“Child of Fire” continues. Jim Gordon goes to an unlikely source for help. Batman, still recovering from his wounds, deduces the identity of the Child of Fire and goes to track him down. And the history of Gotham and fire is laid bare. Batman: Dark Patterns #11 is written by Dan Watters, drawn by Hayden Sherman, colored by Triona Farrell and lettered by Frank Cvetkovic.
Matt Lazorwitz: I know we will, if everything goes to plan, have another column before Halloween, but I just wanted to call out something fun before the big day. I discovered that Random House has released two kids books, something in that early readers area, the 6-10 range, for Halloween the past couple years (sadly not this year) that are Goosebumps-esque Batman books: 5 Scary Stories for a Dark Knight and 5 Scarier Stories for a Dark Knight. I read the first one last weekend and am reading the second now.
Will Nevin: If we don’t do ‘Tec or Second Knight, we could do those next week. It’s 2025, Matt. There are no rules.
Matt: We could. Or they might be next year’s Halloween podcast episode. We make those rules, too.
A History of Flames
Matt: This story, right here, is Gotham in peril done right. We have been slowly building this story from the beginning, even if we didn’t know it. The context of what is going on, the history of the city, plays so nicely into it. And the peril isn’t an over-the-top supervillain conquest, but a mad bomber/arsonist. Watters writes the whole thing with grace and poetry, and Sherman’s art is gorgeous. What are we going to do after next month when this book is done?
Will: “Cry” is always a good answer to anything, I think. We’ve said this since the beginning, but any Bat fan not reading this is missing out on something really special. In this here penultimate issue, everything has come together: Nicky Harris’ slowly evolving plot, Batman’s failing body and, as you said, an existential threat to Gotham that feels both believable and not done to fucking death. This series is going to be a treat to reread — if only to see how fire has been a constant theme.
Matt: Harris is that right degree of disturbed to be a Batman villain, right? He has a gimmick, and he has an obsession with Batman. His reasoning for taking Dr. Sereika, that he is making Batman less than the stories he was crafting him into? That is right up there with some of our classic Batman-obsessed rogues.
Will: And it’s a great meta commentary too, isn’t it? Harris is all bent out of shape because he blames Sereika for turning Batman into a detective. Why not call out the last 30 years’ worth of Bat books while you’re at it, Dan?
Matt: Poor Sereika. I didn’t trust him at the beginning of the series, but he always felt like a red herring, and now that we know that he has been pulled into the web of this seriously deranged serial arsonist? I feel even worse for him; knowing his background, you can’t help it. I have a sad feeling like he isn’t making it out of this story alive.
Will: That’s on you for not trusting a guy with a teensy weensy huffing problem, Matt.
Matt: But you know who I don’t feel bad for? Firefly. The way Watters writes him is delicious. The whole arsonist’s erotic obsession with fire has been done to death in fiction, and Watters doesn’t lean heavily into that. The way he talks about fire seems less sexual (although there is some of that there, for sure) and more the way an artist appreciates the work of a great master, or the way a baseball player watches the way a legendary slugger swung the bat. And how dismissive he is of a fire that has the simple purpose of killing Gordon, but revels in the one that was created to make the arsonist’s point. If Watters had more time, I think he could redefine and upgrade Firefly the same way he did with Ten-Eyed Man in Arkham City.
Will: Firefly hasn’t been around much — just a couple of scenes in these last couple of issues — but he’s been captivating. I can only imagine how irritated he would be at someone who would set a fire just to cover up a crime. What an amateur, he would sneer. But part of his aura has to be attributed to Sherman’s design — the scarred face and shrimpy, shrinking body are so well done (literally).
Matt: You know what it reminds me of? The same way Calendar Man was redefined in The Long Halloween. A little bit of a redesign, playing them off the new villain. And granted, both are absolutely riffing on Silence of the Lambs, but the great thing about a trope is it works for a reason, and when they’re done right, they sing their own song.
Will: It’s staying on the right side of the cliche, at least in that we’re not getting any long, drawn out bits of Firefly in Blackgate with Gordon desperately mining him for information (although, counter, see previous issue). There’s probably a version somewhere out there in the multiverse of possibilities where Firefly doesn’t have to be quite so incisive, but it was fun having him point out Batman’s conspicuous absence from the investigation.
Speaking of, one of the most refreshing things about this series is that it’s given us a Batman who’s not in a really great headspace. So many (so many) stories over the years have done the super brooding, go-it-alone Batman only to resolve with the “I need the Bat family” realization. This Batman? He’s just overworked and overwhelmed — and too inexperienced to know how to stop or pull back.
Matt: And he has the two people to depend on here. And one of them is dragging around a supervillain and doesn’t know his identity and what’s been going on. So that leaves one person. And good God does Watters write a tremendous Alfred. Watching him try to talk Bruce down only for Bruce to ignore him until he has to raise his voice. The way Sherman lays out the page and focuses just on Alfred in the one panel where he shouts, “Bruce!” is a thing of beauty.
Will: Getting Alfred to breach decorum? You know it’s serious.
Matt: This series has worked so well specifically because of when it is set. You mentioned Batman’s inexperience, and that is such a big factor. The lack of a Bat family also factors in. Why would he need to lay siege to Scarface Tower the way he did if he could go from the ground up, Robin and Batgirl could go in from the roof down and Nightwing could be watching from the Batplane? Watters knows exactly how to make Batman fallible and human, but still Batman.
Will: I think we both draw a hard line at Bruce being a dick to Alfred, and I’m glad we didn’t get that here. Watters, man. He just gets it.
Bat-miscellany
- In this week’s BatChat podcast, we take on the entire 26-issue weekly series Batman and Robin Eternal, plus a couple of one-offs featuring one of the stars of that series, Cassandra Cain.
Buy Batman: Dark Patterns #11 here. (Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, ComicsXF may earn from qualifying purchases.)
