I've just read this story and generally enjoyed it, but the last pages confused me somewhat. First Batman visits the Joker, who only tells him that the real killer of the couple is still out there (something Batman should know by now since Angel proved himself unable to shoot anyone), then Bats proceeds to search the sewers for the murder weapon, eventually finding it in the water. Then we immediately cut to the hospital, where it's revealed the son himself is the killer. This all came very sudden and even though I can live with the outcome itself, how the ending was presented was kinda shaky. It's also never explained why Batman knew immediately that the kid did it.. Or there's a time jump and Bats searched the thing for prints first... I don't know, but it all felt really unsatisfying to me. The inclusion of the Joker in the end also seemed kinda pointless.
 
Any thoughts?

The Kid did it? I didn't know that I assumed Angel killed the kid's parents then dropped the gun in the sewers Batman found it and gave it to the kid.

'Everything I'd done in the past few days... I'd done for the wrong boy'

I thought he was talking about himself. Shit I should read it again.

Azzarello is a really creative writer but, like he did towards the end of 100 Bullets, he tends to leave some things wide open and if he just tightened them up a little it would make the piece that much stronger.  "Broken City" was nothing knew.  The best part was when that guy bumped into Agent Graves.  That was awesome.  But the story overall was nothing to write home about (or the art work for that matter, and this is Eduardo Risso we're talking about).

I hate to resurrect this old thread, but I just read Broken City for the first time and was confused as well. I was leaning toward the conclusion the kid killed his own parents but the way everything was worded didn't seem to completely fit. Is "the kid is the killer" the accepted ending?

There's confusion over this?

He picks up the gun in the sewers and casts his mind back to the shooting, he knows that there were only two people in that alley that could have pulled the trigger... The knowledge that Lupo was a criminal meant he had never even considered the other possibility but Angel had already been discounted so that left...the kid.

He takes the gun and goes to the hospital hoping he's wrong, puts the gun in front of the kid... who promptly picks it up and starts squeezing off dry shots.

The case is solved, another broken child in the broken city.

Honestly I never felt any confusion over this, the writing demands the reader to make a deduction.. hardly unreasonable in a Batman story.

I for one don't like to have every conclusion spoonfed to me.

Been meaning to read this. Love Azz and don't mind open endings.
BB