I don’t read very many graphic novels, and I definitely don’t read many Batman stories, but I think I’d like to try a little more of both. Dark Patterns caught my attention when it was described as Batman in his earlier days, in more of his detective mode. I had mostly gotten to know Batman as a superhero since I was a kid, and I liked detective stories (especially of the Sherlock Holmes variety) so I was intrigued, and thought this might be a nice place to dive a little bit deeper. The series is a set of four cases that Batman is helping solve for the Gotham City police. The cases often involve murder, in a somewhat bizarre fashion, and so Batman has to really get into the heads of some of the villains as he chases after leads and clues. We kind of see Batman as an intense and hard-working hero. I know that it’s a bit odd to call a superhero “hard-working”, but that’s part of the flavour, as the police are seriously understaffed. As he goes from one case after another, he doesn’t really have much help (apart from a new coroner who arrives with his own troubles), and he becomes more obsessed and exhausted as he goes. Even though it’s still a man in a bat suit, scaling buildings and crashing through windows, this is also a gritty and more realistic Batman on the street level. The villains still adopt colourful monikers, and a couple are reimaginings of members of Batman’s existing rogues gallery, but the approach here is much more psychological and dramatic, more like an intense crime thriller film. To that end, there is a lot of big screen flair in these stories as well, even while things are kept grounded. To a reader like me, who is relatively new to Batman on the page (rather than all the big and small screen adaptations I’ve seen), this was an interesting and engrossing style of Batman story. (I haven’t watched Robert Pattinson’s The Batman, which I understand may be more like these stories — but Dark Patterns has some of the feel of the Christopher Nolan Batman films, especially the second one with Heath Ledger’s Joker.)

The art, which is usually the first thing that makes or breaks things for me when reading graphic novels, also combines gritty realism and cinematic atmosphere. In fact, I would say that the artistry (especially the colouring, which was sensational) goes beyond what can be done on camera and truly shows off the unique power of the graphic novel as a format. Many of the page layouts were creative and dynamic, straying far from the standard grid of squares and rectangles to really bring action moments to life. Also, many full pages or two-page spreads were extremely artful and would have made great posters or standalone art pages. The colouring ranged from lots of blues and cold colours for moody unlit night scenes, to blazing spectral gradations of reds and yellows and magentas. This was at its most stunning near the end where there were a lot of scenes involving fire, which was a motif of this story. In contrast, the line work and inking served the grit and realism, consisting mostly of thin outlines of everything down to a person’s teeth, lips, and even stubble. There were not many black shadows or weighted dark line work that is common in graphic novels. I felt mixed on the art style overall, loving the colour and layouts, but not loving the outlining as much.

As for Batman the detective, I think that might have been a bit oversold. He starts out with the clues and the connections, but the more the story moves on and the more obsessed and driven Batman became, the less we get of that. A few convenient coincidences make connections for him, and other times he kind of just realizes things that are true and follows the right leads to the villains. Nevertheless, the writing and prose were very good. The character voices were well realized, and the dialogue was engaging. As with many Batman stories that are set in Gotham City, writers like to mythologize the city itself, giving it a persona, moods, and a kind of soul — making it a character in its own right. That was nicely done in this set of stories as well, with some “voiceover” narration that is written very lyrically and beautifully describing how what was happening was an expression of the city itself. I really like that kind of stuff.

All that said, I found that as a collection or a four-part story arc, the balance wasn’t quite to my taste. I have not been a big fan of street-level heroes, and was hoping for a bit more of the Sherlock-level super-detective. The characters and plots were intriguing and the art was at some points spectacular, so it was still a very fun ride. However, I think I will need something more to sell me on becoming a true Batman fan. Good thing he’s got so much more to his legend for me to tap into.

3.5 stars

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