In issue #5 of Dark Patterns, things ramp up in the “Voice of the Tower” story. To recap: one police officer was murdered at the condemned Bledin Towers apartments, and another is being held hostage. At the end of issue #4, we learned that it’s Scarface behind the whole thing. He’s been directing the residents to stay in the condemned building and hold the hostage. But not only that, he considers the whole building to be his new body, complete with his face painted on the front.
I kinda liked the inclusion of Scarface, a villain that gets overlooked in Batman stories. Having the hostage police officer strung up like a puppet was a good clue, brutal as it was. I was a little skeptical about having Scarface declare a whole building his new “gody” (that’s body in ventriloquist speak, with B’s being tough to pronounce, a staple of Scarface stories). It’s still a little out there, but the more you learn about the building itself and its history, the more you start to buy it. Last issue, we saw that the building was a confusing labyrinth, presented with some stellar artwork. Here we meet some of the friendlier residents and learn that they consider it haunted as well, with voices and echoes from people long gone still ringing through the hallways. Batman has a more practical explanation, giving us our word of the day: acousmatic sound, meaning a sound where the hearer can’t see the source. He’s also ready with a quick history lesson on Moses, Greek philosophy, and The Wizard of Oz, in case you were curious. The building is perfectly suited for sounds to travel throughout without revealing their source, making it perfect for a ventriloquist. There are some great pages of Batman doing Batman things in the latter half of this issue as he makes his way to the top of the building to confront Scarface. But is it the Scarface we know? Having a building for a body isn’t the only twist on Scarface in this story.
What Works: The art is again excellent. Some standout panels are the flashbacks at the beginning and Batman making his way up the towers. The use of different geometric shapes for the panels is working well for the story and the visuals. It’s a great approach to showing how disorienting the building is, even though it has a pattern of its own. Also, there’s a fantastic homage to the Bat-climb up the wall of the building. The yellow oval and trunks are on full display here, which still goes in the “what works” section as far as I’m concerned.
What Doesn’t: Honestly, nothing doesn’t work here. That’s not to say it’s perfect; some of the dialogue is a bit hokey, and I bet there’s a Scarface purist out there somewhere who will hate the twist. I wouldn’t count any of that as a weakness, though; none of it detracts from this issue or the story overall. I think the twist is an interesting one, it’s got me looking forward to the next issue to see how it all wraps up. – Trey Jackson
GRADE: A
