Following the devastating earthquake from Cataclysm, Gotham is struggling to get back on its feet when the unthinkable happens: the US government declares the city unsalvageable, orders and evacuation, and seals the remains off. Of course there are a fair number of people who chose not to leave the city, including most of its crime bosses, police force, and masked vigilantes.
Reading this arc requires a little suspension of disbelief. I had a hard time wrapping my brain around the idea that the government would disown the DCU equivalent to New York City, however bad the damage from the quake (this is especially had to fathom after seeing how the whole country pulled together after Hurricaine Katrina). But they don't just disown it--they actually seal it off, trapping the remaining residents inside and turning away any kind of food or supplies that humanitarian groups try to send in. It doesn't make any sense, but when this book opens, Gotham has already been shut down, so we don't' get to see the rationale behind that decision (this is another case where I think someone has fallen down on the job of collecting these titles; clearly SOMETHING pretty big happened between Cataclysm and No Man's Land, but that wasn't included in the trade for some reason. I feel like this a scheme from someone else's villain--it has a Lex Luthor vibe to it--but it would have been nice to at least get an explanation in the summary at the beginning).
So when this book opens, Gotham has already become a classic dystopia in the three months since the quake. The city is divided between gangs and crime bosses who rule like kings over their respective territories, while the residents just struggle to survive in a city with swiftly dwindling resources. There are two arcs in this volume: one just introduces the situation as it currently stands, and follows GCPD (now little different from any of the other street gangs) as they try to take back the city one block at a time; the second arc is more psychological, and follows Scarecrow as he insinuates himself into a church-run refugee center and starts to plant the seeds of chaos. This volume also marks the first appearance of the new Batgirl, though her identity has yet to be revealed (I'm guessing this is the Cassandra Cain incarnation, since she seems way to competent to be Stephanie Brown).
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