Within Batman’s mythos, the Red Hood is one of his oldest and most varied foes. Before it was the moniker for the black sheep of the Bat Family Jason Todd, it was the criminal name the Joker went by prior to his swim in the ACE Chemicals vat of acid. However, Batman: Dark Patterns #9 just delivered a massive change to the mythos of the Red Hood. Instead of just being the Joker’s previous name or even the name of his masked criminal gang, the Red Hood Gang is one of the oldest and most violent gangs in Gotham City. Not only that, but the original Red Hood Gang is back, and they set the standard for violent, disturbing crime in Gotham City. In this Batman story, it all started with a fire.
Batman Is Seeing Patterns
Batman: Dark Patterns is a maxi-series with four three-part mysteries, set in the early years of Batman’s career. The first two arcs involved fires in some way, and the third one, “Pareidolia,” starts just the same with Bruce nursing some injuries in an ice bucket, only to see a fire start up deep within Gotham City. He goes to see what it’s about, all the while trying to convince himself that the string of fires being connected to gruesome murders is just his mind finding patterns where there are none. It’s just pareidolia, but he can’t quite convince himself as he finds the source of the flames. It’s a building deep inside the Rookery, one of Gotham’s oldest neighborhoods, composed entirely of temporary shelter-houses and with no roads discernable to anyone who doesn’t live there. After getting a vague message about everything finding its way to the center from a man eating a rat, Batman finds the building purposefully lit aflame. It’s an old laundromat, and there’s a burning washing machine with a body stuffed inside.
The body is eventually taken to Dr. Sereika, Gotham University’s forensic pathologist and the only person willing to examine the dead in this horror-riddled city. He tells Batman and Jim Gordon that before the woman was killed her face was dipped into some kind of acid, likely bleach. Stumped on clues for the moment, Batman returns home, because even he has to sleep sometime. Alfred eventually wakes him up, and Bruce relates his current case. It triggers a memory in him, and he produces a book detailing the old crime history of Gotham City’s gangs, because Alfred is a true crime enjoyer. He says that the method of killing and the location reminded him of one of Gotham’s oldest gangs, the Red Hood Gang.
The Red Hood Gang, Reimagined and Deadlier than Ever
Apparently, the Red Hood Gang that Batman tangled with was only a newer incarnation seeking to ride the coattails of the originals. The original gang existed far before Batman’s time, when the Rookery was still an up-and-coming neighborhood populated mostly by Irish immigrants. Gotham City, of course, was run entirely by its various gangs at the time, from the Falcones to the Maronis, but the Red Hood Gang sought to distinguish themselves and carve their own little piece of the Gotham pie by having a signature murder method under their belts. Supposedly, as Alfred says, they would hold their victims’ faces under bleach until their skin peeled off. As Bruce learns this, he sees that his glass left a ring of water that reminds him of the burning washing machine. Once again telling himself it’s not a pattern, he heads back out for the night.
Later, Batman stops a man from killing a woman in an alley, but he runs and Batman gives chase. The criminal runs all the way to the border into the Rookery, but refuses to go further and is caught, saying that there are some things in there even scarier than Batman. Leaving the would-be killer for the GCPD, Batman heads back to the heart of the Rookery. He calls out that he knows everyone here is watching him, and promises that if they tell him where the Red Hood Gang is he can make them go away. Instead, everyone closes their blinds, and Batman says he’ll have to handle this the old fashioned way.
So the Red Hood Gang is reinvented with a grisly new way to get rid of people. This issue and how it handles the old gang is just another example of what makes Batman: Dark Patterns so great. It tells timeless stories that focus on the mystery side of Batman, while embracing all the inherent weirdness that only Gotham City can produce. Batman is a serious character in a wacky yet deadly environment, and everyone else in the city takes it just as seriously as him. It’s deeply intense while sacrificing none of the fun atmosphere, and elevates everything to a fantastic level. This is the best Batman comic going on right now, and I can’t wait to see what else they do with one of Batman’s classic enemies.
Batman: Dark Patterns #7 is on sale now!
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