Review: Batman Vol. 1- Their Dark Designs

Quick Summary

Pros: The main storyline contains an intriguing mystery. The characters are written well throughout the volume. The conclusion is great and immediately builds excitement for the next book. The artwork looks good and suits the collection well.

Cons: Small encounters within the main storyline aren’t that engaging.

Overall: This volume is a solid start to a new era in Batman’s history. The collection contains some fun action and thrilling intrigue on its own. However, it achieves its real success in building the foundation for the series and setting up its immediate successor. Not everything works here but the way it gets this new storyline going is terrific. Any fans looking to start a new chapter in Batman’s life or who are looking for a prelude to Joker War should consider picking up this book.

Story

Batman Vol. 1: Their Dark Designs, by James Tynion IV, is the first volume following Tom King’s extensive run on Batman (Reading Order). As such, it does a great job in capitalizing on the success of that era to launch the next one. This volume contains an intriguing mystery, some excitement, and plenty of well-written character work. Then, the conclusion comes around and takes things to a whole new level. This conclusion elevates the narrative and instantly builds a ton of excitement for the next volume in this series. The only real downside is that some of the conflict here is a little underwhelming. However, the volume as a whole achieves great success in grabbing attention and gearing readers up for whatever comes next.

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The main conflict in Their Dark Designs involves Batman and Catwoman trying to prevent a coordinated attack on Gotham from a mysterious villain. This is moderately exciting, as it has both heroes fighting their way through a variety of different enemies. However, the number of characters here occasionally clutters the narrative, making each small battle feel less significant when compared to everything else going on. The overall progression is still enjoyable though and manages to combine fun thrills with an intriguing mystery. The story’s conclusion makes everything even better too, by revealing Joker was behind it all and that this entire coordinated attack was simply the prelude to the upcoming Joker War storyline.

This prelude for the future is the best part of Their Dark Designs. The conclusion of this volume gives Joker a tremendous amount of power, puts Batman in a precarious position, threatens the entire Bat-family, and generally instills a sense of apprehension for what may happen next. Even small changes made across this book, having Harley Quinn as a Bat-family ally, introducing Punchline, and altering Batman’s general mission, add to this sense of excitement. After putting this book down, I immediately wanted to pick up the next one.

Outside of this, Their Dark Designs also contains some great character work. The first few chapters feature absolutely heartbreaking moments wherein Batman forgets about Alfred’s death and momentarily acts like he is still there. Meanwhile, the Designer’s confrontation with the Joker, plenty of Catwoman’s interactions, and even some of the stories surrounding the auxiliary villains are all well written. If this is what James Tynion IV plans on bringing to the Batman series, I’m even more excited for what is to come.

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Art

The artwork in Their Dark Designs comes from a variety of different artists but manages to maintain quality work across the entire collection. The collection opens with Tony S. Daniel’s realistic and instantly impressive take on Batman and his allies. Then, it transitions to some creative work from Guillem March, work that makes the villains feel even creepier than usual. Finally, the collection closes with short stories from a variety of different artists, all of whom bring their own unique style while also producing work that looks good. There are some places where individual expressions drawn by Guillem March look a little weird but this problem is pretty minimal. Overall, the artwork in this collection is positive and enhances the reading experience.

Continuity

Batman Vol. 1: Their Dark Designs is the starting point of a new writer’s time on the Batman series. However, it directly continues the story from the previous writer’s time on the Batman series, which concludes with Batman Vol. 13: City of Bane Part 2 (Review).

The story here continues in Batman Vol. 2: Joker War (Review).

This volume also references other comic books, detailed below:

• Batman and Catwoman’s relationship evolved to the point seen in this volume over the course of several comic storylines. Specifically, their relationship advanced in Batman Vol. 3 #24, collected in Batman Vol. 3: I am Bane (Review); advanced again in Batman Vol. 3 #50, collected in Batman Vol. 7: The Wedding (Review) (Reading Order); and reached its current stage across the “City of Bane” storyline, collected in Batman Vol. 12: City of Bane Part 1 (Review) and Batman Vol. 13: City of Bane Part 2 (Review).
• Near the end of this volume, someone mentions that Dick Grayson is “not even himself these days”. This is references Dick’s memory loss, which began as a result of events in Batman #55, collected in Batman Vol. 8: Cold Days (Review), and was elaborated upon across Nightwing: Knight Terrors.