“Child of Fire,” the final arc of the series, begins here. Still recovering from the wounds he received, Batman is unable to stop the crimes of a new villain, the Child of Fire. He has a theory about who it is, but there is something more sinister underneath it, and Batman may have trusted the wrong source. Batman: Dark Patterns #10 is written by Dan Watters, drawn by Hayden Sherman, colored by Triona Farrell and lettered by Frank Cvetkovic.
Will Nevin: Gee howdy, Matt, I am all ready to sit down and click on over to ComiXology so I can read Deadpool/Batman. Should be an interesting book!
Matt Lazorwitz: Nothing like doing a bit to work out your frustrations, huh, Brother Will?
Will: If I was interested in this as anything other than crass commercialism, I’d be frustrated. This is more like exasperation. We’re in the living hellscape of 20 and 25, and we’re still trying gimmicks to get people into comic shops? It’s lame and stupid.
Matt: Now, hold up there. I have no problem with gimmicks to get people into comic shops; I’m going to Batman Day at my shop on Saturday. The problem is that they didn’t actually do a gimmick. A gimmick would be drawing attention to the fact, in big honkin’ letters, that this was print only. Advertising it. But this was reported in the already niche comic press and nowhere else. That’s not a gimmick, it’s just lazy.
Will: *Half-assed lazy gimmicks* are stupid and lame. That better? But a blessed Batman Day to you and yours.
Gotham Burning
Matt: And here we are: “Child of Fire,” the final arc of Dark Patterns.
Will: I’m not ready, Matt.
Matt: We have two more issues. No need to face it down just yet. And I don’t think there are any plaudits I can give this issue that we haven’t given the previous ones. This is damn fine comics.
Will: But this is already more ambitious than the other three arcs because this is tying the whole darn thing together. That nugget from a couple of issues ago about Dr. Sereika? It has blossomed, Matthew.
Matt: And it’s adding other elements of Gotham to it. We have had two of three arcs that didn’t feature major Bat rogues, and while Firefly might not be major, he is established at least. With what Watters did with Ten-Eyed Man over in Arkham City and Detective Comics, I would not be averse to seeing him reevaluate and reimagine Batman’s major pyromaniacal enemy (there’s actually two, as there’s also Firebug, but that guy is dull compared to Firefly, which tells you how dull he is).
Will: I thought this was a fascinating use of Firefly and something much more grounded than a guy in a nutty suit (which, admittedly, he might still have). He just wants one thing there in his cell, Matt. Just a single naked flame. That’s not too much to ask for, right?
Matt: I suppose not. Except he would definitely do something creepy with it.
We’ve been expecting something bigger with Dr. Sereika since he was introduced in issue #1, and the tease from a couple issues ago obviously set this up, but Watters isn’t leaving us with what we expected. The reveal of who the Baby-Face Arsonist, the eponymous Child of Fire, is immediately calls everything that Nicky Harris said about him into question. Nothing like an unreliable narrator? I’m assuming we have a lie somewhere in there sandwiched between multiple truths, but we’ll see.
Will: And this is another teaching moment for an early-career Batman: We don’t always trust someone’s story. The earlier Harris scene set him up as a sleazebag journalist — not one who was moonlighting as a criminal mastermind. Kinda calls into question all of his reporting too, doesn’t it? Here’s my initial theory: He’s a disciple of Ra’s al Ghul, and this time, we’re trying to use the media to burn Gotham to the ground. Well, the media and actual fire.
Matt: What indicated Ra’s to you? Nothing jumped out at me as particularly Ra’s-coded, but I may have missed something you picked up.
Will: Just a hunch. If last night’s trivia game was any indication, I’m about 50/50 on hunches lately. It’s not totally crazy though, is it? Harris talks history. Ra’s has long been interested in cleansing Gotham. It would be a lot to pull off in two issues, but Watters has done the damned impossible at times in this series.
Matt: I wouldn’t be against it as an idea, no. I wasn’t thinking anything so grandiose. I was assuming Harris is just another of Gotham’s poor, unfortunate souls. Obsessed with the darkness of the city, obsessed with Batman. And something a bit more tragic, as all of the “villains” in this series have been tragic. Maybe, though, it’s Sereika who is the tragic one and Harris is just plain bad.
Will: If the effigies mean anything, Harris certainly sees Batman as a bad thing. And his reporting has tended to put Bats in a negative light. I’m interested to learn more about his motivations and what the Big Plan(TM) is.
Matt: I’m interested in how he came up with a villain design so creepy it almost touches Professor Pyg. Almost. It reminds me of the movie Happy Death Day, the slasher movie where the killer wears a baby mask. Baby masks are creepy, Will. Add on the fact that he’s wearing a Michelin Man suit? That doesn’t make him any less creepy. Actually ramps up the creepiness.
Will: I am firmly anti-baby mask. And anti-print-only comics.
Matt: And while that design would have been creepy no matter who was drawing it, Hayden Sherman just can’t be beat. It won’t be the first time I’ve said it, but no one does page layouts like them. Page 2 of this book, with panels broken up by different lines in the flame from a lighter? That’s not something your average artist is going to conceive of. And the burn scars on Firefly’s face? Tremendous touch.
Will: Those scars were spectacular. Sherman is to art what W. Maxwell Prince is to writing — two people able to play with form and concepts in a way that maybe no one else can, and two people who should get together one of these days.
Matt: Have you read either of the Dark Spaces miniseries Sherman did with Scott Snyder?
Will: I have not! And speaking of Prince, I also haven’t read The Kryptonite Spectrum. Too many books, too little time.
Matt: Oh, definitely worth your time. And Batman appears in a sizable role in issue #1 (issue #2 is right on my nightstand ready to be read tonight), so we could cover it for the podcast once it’s done.
Will: You’re goddamned right we’re going to cover it on the podcast.
Bat-miscellany
- Hey, you know how we talked about Deadpool/Batman in the opening? Well, listen to the BatChat podcast to hear about three other times Batman crossed over with Marvel characters.
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.
