[Best of Batman] The Black Mirror by Scott Snyder

I'm going to level with you now: you must pick this up one of these days and read it. I spent about a week reading and reviewing each issue included for this stellar graphic novel written by the current Batman writer for New 52, Scott Snyder, and illustrated by artists Jock and Francesco Francavilla alternatively. Comprised of ten issues from Detective Comics #871-881 from the old DC continuity, The Black Mirror is set right after Bruce Wayne's supposed death and so, in his absence, the role of Gotham's Dark Knight was filled in by no other than Dick Grayson, the first Robin. Though it's not Wayne underneath the cowl, Dick as Batman is definitely a daring and compelling one. 

In Snyder's stories about him being Batman and as illustrated by Jock, Dick faces questions similar to a person who is having an identity crisis, particularly on the aspect of his roots. Though intimately familiar with Gotham's horrific landscapes and feels personally obliged to protects its people, Dick never felt that he belonged in this city of nightmares and most of his character conflict stems from the fact that he's a bird constantly trying to be imprisoned in a cage by forces which he could not always comprehend but nonetheless fights back with much vigor and resilience. In Dick, we get a Batman whose contemplative monologues are as self-centered and personal as they could get with some touch of vulnerability and self-doubt here and there, the likes of which we have never seen in Bruce Wayne before (though Snyder will go on to write Bruce in a more humanized sense in Zero Year for New 52 later on). 

His issues follow him in his investigations and findings pertaining to Gotham's usual scum and criminal element yet more often than not he gets caught up in a cycle of deception and greed that forces him to re-examine the way he views Gotham and his role and participation in all of its endless stream of violence and despair. I found Dick to be remarkably admirable yet pitiful as well especially in those quiet moments when I see glimpses of the Boy Wonder who is still lurking somewhere in the more matured and fiercer fighter Dick has become after leaving the Robin persona behind. It gives his Batman a presence that lacks the hardness that Bruce placed into it but still manages to be just as formidable. Jock's art and illustrations of Dick gliding across pages or diving into places remind you that this is the Robin we all love and who is now all grown-up and yet someone who remains as an adventurous aviator who longs for freedom and can only achieve it when he's flying over the dark city he is bound to serve. In fact, those brief moments he soars in the skies are the happiest that Dick has ever been, right until he lands back on earth and faces the evils and malevolence that is required of the Dark Knight he now has to embody.

The secondary key character for the other half of the issues is Commissioner Jim Gordon. His issues are illustrated wondrously by Francesco Francavilla whose limited color palette of dark colors (hues of orange, red, blue and purple) make the stories a chilling visual adventure as it is able to echo the depths of horrors that Snyder's writing purposefully and, at most times, masterfully brings out with atrocious clarity. In these issues, we see Gordon stumble upon an enigma he could never seem to get a hold of in solving, one whose dark nature perplex and wound him most: his own son James Jr. whose psychosis brings devastation wherever he goes. Now that he's back in Gotham, James Jr. has unleashed uncomfortable memories that his father had buried for so long. Each issue builds up to the ultimate collision and, just like with Dick, Jim Gordon needs to meet the reflection he sees in the glass and recognize that its potential for evil has gotten stronger and he may not have enough time to stop it.

The Black Mirror may as well be Snyder's audition for becoming the current writer for New 52 Batman and if that is the case, then it was rewarded graciously with much deserved praise in the end because this was such an impressive body of work, I must say. His poetic prose when describing Gotham City as a living character and not just a setting piece in his stories is something we can now read and appreciate in his The Court of Owls storyline. I would recommend this to anyone, long-time Bat-fan or novice. 

This is a rather moving yet very tragic story about the inconvenient truths in people's lives and how chaos can be the most undiscriminating force of nature that often rules the choices we make; and that the ideals we cling onto and comfort ourselves with may be more fragile than we are led to believe--much like the people we love the most can be the very ones who will have the ability to betray and destroy who we are. This definitely now belongs to my all-time Bat-faves!

RECOMMENDED: 9/10

Detective Comics [The Black Mirror] by Scott Synder issue #881

Sometimes when I write reviews for the last issue of a story arc in a Batman comic book, I don't feel so sure about the best way I can convey my journey with the previous issues leading to the conclusion. But I must say, Scott Snyder's The Black Mirror series has been an invigorating reading experience. This story falls on the old continuity of DC so it's nice to be able to take a break from the slightly uneven New 52 Batman titles. Though there are comparisons to be made here and his writing for the new Batman series, particularly for the Court of Owls saga, The Black Mirror manages to stand on its own as Snyder's freshman effort to characterize Gotham City as its own living and breathing creature as oppose to just a static setting piece for the Dark Knight's adventures. It's very enjoyable to read passages in every issue where I could tell Snyder applied some careful consideration and insight on how to best depict Gotham to us readers; to bring both color and darkness to this city that would enable it to come to life across the pages.

This finale issue entitled The Face in the Glass was, in general, a satisfactory ending for a deliberately murky and infectiously depressing story that centered around the horrors within men who welcome it and among the men who seek to extinguish it. For the former, we have the criminal element of Gotham City and the main star of the show, James Gordon Jr., son to Gotham's finest Commissioner. My favorite issues Lost Boys and Skeleton Key are all about him because those are the stories that really captured my attention and kept it in place. Now two artists worked on The Black Mirror: we have Jock for the Batman-centered issues and Francesco Francavilla for the father-and-son Gordon issues.

 For the finale, we got a bit of both. Francavilla lays down the foundation first with his signature use of limited color palette once again, this time applying more shades of red to make this issue visually intense as we read through. Jock wraps it up neatly in the final four to five pages where an honest conversation between Dick Grayson and Jim Gordon offers an optimistic message...right until we get to the last panel that would suggest otherwise.

One could say that The Face in the Glass is the climax and the resolution divided between two artists with vastly different styles and approached when it comes to illustrating Snyder's content on page. We see their art side by side for reference for this finale issue and I must say that they're both amazing artists and I really couldn't say I prefer one over the other because both of them used their medium effectively to suit the needs of the narrative. This could extend to the duality symbolism of Snyder's story in general. The Black Mirror does speak about reflection and deception. These elements are present in each issue. There's the Gotham that we know and the Gotham that we bury. There's Batman who under and without the mask. There's Jim's allegiance to his life of lawful service and his devotion as a father to a monster of a son. And the more obvious comparisons between Dick Grayson and James Jr. is something Snyder did not shy away from lavishly describing in this villain speech by the latter. 

Said speech also highlighted another Gotham-centered set of descriptions:

"My mother's comment that night, all those years ago, sitting there on the bed with my father; her assertion that Gotham is a city of nightmares because she was right. Gotham is a city of nightmares but not in the way you think it is, Dick, not in some simple, scary bogeyman way. No, it's a city of nightmares in the truest sense. Because what is a nightmare if it isn't a warning? A dream so scary it makes you think, makes you change your ways. A vision of yourself in your weakest...You see, this place is special, Dick. It's a city of nightmares. And I'm yours. I am the face you see in the glass...Gotham made me to challenge you, my father and Barbara...I am Gotham's son."

James Jr. never seizes to creep the fuck out of me, yes. But there is something very pitiful about him too, but I won't go into detail because I think you should read the pages pertaining to his realizations about his psychosis because that was when I actually started to sincerely feel sorry for him and others like him. I shouldn't be afraid of this sort of men at all. They're...beyond saving and that's pretty sad. I also felt bad for Jim Gordon himself who, in spite of his goodness and public service, is, shall we say, burdened with a family relative who is as dysfunctional as he could get. It only goes to show how life can be so random and that chaos is undiscriminating. 

There are great character moments in this issue again particularly the scenes with Barbara and James Jr. But the one that struck me the most is the moment when Dick Grayson as Batman finally shows up to apprehend James Jr. before he kills his sister. SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER He found Barbara on the floor with one of the two knives still lodged in her thighs (a cruel joke by James Jr. to make sure that removing either of them would make her bleed out). Dick then held her against him and it reminded me of the scene in issue #873 where Dick had a nightmare where his legs were cut off and Barbara was about to stab him. It was a meaningful echo of the said nightmare which fits what James Jr. said about Gotham being a city of nightmares, exposing you in your weakest and what you are most afraid of. For Dick, it's the loss of his own legs, being an acrobat and all, and the possible estrangement with Barbara whom he had always loved and cared about. It's such a subtle mirror effect of two events juxtaposed quite brilliantly. I almost missed it until I started thinking about the scenes more and make the necessary connections and interpretations.

Another one I liked is SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER when James Jr. escapes from Dick and ends up being shot by Jim Gordon while they're standing on a bridge which I assume was the same bridge where an infant James Jr. fell and was rescued by Batman years ago. James Jr. falls off the ledge again but his father caught him just in time. It was such a heartbreaking scene especially when Jim says that he won't let James go this time. It's a symbolic gesture of how much this father wants to cling onto the belief, to hope against hope, that there is still a chance to claim his son's soul back from the blackest pits of the damned city that is Gotham.

This was a splendid issue to end the saga as a whole though it's not something I would consider perfect and outstanding across the charts (that distinction still belongs to Lost Boys and Skeleton Key, to be honest). But I can honestly say that I consider The Black Mirror to be one of my favorite Batman graphic novels of all time.

I'll be posting my general review of the trade paperback first thing tomorrow.

RECOMMENDED: 9/10

Detective Comics [The Black Mirror] by Scott Synder issue #880

This is quite a misleading issue. And I like it. I like it A LOT.

It's been established that the Batman-centered stories have Jock as the main artist and, in a sense, this should understandably be about Dick Grayson as Batman especially since it focuses on the Joker and where he is after he escaped Arkham Asylum from last issue. However, I did state that I feel that the Joker is not going to take a significant role in this series and that James Jr. is the 'star' as Snyder himself put it in his reproduced script for the trade paperback release. 

Still, we're zeroing in on the Joker's whereabouts for this issue and we get Jim Gordon's monologue to begin the search which is something I actually quite loved so I'll quote it:

"Gotham. It's a city of glass and concrete, of steel and brick. and yet for me, like most people here, there's a city beneath the one I can see and smell and feel below my tires right now. A city of memory with a geography that I only know. Where the biggest buildings, the most important landmarks are the ones where something happened to me. Some tragic bullet. A first kiss. And after all these years, my city, the one beneath the glass and steal is full of plenty of bright streets and dark alleys. But the darkest spots on the map, the looming black towers, were almost all created by one man--the Joker. In many ways, he is Gotham's darkest and most brilliant architect."

It's resonant of the very first pages of The Black Mirror where Dick Grayson also talks about Gotham in a manner that is intimate and foreboding. I'm not sure I should talk about the issue in detail because that would spoil all the fun. But it's paced in a thrilling way as Dick and Jim hunt down the Joker, going through certain locations and finding out that the Joker's real hiding place is somewhere less complicated in reality. I also enjoyed the character moments shared among our heroes, particularly that scene with Barbara. Anyone who has read The Killing Joke knows that Barbara has a score to settle with the clown prince of crime and I admire her bravery and tenacity. She was not shaken at all and was very much ready to answer the door when the Joker comes a-knocking.

But as I suggested earlier in this review, this side story about the Joker is more of a red herring. When Dick does find out where he is, the Joker immediately recognizes that he is not the same man underneath the Batman mask and implores him to tell the real Batman, his Batman, that he misses him so and that he wants him to come back. Dick interrogates him for a few minutes about the deadly toxin going around the city but the Joker laughs it off, half-scolding Dick for not being able to figure out that the gag is not the Joker's but someone else's. He also taunts Dick that the real Batman would know that by now. This is quite a suspenseful revelation especially when it's spliced with a scene with Gordon at the hospital where his ex-wife Sarah was resting after she was attacked by someone they all presumed was the Joker. Meanwhile, Barbara tries to locate the Joker using camera sensors in the elevator but as it turns out, she was the one who had just been found.

Overall, this issue entitled My Dark Architect delivers its promise from the summary in the back of the trade paperback: Dick and Jim will face an evil that has emerged from their own doorstep. And if you have been reading my detailed reviews of the previous issues, then you should know that it can't possibly be anyone else but--

RECOMMENDED: 8/10

Detective Comics [The Black Mirror] by Scott Synder issue #879

My level of discomfort about Scott Snyder's characterization of James Gordon Jr. has finally reached an apex in this installment entitled Skeleton Key. I have to say, the anticipation has built up since the Batman-centered arc Hungry City which I quite liked but not necessarily enjoyed all throughout. So the sweet agony of finding out some more about this specific story arc has been killing me and so I rushed to finish this issue and the next earlier before I went to work (and I am now typing this review). I managed to steady myself though, and save the finale issue for later tonight. Delayed gratification is the essential key to any satisfying conquest, and that applies to my reading habit of Batman comics, or any book in general--especially when it's this good.

Francesco Francavilla makes a return as the artist for yet another Gordon father-and-son issue and this time it reveals significant pieces of the enigma that is James Jr. This review WON'T BE SPOILER-FREE because it deserves some lengthy discussion and reflection from me. So don't read on unless you don't feel like reading The Black Mirror anyway and are just interested in reading about someone's thoughts about its content. On that note, I'll try not to disappoint. Before we get to that, I first want to quote Snyder from one of his scripts (which was reproduced in the trade paperback GN). It was a correspondent shared between him and the said artist.

"This [James Jr.] is the star of your story. We're going to make him one of the scariest mothers in DCU. The idea is that he is a true psychopath--devoid of empathy. He's been away for a long time, wandering, staying away. No one knows where he has been, but his last encounter with Jim was bad--years ago. Jim has always known something was "wrong" with him, but how wrong is a mystery to him. That's the idea: James Jr. is the worst thing Jim could have for a son--an unsolvable mystery. Jim cannot figure out what Babs (one of the very smartest in the Bat-family) knows instinctually--that James isn't just someone with an anti-social personality disorder. He's a killer. A true psychopath. For Jim, the evidence is never there, and even the reason for James' nature is a mystery to him. Was it the fall from the bridge that damaged him? Was it the fact that Jim worked long hours, wasn't around? Was he just born that way? Or was it...Gotham? James is the twisted, mirror reflection of Dick and Jim, in that Dick is all about empathy and compassion; James has neither. Jim is all about solving things, James is unsolvable...Let's have some fun."

Upon reading this, I just can't help but feel more extremely drawn to James Jr. than I already was after reading Lost Boys (which is now my most favorite issue...but I'll hold up until the finale). Snyder knows what he wants to showcase in his characterization of James Jr., notably on how he will contrast him with Dick Grayson and Jim Gordon themselves. So in that symbolic essence, he could be considered the titular black mirror of the story in general and I would accept that eagerly. Before I get to the meat and bones of this issue, let me start first by saying Francavilla's limited color palette is a genius choice of art style. As I've mentioned previously, he works with hues of orange, purple, dark blue and black, giving his illustrations a haunted and shadowy look every panel which only serves to emphasize just what a dark story Snyder is writing.

The Joker also makes an appearance in this issue (or should we say, finally?) He was mumbling about a story between a boy and a girl; and that it's a story about love. His story about it serves as a narrative background for the rest of the issue with Jim, and I don't think the Joker was supposed to be relevant to the scope of this issue because Snyder himself was straightforward about who is supposed to be the star for The Black Mirror series. But I did like that he serves as a sidenote to add a more chilling perspective to an already despairing atmosphere. We can't have too much of that, oh no.

Now, Skeleton Key is a horror story where we explore the horrors of men; the very incarnate of such a force himself (James Jr.) who is also the one that keeps Jim Gordon awake some nights, unsafe with the knowledge that his one and only son is a monster. Gordon needs to confirm his suspicions at this point, distrusting even Dick's judgment about James Jr. when they met in issue #878 because even Dick himself was fooled by the mild-mannered appearance and demeanor of said young man. So Gordon goes to the only person who understood James Jr.'s nature from the very beginning, and who is no other than Barbara. Before that, he visited James in his place of work in a hospital administration. Leslie Thompkins, his boss, had stated how impressive and diligent he was, but Gordon was not at all convinced and actually just went there to get a sample of the pills James Jr. was taking, which were supposed to help regulate his amygdala so he will develop empathy. He takes the pill back to Barbara and she examines its contents. 

The one thing that jumped at me during their earnest conversation was that Jim asked Barbara to keep it in the family which meant he also doesn't want to get Dick/Batman involved. I think he is taking partial responsibility of how James Jr. turned out and Barbara agrees that they both should. The thing is, I know Jim still loves his son very, very much, but he can't turn the other cheek anymore--and rightfully so. After examining the pill, Barbara arrives to a startling discovery: James Jr. altered the substance in the pill which meant that the medicine is doing the exact opposite of what it should be doing (the medicine is now actually blocking his amygdala's responses). James Jr. is cutting off any traces of his humanity, psychologically speaking. AND THAT IS NOT EVEN THE WORST PART.

After discussing it some more, Jim realized that James Jr. has a more heinous plan than that. He altered the medicine so he could have other people ingest it. When Barbara assured him that it won't have much effect on adults anymore because their brains have matured already, Jim put another piece together and rushed out of the room, claiming that he knew whom James Jr. plans to use that medicine on. He recalled that his son volunteers to pick up baby formula from the market which would give him a chance to tamper with that--and that means he plans on turning Gotham's infants into psychopaths like him. It's...sickening. I was at the edge of my seat then while I'm about to reach the last three pages of the issues.

Jim went in his son's apartment, gun already in hand. This was shortly after we get a panel where it is revealed that the Joker once again escaped Arkham Asylum but right after he released some deadly toxin, rendering the staff incapable of rational thought which made them murderous. So now Jim creeps inside the apartment and his attention was caught by the closet that was ajar. A red metal box was inside it. He approaches the closet, kneels down and opens the box. Harvey Bullock appears in the doorway, presumably to tell him about the Joker. He asked if everything is okay and to which Jim dishearteningly replies that nothing is okay. We get a full-paged panel of the box where a multitude of keys are inside (keepsake from people James Jr. have killed, maybe?) and the one that stood out from the bunch is the bat key-chain, one that belonged to Barbara's friend Besse, the girl who disappeared. By then, Jim has confirmed that it wasn't the Peter Pan killer who killed Besse. 

It was James Jr. It had always been his own son all along...

RECOMMENDED: 10/10

Detective Comics [The Black Mirror] by Scott Synder issue #878

This issue and last installment of Hunger City story arc is a definite improvement from the previous issue. Right off the bat, we get an exciting confrontation between Batman and the pirate Tiger Shark who captured him based on the last scene of #877. Now Dick Grayson is hanging on a hook over a killer whale who is eager to bite a chunk of him (well, let's face it, maybe even more than a bite). While this was going on, Dick calmly remembers a memory from the circus about a man named Francis Roy whose gig is to jump from a diving board and into a tank that's filled with water only three feet deep. Dick recalls that Francis told him that it's about judgment. You need to assess the situation before you take the leap. 

Right now, Dick clearly didn't, hence being a whale bait. To make matters worse, he has to listen to bad-guy speeches delivered by Tiger Shark's two henchmen. I really do not like this egoistic pirate who doesn't speak at all and allows his goons to do it for him. He just reeks of self-importance and I can't wait for Batman to kick his ass. But let's not dwell on this scene anymore because this is actually not the thing to zero-in for this issue. It's the overdue meeting between Dick and James Jr. It's been twelve years since that picnic (which I was disappointed not to get a flashback sequence of. I would have loved to see Bruce make a cameo in there). But they did talk about it anyway and James Jr. cracks some really inappropriate jokes and it's making me really uncomfortable because his humor is so dry, and his material is always about him poking fun at his murderous tendencies. I mean, come on! It also doesn't help that James Jr. looks like some gawky nerd with glasses and is quite mild-mannered. There's a modesty there that's suspicious. I really cannot trust this guy.

After that we get a rather...cutesy (?) scene with Dick and Sonia. I don't want to make it sound like I'm actively shipping them because their conversation was not at all that amiable, but do we really have to see Sonia in swimsuit? There's nothing gratuitous about the way she was drawn or anything, but the scenario is about the fact that Dick is not happy about her lying to him and sending him off on a mission when she has ulterior motives to keep him blind-sighted. I suppose he could ignore her soaked, half-naked body when he's not in the mood to notice any of that, but I don't know. It seems to me that given how Snyder spelled out that he might be attracted to her, this kind of scene is not accidental or completely innocent. I really wouldn't be surprised if these two share a private, less professional-like moment in the next issues. And frankly, it wouldn't bother me because I get the sense that Dick believes something is wounded about Sonia--and he might want to repair her wings somehow, like the sweetie he is. But hey, he's Batman so business comes first before any possible, er, entanglements of the passionate kind.

But the real kicker is the last scene. Gosh darn it, I KNEW IT! Dick starts talking about Francis Roy again as the closing monologue.

"It never got old, his act. As a boy, I watched Roy do it dozens, even hundreds of times. I was even watching the day when he got it wrong. The day he misjudged and hit the water just a degree or two off point. He broke his neck, dying instantly."

Now that is one hell of a foreshadowing! It's sinister because it has something to do with James Jr. in the last panels. Overall, Hunger City was not as strong as a story like The Black Mirror (issues #871-873) but it gave us enough thrills. Jock's illustrations of Dick Grayson as Batman gracefully gliding across or diving from the sky are definitely my favorite visuals for this series.

RECOMMENDED: 8/10

Detective Comics [The Black Mirror] by Scott Synder issue #877

"Every time you try to get some purchase, the city changes beneath you, surprising you in terrible ways. So why try? I can't help it though. I'm built differently. There's something about Gotham from the sky that energizes me, gives me hope, if only for a moment before I come back down to earth." ~ Dick Grayson, issue #876 

This all feels familiar by now. Just like in The Black Mirror three-issued arc, Dick Grayson's Batman finds himself trapped again for the second time here in Hunger City part II but with it's a less dangerous scenario and one that I know he will escape from anyway even when it ended as a cliffhanger in the last issue. Dick gets to have witty monologues as he catapults out of the trap and captures Bixby Rhodes, an arms dealer who fancies himself with the name Roadrunner because why not. He had a set of mechanical legs, apparently, which Dick casually steps in when Rhodes gives him a lecture about Metropolis being more intimidating with the criminal element because a god (read: Superman) practically walks its streets. Meanwhile, Gotham only has Batman who is still a man nonetheless underneath the cowl. How arrogant is that? Well, Dick handles it professionally and with good taste, but it turns out Rhodes doesn't really have that much connection with the whale carcass and the dead woman inside.

This issue had its moments but certainly not one that was engrossing like the previous ones. I really have nothing else to say about the story because that would give the game away some more so I'd like to talk about character interactions now, particularly between Dick and Sonia Birch (Zucco). As I've previously mentioned, Sonia's father is the mob boss who had Dick's parents killed during one of their acrobatic acts. There's an understandable discomfort that should stem from this but I must say, Dick is handling himself with good grace but I do get the sense that he's drawn to Sonia for that reason and Red Robin (Tim Drake) was quick to point out that he may be attracted to her. Um, foreshadowing? I'm not sure. I wouldn't mind that kind of angle because Dick is such a sweetie that him having a love interest, even a half-baked one at that, might be interesting to see play out, especially with the given history. 

For some reason, my gut tells me to believe in Sonia. I do believe she wants to stop being associated with her father's infamous legacy. There's this great two-paged spread where Sonia talks about how sometimes our fathers' shadows are larger than we'd like. I wonder if Dick thought about Bruce then. I had a feeling that he might have had. Though we never really get characters talk about Bruce Wayne in the story, you do feel that emptiness that is so strong that putting it in words wouldn't do it justice at all.

In any case, this second installment of Hunger City wraps up quite nicely for the last part which should have more action and substance to it, hopefully. I think Jim did ask Dick to meet James Jr. just to get a read on him so I think that's something we should look forward to. This issue had an even pacing but nothing that remarkable, plot-wise. After his conversation with Sonia, Dick follows a new trail and this time around it's the man who did murder that woman and put her inside a killer whale.

RECOMMENDED: 7/10

Detective Comics [The Black Mirror] by Scott Synder issue #876

The Black Mirror series has to be Scott Snyder's first attempt to set the tone for the way he would be writing Batman in the New 52 continuity, and I really appreciate how consistent he had been when it came to crafting Gotham City as a character of its own. I would also like to commend him for writing Dick Grayson as a very convincing Batman. He put life and personality into the character that I often forget how much I should miss Bruce Wayne. Still, it'd be great to recognize and discuss the contrast between Bruce's Batman and Dick's because there are stand-out monologues and scenes that often remind me that this was the first Robin underneath that cowl.

In addition, I noticed that Jock is the artist for the Dick-centered issues while Francavilla is the artist for the Jim Gordon ones. This is important because both styles complement their respective stories beautifully. Jock's dynamic and long-angled illustrations of action sequences are vibrant, comprised of a large scope of motions and colors. This is attuned with Batman's fast-paced narrative, and when it came to Dick's contemplative monologues, Jock would often draw him suspended in the air or about to take a plunge, recalling to mind the images of acrobatic Dick Grayson as Robin. Meanwhile, Francavilla's Jim Gordon issues use minimal colors as possible, utilizing only three to four shades that capture the grimness and despair of the narrative. The characters are often drawn with shadows around their faces or in the background, giving each illustration a haunting look which suits its overall atmosphere. In that sense, the visual appeal for The Black Mirror is pleasantly varied, alternating between the action-oriented and fast-paced Batman issues and the more intimate and chilling stories about Jim Gordon and his psychopath son James Jr.

Now moving on to this issue. This is the first installment of the Hungry City story arc, a Batman-centered narrative. Two new characters were introduced; Sonia Birch, a self-made businesswoman whose dark connections from her mob boss father Anthony Zucco still have a long reach, and Bixby Rhodes, a.k.a Roadrunner, an arms dealer who had been harassing Birch. The story itself starts quite whimsically: a corpse of a killer whale was found inside the Gotham Bank. While Dick and Jim were examining the large wound on the stomach of the carcass, a dead woman slides out of it. It was quite horrific but still a bit amusing. The dead woman is Evelyn, Sonia's personal assistant. Dick goes on to investigate the case, uncovering some vital clues along the way. He was sent to a wild goose chase and encounters Roadrunner who, along with his goons, entraps him in a junkyard. 

The entire thing played out with some humor to it, I gotta admit. I'm actually glad that the somberness was dialed back a notch. The only indication of any dark angle was when Jim talked about James Jr. with Dick, asking him for an honest opinion whether or not he thinks James Jr. has changed. But since this is a Batman-centered issue, we leave that development for later on, and focus on Dick's investigation. It's worth mentioning that Anthony Zucco, Sonia's father, is also the mob boss who had Dick's parents killed during the circus act. Dick's feelings about this are evasive but he does seem to sympathize with Sonia, understanding that she is nothing like her father. I like that this is also a complementary parallel to Jim and James Jr. which is an unhappy and unsettling story I can't wait to start reading again soon. But overall, part I of Hunger City is rather promising.

RECOMMENDED: 8/10

Detective Comics [The Black Mirror] by Scott Synder issue #875

This next installment for The Black Mirror series is entitled LOST BOYS and it's a harrowing revelation of one father's greatest fear which is parenting a child capable of the very evil and darkness he battles with every day; and the cold, hard truth that there is no way he could ever hope to save him. This is so far the most personal of Commissioner Jim Gordon's issues for the series (issue #874, The Skeleton Cases marks the return of his son, James Jr.). This issue starts with a misleading yet poetic monologue sequence from Harvey Bullock that once again serves to highlight what a dangerous place Gotham City is and that it's important to have certain anchors--the things we hold onto--in order to survive the ever-changing landscapes of this foul city. We then get Gordon back with his own monologues and they're haunting pieces that speak about the city's climate with the use of symbolic narrative: 

["I've never liked winter in Gotham. The snow always makes me restless--the way it buries everything. All I can think about is the footprint in the alley filling with white. The cotton thread on the windowsill loosening with every icy drip. Clues lost."]

In Lost Boys, the story comes two-fold. We have interwoven flashbacks and current events impressively tangled together for this issue and what I have enjoyed a lot about it is that it's Jim Gordon's a back-to-back story about hunting down a killer from an unsolved case known as the Peter Pan killer (who comes into bedrooms, steals the children and leaves their corpses around the city) and his gradual discovery of his son's psychopathy. I could compare the tone and vibe of this story with that book/movie We Need To Talk About Kevin. 

It's a parent confronting the most heartbreaking thing about his/her own child. As parents, they do everything to make sure that the child is protected from the world. But what if it's the world that needs protection from the child itself? This is exactly what Jim Gordon, a model police officer and an inherently noble man, has to face about his son James Jr. And the truth is devastating.

Francavilla effectively evokes a despondent, murky atmosphere with the best choice of colors and illustrations known to man. It's uncomfortable to look at his drawings especially with Snyder's equally disconcerting narrative to back it up, but the impact was straightforward and damn compelling because of this. Hues of orange, blue and purple were once again utilized, and I definitely loved that two-paged layout of Jim at the centerpiece. On his right were certain events about James Jr. that point out that there is something dysfunctional about him. On the left was a seemingly idyllic family getaway to a cabin where James Jr. is invited by his stepmother Sarah to join them. He gets introduced to his stepsister Barbara's friend Besse who owns this bat key chain that opens a science toolkit. While Jim recalls this memory, we get him in real time tracking down the Peter Pan killer. He ended up throwing the man out the window. As he struggles to get him back up, the flashback sequence continues again.

This time we see Besse walking alone the woods. She turns around with surprise in her face but we don't get to see what was it that spooked her. And then Jim, Barbara and Sarah looks for her several hours later when she didn't come home. We cut back again to Jim Gordon and the Peter Pan killer. He talks about knowing Jim and actually planning on kidnapping his son. However, he claims that just as he was about to kidnap James Jr. during that vacation in the cabin, the boy turns to look at him, smiles, and said: "I know who you are." The fully-grown adult man nicknamed the Peter Pan killer got spooked and didn't touch the boy at all.

Batman swoops in just in time to prevent the Peter Pan killer from falling to his death but by now Gordon is far too shaken to care. He had just uncovered a memory from a distant past. He would like to believe that it was the Peter Pan killer himself who abducted and killed Besse but his instincts as a cop for decades say otherwise. In the beginning of the story, Gordon talked about how it comes easy for him to pick up the dark spark underneath a man's disguise. It was truly awful then that there were horrors in his own child that he once refused to see out of love and denial; out of the stubborn belief that he could be wrong. But not this time. Jim Gordon knows better: the boy he raised is now a man capable of cruelty, and yet there is that faint part of him that wishes otherwise. 

RECOMMENDED: 10/10

* This story was just outstanding and thought-provoking in scope and delivery.

Detective Comics [The Black Mirror] by Scott Synder issue #874

This has got to be the creepiest and most disturbing Batman issue I have read in a while. For this next installment, Scott Snyder now collaborates with artist Francesco Francavilla and the color palette he uses is remarkably darker than usual. The minimal use of bright colors (or even a lack thereof) captures the underlying tone of this story as well. Entitled The Skeleton Cases, the central character this time is Commissioner Jim Gordon who goes about his nocturnal duties as usual until one phone call shakes up things. This isn't going to be a spoiler-free review because there are some things that I want to discuss that would really expound on the story too much. So if you have any plans to read the issue yourself, don't read further. If not, then let's get on with it.

First, as always, I want to address the illustrations and visual feel of this issue. Francavilla only uses dark colors all throughout, and prominently shades of purple, orange, black and gray (with a few blues here and there). The effect is something quite gorgeous because the art is able to highlight the terror and suspense that surround the pages in the story. I'm liking it a lot even if most of the time we have to look at the characters with shadows around their faces since such a color palette provides little illumination, which only makes the expressions in their faces more striking (if not almost evasive as well). The Skeleton Cases has three parts in symphony for this issue and they increase the level of suspense and dread as the narrative unfolds.

As for the story, it starts rather simple enough. Someone has released the birds from the aviary and when they looked at the surveillance footage, a familiar face in the crowd immediately jumps out--and it's no other than James Jr., the Commissioner's prodigal son. The turning point for this issue is his unexpected return to Gotham, and Barbara definitely has more to say about that and she doesn't care to sugarcoat it in front of her father. What has gotten them so shaken up like this? Well, James Jr. is not exactly an epitome of goodness unlike the two members of the Gordon family, and his appearance in Gotham is already a bad sign. Anyone who has read Year One knows that Gordon's baby whom Batman rescues from the mob as it falls down a bridge was no other than James Jr. No one could have possibly known how he would turn out.

Basically, James Jr. explains it himself as he sits down in the cafe to have an earnest conversation with his father during the second arc: he's a psychopath. It's ironic and poignant all the same, considering this is Jim Gordon's offspring (one whom Batman even rescues as a helpless infant) and who would have thought he would stray so far from the tree in such a horrendous way? It's really heartbreaking for a man like Gordon to have a son who is everything he is supposed to be fighting against. However, it seems like there is a silver lining. James Jr. is taking some experimental medication that aims to affect his amygdala positively so he will develop empathy. It sounds like a hopeful scenario but I am very mistrustful of James Jr. already at this point. But a part of me, of course, wants to believe otherwise for Jimbo's sake. To be the parent of a monster is something that I wouldn't wish on someone of Jim Gordon's integrity and character.

The third arc of The Skeleton Cases takes us back to Dick Grayson as Batman as he is accompanied by Red Robin (Tim Drake) while they bust a group of criminals who turned out to be selling and trading off endangered species of animals. I already feel that there's a connection about this with the aviary with the lose birds from the earlier pages--and I think James Jr. is at the heart of it all. The issue ends with a very foreboding tone, leaving readers with a sense of bewilderment and overpowering curiosity as how this will personally change Jim Gordon if his son has something to do with the storm that's about to come. Barbara Gordon will be equally important for any further developments, considering her outright and quite justifiable distaste for her brother is something I'm interested to see play out in the next issues.

RECOMMENDED: 10/10

* Slick, engrossing and as dark as it gets, The Black Mirror saga promises something thrilling and game-changing to happen from here on out. With Scott Snyder's trademark writing seal, this will prove to be quite explosive!

Detective Comics [The Black Mirror] by Scott Synder issue #873

The general somberness of Scott Snyder's writing is unmistakable. It's becoming really hard not to call attention to it, especially for this final installment for The Black Mirror. Picking up from the cliffhanger last issue, this one guarantees a very well-executed action sequence that showcases Dick Grayson's acrobatic skills. After his disguise was discovered, Dick literally has to fight his way out the demented place as the barely recognizable hungry creatures of Gotham are on his heels, determined to feast on him. Additionally, he's been drugged so he needs to exert more efforts to get out of there. I was genuinely scared about everything now. Dick is delirious, hallucinating the ordinary people in gas masks as ghouls with sharp teeth and claws, closing in on him, dying to tore off a piece. If I was in that kind of fucked-up situation, I would be really, really scared shitless and will keep moving lest they devour me.

There's a true darkness in the way Snyder is unraveling this story and I think it's as prominent as it has to be because our Batman for this storyline is the former first Robin. Bruce has been so used to the dark that it's become a part of his nature; something that defines him because he fights it with a familiarity. The forces of evil and devastation in Gotham is something he welcomes and breathes. Meanwhile, Dick is fighting the dark differently. He tries to slip through its dangerous grip as quickly as he could manage instead of finding a way to thrive inside it as Bruce had. 

I can't blame him; Dick should be resisting because he doesn't have the kind of willpower Bruce has to endure it. And he knows that weakness which is why he is determined to get the fuck out of there before things go worse. It almost looked like it could but luckily he was able to leap out of trouble in the end. 

Or has he? I truly liked how Snyder wrote the inner dialogues in parallel with the action at hand. Dick has all these escape routes in mind that have to be thrown out of the window to make room for raw self-preservation instinct. But just when we thought he's safe, he gets a truly revealing nightmare that reflects what he fears the most is going to happen if Gotham gets a hold of him permanently. I like the symbolic meaning of that dream. I'm not going to describe it in detail but it has something to do with Barbara Gordon (and losing a physical part of him that has something to do with motion). I think it's very significant and gives us an insightful glimpse inside Dick's psyche through it all. It's also quite understandable for him to fear those things, given the weight of their importance in his life.

As we near the end, a necessary confrontation between Dick as Batman and the Dealer ensues but it wasn't as final as we are led to believe. The issue then closes in a very open-ended way where Dick hangs a mirror across the large windows behind him, reflecting not only his worn-down expression but also the city in the background. It was a foreboding imagery. It gives you the sense of dread that you didn't ask for but it's there nonetheless. Dick knows he's not equipped enough to deal with the madness that is Gotham City, not as  the new Batman, at least for the time being. He is frightened of the reflection staring back at him, and he has every right to be. This time, for the first time, he can't leave. He doesn't have that choice in the cards. He ends with this realization:

"You expect that kind of viciousness from the Arkham crowd but those people at the mirror house--they're just plains citizens. Mothers and fathers...Lately it just feels like the city is getting meaner, wilder. Something is changing. Some nights I feel like I barely recognize it anymore."

RECOMMENDED: 9/10

Detective Comics [The Black Mirror] by Scott Synder issue #872

I claimed in my review of the previous issue that it doesn't bother me that Dick Grayson, former first Robin, has now taken the mantle of Batman in Scott Snyder's The Black Mirror series. I still don't. But there is that small part of me that does care and perhaps only slightly perturbed about it. However, underneath that cowl, you sometimes tend to forget that it isn't Bruce Wayne because it is indeed true that Batman is Batman regardless of the man underneath.

Still, Dick Grayson slips through from the mask every now and then, especially with his inner monologues. What I could enjoy about this is the fact that Dick doesn't try too hard to be the Batman Bruce Wayne was; and yet there is also something lonely about filling the shoes of a former mentor and trusted friend, knowing that you have to carry on bearing the weight of a world you don't feel a part of. With Bruce, being Gotham's Dark Knight was his calling. But with Dick, you get the sense that he doesn't feel like he belongs in this city, and therefore does not have the same kind of emotional investment for that heroic role. He's almost like a caged bird peeking through the bars, knowing what freedom before was like, but has now learned to accept his lack of access to fly.

In this second installment of The Black Mirror, the stakes just got more complicated and dangerous as Dick infiltrates the black-market society club where Gotham's richest buy off macabre and gruesome collectibles from a frail-looking old man who is the Dealer. The people in the event wore specially-designed gas masks that bring to mind those horrific nuclear warfare scenes from the past where the height of possible annihilation is tremendously panic-inducing. I felt a bit scared while I read this issue, most especially when Dick was discovered and these people start trying to feast on him. I was genuinely afraid for Dick's safety.

The issue ends with that tantalizing cliffhanger. I really love the pacing and dialogue on this one. We get the appearances of Tim Drake, third Robin, and Barbara Gordon, who is the Oracle (this timeline in the continuity is right after the event when the Joker shot her and broke her spine). I like the subtlety in the relationship between Dick and Babs. They used to be children both lost in the storm and have come together to seek solace in one another, fighting for the same cause and under the same ideals. Now they are adults, hardened by awful truths and the darkness they produced.

This may be my favorite issue yet because of the near-perfect build-up for the cliffhanger later on. The suspense is just a killer! And, as always, I enjoy the noir elements of this story. Dick Grayson also continues to impress me as Batman even if his presence also makes me miss Bruce Wayne every once in a while as I read the pages. Dick is carrying on as Batman but I don't think he has fully embraced the burdens of it yet. He's resisting, given his circus blood, to truly give himself to Gotham; not when this city is filled with creatures that make it impossible to ever believe daylight will come after this much darkness.

On an additional note: I can't help but draw comparisons from The Black Mirror and Snyder's New 52 Batman storyline The Court of Owls. I really do think that his work for this one has inspired him to apply the same kind of atmospheric style and exposition to that of the Owls saga. There's a certain feeling that The Black Mirror evokes that is eerily similar with the Owls. It could be that thematic narrative where Gotham City is alive and trying to break down its hero. It could be the metaphorical ominous shadows lurking in each landscape that leave me with a nasty feeling of dread at the pit of my stomach; or it could be just the overall delivery of the plot itself. But the effect and impact is almost the same.

RECOMMENDED: 10/10

Detective Comics [The Black Mirror] by Scott Synder issue #871

It is with deep pleasure and honor that I write this review for the first installment of the three-issued story arc The Black Mirror by none other than the current Batman writer for New 52, Scott Snyder. Being able to start reading the first of the collected editions from my list of five also means that I have arrived to a certain milestone with my Batman readings since I began this on late April. Did you know that I have diligently read and reviewed eighty-six Batman issues, mostly New 52 material, in just a span of two months? I'm quite proud of this because it took a lot of discipline and a keen sense of momentum and dedication to have come along this far, given that there are still plenty more to read from the old continuity Batman as well. The Black Mirror storyline is one of them and one of the finest at that.

I have made a decision to review the issues that comprised The Black Mirror (issues #871-881) individually and then provide the overall review for the collected edition itself. Does that seem tedious? Perhaps, but not for this Batman geek. Before I begin this review, let's have a short backstory to explain the content of this volume.

The Black Mirror follows the events in Final Crisis in which Batman was presumed dead for a year which meant he had left Gotham City with a gaping hole ever since. Of course, he eventually does return but was more focused on a larger mission: the recruitment of allies for the foundation-building of Batman Incorporated (which has its own volume written by Grant Morrison and is also a part of the four other GNs I'll be reading for this month). So the first Robin Dick Grayson had to take the mantle of the Dark Knight in the absence of his former mentor and friend. That in itself sounds strange already; to read a Detective Comics issue and not have Bruce Wayne as Batman as its major centerpiece. It frankly did not bother me at all. Batman is Batman, regardless of who is underneath the cowl. Besides, here in The Black Mirror is where I discovered Snyder's penchant for turning Gotham City into its own living and breathing character, and not just play the part of a setting. It's notable because it's something that would inspire his The Court of Owls storyline years later for New 52.

This first installment of The Black Mirror was absolutely and remarkably gorgeously illustrated by artist Jock which also strongly complemented Snyder's deft writing. I really like how this story opened. It started with a dashing monologue sequence from Dick Grayson himself which already has a dark atmospheric appeal:

"When I was a boy, my parents kept a big map of the country tacked to the wall of our dressing room. The map had pins stuck in all the places our troupe was going to stop that season. Different towns and cities were marked with different color pins. Blue pins meant small towns... which meant small shows, less dangerous tricks. Red pins meant big cities. So, big shows and more dangerous tricks. All the stops were marked red or blue... except for one -- Gotham City, which was marked by a black pin. According to my father, the black pin meant no holds barred. Pull out all the stops. Bring down the house. It meant put on the biggest, riskiest show of the season. No catch wires. No safety nets. Everyone pushing themselves to the limit. I remember one time I asked my father why. What made Gotham so special? And my father, he looked down at me, and he said... "...some places just have a hunger about them, son. And you either feed them what they want... or you stay far, far away."

From this point on, I already have high expectations for Snyder's direction of the story. There are so many well-known detective elements to this story that should always embody Detective Comics all the time. We get the brooding opening monologue, the gruesome murder, the investigation and uncovering of certain important clues, and the surprising twist that builds up the mystery and action for the next chapters of the story. It's everything I ever loved in a detective story since my first Sherlock Holmes volume, and Batman is written here in a way that reminds me of his roots. He was, after all, based on the shadowy figures of cut-and-dry whodunits, and The Black Mirror is certainly quick to make that distinction.

I know I said that it doesn't matter who is underneath the Batman cowl but it is worth mentioning that Dick Grayson is a different animal all on his own. Commissioner Jim Gordon makes this observation offhandedly which makes me wonder if he could feel that it's not the same man he is working with. It was a simple remark regarding the fact that Dick as Batman actually lingers even as the conversation is about to end with Gordon (and we all know Bruce likes to sneak off while Gordon is still speaking mid-sentence). Small differences like this seem important. It also feels like Dick himself is distancing himself from Gotham. He has circus blood in him after all so he's always mobile without any kind of an attachment to a particular home. Alfred pointed out that though he had been living for almost a year in the Wayne Manor, Dick still hasn't made it his own; that he doesn't "leave traces" that he had been there at all. Perhaps it's also his way of saying he's not ready to let go of Bruce just yet.

Another thing I would like to point out is that I really enjoyed the contrast between him and Bruce as characters. The latter is a child of Gotham, privy to its crime alleys and villains like no other. Meanwhile, Dick seems to still see Gotham as a location he just happened to stop by. He has a sense of obligation to it since he became Batman but he knows it's nothing permanent. And it haunts him; I could see his struggle to care deeply enough but not so much that the city has a grip on him. He knows it firsthand too because he saw how much Gotham changed and influenced Bruce for years. Dick doesn't want that kind of attachment, especially not to a place like Gotham--and yet it still reels him.

Issue #871 starts with the discovery of an underground black-market society club of some sort led by a man who calls himself the Dealer. He auctions priceless items such as certain weapons or creations from Gotham's most heinous monsters. Dick is understandably not pleased, not when people are dying horrendously through the use of the same items. No holds barred indeed, and Dick knows this. It's time to bring down the house on top of this man called the Dealer, sooner rather than later.

RECOMMENDED: 9/10

* A terrific start. The writing and art are both prestige and captivating.