Absolute Batman: The Black Mirror

The stories from Detective Comics issues #871 to #881 are collected as  Batman: The Black Mirror TP (Batman (DC Comics Paperback)) . These are actually interlinked stories, though the links are not obvious until the finale.I gave up buying Batman comics after the end of the ‘Knightfall’ and ‘Azrael’ storylines, however many years ago that was, as basically, after all the shouting had died down, nothing had changed. I occasionally read a Batman-related graphic novel from my local library if something catches my eye, as with this collected volume here. It is an exciting read, with exceptionally good artwork, this time around with Dick Grayson as Batman following the establishment of the ‘Batman Incorporated’ franchise.The stories presented areThe Black Mirror 1-3Skeleton Cases 1-3Lost BoysHungry City 1-3Skeleton KeyMy Dark ArchitectThe Face in the GlassThe ‘Black Mirror’ involves yet another international conspiracy of fabulously wealthy people who this time are buying criminal memorabilia – stolen from police storage - at auctions held in famous crime scenes, and organised by a dastardly foreigner. Dick Grayson infiltrates one of the auctions etc. etc. The story stats with someone having freed the birds from Gotham’s aviary, which of course makes the reader think of the usual suspect, but he’s nowhere to be seen in this volume.The supporting cast are Commissioner and Barbara Gordon, Harvey Bullock, and, to a lesser extent, Alfred and Tim the Red Robin. As the volume progresses, the stories revolve more and more about the ‘family’ of Dick Grayson (“call me Dick, please. You drove me to my high school prom” - Gordon: “I drove my daughter to her high school prom. You just happened to be in the car”), especially when in the second storyline, Jim Gordon Jr makes his reappearance in ‘Skeleton Cases, and ‘Lost Boys’. I am not familiar with his back-story; the only time I can ever remember seeing him before is as a baby in Batman: Year One back in the seventies. Here at least the Gordon family tree is explained, as the Commissioner appears to have been married twice, though I am still not clear whether Barbara is the daughter of the first wife – also called Barbara – or the second. Jim Jr is definitely the daughter of the first wife, apparently. What is made clear to us, is that he is, or was, a sociopath, but he’s got better since taking his medication.The third story, ‘Hungry City’ starts with the murder of a killer whale, whose body is dumped in a Gotham Bank, run by Sonia Branch - the estranged daughter of Tony Zucco, the man who murdered Dick Grayson’s parents. When doing the autopsy, the body of Sonia’s PA is discovered inside, which leads us to a conspiracy of rich Gotham criminals who are trying to blackmail Ms Branch into laundering their money. A couple of Morrison-grade whack-jobs later and Dick has got to the bottom of the mystery – while also finding out first-hand how the body got in the killer whale. We end up with him having a meeting with Jim Jr, at the Commissioner’s request, to give an unbiased opinion of his recovery. The meeting ends with Jim Jr going home to his latest victim hidden in the basement. Come on, we knew all along didn’t we?The final three stories are about Jim Jr’s dastardly plot to take revenge on his family, while also contaminating the baby formula produced and distributed in Gotham with the reverse-engineered medication he’s been taking, which causes rather than cures his instincts to murder… The Commissioner finally realises what his son is by the end of ‘Skeleton Key’; while in ‘My Dark Architect’ Jim Jr.’s mother apparently falls victim to the Joker; and in ‘The Face in the Glass’ Dick has a chat with the Joker about Jim Jr., who was a neighbour of his at Arkham once – they got along famously, it appears, in a seriously big back-story filling in sort of way, as we discover during Jim Jr.’s chat with sister Barbara, where he reveals everything, including his secret appearances back in the Black Mirror. Unfortunately for him, Dick then reveals his own secret activities… But it is left to Commissioner Gordon and his friends Mr Smith and Mr Wesson to have the last word with young Jim, in a scene foreshadowed in more than one previous story.The volume ends where it began, with Dick and the Commissioner in the Wayne Foundation crime lab –Gordon: “Well, I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank you, Dick.”Dick: “Of course, it was the least we could do, given-“Gordon: “No. I mean THANK you. On all fronts”Pause.Dick: “You’re welcome.”There was a multi-page and wordless sequence in a John Byrne Batman story, once upon a time, long ago and far away, which depicted the discovery of the body of the Batman; the Commissioner being called to the mortuary; him slowly removing the mask, and staring a while; and then standing on the roof with the Bat-signal activated.If you are a Batman fan, then you’ll want to read this. If you are just casually browsing, it is still an entertaining comic, and you don’t need to know the back-story to enjoy it, as this is really all about the back story, so it is presented in great detail for us. In fact, for all I know, the writer could be inventing all the back story right here… I read a library copy of this, I have to admit, but I still buy the all the Archive Editions.