This week: We say goodbye to Batman: Dark Pattern. Plus, check out extensive happenings in the DC Universe, including new releases of Batman & Robin, Poison Ivy, and more.
Note: The following review contains spoilers. If you want a quick, spoiler-free buy/pass recommendation for the comic in question, check out the final verdict at the bottom of the article.
Batman Dark Pattern #12
Story: Dan Watters
Artist: Hayden Sherman
Colorist: Triona Farrell
Author: Frank Cvetkovich
Lately, most Batman fans have been paying close attention to two new Batman main titles: Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta’s Absolute Batman, and Matt Fraction and Jorge Jimenez’s new Batman main title. There’s a good reason for this: both issues have sold a total of 900,000 copies in their respective first issues, creating a huge buzz in the community.
But alongside these giants, there’s another standout Batman title. Its title is “Batman: Dark Pattern.” I’ve been following the chatter around this, and fans have described the dialogue work as “literally a feast for the eyes.” They also like Bruce’s early portrayal as Batman. One caveat about this series was unanimously shared. It meant more people needed to talk about dark patterns.
As someone who has had to consider multiple issues and seen the amount of effort that goes into these books, I can’t help but agree. Dan Watters’ references to Forensic Case Files by Naigai Genge and Death Acre by Dr. Bill Bass further strengthened my confidence in his ability to craft extraordinary detective stories. Watters and his collaborators tell a deeply visceral and emotional story about the Dark Knight and the deep story of Batman as a detective.
The maxi-series concludes this week with the third part of the Child of Fire arc, Batman: Dark Patterns #12, and it’s a hell of a send-off.
Before we get into it, I have to mention that artist Hayden Sherman is an Eisner Award-winning artist for a reason. They take their work to a whole new level in this book. Somehow they are able to fill the fire and destruction with so much life. The way the flames engulf the city and surround the characters only adds to the spectacle readers witness. The flames literally danced across the page, spreading until only Batman was left.
It’s an incredibly artistic choice. The film perfectly conveys what Watters is trying to convey, and what only Sherman can convey: that even though infected with the virus and injured, Batman remains a legend, a fairy tale, and a nightmare for Gotham’s villains. he is unstoppable. For someone like him only a flame would separate them, and they do. He is already on fire before he enters the fire, the heat is upon him, but he still presses forward. His silhouette takes shape in the smoke, faint ears forming his symbol. He’s everywhere and instantly surrounds Fire Child Mickey Harris. It becomes clear to the reader that there is no place for the child of fire to escape. When Batman finally appears before him, the villain’s voice is filled with disbelief and fear. And this is the return of the Dark Knight, reborn by fire.
It’s beautiful and honestly one of the standout pages in the book. This is also just the first of many works, as Sherman is able to use panels and boxes to tell a vivid story with action and movement that moves from page to page. Almost like a pop-up book, the pages are peppered with close-ups and details that immerse the reader in the action, and they don’t realize how engrossed they are until the page is inches from their face.
Everything that happens in this book is surgical. Every little detail has meaning. It only gets stronger when the Dark Knight starts talking. His mind is logical, calculating, and ruthless in his own way. It’s important to note that this is an early Batman, not a guy with fancy super gadgets, a breathing mask, or some kind of super steroids. He’s just a guy smoking and beating the tar out of Nikki Harris. The story chronicles Bruce’s mental record and explains how this was by no means a fair fight for Harris, even with heat in his bones and smoke in his lungs.
Even as Bruce focuses on saving someone, his heart burns brightly. The story veers into how Harris was right about fire setting lizard brains on fire. He thinks about the prefrontal cortex and its role in logic, the hippocampus and its role in memory formation, and how these parts of the brain make the human body succumb to fear and crave escape above all else. That may have been Harris’ experience, but it wasn’t Bruce’s. His reaction to fear was what saved him. It gave him hysterical strength and pushed his body into the fire, causing the body to overwrite the brain.
I love that Bruce was afraid and that that same fear allowed him to overcome nearly impossible things. It’s the same fear he turns into a weapon, the same power he uses to control Gotham’s villains through acts that defy logic. One such act comes to light when Bruce tells the Director and Dr. Sereika about that night. He describes how he moved in front of the flames to stop Harris’ incendiary bomb. But for the people of Gotham, what they saw was the moment the Dark Knight turned around, held out his hand, and watched the fire begin to die out.
In this moment, everything Watters and Sherman have built is finally on full display. This may be the most impressive page in the entire series. Batman stands alone as the protector of Gotham, the flames stopping in front of him as if the city itself is aware of his presence. The panels curve and break to form a vast bat symbol across the page, with Batman anchored at its center and the inhabitants below staring out at the legend made real. It’s a moment so bold and beautifully expressed on a page that leaves you cold, that I had to go back and take it in over and over again.
All this gives real weight to the final pages of the series. Bruce ultimately accepts that there is always fire in Gotham City, and the question is not whether it will burn, but how it will change. Flames have always shaped the city, recently raging out of control, but now it has taken on a form that Gotham recognizes and trusts. That flame is Batman, relentless and unyielding, and when he descends upon the city of Gotham, he will be there for as long as the city needs him, and his legend takes up an entire panel.
I am truly shocked that such an extraordinary story has reached its final page. It captured everything I love about Batman and shaped it into a thoughtful, emotional journey filled with stunning art and lines that hit straight to the heart. It provides the clearest, most human understanding of Bruce Wayne and Batman I’ve read in a long time, and every chapter felt purposeful. Watters and Sherman published some of their best work here. I highly recommend this series. It’s the kind of story that sticks with you and stays with you long after the final page, and I know it will stay with me for a very long time.
Verdict: Buy
Batman and Robin #27 by Philip Kennedy Johnson and artist Fico Osio is one of the standout monthly titles for me. It was a pleasant surprise to see a story that focuses on the father-son dynamic between Damian and Bruce in a way that I really enjoy. This issue allowed us to see a loving and nuanced relationship instead of one dominated by anxiety. This is the Bat-Family, after all, so I’m not saying there’s no place for anxiety, but it’s refreshing to witness Bruce let his guard down. This issue is especially good in that regard, as Bruce seeks guidance from Clark on how to open up and connect with Damian, while also building a story involving a new villain with a hidden past in Gotham. In this week’s Poison Ivy Annual, artist Mark Buckingham gives this character and her world a medieval touch that I honestly couldn’t get enough of, while regular series writer G. Willow Wilson delivers a deep story. Ivy refuses to give up her humanity even as she tracks down a secret living vault. That becomes the core of the annual tradition. Ivy’s journey is more than just a chase. It is a confrontation with all the harsh truths that she has hidden. Each page asks what compassion looks like when our hands are stained by past choices. Buckingham’s art lends physical weight to those moments, rooting emotional stakes in a world that feels fragile and alive. Wilson’s script takes Ivy to a place where growing up isn’t a metaphor. It’s a choice. To the end, she stands as someone who is still able to give mercy even when surrounded by the consequences of her power.It hits with the same vigor that made the recent “Absolute Batman Annual” stand out. Different in tone and focus, but the same ambition to push characters to the limits of their identity and see what survives. This Poison Ivy Annual does more than hold its own. It lasts and leaves you with a version of Ivy shaped by vulnerability, resilience, and the promise that her humanity is still a fight worth fighting. It’s a very rewarding book to read, and I can’t wait for the future, as Ivy is almost reaching its 40th issue.
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