Batman: The Black Mirror

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They investigate several murders and track down two officers who have sold equipment from the super-villain evidence locker to a mysterious man known as the Dealer. James Gordon Junior kidnaps Barbara Gordon and stabbed her in her femoral artery on her paralyzed legs, telling her that if she pulls one of them out, she will bleed to death in a matter of minutes. Having participated in clinical drug trials, he began to believe that being a psychopath made him stronger and empathy is a weakness. I particularly liked the nuances he gives Grayson's Batman: when meeting with Jim Gordon he doesn't suddenly disappear when Gordon turns to switch off the Bat signal, much to Gordon's surprise; Grayson's banter with fellow hero Red Robin, aka Tim Drake (the third Robin), is much more comradely and friendly as the two are really equals than teacher/student as is the way with Wayne/Grayson.

Though the Batman in the novel may not be Bruce Wayne he is still the essential icon, cape and all, characterised perfectly through the writing and the artwork. Gordon thinks a man named Cullen Buck was the one responsible for this, and Dick confronts Buck, who dies mysteriously before being able to answer. Tips on parenting you can't find in a parenting book: Commissioner, if you want to scare your eight year old son straight, the best place to put him might not be in Arkham Asylum next to the Joker.

Jim Gordon hunts down a man named Roy Blount he believes to be the Peter Pan Killer, a child murderer he chased in his early days. And while the whole of comic nerdom has been really focused on this new era of DC as the beginning of something, what's not being discussed so much is that, in a small way, this could also be considered the end of something; that is, the conclusion (however haphazard) of all the superhero stories (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman et al) that began in the 40s, 50s and 60s. Commissioner Gordon meets up with Harvey Bullock on a crime where the aviary cages from the Mayor unlocked, and the culprit is Gordon's son and Barbara Gordon's half-brother James Gordon Junior. Refreshingly with Grayson as Batman, while the story is dark, Snyder focuses on hope and light making this Dark Knight book not quite so dark and bleak while maintaining its heart and soul.

Indeed, it could be said that this graphic work, alongside Batman: Noel, prove that the modern graphic novel does possess a level of literary merit.Batman takes down Roadrunner and drags him into police headquarters, where he meets with the Commissioner again. Just then, a body is ripped out of the orca's body, and Dick deduces the body is a woman named Evelyn who is Sonia's worker. And the scene with Joker and Dick where the former immediately knows him not to be "his" Batman (and asking Dick to tell Bruce to come back). Even when he does a jump to save himself from a dangerous situation, he does it in his own style, due his acrobacy background, which is different of how Bruce would do it.