Holy mess, this is awesome. Always loved Brubaker's work, but only just gotten into his superhero stuff with The Winter Soldier; I guess this is a good middle-ground between that and his real-world crime stuff, in that it's dealing with inherently silly subjects like Mr Freeze and a psychopath in a bat suit, but making their world far more grounded and 'realistic' than any other fiction which has attempted to do so with his usual mastery of pulpy dialogue and characters that feel far more human than any other comic book writer I know.
Him and Greg Rucka have done a fabulous job of exploring the idea of a real police force working in a real city that happens to have Batman and theatrical villains in it; the fact that they're often embarrassed and ashamed to have to give their cases over to him when they can't solve them, as well as having Batman as an aspirational figure, is a really interesting angle.
Why this doesn't get talked about alongside the usual suspects like TDKR, Year One and The Killing Joke as one of best stories in the DCU is kind of a travesty. I guess the lack of Batman appearing has something to do with it, but it seems like a seriously underrated series.
Hopefully if the Gotham TV series ever gets off the ground then this may get some more recognition, even if it's not a direct adaptation. Serious, serious quality.