We’re a few days into our Spooky Spotlights series and I think it’s time to high light a scarier story. Today we are going to be talking about Batman: The Black Mirror.
The Black Mirror is a story from the pages of Detective Comics and is written by Scott Snyder. Snyder got his start as a horror writer and it shows here. The dark, unnerving tone he establishes early on in the story keeps you enthralled and is a great fit for a Batman book.
This story is also interesting because even though it is a Batman book, Bruce Wayne never appears in it. This book is at a time where Batman had disappeared after final crisis, was thought to be dead, but had recently returned, but left again to establish Batman Incorporated. During his absence Dick Grayson, the first Robin, and later Nightwing, had returned to Gotham and taken up the mantle of Batman. He is still operating as Batman in Gotham during this story. It is really interesting to see how Dick’s Batman differs from Bruce’s.
This story sees the return of Commissioner Gordon’s son James Jr., who was last seen as a baby in Batman Year One when he was kidnapped, dropped off a bridge, and saved by Batman. Like Year One, this story is as much a Gordon story as it is a Batman story.
While there are more colorful villains featured in this book, the real horror is psychological and comes from it’s depictions of regular people and how corrupt and depraved they can be when they give into their darker urges. Joker gets a brief and chilling appearance as well, and the books running theme of hunger adds to the unsettling tone of the narrative as does the art.
The artists that work on the book have two very different styles with Jock drawing the story from Batman’s perspective and Francesco Francavilla drawing it from the Gordon Family’s point of view. As the focus of the story shifts, so does the art and it really works.
In summary, if you like Batman and haven’t read the Black Mirror yet, go check it out. This is a darker, more unsettling story so it probably isn’t a good fit for younger readers, but if you are looking for a chilling and gripping story about the caped crusader then you can check it out
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