Back Issues: "Batman: Dark Knight, Dark City" (1990)

- by Ninja Ross, 2 July 2015

It's difficult to find a good Riddler story. He's more or less always a joke villain; a tiny, weak man who can't take a punch from the mighty bat fist! But I find green bowler hats to be incredibly stylish, so I've always liked the little guy! But, despite the many times he has failed to be an effective villain, there are odd occasions where even Batman has a tough time taking him down.

Great Mike Mignola cover. Click to enlarge.

One such story is "Dark Knight Dark City", published in 1990, written by Peter Milligan with art provided by Kieron Dwyer, Dennis Janke and Adrienne Roy. Plus very stylish covers by Mike Mignola!

We start off in 1765, reading the written confession of Jacob Stockman. He and a few other occultists, including THOMAS JEFFERSON, have been up to no good. The confession describes how they performed the “ritual of the bat,” to summon daemon Barbathos, which kind of sounds like a nice place to go on vacation.

To complete the ritual, they find a young woman by the name of Dominique, who is forced to undergo six steps of preperation, before she is finally drugged and lead into the horribly damp looking cellar of Stockman's barn, where they plan on sacrificing her to summon Barbathos.

Things don't go to plan! Because, as you might expect, monsters don't always behave themselves when summoned by presidents and barn owners.

Fast forward to Batman and Jim Gordon on a rooftop, brought together by Edward Nigma himself!

Mischief! Riddler sends a drugged woman onto the rooftop to give Batman his first riddle, which leads him to the Gotham Library, where he confronts Riddler for the first time. Unfortunately, Riddler has left a security guard to hang, forcing Batman to abandon taking down Riddler in order to save the guard and discover the next riddle.

This seemingly random act of violence is followed by the abduction of four newborns, the first of which Batman finds in a blood transfusion centre. Only it's not that simple, is it?!? Because a bomb goes off and covers Batman in blood! That's a perfectly good cape RUINED.

So far, the book is pretty dark! And it only gets darker from there, with Riddler going pretty far to get what he wants from the Dark Knight, including shoving a ping pong ball down a baby's throat in order to force Batman to perform an emergency tracheotomy.

Click for proper size "Batman slitting baby's throat" action!

He's not doing all of this for fun! With every weird thing Batman is forced to do, Riddler gets closer to achieving his final goal which, as you might have guessed, has something to do with summoning Barbathos.

This is easily the darkest and most violent Riddler has ever been. But it's not in a way that seems forced, as was the case with a lot of comic book characters around that time. Riddler comes off as a real psychopath, willing to do whatever it takes in order to get his way.

BOMPHH BOMPHH!

The story brings a real nice supernatural element to the Batman mythology, which is nearly always welcome. It really brings that extra bit of Gothic horror to Batman. Plus, Milligan uses the city itself as an effective setting and a way to build up the tension and horror.

If you haven't read Dark Knight Dark City, but it all sounds familiar, that's because Grant Morrison used a lot of it during his run on Batman, changing things here and there to make it fit into modern Batman continuity. He did a lot of stuff with it, along with a lot of other parts of Batman's history.

It's a fantastic script, with Milligan in top form. It's creepy, intriguing and fun to read. There's plenty of dark moments, but it's never overly miserable. Batman is obsessive, clever and tough and there ain't no riddle gonna stop him! We also get to see a fair bit of Alfred, who displays his own intelligence in places.

The art isn't exactly shabby, either! Dwyer brings us a classic looking Batman and Gotham City, but adds a touch of Gothic atmosphere to the mix. And Janke's inks work really complements Dwyer's pencils, helping to give everything a darker, gloomier edge.

That was very intelligent of you, Alfred! Click to enlarge.

This is a real underrated Batman story! And it's nice to see Riddler as an effective villain with a creepy slasher vibe to him. Where are all the evil Riddler stories, Hmmmm DC?!? MORE RIDDLER, PLEASE.

So, if you want some stylish bowler hats and demon summoning, you should check out "Dark Knight, Dark City". And then you should complain about the lack of evil Riddler in Batman comics.


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Tagged: comics, Back Issues.

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