Batman continues to make his way through an apartment building controlled by Scarface, trying to find the mastermind. But there is more here than Batman expected, and there is something waiting as he reaches the top floor, a secret that will change the whole case. Batman: Dark Patterns #5 is written by Dan Watters, drawn by Hayden Sherman, colored by Triona Farrell and lettered by Frank Cvetkovic.
Will Nevin: Isnāt it nice to get back to a book we both enjoy?
Matt Lazorwitz: It really is. Iām glad this book came about when it did. We might have lost Ram Vās run on Detective, but this is very different, but equal in its masterful craft and dynamic storytelling.
Will: If that Detective run was opera, does that make this experimental prog rock? I donāt really know what those words mean, but it sounded good in my head.
Matt: We should ask Dan. Heās more into Rush than I am. [Grote’s note: It’s true.]
Inside Scarface
Matt: Let me start by congratulating you on being the one to call the twist at the end here. Although I donāt know if twist is the right word. Reveal, maybe? Twist implies itās something one couldnāt deduce, and the clues are all there from the beginning.
Will: Not to pick at last weekās scabs, but the central issue with āH2SHā (or whatever the fuck the name is, I cannot be assed to get that right) is that so far, it doesnāt have anything to say about Batman or any of his supporting cast of characters ā or, when it comes to Jason Todd, at least it doesnāt have anything to say that hasnāt already been said and said better in any number of stories. But the magic of this story and this series to date is that weāre exploring Batman ā how he reacts and learns and thinks. And in this chapter, weāre seeing how a classic rogue can evolve and grow into something new, yet still familiar.
The clues to the ārevealā were right there in a character who was abused, overlooked and never heard, much like the original Arnold Wesker. But the full blossoming of that in the story? Just good, good shit.
Matt: The best scene aside from the one at the end with Wesker and our new Ventriloquist is again a scene of Batman talking to a regular person. Batman and the woman and her daughter was just great stuff. As with last issue, we see the people in this building are getting the same kind of development as Batman himself, and that helps make the book feel fuller.
We talked about how this could be supernatural or could be just acoustics, and Batman chalks it all up to the latter, but our common-person character here says this might be, but it all isnāt. That she wouldnāt hear the ghost of her father by choice. I love the ambiguity, and the idea that this building has its own culture. The amount of thought Watters has put into what could just be paper dolls of people is impressive.
Will: And how he and Hayden Sherman are able to build tension as we get to that final reveal. The pain in that big closeup of Weskerās face. And if that wasnāt enough, the one-liners from Gordon and Batman had me laughing out loud. They were perfect in that they didnāt try to be funny. They were just hilarious.
Matt: The wall walk just looked stunning. It clearly homages ā66 but is still its own thing, and very much of a flavor with this book as it turns from an homage into a gorgeous action scene. That whole sequence, as Batman dodges the falling objects and tries to get into the building only to find more and more of the people now in league with Scarface? I could imagine that as a sequence in an Arkham game, only itās even better here.
Will: This whole thing just exudes cool, doesnāt it? I keep coming back to the layouts and how they just work, consistently developing a sense of action and drama even when Batman is only standing in someoneās parlor. Can you think of anything this book could do better? Iām not saying itās perfect, but no big fault is coming to mind, either.
Matt: I canāt think of anything. Perfection is an illusion, but attempting, trying to do something bigger than what we expect? That earns you all the points in the world with me.
I just canāt say enough about how this is paced. The use of different panel sizes and irregular borders makes for dynamic action scenes, but Sherman knows when to step back and use very traditional layouts for the conversational scenes so youāre able to focus on the dialogue and the character interactions.
Will: And, again, that closeup of Wesker. They fuckinā killed that beat. Killed it dead. We have one more chapter in this story ā where do you figure itās going next?
Matt: I hope we have Batman trying to reason with our new Ventriloquist. I think Watters gets the character enough that he isnāt going to go in swinging on this poor, broken person. And it will fit the themes of the Wound Man, another antagonist who in the end is not a full-on villain but someone circumstances have broken.
Will: Weāve speculated what sort of connective tissue weād have between stories, and given the absence of our formaldehyde-swilling medical examiner, itās not going to be characters. I sure as hell would enjoy it being themes, specifically the one about how some rogues are made by One Bad Day(ā¢). My journalism professor said people are in prison because of the worst 15 minutes of their lives, and while my life has been too touched by crime to be that forgiving, Iāll admit thereās some truth to that. And certainly in fiction everyone this side of Joker and Darth Vader deserves some measure of redemption ā if they want to change.
Bat-miscellany
- Our very own Editor-in-Chief Dan Grote makes this weekās Patreon pick over on the BatChat podcast, and it is a simple, classic one: Batman and apes.
Buy Batman: Dark Patterns #5 here. (Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, ComicsXF may earn from qualifying purchases.)
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.
