication, the people are doing just fine.

Batman: Bad Seeds – Streets of Gotham #1 by Matt Fraction, Mariko Tamaki, Jorge Fornés, Bruno Abdias, Rossi Gifford, Steve Lieber and more is now available in print and as a digital comic book. Batman: Bad Seeds concludes this week with Batman: Bad Seeds – Sunrise #1.

Joshua Lapin-Bertone writes about TV, movies and comics for DC.com, is a regular contributor to the Couch Club and writes our monthly Batman column, "Gotham Gazette." Follow him on Bluesky at @joshualapinbertone and on X at @TBUJosh.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Joshua Lapin-Bertone and do not necessarily reflect those of DC, Warner Bros. or Skydance, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.