Let’s get this out of the way up front: throughout reading the 22 pages of Batman: Dark Patterns #4 from DC Comics, pretty much every time I turned a page I muttered “jesus christ” under my breath, so stunned was I by the pages by Hayden Sherman. The first arc of the series by Dan Watters and Sherman was revelatory in its own way, a dark mystery that thrust Batman into a Se7en type situation. But this next mystery is on another level entirely.
Sherman announces their intentions early with a jaw-dropping first page that shows a cop being thrown out of a condemned apartment building in Gotham City. The body falls, floor by floor, aided by pristine colors by Tríona Farrell, as we “watch.” There’s a movement, a drive to this page that is unlike anything I’ve ever read before.
Actually, that’s not entirely true. As we follow Batman through the maze of the building, trying to track a remaining cop, it’s hard for him to follow the echoes. And Sherman visually represents those echoes, that feeling of disorientation through spiraling panels, or pages that seem to fold on top of each other. And what it immediately calls to mind is the groundbreaking work J.H. Williams III did on Batwoman, which similarly revamped the comic book form. Sherman’s work here is the logical extension of that, continuing to twist and turn what sound can do to the otherwise silent page.
The story itself is also full of twists and turns, and as promised sets up a very different sort of mystery from the first arc. While that introduced a new villain who wasn’t quite as villainous as they seemed, this one finds a jaw-dropping new take on a classic Batman baddie. It also apes the structure (no pun intended) of The Raid, the classic movie that found cops fighting their way up through a drug den (or the excellent Dredd, which did the same). Here Batman needs to fight his way up the tower, and he may not make it all the way.
Taking the long view, it’ll be interesting to see if Watters is “just” riffing on different movies for this book, through the lens of Batman and Gotham City. Regardless, he’s crushing it with the sort of disturbing, intense mystery stories that have been missing from the mainline Batman comics for years.
Add in the next level work Sherman is doing here, and at least one the basis of one arc and change, Dark Patterns may become a modern classic. At the very least, Sherman is doing the work of their career. At least until the next issue arrives and Sherman reinvents comics, once again.
Batman: Dark Patterns #4 Rating:
Batman: Dark Patterns #4 Official Synopsis:
A NEW CASE KICKS OFF WITH A GRUESOME DISCOVERY!
CASE 02: There is a strange tower in Gotham City where the voices of the living and the dead echo. Its inhabitants are in a standoff with the police — with one officer dead and another held hostage inside, a riot seems all but guaranteed… unless Batman can navigate the building and save the missing police officer. But what the Caped Crusader discovers is that the people of the tower are following the direction of a single, strangely familiar voice that thrums throughout the building… and the voice wants blood.
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