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4.4 ★★★★★
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Product Reviews
★★★★★ 5
Great Sequel to Long Halloween
Format: Paperback
This takes all of the great elements of the Long Halloween and keeps it going. The two of those books together is a great story telling. Ticks all the boxes of a great Batman book. If you like this and Long Halloween check out The Penguin show on HBO Max. and if you like The Penguin but haven't read these two books you should since the show pulls a lot of influence from them.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2024
★★★★★ 5
Worth the price!
Format: Paperback
Great set!
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Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2025
★★★★★ 5
The Robin Origin Tale We Needed
Format: Paperback
Hot off The Long Halloween Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale return for another murder mystery. This is a direct sequel and follows the aftermath of The Long Halloween. The art is stellar and the story is deep and dark. The trinity of Batman, Dent and Gordon is gone and the isolation is real. At the heart of it, life goes on. Sofia Falcone is back and ready to get revenge. Meanwhile, Dick Grayson's about to go through the darkest chapter of his life. There's a surprise villain who makes a chilling introduction and much more. If you wanted more after Batman: Year One and The Long Halloween, this is the book for you.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2025
★★★★★ 5
The Best BATMAN Tale since YEAR ONE.
When I first started reading Scott Snyder's run on DETECTIVE COMICS, I was unfamiliar with his work. It seemed like they had just grabbed a new name after arcs done by distinguished writers such as Grant Morrison (which I actually thought was terrible during his RIP arc), Greg Rucka (who did a brilliant job with bringing the character of Batwoman into the fold), and Paul Dini (whose work ranged from not great to just about perfect). Snyder just seemed like a Johnny-Come-Lately, and the previous arc on DETECTIVE had been particularly disappointing, but alas I had faith that another solid arc was due for the Darkknight Detective, so I kept collecting.
Nothing could have made me happier, since Snyder and his partners in crime, artists Jock and Francesco Francavilla had crafted the most solid, unified and smartest Batman tale since Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's eponymous BATMAN: YEAR ONE.
Not to get too bogged down in plot detail, but essentially, the "Black Mirror" arc begins with Dick Grayson as The Batman (since Bruce Wayne was too busy fighting his way through time... argh...) and he's closing in on a secret auction where 'collectibles' of Gotham's most notorious villains are being sold to an elite crowd of wealthy degenerates, such as Scarecrow's fear gas and the crowbar actually used to beat Jason Todd almost to death. The main villain of the piece is hardly Batman's most powerful enemy, but it does leave some psychic scars on Dick. Next Dick is forced to deal with a dead woman found in an office building. Hardly worth Batman's specific attention, but what is is that the woman's body was found inside a dead killer whale's mouth in an office building. Making matters more complicated is that the woman this murder is sending a message to is actually the daughter of Tony Zucco, the gangster responsible for the death of Dick's parents.
While these stories are exciting, well-crafted and beautifully rendered by Jock, we enter a much more personal tale of Commissioner Gordon: the return of his son James Jr., who we haven't seen much of at all in his life. Apparently, James Jr. is a psychotic who is taking a new anti-psychotic medication and hopes to return back to society in some way. This becomes a very personal tale for the Gordon family, including Gordon's ex-wife Barbara and of course his daughter Barbara, formerly Batgirl and now the wheelchair-confined information gatherer Oracle. These interludes are illustrated by the brilliant Francavilla, whose every page looks like it's suitable for framing. Unfortunately for everyone involved, Jr. is not exactly what he seems to be and this leads to a small-scale but highly emotionally charged finale.
Scott Snyder did several things in this book that very few before him were able to do successfully. First and foremost, he captured the essence of Dick Grayson bearing the responsibility of being Batman. It's not something he shirks from, but he does feel out of place living in Bruce's penthouse and basically taking the mantle of Batman is no small matter. He is more emotional than Bruce and has more issues with his own fears. Second is that he's one of the few writers to really get the essence of Batman being a detective. While Dick is not as brilliant as Bruce, he was trained by the best, and Batman is not just a machine of brute force dispensing justice with his fists and cool gadgets; he's also considered the world's greatest detective and it's always exciting to see an author with a good handle on that aspect of Batman. Third is Snyder's awareness of Gotham not just being a city, but as being an integral character in the adventures of Batman. There's a darkness to the city that the good people strive to rise above, which is why the partnership of Batman and Jim Gordon has been the lifeline of Gotham's survival. Also on wonderful display here is Snyder's understanding of the supporting cast. He gives all of them equal and necessary life in the story, and has a superb handle on their individual characters.
In the few years since Snyder started in this business, first gaining prominence on AMERICAN VAMPIRE (which is another breath of fresh air to a dying genre) and then his work on DETECTIVE gaining him even greater accolades, he has become possibly the best writer currently at DC. Several people, including myself have heralded him as the next Alan Moore. He has an understanding of character, dialogue and structure that is unusual and continually striking. He's been the standout star of DC's "New 52", continuing his work on Batman with
as well as bringing back one of DC's greatest horror titles,
. He has also continued to establish himself as one of comic's premier horror writers by doing the best horror comic in years over at Image Comics called
(you can find my review of that book via that link), as well as doing a mini-event that explores the beginnings of Gotham City in
.
THE BLACK MIRROR is a Batman classic that people will still be discussing in years to come, as well as his other work in the field. I couldn't suggest more highly picking up any of his books. It doesn't get much better.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2012
★★★★★ 5
Dark, Brooding and 100% Batman
This review is super-spoilery. If you haven't read The Black Mirror yet, do yourself a favor and go grab a copy ASAP. You won't regret it.
No matter who we are, we can't escape our past. Where we've come from and who we've been leave indelible marks on us. Nowhere is this more true than Gotham City, and in Batman: The Black Mirror, Scott Snyder gives us a glimpse into the Darkness that lies at the core of the city.
If you're not a regular Batman reader, you may not know that everyone in the DC Comics universe thought Bruce Wayne was dead for a while. While he was gone, Dick Grayson - the original Robin - took up the mantle of the Batman. After Bruce Wayne's return, he kept Dick as the new Gotham City Batman.* Black Mirror is actually a story featuring Dick Grayson - not Bruce Wayne - as the Batman.
Snyder's story is one of the best Batman stories I've ever read. It's a dark, brooding and good, old-fashioned detective story. And it actually works better with Dick instead of Bruce under the cowl. That's a writing feat nothing short of miraculous.
Snyder's Gotham is a monstrous city that seeks to poison everyone in it. It turned both Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson into masked vigilantes. Dick was the child of circus acrobats who were murdered in Gotham. He was taken in by Bruce Wayne, who lost his own parents to Gotham criminals and trained Dick to become Robin. Eventually Dick outgrew the Robin persona and became Nightwing, working in a city near Gotham.
Joining Dick in the spotlight of Black Mirror is Commissioner James "Jim" Gordon, who's no less a victim of Gotham's darkness than Dick. He and his first wife Barbara have a son named James, Jr., who left with Barbara when she and Jim divorced. Jim also has a niece named Barbara who came to live with him after her parents died. Barbara dated Dick in high school, and she became the first Batgirl. In Alan Moore's epic The Killing Joke, the Joker shoots Barbara in the stomach, paralyzing her. In a wheelchair, she's now the Oracle. She serves as the information hub for Batman, Robin and their allies.
The Black Mirror introduces us for the first time to the adult James, Jr., who has returned to Gotham searching for a second chance. We learn from his suspicious father that James, Jr. is a clinical psychopath: he doesn't feel typical human emotion (yes, just like Dexter). But he comes claiming to be on a new medication that stimulates the brain to produce the chemicals psychopaths lack. He reveals that he's volunteering at Dr. Leslie Thompkins' free clinic.
Jim Gordon is suspicious, distrustful. But he can't stop himself from being hopeful, too. Is it possible that his son has found peace and even redemption?
Snyder keeps us guessing about James, Jr.'s true nature through the whole book. We feel the tension Jim Gordon feels, torn as he is between Oracle's pessimism and Dick's optimism. Barbara is convinced that James, Jr. is a monster who can and will never change, while Dick is hopeful.
And so with this tension established, Snyder asks us a most basic question: can we be anything other than what we have been?
We meet Sonja Branch, the estranged daughter of the mobster who killed Dick's parents. A wealthy, successful executive, Dick wonders to Jim Gordon if she's as upstanding as she seems. Dick muses that "it's nice to know that maybe, once in a blue moon, the apple does fall far from the tree in Gotham."
The expression on Jim Gordon's face as he echoes, "Once in a blue moon," reveals that he's still wondering about James, Jr. An old case has led Jim to reflect on his son to wonder yet again what made him the way he is. To wonder what he could've done differently. He concludes that Gotham is fundamentally sick. He wonders to Dick:
Do you ever feel like... like the more good you do or try to do for people out there, for strangers, the more the ones close to you, the ones you love, get hurt? ...I don't mean in general. I mean here. In Gotham... I'm talking about the damn bedrock. There are times I feel a dark heart down there, Dick. A dark, malformed heart.
Since Alan Moore's The Killing Joke, the Batman mythology has suggested that Gotham's villains arise as a response to the Batman's presence. The Joker of Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns is comatose, awaking only when news breaks that the Batman has returned to Gotham. And Heath Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight laughs that Batman thinks Joker wants him dead - the Batman completes Ledger's Joker.
But Snyder dares to step beyond this to suggest that it's Gotham, the city itself that creates both the heroes and the monsters. Gotham created the Batman just as it created the Joker. Gotham created Robin by murdering Dick's parents. And now that Dick is the Batman, we learn that Gotham has been creating a new nightmare just for him.
Dick's opposite, his dark mirror, isn't the Joker. That surprise comes when we finally meet the newly-escaped Clown Prince of Crime after Batman tracks him down. The Joker knows instantly, chastising Batman:
Do you even know what Gotham means, little bird? ...It means a safe place for goats! And do you know what preys on goats? Bats. The bat makes the goat sick. But every bat does this in its own way. And you, you're not my bat!
So what sickness has arisen as a response to Dick's new Batman? By the time we reach Snyder's gut-wrenching, perfectly, agonizingly timed reveal, we realize it could have been no one else but James, Jr.
James, Jr. is a pure, true psychopath. He's reversed his medications - instead of stimulating the brain to produce more of the drugs that give us emotions, James, Jr.'s drug suppresses them. His master plan - an eerie successor to the Joker's inaugural caper - is to drug a factory in Gotham that manufactures infant formula. James, Jr.'s goal is to create a generation of psychopaths, to remake Gotham's children in his own image.
He calmly explains as much to Dick as he tortures his cousin, Barbara:
Gotham is a city of nightmares... in the truest sense because what's a nightmare if it isn't a warning? A vision of yourself at your weakest... Batman - the real one - he shapes Gotham out of an obsession... but you new crop, you do it out of compassion. Out of empathy. Out of weakness... And out of all of them, Dick, you're the weakest.
[Gotham] is a city of nightmares, and I'm yours. I'm the face you see in the glass. A man with no conscience. No empathy. Gotham made me to challenge you... I am Gotham's son. And the city made me so I could help usher in a new generation of children.
Dick proves that his compassion is more a weapon than a weakness, thwarting James, Jr. (probably). But Black Mirror leaves us with an unsettled, uneasy sense that this fight is darker and longer than we thought. We start to wonder if the Batman's quest is actually winnable, in the end.
But Dick Grayson never wonders. That's what separates him from the James, Jrs. of the world. That's what separates him even from Bruce. This is a different Batman. Full of optimism. Playful - he makes jokes and teases his teammates.
Dick's Batman is at once totally different from Bruce's and at the same time wholly Batman.
Most importantly, Dick is hopeful. And it's ultimately that hope that lifts us up over even a surprisingly ambiguous ending. Dick said it perfectly early in the book:
I couldn't understand why Bruce... always chose to drive through the streets, moving on the ground... when he could've just soared above it all. But I get it now. Because even back then he understood that Gotham is a place you can never get above, a place you can never see clearly... I can't help it, though. I'm built differently. Because there's something about seeing Gotham from the sky that energizes me, gives me hope, if only for a moment before I come back down to earth.
Dick hopes that Gotham can be better. It's a hope that transcends anything even Bruce has. And it's that hope that draws him and those around him - like Jim and Barbara to fight the good fight.
Bottom Line: Whether you're a long-time fan of the Batman or only know The Dark Knight, Snyder's book is a must read. The characters are amazing. The plot is fantastic. The art is breathtaking. From start to finish, The Black Mirror is a sterling example of the literary power of comics you'll want to read over and over again.
*Since DC Comics has rebooted their entire franchise, none of this is the case anymore. Bruce is back to being the Batman and Dick Grayson has returned to his role as Nightwing.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2011