Reddit reviews Batman: The Black Mirror
We found 21 Reddit comments about Batman: The Black Mirror. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
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Reddit reviews Batman: The Black MirrorWe found 21 Reddit comments about Batman: The Black Mirror. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
If you've not read them yet, you might want to check out Batman: Black Mirror which is a detective story with Gordon as the main protagonist or Gotham Central which is basically The Wire set in the Batman universe.
> It’s so confusing, why shouldn’t I just be able to follow his story from beginning to present?
> (I’m using Batman as an example but really I’d like help understanding how to follow comics in general as they’re all laid out this way, with overlapping arcs and timelines and such)
This isn't entirely how comics work. In general, it's not the only way other mediums work either. The REQUIREMENT that everything follows a strict, traditional/conventional 3-act structure (beginning, middle, end) is self-imposed and not necessary for good story-telling. The "beginning" of comics happened decades ago and the "end" is nowhere in sight; comics are perpetually stuck in the "middle".
You're already used to non-traditional narrative structure; it's used very often in other mediums. Why does Star Wars get a pass but not superhero comics? Did you see how Darth Vader "became" Darth Vader before he was introduced for the first time? Do you refuse to watch/read/play anything that will potentially have a prequel and ruin your "sense" of chronology? Did Memento or even Pulp Fiction melt your mind? When you go watch Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay, there aren't going to be in-depth introductions for every character.
It's OK to embrace your preferences. Most people like following stories from beginning to end. Now that there is 70+ years of comic history to explore, third parties have attempted ordering it all in some subjective, complicated chronology. It's not really possible, though. How do you handle flashbacks, especially when they're embedded in another story? Do you have to change the chronology to per-panel precision? What about simultaneous story releases? Alternate universes/timelines that are fully/partially "canon" and/or merged/retconned later? Varieties of characterization by multiple writers/artists?
Most of what made these superheroes "cool" in the first place was very topical. What powers do they have? What does their costume look like? Their backstories and character growth/development were fleshed out over the coming decades, more specifically in the "modern" age of comics when the demographic started transitioning to include adults.
There's no "perfect" or "definitive" sequence of events that Batman's story occurred in. That severely limits creators from writing new stories for the character without requiring hard continuity reboots. If you start solidifying that Batman grew up in X, met character Y, fought character Z, in a strict order that can't be changed, then you can't write stories that occur in between those moments. If you plan out Batman's entire chronology to fit a realistic calendar where Bane broke his back on Wednesday and the Court of Owls revealed themselves on Friday, then you (1) will find it won't make sense (because that's not how comics are made) and (2) are stripping all of the "magic" of comics away. Keep in mind: 70+ year old shared universes are an unprecedented achievement of storytelling. No other medium has accomplished something of this scale for this long. You should expect to think of something unique like that a little differently than you might be used to.
I think it's easier to get into comics when you drop the "need" to read EVERYTHING, IN ORDER. You should just read self-contained stories and treat them like separate stories. Think of it like a jigsaw picture puzzle that you're solving one piece at a time. You won't see the big picture (continuity) until you manually piece random pieces of it together over time. You even start to develop your own "methodology" (head-canon, community discussion, etc.) of putting those pieces together (reading comics) in a way that makes sense to you personally. Comics should feel more like self-discovery/exploration than procedure/work.
This is (roughly) how I got into Batman and what I suggest to new readers:
In 2011, DC launched "The New 52", a reboot that reset every title back to #1, and condensed/erased many portions of the old continuity, in order to make the new books more accessible to new readers. Generally, you can start with "trades", which are volumes of issues (generally around 5-8) collected in a novel form. Vol. 1 of any series is usually a good place to start.
 
For Batman and Batman-related books, I recommend starting with the following:
Batman, Vol. 1: The Court of Owls
Batman and Robin, Vol. 1: Born to Kill
Nightwing, Vol. 1: Traps and Trapezes
Batman: The Black Mirror - This is actually just before The New 52, but I recommend this mainly because it's a very well-loved modern story that made Scott Snyder (the current Batman writer) famous. It's also fairly accessible to new readers.
 
For other characters, I would recommend:
Green Arrow, Vol. 4: The Kill Machine - The first three volumes are heavily disliked by fans. Vol. 4 is when the next writer (Jeff Lemire) takes over, and he establishes a different status quo and tone, making it easy for new readers to jump in.
The Flash, Vol. 1: Move Forward
Wonder Woman, Vol. 1: Blood
Earth 2, Vol. 1: The Gathering
I also got into comics with Batman Rebirth, afterwards I found this list here on reddit and all of them are just great, few of them are even extraordinary and without any of them we wouldn't have the Batman we have right now.
If I had to pick some highlights, it were The Long Halloween, Dark Victory, No Man's Land, Black Mirror and Hush, especially Hush was fantastic.
Still love Batman Rebirth though.
Batman/Superman only has 3 issues out so the collection is a little while off.
For Metal you should be fine with the [regular TPB.](Dark Nights: Metal https://www.amazon.com/dp/1401288588/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_Q74UDbSZXS0K1) The one problem with this collection is that it doesn’t include The Batman Who Laugh’s origin which is collected here I loved Metal and thought it was a lot of fun
If you were interested in the story about Gordon and his son then I’d recommend checking out Batman The Black Mirror which is a great read.
Honestly, don't worry about reading order. Just pick and choose which stories and art styles interest you. If you want to read something more modern, just do so. I personally recommend Scott Snyder's The Black Mirror and Gates of Gotham. And then there's also Grant Morrison's epic run which consists of multiple trades.
There's a lot of things you can get for ten bucks at Amazon. Any characters or stories you had in mind? If you haven't read The Black Mirror, it's one of the best Batman stories.
You would probably be better off picking up issues collected in graphic novel/trade paperback/omnibus form, especially since you said your SO isn't interested in collecting. Superboy, Batman, and Justice League are all popular, long-running series with hundreds of issues which is both prohibitively expensive and takes up a lot of space.
It also depends on which iterations your SO is most into. Superboy is a title that's been held by multiple characters (Clark Kent, Conner Kent, Jon Kent, etc), the same goes for Batman (Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, John Paul Valley, etc), and the Justice League cast is a rotating ensemble.
You can check the sidebar for recommendations but here are a few I'd recommend to get you started (my Superboy knowledge is very limited so take those with a grain of salt):
Superboy:
Batman:
Justice League:
Before starting that first volume of Batman, I'd recommend reading Batman: The Black Mirror first. It's a bit of a prologue to his New 52 run, starring Dick Grayson before Bruce's return, and it also puts future developments of the New 52 run into perspective.
As a bonus, Black Mirror is very possibly Snyder's magnum opus after all these years.
These books, probably in this order, make for a really good intro to Batman comics and also fit with the general feel of the show, either setting up origins or focusing on the city as a character:
Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One - Classic. Big influence on both Gotham and Nolanverse.
Jeph Loeb’s [Long Halloween](Batman: The Long Halloween https://www.amazon.com/dp/1401232590/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_f4FqDbZZ35GEQ) and Dark Victory which are kind of a Year Two and Year Three (don’t read the books called Y2 and Y3 though)
Chuck Dixon’s Robin: Year One - What it sounds like—Robin’s first cases, not his origin. Robin faces off against Mad Hatter, Two Face, and more. The copy I linked also has Batgirl: Year One which is pretty fun.
Jeph Loeb’s Batman: Hush - A great intro to all of the villains as Batman faces off against each one, ultimately revealing a new villain rooted in his past.
Paul Dini’s Heart of Hush and Streets of Gotham (it has 3 volumes—good to know that midway through, Bruce “dies” and is replaced by Dick Grayson as Batman, but it’s still accessible without reading all of that) - HOH is a sequel to Hush and has a lot of Bat/Cat. Streets focuses on the life of the Gotham underbelly, with characters like “the Carpenter” who builds all the booby traps for the villains and the realtor who finds their hideouts. Also acts as a sequel to Heart of Hush.
Scott Snyder’s Gates of Gotham - also has Dick as Batman but delves into cool Gotham history
Scott Snyder’s Black Mirror - again, Dick is Batman. Takes place before Gates but Streets goes into Gates more fluidly. This book is creepy AF and gets into some of the Gordon family history.
Scott Snyder’s Court of Owls - Though this can be read without any of the others as it was designed as an entry point for new readers. It’s also probably the best book on the list. REALLY good.
Peter Tomasi’s Batman and Robin - The issues collected here are a great storyline that are about Bruce and his 12-year-old biological son Damian, whose mother is Talia al Ghul (daughter of Ra’s and sister of Nyssa).
If there’s a particular character or aspect of the show you like, there may be others as well but these are a good core starting set.
(You can also check your library for these—many have graphic novels on the shelves but some also have a subscription to something called Hoopla which lets you “check out” digital versions of comics/graphic novels.)
Him becoming Batman was part of Grant Morrison's Batman run which I highly recommend.
He officially became Batman in [Batman: Battle for the Cowl.] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1401224172/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_GlI1xbEFDK140)
As for recs, [Morrison's Batman and Robin] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1401229875/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_0mI1xbHDBHE62) (again best read as part of Morrison's run) and [Scott Snyder's Batman: The Black Mirror] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1401232078/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_coI1xbDRRD46J) are the best stories featuring him as Batman.
Its a great choice. And $13.00 in paperback
Found it on amazon
If you want to buy it specifically from a comic shop though I respect that
Check out The Black Mirror, it's a great book and more ontopic it actually addresses the issue.
Dick builds a huge crime lab for GCPD to use but they basically refuse out of pride.
Battle for the Cowl to see Dick take up the mantle. I would check out Batman: Black Mirror.
I would also check out Issue #12 of Grayson to see both of them realize the other isn't dead. its an awesome issue features the entire bat family.
The New 52 run of Batman & Robin is really good but doesnt feature Dickbats, and Robin: Son of Batman follows directly after that. Also the New 52 runs Nightwing and Grayson are great.
Ok, so for Dick, the majority of his time as Robin was told in pre-crisis Batman tales, and many modern fans haven't read anything pre-crisis. That being said, I have read Batmanga, which stars Batman and Dick Grayson as Robin. I like Batmanga because it tells a Batman tale in a similar era as Silver age Batman, that has just as much curiosity about e.g. science, technology and the future, different cultures, their practices and mysticism, yet given that it was made in Japan instead of America, it doesn't have the same moral obligations that American comic books of the time had in regards to something like the comic code authority. So, it isn't afraid to have the villains be killers or show death, and because of that, you can have really interesting action scenarios with stakes you didn't get in the Silver Age of Batman comcis. That being said, it's not like the series (or at least what I've read of it so far) is making a close examination say on the nature of the relationship between Bruce and Dick as Guardian and Ward, Father and Son, or the like. But it is an interesting Batman action series that utilises the classic Dynamic Duo in telling its tale.
So, that's the only pre-crisis reading I've done, so, on to modern re-tellings of Batman and Robin. Because Post-crisis Batman was written in an era that already had moved past an established Dick Grayson Robin, in an era where Dick was already working as Nightwing and Batman was raising Jason, most Batman and Dick Grayson stories are re-tellings. Following Year One (which is just Bruce starting out as Batman), there were in canon follow ups in the forms of Year Two (that didn't have Robin), and finally Year Three, which told the story of Dick Grayson's beginnings as Robin. Year Three is collected in the Caped Crusader volume 2 trade collection. One problem is though that for the longest time, Year Three was not collected, so many fans are just unaware of it, and it's just not very popular (also maye why it wasn't collected for so long). In fact, that was all because it was overshadowed by a much more popular take.
So, just as Year Two and Year Three aimed to re-tell the beginning years of Batman's life, so too did The Long Halloween (not a Robin story, but needed to understand ..) and Dark Victory. These last two were not canon when they first appeared, yet were so popular that DC made the choice to allow Years Two and Three to slip out of canonicity so that they could declare Long Halloween and Dark Victory as canon. And if you wanted a series specifically looking at Batman and Robin's (Dick Grayson's) relationship, then Dark Victory would be an excellent choice!
So, these are not the only modern retellings of Batman and Robin as Dick Grayson. Just as Year One served as the foundation for later canon stories, like Year Two and Three, and also served as the foundation for Loeb and Sale's series, it also also served as the foundation for Miller's "Millerverse" of Batman. He did retell the origin of Dick Grayson as Robin in his atrocious All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder, but it is so terrible that people only have an ironic enjoyment over it, and it does not well represent the relationship between the two. To make this clear, don't get ASBAR if you want a good Robin story, I just thought I would mention it, so you know what to avoid, too.
There are other glimpses that other authors have made of Dick's time as Robin. they are not re-tellings of his origin, but rather just show what crime fighting was like between the two. An event called Zero Hour happened, that as the name implies had lots of time shenanigans. There is a collected Batman: Zero Hour trade, that collects all the Bat-titled tie-ins. The Robin tie ins specifically have Tim interact with a time-displaced Dick in a two chapter arc that I found fun, and showed the differences between the two. This was, however, an arc done without either's interaction with Batman. In this trade however, there is a lot more non-Robin chapters then there are Robin chapters.
Morrison also had a few glimpses of Dick as Robin. In his Batman: RIP arc, specifically his Last Rites/The Butler Did It chapters, he shows a re-telling of Batman's whole career to that point, including a good chunk looking at his time with Dick as Robin. His Time and the Batman arc, also featuring time shenanigans, as the title suggests, again had Bruce working with Dick as Robin in their prime. Both however are better experienced being read as part of Morrison's run on Batman, rather than individually to see just the Robin moments.
This is all I have read of Batman and Robin, featuring Dick Grayson as Robin. The only Tim Drake Robin stories I've read I didn't like, but they include A Lonely Place of Dying and Knightfall. Drake had a ton of stuff as Robin though, so hopefully someone with more experience with his tenure will be able to help you with that.
A few more ideas I have though. If you do just want to see Bruce's relationship with Dick, or maybe Dick and Tim's characters, maybe see the post-Knightfall Prodigal arc. It features Dick as Batman, working with Tim as Robin. Also, you get to see closure between Bruce and Dick at the arcs finale. Another suggestion is Dick's later tenure as Batman again. I think Gates of Gotham did a great job showing the whole Batfamily at that point. Dick is Batman, and he works with both Damian and Tim, if I recall, as Robin and Red Robin, respectively. Black Mirror focuses more on Dick as a solo Batman, though he does work alongside Tim for a bit, but more so Barbara.
So anyway, this is at least my experience with Dick and Tim as Robin stories. I hope this helps!
Have you read Batman: The Black Mirror? That was a good one. And although it's not a superhero comic, you should definitely check out Locke and Key! One of the best comic series there's been (in my opinion)
http://www.amazon.com/Scarlet-Spider-Life-After-Death/dp/0785163107
http://www.amazon.com/Scarlet-Spider-Volume-Lone-Star/dp/0785163115
Scarlet Spider was suprsingly my favorite book a couple years ago. Great stuff.
http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Black-Mirror-Scott-Snyder/dp/1401232078 - I read this a couple weeks ago. It's seriously amazing. One of the last Dick Grayson as Batman stories, and (i think?) Snyder's introduction to the batman family.
That's a really good list! The only additions I'd make are Detective Comics 871-881. That's just before New 52 and was Scott Snyder's first job at writing Batman. It's completely optional and the stories don't really have much significance in the big picture. But it's Snyder's first Batman stories featuring Grayson as Batman!
It's collected in Batman: The Black Mirror
[EDIT] AH I totally forgot. If you are going to read Morrison's run...that's the perfect opportunity to read Heart of Hush. It's set before Final Crisis (So read it before Final Crisis) and focuses heavily on the Batman-Catwoman relationship, Hush's past, and was written by BTAS scribe Paul Dini. He also wrote 'Streets of Gotham' that has some Damian stuff in it too. Again, all of this is optional if you just wanna get the Morrison stuff, but 'The Black Mirror' and 'Heart of Hush' are amazing Batman stories that happen during Morrison's run.
Saga - If you like stuff like Star Wars you'll love this.
Deadly Class - This is probably my favorite book being put out right now.
Daredevil by Brian Michael Bendis - I'm currently rereading this run and it is even better than I remember. One of the definitive runs for one of the best characters the big 2 have produced.
The Walking Dead - I don't know about you, but I love zombies and this probably the best zombie story I have ever read.
Batman: Black Mirror - This actually has Dick Greyson as Batman instead of Bruce Wayne, but it is a great read.
Batman Court of the Owl - This is where you want to start if you want to read New 52 Batman Snyder, who also wrote Black Mirror, has had a great run on the series.
Annihilation - Starts a truly epic run of stories on the cosmic side of the Marvel universe. Unfortunately the physical copies are stupidly expensive, but if you don't mind reading digitally you should check it out.
This is just off the top of my head and I'm sure others, with more knowledge, can help more. Are there any characters or geners you particularly enjoy?