Batman is an amazing fighter with a ton of gadgets at his disposal, but his mind is his ultimate weapon. The things he knows about solving mysteries are second to none and that’s why he’s known as the World’s Greatest Detective. It's great that writer Dan Watters is making that the most important part of Batman: Dark Patterns.
Batman: Dark Patterns No. 2 creative team:
- Writer: Dan Watters
- Art by: Hayden Sherman
- Cover: Hayden Sherman
- Colorist: Triona Farrell
The Dark Knight does what we expected and stops the Wound Man before he can get to his next victim. He learns this in Batman: Dark Patterns No. 1 after seeing the pattern from a list he stole from The Smith and Oakley law firm. With this list, he also finds out that the law firm is being paid for by Ace Chemicals.
With that information, he has enough to put together that the Wound Man is connected to Ace Chemicals. Thanks to help from a reporter named Nicky Harris, he concludes that Ace Chemicals is shady. However, neither Bats nor Harris knows how or why Ace Chemicals is involved or how they're connected to The Wound Man. Thankfully, Harris' information leads Batman to a suburban Gotham town called Green Fields where he discovers something is wrong in the town nicknamed The Town Without Screams.
"The people of Gotham pray for superstitions to save them. No one else has."Nicky Harris by writer Dan Watters
In a previous article, this writer said that Batman: Dark Patterns could be the best Batman comic book of the year. Sure, it’s only two issues in, but it’s easy to see the potential already. Dan Watters and artist Hayden Sherman aren’t relying on well-known villains to get people into the series (though some may appear later). They created a terrifying antagonist with a mysterious past to get things started.
The puzzle doesn’t end with The Wound Man. We’ve yet to learn who and why he was created and how it connects to The Town Without Screams (which is a great name). We don’t even know why it’s called that. And what does this have to do with Ace Chemicals? Are they building an army of these tortured men with the help of the American Government? And is The Wound Man part of the reason The Without Screams’ calls for help were ignored? Stay tuned for Caped Crusades to find out the answers.
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