Hearing The Right Voice — Reviewing ‘Batman: Dark Patterns’ #5

Batman has faced a lot of things in his long and storied career as the heroic vigilante guardian of Gotham City. Not to mention all the things fought or experienced alongside the mighty heroes beside him on the Justice League.

This isn’t that Batman, though. This is a younger version still fresh into his detective vigilante ways. This Batman is fighting a whole building that could be haunted by the gangster-themed split personality of a ventriloquist? Well, that is a whole new sort of thing.

Just like the first four issues before it, Batman: Dark Patterns #5 is quite the ride. Dan Watters, Hayden Sherman, Tríona Farrell, and Frank Cvetkovic deliver the scintillating second chapter of this arc.

Hitting the right visual language really sets the tone from the word go. What Sherman has been doing with Batman so far is some next level stuff. Everything feels grand, tight, confined, open, fluid, dynamic, concentrated, and deep at the same time. Really delivering on creating the conflicting feelings our hero (and us the audience) is feeling while navigating the Bledin Towers.

Evoking such big and small feelings at the same time is a very special skill, which Sherman wields masterfully. We go from Batman having simple discussions with a mother and child in one moment to climbing the building the next to an action sequence inside level ascent. How Batman uses the building and his movement feels almost supernatural. Sherman really sells how scary, frustrating, and inevitable Batman can be when he’s on a mission.

Feelings of action and horror are prevalent everywhere. The artwork really hammers home the themes and the colors run with it. Farrell mixes and matches the darker heavier tones with the flashier lighter ones through the whole issue. This gives the spaces such a lively but also distinct flavor, depending on the moment or need.

All of them come with a sort of washed out or toned-down feeling, playing into the lower light or confined spaces at times. This establishes a more baseline, grounded situation in various spaces to stand against the more ‘spooky’ possibilities that are at hand. When those moments come into play that is where Farrell really digs deeper into the darkness, eschewing all the rest of the light and colors.

Like with the rest of the art, Cvetkovic delivers those ominously light feelings with the lettering, giving the various voices their power or creepy natures, letting our minds race with possibilities. It helps guide the words down and through the pages so smoothly, shifting and shaping the bubbles or caption boxes as necessary for the most effect.

All elements of the artwork have that bumpy rougher textured aesthetic to them. It’s perfect for such a street-level, gritty type of story.

Watters navigates those waters impeccably from the writing side.

How he plays within the realm of possible continuity while doing his own thing is kind of inspired. Even with one of the horrific things that happens to a prominent character here, it all still works. References to previous adventures woven together with the current threads create something very distinct. Like many other projects, it fits into the canon in ways that aren’t always clear, but thanks to Hypertime, none of that really matters anymore.

It also doesn’t matter because we’re getting early detective adventures which is good no matter what.

Notably, I do like how the issue plays with the fine lines between supernatural, unexplained phenomena, faith, and science in some respects. This is chiefly surrounding the way that sound would carry in such a space to make it seem like voices are everywhere, or coming from nowhere. Yet, the woman that Batman meets is adamant that perhaps there are more things in Heaven and Earth than Batman has dreamed of.

Just you wait, Bat-buddy. Just you wait.

There were some hints to the issue’s reveal but they were also potentially misdirects in the previous issue. Here we see just who is behind the Scarface building situation and it makes plenty of sense in some regards. It opens a lot of intriguing doors that likely won’t be explored in just the one more issue of the current arc. That’s fine, though. Much like the first arc, Watters is unconcerned with telling stories that are perfectly wrapped up neat and tidy bundles.

I’m watching Batman go full Batman in an apartment building against a ventriloquist dummy. Gimmie the popcorn and recliner right now.

Batman: Dark Patterns #7 is now available from DC Comics.