There is really no arguing that Batman is one of, if not the, most popular comic book characters around. His history is rich and his stories are many and at any time a reader can go to the current DC line up and find numerous Batman or Batman-centered books telling different stories about the iconic Dark Knight and those who inhabit his world. There is also rarely a shortage of books that want to peek into his early years to show more about what makes Batman tick, but Batman: Dark Patterns from
writer Dan Watters and Hayden Sherman has proven over its first two arcs to not be that sort of book. The book, which debuted last December and is set to kick off its third fully contained story arc this week with issue #7, is a completely different sort of beast. Instead, while Dark Patterns does take readers back to an earlier time in Batman’s career, these self-contained mysteries are actually less about Gotham City’s protector and more about Gotham City itself. It’s a unique approach to Batman stories, one that may be the most enriching take to the vigilante and his world to date — one that makes the first two arcs and the upcoming third a must read for Batman fans.
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Dark Patterns is structured around four, self-contained and street level Batman mysteries. The “self-contained” aspect is key; you can hop in and any time and over the course of just three issues get a full story, no need for an extensive history with the character or even to have read the one before it to come away satisfied — though small details about some characters do stack. The first arc, “We Are Wounded” sees a series of increasingly horrifying murders in Gotham City that have the police stumped, which is where Batman comes in to try to sort things out, solve the mystery, and try to bring some calm and resolution to the already superstitious and rattled people of Gotham. The second arc, “The Voice of the Tower”, takes things in a different direction, seemingly making the people of Gotham the villain and the cops a target with a hostage situation in a Gotham high-rise set to be destroyed and the people not willing to give up their homes. Of course, it’s Gotham and nothing is every that straight forward, which is something that Batman learns very quickly when he jumps into the fray and something more psychological and perhaps terrifying emerges.
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Dark Patterns Is More About Gotham and Less About Batman (And That’s a Good Thing)
If you noticed in my spoiler free descriptions of the first two story arcs that I’m talking less about Batman and more about Gotham, that’s by design. While Dark Patterns is a book of Batman mysteries, these are stories about Gotham City and its people. Batman just happens to be a part of that landscape. If you look at the majority of major Batman stories and books, the threats he faces within them are going after him somewhat directly in some capacity with Gotham City usually ending up as some degree of collateral damage. Batman’s foes may attack the city or various citizens, but they are doing it in provocation of the Bat. This is something that, to a degree, holds true in many stories set in the hero’s early years as well but that is not the case with Dark Patterns. The gruesome murders of “We Are Wounded” and the terrifying hostage situation of “The Voice of the Tower” are crimes against the people by the people simply because this is Gotham.
This perspective shift is key. We are frequently simply told that Gotham is rotten to its core, but this shows us that what is more accurate is that Gotham is merely a city of suffering where the cries have gone unheard for so long that there’s almost no hope. These aren’t people who have given up, as we are so often expected to believe. The people of Gotham just don’t have anyone fighting with them. As readers understand, Batman never really becomes the much-needed ally of the people exactly; Dark Patterns shows the newly minted vigilante as starting to fight for the city but not alongside its people and we know that he will eventually become as much of a pain point for Gotham as his hero status rises as anything else the citizens endure now. But each story thus far is giving Batman a lesson in the nature of what he’s really fighting for — and it’s a good reset for fans to be reminded that the real villains in Gotham aren’t Batman’s elaborate rogues. It’s the pain and suffering of the city.
Dark Patterns Is Also Carving a Path Towards Batman as We Know Him
But while each individual arc in Dark Patterns is really about Gotham City, the stories are also quietly carving a path leading us to the Batman we know later in his career. There is a pattern in the common violence in Gotham City and as we head into the third arc kicking off in issue #7, “Pareidolia” that bigger pattern starts to emerge and the focus feels like it is beginning to shift towards Batman and his relationship with Gotham and its crime. It’s a fascinating element of the story. The seasoned Batman of his many main continuity stories is a massive, central figure. Despite his dark suit and his functional stealth, Batman isn’t exactly working from the shadows anymore. In Dark Patterns, he is. He is still on rooftops, behind doors, lurking, watching. He’s outside the conflict and even if he manages to stop the immediate incident, there isn’t complete resolution — neither “We Are Wounded” nor “The Voice of the Tower” really end neatly. The deeper we get into the individual arcs of Dark Patterns, however, we start to see that Batman is being more directly lured out. Previews for this week’s Batman: Dark Patterns #7 see him recognizing that the fires in the city may be intended for him. This more than anything marks a shift in his development and it will be fascinating to see if this is the point where the story — and indeed Batman himself — becomes less about Gotham and more about the man in the mask.
By leaning into an “early years” story that sets its focus on the city and not the vigilante, Batman: Dark Patterns offers up what might be the most interesting and insightful Batman story to date. Less about mechanics and more about the mind and soul of everyone involved, Dark Patterns is embracing the most interesting thing about DC’s most iconic hero — and it is exactly what Batman fans need now more than ever.
The first two arcs of Batman: Dark Patterns are available now. Arc three, “Pareidolia”, kicks off in Batman: Dark Patterns #7 on June 11th.
