Batman: The Black Mirror

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Robin's origin had a typological connection to Batman's in that both witnessed the crime-related deaths of their parents, creating an urge to battle the criminal underworld. This provided a bond and understanding between the two. Genius Level Intellect: He has vast knowledge of different fields. He often shows this when in use with his Detective skills. He was intelligent enough to build his own "Nightcar", [137] build and program a Tech Glider, [141] and also mentioned he can fool a polygraph. [142] Commissioner Gordon doesn't trust his son, so he has Barbara Gordon run tests on James Jr.'s anti-psychotic medication. It turns out that he's inverted the formula to increase psychotic tendencies. They believe he's going to use his connections with Leslie Thompkins to infect an infant nutrition center, turning hundreds of babies into young sociopaths. The Commissioner runs to James Jr.'s home to try and catch him, but instead he finds a box containing the keys of everyone he's ever killed... this includes Bess Keller's keychain on top of the pile. Elsewhere the Joker escapes from Arkham Asylum and begins his next murder spree. [9] My Dark Architect

And maybe due this “contamination” in the main story, having so many sub-plots is what causes that Batman and Jim Gordon look like to be “too slow” to react to the real menace that it’s standing in front of them at plain sight. Snyder writes the James Gordon Jnr storyline brilliantly, where the suspense between whether or not he's telling the truth is kept up tightly until the right time, and the way the character is written is both chilling and captivating, like Kevin Spacey's performance as John Doe in "Se7en". His normality is what's so disarming, and the artwork by Francesco Francavilla who draws/paints this storyline adds to the creepiness. He draws James as this normal looking kid but the expression on his face is as scary as anyone you'd find in Arkham Asylum. Intimidation: He is skilled enough to get Scarecrow, who only fears Batman, [149] to talk and, during his time as Batman, was able to contain a riot in Arkham Asylum. [150] Hollywood Satanism: The Dealer's alias is Etienne Guibourg, a 17th century monk who was executed after being accused of performing demonic rituals. This is a reference to the villain's philosophy that what distinguishes human beings from other animals is the capacity to be evil, which he promotes in his cult-like auctions. Social Darwinist: James Jr believes that empathy is weakness and looks to eradicate it in the next generation of Gothamites by mixing his psychopathy-enhancing formula to baby formula in the city.My very first Batman (this October is full of firsts) and what a treat! I might be a Snyder fan as it turns out! The Joker. I love the Joker and all his villany antics. He didn't play a big role, but I liked that he was here.

However, the story isn’t perfect, while it was good to see how much elements from the past of everyone was resurfacing, I think that if the storyline would have focused on the main element which makes the climax of it, the whole storyline may be shorter but more solid. Wingcycle: Nightwing also has his own personalized model of the Batcycle, which he refers to as the " Wingcycle". The Wingcycle is equipped with a passenger sidecar.

Overview

Not that this thing, this 70-year arc, was in any way planned or shaped in a narratively cohesive way -- but that in Batman's case, ultimately all of the several thousand comics strewn across the many series he's been a part of must ultimately add up to something that concludes (at least in part) with this, the very last Detective Comics story. Three months after Graduation Day, Arsenal approaches Nightwing with the idea of rebuilding a team that they're not emotionally attached to. This team of new recruits includes Grace Choi, Indigo, Jade, Metamorpho and Thunder operating out of a bomb shelter under Brooklyn. [52] Their first mission is an invasion of super-intelligent gorillas led by Gorilla Grodd in Manhattan. [53] This is revealed to be a ruse engineered by the Joker to kidnap and torture President Luthor, although they stop him before he can kill the President. In the aftermath, Nightwing explains to Batman that he's tired of being a reactionary hero and wishes to make his team proactive hunters as the new Outsiders. [54] War Games

Gotham City is a character on its own in Batman’s stories. Its look, its ambiance, it has a “soul” that “infects” its citizens. Batman while works in the darkness, his legacy may be the only “light” on that grim city. Eventually, Nightwing learned that Bruce was taken down by Bane and that he had chosen a total unknown called Jean-Paul Valley in his place as Batman. While Nightwing didn't agree with the decision, he trusted Bruce's judgement. [22] Jim Gordon hunts down a man named Roy Blount he believes to be the Peter Pan Killer, a child murderer he chased in his early days. Still dealing with his son's return, he remembers the day James Jr. was accused of murdering a girl named Bess Keller. Bess had been one of Barbara's friends, and she disappeared in the woods while they were on vacation. Barbara claims to have seen James Jr. carrying Bess' keychain but this was never proven. When Gordon finally takes down Blount, Blount implies that he murdered Keller in an act of revenge. Batman appears to take care of the criminal, and confirms that James Jr. was also not responsible for the birds being released. [5] Hungry City What's really quite fantastic about Snyder's writing (especially his dialogue) is not what's there but what's not - so much pointless exposition, all the extra details that any intelligent reader can fill in (or enjoy wondering about). It's such a pleasure to not be insulted by the writer - to get the feeling like the wr WAIT. Just chill out. All's I'm saying is that I've been thinking about what the DC reboot really means for all the long-running superheroes it affected last year. And while the whole of comic nerdom has been really focused on this new era of DC as the beginning of something, what's not being discussed so much is that, in a small way, this could also be considered the end of something; that is, the conclusion (however haphazard) of all the superhero stories (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman et al) that began in the 40s, 50s and 60s.Thinking he's free, James hails his triumph, but is shot in the leg by his father. James pleads with his father to wait, but Jim only says "no" and shoots his son in the other leg. James tumbles off the edge of the bridge, but Jim catches him, promising his son that he's not letting go this time. One thing he does extremely well here is write colorful villains in the gangster-plus mode of the best Bat-villains, some of whom are familiar (The Joker, Man-Bat and Killer Croc variants), but many of whom are new (The Dealer of Mirror House, Roadrunner, Tiger Shark), and come up with scenarios to provide his artists with cool, fantastical, somewhat creepy and off imagery (For example, the release of an aviary of exotic birds, filling the city scape with huge, strange birds that don't belong there; Tiger Shark, meanwhile, keeps orcas with him, and the body of one murder victim is found in the belly of a dead orca, found in the lobby of a bank).

Timothy D Peters (2015) Beyond the limits of the law: a Christological reading of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, Griffith Law Review, 24:3, 418-445, DOI: 10.1080/10383441.2015.1096985 In addition to that, Snyder also works in nice references to past Batman stories like The Killing Joke, Year One, and A Death in the Family while still making this feel like a whole new era. Some of the best and creepiest stuff revolves around Gordon’s messed up son who may not wear a crazy outfit but definitely belongs in the ranks of Gotham’s criminally insane. The only disappointing thing was that the Joker story seemed kind of weak and short, but that’s a small complaint. Meanwhile, Francavilla's work on the Gordon chapters is more refined with a heavy focus on colors and atmosphere. It's simpler, in a way that's fitting to the very human nature of Gordon's plight: dealing with the return of his estranged son. Because of Francavilla's approach, the creep-factor is turned up to eleven, assisting Snyder's intentionally ambiguous portrayal of James Jr. in being the most permeating factor of the book. John Porterfield (2009) A Review of The Dark Knight, A Rorschach of the American Psyche, Psychological Perspectives, 52:2, 271-275, DOI: 10.1080/0033292090288128

Collected Editions

Then, in a second story called Hungry City, the corpse of a killer whale shows up on the floor of one of Gotham City's foremost banks. The event begins a strange and deadly mystery that will bring Batman face-to-face with the new, terrifying faces of organized crime in Gotham. Nightwing was summoned at the Louis E. Memorial High School, where a shootout between several gangs was taking place. Nightwing infiltrated the building along with Batman and Batgirl and they eliminated all the thugs who were holding students hostage. Nightwing was exposed to the public eye when Batman carried out of the school the seemingly dead body of Darla Aquista. [57]