Batman: Dark Patterns #12 Brings the Dark Knight’s Most Gripping Puzzle in Years to a Beautiful End

One year, four stories, and twelve issues later, Batman’s most haunting storyline in years has reached its end. The lauded miniseries Batman: Dark Patterns concluded with its twelfth issue, and the creative team of Dan Watters and Hayden Sherman ended this comic as strongly as it began. Set during the Caped Crusader’s earliest days, Batman’s final mystery brings the entire anthology full circle with a story that’s equal parts gripping crime thriller and a meditation on the power of myth.

Batman: Dark Patterns’ final arc, “The Child of Fire”, sees a younger Bruce Wayne pushing himself to his limits. He’s finally hot on the tail of Nicky Harris, a tabloid journalist and arsonist responsible for fires seen throughout the series. Watters and Sherman haven’t been holding back in this series, and I’ve got no doubt that expectations are high after a year of this series’ immense (and deserved) praise. But rest assured, this issue gives readers a conclusion that has all but assured Dark Patterns will be as well-regarded as other classic Batman tales.

Score: 4.5/5

Pros	Cons
Beautiful, eye-catching art.	A little too short.
Satisfying conclusion to arc and series.	Firefly’s role feels unnecessary.

Batman: Dark Patterns #12 Brings the Entire Story Together in Amazing Conclusion

Batman: Dark Patterns #12 picks up where the last issue left off, with Harris igniting his masterwork in Gotham’s financial district. He monologues to Dr. Sereika, revealing how Harris was secretly connected to all of the cases seen in Dark Patterns. He pointed Batman in the direction of the Wound Man, inspired Michelle Rickson to burn Bledin Towers, and even spoke with the false Red Hood Gang. In doing so Harris became obsessed with fire and the power of myth, seeing himself as a servant of the flame to shape Gotham into something ‘better’.

He doesn’t get that chance, of course, because Batman is there to save the day. But where this issue truly shines is the moment where the Caped Crusader heads out to stop Harris’ firebombs, which he does. But in a moment sure to be seen for years to come, Batman turns to the flame and extends his hand in a ‘stop’ motion, only for the flame to recede, seen by Gotham citizens everywhere. A true, myth-making moment. A destructive light stopped by a protective shadow.

Batman downplays it as nothing more than good timing and the hysteria of panicked people seeing something they want to see (no doubt tying back to the pareidolia themes of case three). But countering the Dark Knight’s skepticism is Dr. Sereika, who counters saying that while humans do indeed look for patterns, some things simply can’t be explained, citing his own experience witnessing spontaneous combustion. But in the end, it’s all the same. Gotham is saved, with danger just around the corner and Batman heading out to stop it. A dark pattern that’s defined DC Comics for nearly a century.

Batman: Dark Patterns Sticks the Landing with Powerful Conclusion

There are so many wonderful things I could say about his issue. The writing is spectacular and Dan Watters does a hell of a job wrapping up this arc and the overarching story at once. Hayden Sherman really goes all out here, with Harris’ creepy monologue in the flames being a notable standout. And the colors by Triona Farrell really do take the art to the next level. Every page of this book had me thoroughly engaged right up until the final panel.

With a character that’s been around as long as Batman has, it can be hard to make a smaller grounded story. But Batman: Dark Patterns succeeds because it hones in on arguably the most important thing about DC Comics’ flagship character. It’s the myth of Batman that makes him such a compelling character. He works best in that liminal space between average man and superhuman. Is Batman so powerful that he could actually make a fire die down just by saying ‘no’? I mean, we all kind of want to believe that, don’t we?

The best Batman stories, the ones usually seen on the top ten lists of sites like these, are always the ones that show Batman as less than a god but more than a man. Batman: The Long Halloween, The Dark Knight Returns, the kind of stories that have the same pattern we see so much of in this issue and overall series. Batman: Dark Patterns #12 addresses and shows that the idea of Batman and the things he can do is more powerful than the man himself.

The Batman side of DC Comics is always going to be a crowded field. With Absolute Batman and the latest volume of the main Batman title getting the lion’s share of attention, it’s been hard for Batman: Dark Patterns to stand out. But if there’s one thing I know from my lifetime of reading comics, it’s that stories like this are always vindicated by history. And if the final issue of Batman: Dark Patterns is anything to go by, I guarantee this series will be seen as one of the best modern Batman stories of the 2020s.

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