Reddit reviews Batman: The Black Mirror
We found 12 Reddit comments about Batman: The Black Mirror. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Reddit reviews Batman: The Black MirrorWe found 12 Reddit comments about Batman: The Black Mirror. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Have you read the JLA stuff like Tower of Babel, The Nail or New Frontier?
Batman: Noel
The Black Mirror
Batman Thrillkiller
Arkham Asylum
A couple of lists from /co/
One
Two
The animated serieseseses are also great if you haven't seen them yet.
Haha yeah, sorry. His whole run is actually collected and can be found on amazon here
For hardcover? Here are some essentials:
Yes. Just in case you want to know, this is from The Black Mirror.
His run on Batman begins at Batman & Robin vol1 (though a case could be made for Battle for the Cowl) and continues through Batman & Robin Vol.4 and The Black Mirror.
As far as "where to start?" - that's a difficult question. If you really want to start at the beginning you can look at the Wolfman/Perez run on New Teen Titans, where Robin makes his transition into Nightwing. Or, you could start looking at Nightwing miniseries from 1995 that lead to the ongoing series in 1996. Here is a listing of all the Nightwing TPBs from that period.
Personally, I think a good jumping on point for anyone that wants to start with the character from before the New 52 would be Nightwing: Love and War. From there you can go into The Lost Year, Freefall, The Great Leap and then his Batman run before jumping into the relaunch.
I'm wondering where you're getting the idea that he's emo or "arrogant as Hell". If it's based entirely on his attitude in the DLC then I'm not sure how anyone is supposed to convince you, but what the Hell, I'll give it a shot.
If I were to describe Dick Grayson, arrogance wouldn't even be on the list.
Firstly, I disliked the idea of Robin, not so much Nightwing, but I thought he was stupid and unnecessary. Then I read Dark Victory and everything changed.
The thing about Dick Grayson is that he is the person Bruce could have been if Bruce had a mentor to guide him. Bruce saw that Dick was on a path that could have very easily led to his downfall and recognised himself in the kid, so Bruce took Dick under his wing, he trained him, he confided in him, he made him a partner, gave the kid some closure. Bruce ensured that Dick wasn't going to turn into him. In effect, Bruce made a better person, knowing that if he didn't, Dick would end up as lonely and angry as Bruce.
So, onto Nightwing, which you seem to have a specific beef with. Dick grew out of Batman's shadow and took on his own identity, partly to prove to Bruce he could do it, and mostly to prove it to himself. Have you ever considered how much pressure he must be under to live up to Bruce's example? Nightwing allows him to be the hero he wants to be without cracking under the enormous pressure of being Batman's partner.
The biggest difference between Batman and Nightwing is that Dick is happy and it shows in his heroic persona. He's cocky and talkative, but more akin to Spider-Man than overtly arrogant. He enjoys being a hero.
The thing that really makes him stand out as a hero is when he took over as Batman. Now, you're obviously a big Batman fan and even more so a Dick Grayson hater, so you probably find the idea of Dick Grayson as Batman pretty abhorrant. But he was an amazing Batman. It was a role he'd been avoiding for so long, and it was even more of a burden than just being Batman's side-kick. He was effectively replacing him, literally filling his shoes.
So rather than pretend to be Bruce as Batman, he became his own Batman. He was more acrobatic and agile and the way he scared criminals? He smiled at them.
The greatest thing to come out of the run was Damian as Robin. Dick and Damian were the best combination because they reversed the roles. A happy Batman with a surly Robin. Dick was the only one who truly believed in Damian from almost the very beginning. He trusted the kid and he guided him. He was the best role model the kid could have.
I probably haven't convinced you, but that's okay because it's hard to convince someone who hates a character to like them just with one impassioned plea. But believe me when I say, he's one of the most likeable comic-book character, and one of the most easy to relate to. While most comic-book characters are fairly static, he is constantly evolving and growing. Bruce must always be Batman, but Dick is allowed to grow.
If you really want to learn why I think Dick is not only the best Batman character but the best comic-book character, you'll need to read some stories.
Looks like December for Batman Inc and November for Detective comics
http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Incorporated-Vol-Grant-Morrison/dp/1401232124/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1312512758&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Black-Mirror-Scott-Snyder/dp/140123206X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1312512859&sr=1-1
An idea of where they rank here
Black Mirror
Jean Paul Valley (aka Azrael aka AzBats) - last third of Knightfall Vol 1 and all of Knightfall Vol 2
Dick Grayson - First appearance as Batman was the "Prodigal" storyline, which is currently out of print but will be included in Knightfall Vol 3 when it is released in September. More Recently, Dick takes over as Batman in Morrison's Batman and Robin run (Vol 1 of 3 linked) and then again in Synder's Black Mirror story
Basically, you should just grab everything Scott Snyder has done in the Bat-verse. His run on Detective was recently collected and it is really, REALLY good.
Here's a link to the hardcover. I personally got the run digitally during a Comixology 99 cent sale. It's a really great read, though since I started reading after the New DC, Dick as Batman threw me off more than once.
There's also a lot of great Jim Gordon in that run too, if that's your thing.
His run is Dick, and he does it really well. One of my big complaints about Tony Daniel is that his Dick Grayson Batman is indistinguishable from Bruce. Snyder really does a great job with it, though.
His run is from 871 to 881. The entire thing is being collected into one TPB. He's also writing the Gates of Gotham mini-series, which will directly tie into his upcoming Batman run.