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Batman: Dark Patterns
Batman: Dark Patterns (2024-) #7
Case 03: The Old Gangs of GothamWhen a dead body is found burned to a crisp in the heart of one of Gotham’s oldestneighborhoods, the Rookery, the Dark Knight Detective finds himself enmeshed in atwisting murder mystery dating back to the early days of the Red Hood Gang.
Kindle Edition
Published June 11, 2025
3 people are currently reading
4 people want to read
About the author
Dan Watters
416 books141 followersDan Watters is a UK based comic book writer. His first book, LIMBO, was released through Image Comics in 2016. He has since written THE SHADOW at Dynamite Comics, and ASSASSIN’S CREED and WOLFENSTEIN for Titan Comics.
Currently he is writing the relaunch of LUCIFER for Vertigo’s Sandman Universe, as well as DEEP ROOTS for Vault Comics. Deeply rooted in London Town, and firmly of the Devil's party.
Currently he is writing the relaunch of LUCIFER for Vertigo’s Sandman Universe, as well as DEEP ROOTS for Vault Comics. Deeply rooted in London Town, and firmly of the Devil's party.
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 12, 2025
Batman: Dark Patterns is consistently great, but issues #5 and #6 were just GOOD for me. Still, the third arc just started, and damn, it's great to be back! They're really setting things up, and Gotham, man, it's both depressing to look at and has this one moment that's laugh-out-loud funny. All in all, this is teeing up one sinister-as-hell 'villain,' and I'm positive this is gonna be awesome
June 12, 2025
This might be one of my top 5 series of 2025. I just love the way this story has Batman be more of a detective, still doing very Batman things, but mostly the way he processes through a case. I’m very intrigued by this new arc. I’m curious if it’ll lead to a certain laughing man!
September 23, 2025
The word of the day is pareidolia. It is the name for how we see patterns when there are none. Such as Sherman slipping in faces throughout random stains in the issue to remind us that while it may look familiar, it’s not really there. And while batman attempts his best to look past it, he can’t help but see a current pattern involving fire. These last few months have made batman feel like a disease the city is trying to burn out. It was a fire that created the would man, it was a fire that ended the siege of the tower last story arc, and there is another fire in Gotham tonight. Pareidolia.
When batman arrives he finds the cops and firefighters standing around smoking and talking. They are dragging their heels because the fire is in the rookery. An old neighborhood that was rebuilt with temporary materials after a quake, the city never bothered to go back and fix it. The streets have no name and half the builds have no clean water or proper electrical wiring, and most are simply constructed wherever people feel like they should be. It can’t be navigated by intuition, only by those who know. As batman descends into the rookery he immediately comes across a man eating a rat, he is very adamant about this as batman stays calm, and he explains that he has an astrophysics degree and first came here to get back on his feet…it has not gone well. And when batman asks for directions he goes into Schwarzschild cosmology theories about the entire observable universe being in a black hole. At first he didn’t believe it…until he came here. We are in the black hole now, and he instructs batman to follow his feet as it will pull everything to the center in the end.
Sure enough batman follows his way towards the flame until he arrives at Morris and Son’s laundry cleaner. But this is no ordinary fire…they have a body. Burned up and shoved inside a washing machine. Gordon had to scream at the officers to get inside and retrieve it, and they were still turned around twice. They take it immediately to Sereika for analysis, b he there is not a lot of forensics evidence he can get from a victim with this extensive of burns. But based on the pelvis it is a woman and he is going to need more time to “pry out her secrets.” Sereika you are such a strange fellow, please stay that way and don’t be evil, lol.
Alfred woke Bruce up in the afternoon with the sun shining and a nutritional shake ready. Bruce went into about what he found last night and for a change Alfred remembered a bit of history he can share with Bruce. I love their relationship. In the library Alfred dug up a book on the old gangs of Gotham. He went into a section about an Irish gang operating out of the rookery and who owned a LAUNDROMAT they used as a front for their criminal dealings. They never reached the prominence of the Italian crime families, but they are remembered for the grisly rumors surrounding their group. One riot suggested that if they wanted to make an example of someone, they would bring them to the laundromat at night and dunk their heads in a buck of laundry bleach by until their skin sloughed through their skull, and then hung them outside as a warning to the others. The bloody mess left behind is the suggested origin of the gang’s name: the red hood gang. As it turns out, batman has encountered them before, or at least a modern version attempting to capitalize on their old reputation. Bruce can’t help but draw the comparisons but he has to remember the word of the day and avoid patterns that aren’t there, it’s time to get evidence.
This leads batman back to the rookery, but on his way he witnessed a man attempt to follow a woman down an alley before dawning a goat mask and pulling out a knife to kill bee for Satan. Batman got in the way and what continued was the coolest POV shot from the would be killer as he attempts to run through the streets and way from batman…only to be caught right as he got to the rookery because he stopped himself. When pressed about it, even the man killing for Satan refused to go in there because they are weird. But he doesn’t know anything about the red hood gang. When batman called Gordon later, he was in the middle of pulling down the killer, and batman was looking for any clues in the laundromat and finding nothing. Gordon was able to pass along some info from Sereika, as it turns out he found burns out the skull, as if they were exposed to acid pre mortem. Acid…or bleach? But as batman steps away from the laundromat he looks out into the rookery and calls out to all the eyes watching him from their windows. He calls out and tells them to tell him where the red hood gang is and he can get rid of them. As all the blinds close batman has no choice but to whip out this bar from our second favorite detective: “…very well, then. The game’s afoot.”
When batman arrives he finds the cops and firefighters standing around smoking and talking. They are dragging their heels because the fire is in the rookery. An old neighborhood that was rebuilt with temporary materials after a quake, the city never bothered to go back and fix it. The streets have no name and half the builds have no clean water or proper electrical wiring, and most are simply constructed wherever people feel like they should be. It can’t be navigated by intuition, only by those who know. As batman descends into the rookery he immediately comes across a man eating a rat, he is very adamant about this as batman stays calm, and he explains that he has an astrophysics degree and first came here to get back on his feet…it has not gone well. And when batman asks for directions he goes into Schwarzschild cosmology theories about the entire observable universe being in a black hole. At first he didn’t believe it…until he came here. We are in the black hole now, and he instructs batman to follow his feet as it will pull everything to the center in the end.
Sure enough batman follows his way towards the flame until he arrives at Morris and Son’s laundry cleaner. But this is no ordinary fire…they have a body. Burned up and shoved inside a washing machine. Gordon had to scream at the officers to get inside and retrieve it, and they were still turned around twice. They take it immediately to Sereika for analysis, b he there is not a lot of forensics evidence he can get from a victim with this extensive of burns. But based on the pelvis it is a woman and he is going to need more time to “pry out her secrets.” Sereika you are such a strange fellow, please stay that way and don’t be evil, lol.
Alfred woke Bruce up in the afternoon with the sun shining and a nutritional shake ready. Bruce went into about what he found last night and for a change Alfred remembered a bit of history he can share with Bruce. I love their relationship. In the library Alfred dug up a book on the old gangs of Gotham. He went into a section about an Irish gang operating out of the rookery and who owned a LAUNDROMAT they used as a front for their criminal dealings. They never reached the prominence of the Italian crime families, but they are remembered for the grisly rumors surrounding their group. One riot suggested that if they wanted to make an example of someone, they would bring them to the laundromat at night and dunk their heads in a buck of laundry bleach by until their skin sloughed through their skull, and then hung them outside as a warning to the others. The bloody mess left behind is the suggested origin of the gang’s name: the red hood gang. As it turns out, batman has encountered them before, or at least a modern version attempting to capitalize on their old reputation. Bruce can’t help but draw the comparisons but he has to remember the word of the day and avoid patterns that aren’t there, it’s time to get evidence.
This leads batman back to the rookery, but on his way he witnessed a man attempt to follow a woman down an alley before dawning a goat mask and pulling out a knife to kill bee for Satan. Batman got in the way and what continued was the coolest POV shot from the would be killer as he attempts to run through the streets and way from batman…only to be caught right as he got to the rookery because he stopped himself. When pressed about it, even the man killing for Satan refused to go in there because they are weird. But he doesn’t know anything about the red hood gang. When batman called Gordon later, he was in the middle of pulling down the killer, and batman was looking for any clues in the laundromat and finding nothing. Gordon was able to pass along some info from Sereika, as it turns out he found burns out the skull, as if they were exposed to acid pre mortem. Acid…or bleach? But as batman steps away from the laundromat he looks out into the rookery and calls out to all the eyes watching him from their windows. He calls out and tells them to tell him where the red hood gang is and he can get rid of them. As all the blinds close batman has no choice but to whip out this bar from our second favorite detective: “…very well, then. The game’s afoot.”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 15, 2025
This series is finally back to its roots. Grounded, dark, and gritty. What made me fall in love with this series in the first place.
Batman now faces a new mystery after finding a burnt body within a drying machine. Alfred recognizes this cruelty and points to the stories of the old ‘Red Hood’ gang in the early days of Gotham.
Although we’re given a direction and an awesome introduction to this new arc, nothing else of importance happens. Nothing truly special in this issue. A solid start but I need something more.
Batman now faces a new mystery after finding a burnt body within a drying machine. Alfred recognizes this cruelty and points to the stories of the old ‘Red Hood’ gang in the early days of Gotham.
Although we’re given a direction and an awesome introduction to this new arc, nothing else of importance happens. Nothing truly special in this issue. A solid start but I need something more.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 18, 2025
Dark Patterns has been nothing but hit after hit after hit! Each case Bruce has dived into has been so rewarding and gripping in their own way and now he’s trying desperately to avoid patterns he can’t be sure are there? Things he might be making up and reaching but he can’t be sure because of the instincts at birth? His lament about Gotham trying to run him away? The people’s fear??? So good!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 11, 2025
i love the mystery
June 19, 2025
This book is interesting but doesn't do it for me. Maybe it is one too many Batman comics over saturation.
July 22, 2025
Now this is how you start a story arc! Great artwork, suspense, and intrigue. My favorite type of Batman story.
July 27, 2025
a short issue, not sold on the art, but intrigued by the red hood gang
August 24, 2025
Beautiful artwork combined with some smart writing.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews