Drz
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Batman: the Black Mirror review
This deluxe edition collects Scott Snyders (best known for his American Vampire series) 11 issue Detective Comics run, illustrated by the talented artists Jock and Francesco Francavilla. The story in short resolves around Family and the new generation, and how this new generation lingers in the shadows of the past generation one way or another.
The stars of the book are Dick Grayson as Batman, Commissionaire James Gordon, Barbara Gordon aka the Oracle and there is this nice tight family theme going on between all 3 characters, after all Dick Grayson has known James Gordon since his Robin days, and did date the once-Batgirl Barbara. Now new readers might be shunned by the idea that Bruce Wayne isnt starring this book or that they need to know some mass amount of previous continuity to catch up and appreciate the story to the fullest, well fear not, because this is a very self-contained book, with a short introduction to the Gotham world, so it isnt any different from any other Batman book that might provide small details such as that Bruce Wayne and Batman are the one and the same.
The book contains 3 stories, the main story stretching from start to end which is the return of James Gordon junior, the son of Jim Gordon whom fans have only read about previously in Frank Millers Batman: Year One, fans of Year One will also probably get a kick out of Detective Flass reference thats in the story. The 1st story connects nicely how Gothams history with its freak show has molded into Gothams society as Dick is the todays generation Batman, but you got crooks with all random devices from past villains, you got Mobsters with Umbrella guns, Poison Ivy poisons, Man-Bat serums, Joker Toxin, you name it. So much damage has happened around Gotham alongside its good that some Gotham socialites have begun worshipping this very evil to a lunatic level.
The next story has Snyder reinvent the classic Batman villain Tiger Shark, with a complete new design, while keeping the undersea headquarter, now Tiger Shark is more of an smuggler using the undersea pipes, while alongside being a collector of near extinct animals, his new visual design and motive screams of upper class elitism, which nicely reflects to the whole nasty Gotham socialites that we read about. It also reflects again upon the Old vs. New with a certain woman unable to escape her fathers shadow, new crime empires rising and so forth.
The last arc is the big conclusion with the Batman family and Gordon family resolving a family crisis with none other than the Prince of Crime himself making his appearance, whoever designed Jokers lettering type deserves credit and Snyders dialogue for all characters, especially Joker is spot on.
The dual team of artists really works well, despite the art styles being different, both deliver excellent action scenery, but I feel Jock is the man who did the dirty city skyscraper with Dick diving in, with Francesco he gives a lot of emotional power with his characters faces and the beautiful painted feel to it all. Fans of Batman the Animated Series will also likely get a nice kick out of the red sky that is seen from time to time, both artists give this great dirty feel to Gotham City.
Thats one thing about Gotham and this whole story however, its very dark. The conclusion to the story is also rather dark, its a very post-9/11 kind of a trope where the world is so dark and there is only the tiniest fragment of hope and light alive, its the good guys vs. the evil in Gotham, but if Gotham truly was this huge pile of evil, why would anyone live there to begin with? What is the point, if it really is just sewer pipes and corpses with so much darkness and so little light? This really goes to show how does the individual reader interprets his/her Gotham city in the Batman universe.
The extras in the book include unused covers, cover sketches, character designs and best of all, an actual script pages from the 1st draft of a particular issue. I always love getting some insight and get to the mind of the writers, seeing how much visual imagination they must empower to their scripts to have the artist make it come alive, its an exciting process to learn.
Rating: 100/100 While my minor nitpicks are the dark scum with seemingly no hope in Gotham, with just tiny fragments of course, it doesnt hurt my enjoyment or scoring to the degree to not give it a perfect score. The characters are well rounded and fleshed out, the dialogue is great, you get some classic Snyder family trope inner monologue, the villains are unique and inspiring, and the whole book carries this element of mystery with hidden clues, which is what a Detective Comics title should always have. Like I said, its self-contained, well written and drawn, its a great Batman comic book for casuals and hardcore Batman fans alike.
