In the early days of his career, Batman investigates a series of strange, brutal murders that seem designed to make the victims experience the maximum amount of pain. Follow a detective story from the beginning in Batman: Dark Patterns #1, written by Dan Watters, drawn by Hayden Sherman, colored by Triona Farrell and lettered by Frank Cvetkovic.
As Bruce investigates the murders that seem to be a copycat of Memento, a serial killer he encountered on his travels to become Batman, he and Damian begin to clash over whether the teen really still wants to live the life of a superhero. Batman and Robin #16 is written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, drawn by Miguel Mendonca and Carmine Di Giandomenico, colored by Marcelo Maiolo and lettered by Steve Wands.
The gang hunting Gothamâs freaks has set their sites on the one who might be able to deduce their plans: The Riddler. With a clue from Nygma, Batman goes hunting to find Jim Gordonâs missing son, and find the mastermind behind these new killings. Batman: The Long Halloween â The Last Halloween #3 is written by Jeph Loeb, drawn and colored by Mark Chiarello and lettered by Richard Starkings.
The old Gotham Opera is closing down, but the sale is being interfered with by the presence of the Phantasm. Batman and Mystery Inc. must unmask the villain in the final issue of this volume. The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries #12 is written by J. Torres, drawn by Dario Brizuela, colored by Franco Riesco and lettered by Saida Temofonte.
Will Nevin: Since weâre talking about one quickly rising up the olâ ranks, who are your top three artists working today? I will insist that you limit yourself to (1) less than 300 words and (2) Big Three books.
Matt Lazorwitz: Oof, not an easy question. If weâre talking artists who are working on books that I am reading right now, as there are artists who are still practicing comic artists who arenât currently drawing a monthly book, Iâd have to go with Chris Samnee, Dan Mora and Hayden Sherman. Samnee does incredible character work, Moraâs art is dynamic as hell and no one does a layout like Sherman.
Will: Iâd challenge anyone who disagrees with that list to a fistfight behind Dennyâs. If I had anyone to contribute beyond those three stellar names, it would be Jorge Jimenez. He draws one hell of a Batman.
The Comic Written for Will
Will: Well, this is about the most perfect goddamnest comic, isnât it? The layout, the colors, the concept, sweet Jesus; I would read a thousand Batman stories exactly like this one and never get tired.
Matt: This is a comic that is being written with you in mind, which is not to say I donât agree.
Will: Remind me to send Dan Watters a Christmas card.
Matt: The bare bones, âYear Oneâ-esque aesthetic means we have a Batman who has to work at things and doesnât have all the gadgets. Itâs a mystery that he is slowly having to piece together. Dan Watters does excellent character work with his plotting, and Hayden Sherman is one of the best artists working in comics right now. I just hope that as we get to issue #12, the sales are so good DC spins this into an ongoing.
Will: You know good and well that we canât have nice things, and since youâve put that idea into the world, I know it wonât happen. Iâd like this book for Wattersâ approach alone, but itâs Shermanâs art that really makes this thing sing. The layouts â I cannot say enough about them â are so incredible and fluid. Poetic, almost.
Matt: Sherman just makes a page like no one else. If you (and our readers) havenât, check out Dark Spaces: Dungeon from Scott Snyder and Sherman. The book is just stunning.
This is a comic with a real Manhunter vibe to it, with Batman as Will Graham and a collection of strange and quirky characters around him. While the pathologist we meet at the top of the issue isnât the one carrying out the murders, heâs clearly got some weird stuff going on. And the Wound Man has the visuals of a Batman villain; he just makes your skin crawl.
Will: Fuck me, that character design just makes you a little nauseous, doesnât it? If we donât get that Dark Patterns ongoing youâve already cursed, Watters and Sherman would slay (flay?) a Hellraiser book. Just getting a little queasy thinking about it.
Matt: Oof, yeah, that would be good looking in the worst ways. Iâm looking forward to seeing where Watters takes the emotional arc of this book. The Wound Man is killing people who lost their families, trying to alleviate their suffering. And who is a bigger orphan, suffering from unresolved trauma about the loss of his parents, than an early-in-his-career Batman? This is a case that is definitely going to push some of Bruceâs buttons.
Will: And heâs going to wrack up one hell of a body count before he gets to the end of the alphabet. He is coming after Bruce, right? That would fit the pattern.
Matt: It would be only logical. And I am going to harp on something we have harped on countless times before, but having Alfred back in the cave, patching Bruce up while being mildly sarcastic and oh so British is something we need more of and is so missed.
Will: I give British writers shit all the time when they fuck up Batman and/or American slang, so they should get credit when they nail Alfred. And, well, everything else in this book.
Buy Batman: Dark Patterns #1 here.
Bat Parenting 101
Will: I think weâve reached the nadir of editorâs notes, Matt. âSee last issueâ is not all that helpful.
Matt: Especially when you drop it on Page 2. It seemed a bit unnecessary.
Will: Aside from that and this book getting a little too up its ass with the spooky stuff, I thought this was a fine issue. The Bat Dad moments continue to be this seriesâ best, although I think the facial expressions were a bit off in this issueâs parenting moment.
Matt: Damian calling Bruce on him acting like the parentless orphan when he had Alfred to watch out for him, and then pointing out his culpability in Alfredâs death? That was cold, but this is a teenager, so I can understand it. Question for you: Short of when he comes back from the dead, at what point is going to the âYou got Alfred killedâ well something that has run dry? I donât think weâre there yet, as Bruce and Damian have really only been interacting again after his death for about a year now, but I wonder if there is a point where it will get a bit much.
Will: Iâd say itâs fair to revisit it about as often as Bruce dwelled on his own responsibility for Jasonâs death. But I think thereâs a line between revisiting something that should be a character-defining moment and driving something into the deep, dark ground. Thereâs a way it could be tiresome â Damian basically acting petulantly about it â but I donât think weâre there yet. Teens say hurtful shit all the time, ya know? Seems fairly natural to this point.
Matt: We have a mystery here that is also keeping my attention, as opposed to another weâll get to in a bit. The flowers here feel like theyâre tying back to that opening page from Part 1, with a flashback to old Gotham, but weâre also grounding those older stories with this being connected to Bruceâs travels.
Will: I would like the idea that Bruce is being punished to really pay out here. I mean, itâs not that I think he should be made to suffer or anything like that, but there should be consequences for his crime-fighting mistakes. Thatâs one of the reasons why âCold Daysâ resonates so well, because it shows both that Batman can be wrong and that he can atone for his mistakes. The mystery is more confusing than Iâd like, but if it basically boils down to âBruce fingered the wrong person and theyâre out for revenge,â I can be happy with that.
Buy Batman and Robin #16 here.
Formalism: A Good Thing?
Matt: I donât want to slight either of the previous pencilers on this book; Eduardo Risso and Klaus Janson are legends for a reason. But after reading this one, I wish the whole series was drawn by Mark Chiarello. He maintains his own style while capturing something of Tim Saleâs layouts in a way that worked really well for me.
Will: The revolving cast of artists makes the book feel more epic in scope as an emotional tribute to Sale and his work, but it doesnât do anything for the visual consistency. And, look, Iâm not going to be too upset about that â it is what it is. But I think youâre right in that there was something more here than in the first couple of chapters.
Matt: I think thatâs partially the art and partially because it feels like some things are coming together. The first issues just establish the mystery, and now weâre seeing Batman start to connect the dots. I absolutely think that much of what we get in the way of answers are red herrings, but Batman has made some progress. He found James Jr. (although knowing where that kid is going, it might have been better if heâd stayed lost) and confronts Mario Falcone.
What I think this series is missing is the sense of TIME we got in the first two. The month those issues took place in were significant. The December issue was a Christmas story, etc. The month here doesnât seem to matter; itâs just window dressing, it just feels like any other miniseries.
Will: Not to go all Tom King on you, but structure and a consistent gimmick can really ground a book. You read Long Halloween, and you feel Batmanâs anxiety and desperation build. In many ways, this just seems like itâs moving from storybeat to storybeat â and starting to sag under the weight of its own continuity.
Matt: I donât know if thereâs more going on than in the other miniseries, as they had a bunch of plots and character arcs, too. But I feel like more than the others, this is depending on you knowing the other books. Weâre not getting a real feel for anyone here, not even Batman and Robin. Your point about moving from beat to beat is well taken, but it would work better if that was fleshed out by more of Batmanâs narration. Or maybe Robinâs. Setting this around Robin learning about Gotham would at least ground it in something.
Will: Oh I donât think you could give this to a new reader and expect them to get much out of it. This doesnât require so much a passing knowledge of Long Halloween as it does an in-depth, immediate recall of basically every mobster who was featured.
Matt: The mystery here has me a little cold. Weâre three issues in, and our killers havenât killed anyone yet, except Solomon Grundy, I suppose, but killing a plant zombie isnât exactly the same thing, is it? It has me wondering if this is actually someone like Calendar Man trying to pit the freaks against the mob by framing them. But the fact that there is no body count seems to lower the stakes. And you canât kill any of the Arkham crowd, of course, so making them the targets just makes a lot of this ring hollow.
Will: And James Jr. getting rescued takes a bit of the urgency out of the story as well. If the kidnapping is not the ultimate focus of the story (and at this point, I donât see how it can be), I guess itâs better for it to be paid off now, but it certainly seems like we have a bunch more chapters in a story that doesnât seem to be going anywhere.
Buy Batman: The Long Halloween – The Last Halloween #3 here.
A Fond Farewell
Will: If weâre riffing on Mask of the Phantasm, the culprit has to be a woman, right?
Matt: This is one case where I feel knowing the source material threw me. The Phantasm is a great design, so I understand why youâre using it, but no one and nothing connects this to the movie. I was surprised it didn’t come up in any way. But it was still a fine finale to this volume.
Will: Youâre not wrong â this was certainly as fun as any of the other Bat/Scoob chapters. But was it just me or did it feel a little light on the gags?
Matt: Now that you mention it, yeah, I see that. I usually get at least one big laugh per issue, and this one, I think there might have been a chuckle or two, but there wasnât a gut buster in here.
Will: And thatâs certainly OK â they donât all have to be stuffed with el-oh-el bits. Dare I say it ⌠this was a workman-like Bat/Scoob? We get a âghost,â a couple of possible suspects and then it proceeds fairly neatly to a rather obvious conclusion.
Matt: It has a little bit of a twist on the usual formula, where our villain isnât the greedy developer but was the person trying to do the right thing, but using the wrong methods. And her idolizing Leslie Thompkins was a great twist. If this was a book that had more introspection, we could have gotten a nice speech from Leslie about ends not justifying means, something very in character for her. But instead, we get a happy ending with Bruce Wayne pitching in to help out.
Will: Man, I donât want to imagine a Bat/Scoob with a downer ending, but a little monologuing from Leslie would not have been out of place. For a series that does the occasional deep pull, she doesnât serve much purpose aside from being a person who Batman knows for a certainty to be totally blameless and above reproach. Since, you know, Bat/Scoob does not recognize the canonicity of âWar Crimes.â
Matt: Another reason to love this book.
Buy The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries #12 here.
Bat-miscellany
- This weekâs BatChat podcast is three stories that donât fit anywhere else that Matt wanted to cover: a volume of Black & White, a Dwayne McDuffie-written story and an annual from Alan Moore and Max Allan Collins.
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Matt Lazorwitz read his first comic at the age of 5. It was Who's Who in the DC Universe #2, featuring characters whose names begin with B, which explains so much about his Batman obsession. He writes about comics he loves, and co-hosts the podcasts BatChat with Matt & Will and The ComicsXF Interview Podcast.
Will Nevin loves bourbon and AP style and gets paid to teach one of those things. He is on Twitter far too often.
