Writer: Dan Watters
Artist: Hayden Sherman
Colorist: Triona Farrell
Letterer: Frank Cvetkovic
Editors: Arianna Turturro & Rob Levin
Cover Artist: Hayden Sherman & Stevan Subic
Publisher: DC Comics
Issue Length: 32 Pages
Price: $4.99/$5.99 Card Stock
Release Date: September 10, 2025
Gordon urged Batman to move on. He argued there were other cases to solve. But Batman prided himself on seeing through patterns that weren't there. He insisted that the body found in the Rookery was part of something larger. Now, Batman wonders if he was as susceptible to suggestion as anyone else. And he is in pain. Terrible pain. Batman has fallen. Can he pick himself up and protect the city he loves? Let's leap into Batman: Dark Patterns #10 and see!
Story
Gordon lights the Bat-Signal every night. But Batman doesn’t show. Some people, like Mr Cabrera, believe it is for the best. Then, he and his wife discover a burning building. No one rushes to help when they glimpse a figure moving through the flames.
Batman has grown used to fires in Gotham. Like the children who play chicken with subway trains, and the wild dogs running loose in the Bowery, fires have become part of the background hum of his storied city. Batman saw them as the inevitable consequence of shoddy building methods, accidents among the unhoused, children playing with fire, and arson. But in Batman: Dark Patterns #10, Bruce Wayne burns. A fever rages inside him as his body struggles to recover from his recent injuries.
In Batman’s absence, Gordon investigates on his own. He seeks to learn who is responsible for the recent fires and may ignite more. But he may already be too late. In Dan Watters' story, Gotham perches amid a storm of whirling destruction. Fire purifies Humanity and its creations, enabling them to survive amid this storm. While the fire destroys, it also offers opportunities for renewal. Like the Phoenix, that burns when it dies to be reborn, someone seeks to cleanse Gotham by rebuilding it from the ashes of destruction.
Art
Hayden Sherman shows a disguised figure regarding symbols of former disciples in a fading family room. As a man and his wife pass a product of old Detroit, iron bars protect a raised planter bed fronting a house. Ignoring the coin-operated newspaper machine bolted into the sidewalk beside a streetlight, the woman raises a gloved hand, while a man studies his cellphone. Behind the windowpanes, a broken child's mask appears. Stapled to strips of fabric and adorned with a dangling belt, this symbol of a damaged youth evokes an Egyptian sarcophagus.
While Hayden Sherman enriches each page with a different panel layout, Triona Farrell wields a loaded palette of color on Batman: Dark Patterns #10. Bruce sleeps amid pink, purple, and green in the gray Batcave. Alfred's shadow casts a pink hue over Bruce's sweaty face. While he sleeps, Batman explores an otherworldly realm. Like his skin, pink soaks the landscape. Pink and white streak the sky. Yet Batman's black cape swirls like a wraith amid this landscape of death.
Frank Cvetkovic peers behind the child’s mask to reveal tiny, black, lowercase thoughts in orange paper scraps. While black uppercase dialogue in white balloons and boxes hesitate to grow bold for intonation, Alfred leans forward to clasp Bruce's hand and bows his head as if in prayer. Giant black lowercase letters reveal an illicit letter, as a man leans forward and stretches his neck to search the sky. Yet all words vanish as a familiar figure swings into action in Batman: Dark Patterns #10. Thanks to DC Comics for providing a review copy.
Final Thoughts
Batman sought to protect people amid a culture of corruption, decay, and disinterest. But while he solved individual cases, Batman failed to discern a pattern behind the fires in Gotham. Nor did he realize who was inspiring people to perpetrate acts of destruction. So, in Batman: Dark Patterns #10, while the Bat-Signal burns a symbol into the clouds, the architect of the chaos unleashes the final stage of his master plan.
Rating 9.6/10
To look inside see my preview of Batman: Dark Patterns #10.
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