The Batman Movie: 10 Comics Matt Reeves NEEDS To Adapt

3. The Black Mirror

Batman Black Mirror
DC Comics

Before Scott Snyder was handed the keys to Batman during the New 52, he first tried his hand at the character in The Black Mirror, a storyline from Detective Comics which actually spotlighted Dick Grayson's Batman, rather than Bruce's.

Released after Bruce Wayne returned from the grave after the events of Final Crisis, Black Mirror places a mirror right in front of the former Robin and analyses the character's relationship to the identity of Batman, and to its legacy. Yes, this element would be downright impossible to translate with Bruce underneath the cowl, but the idea of legacy is something that has dominated Batman's story's for decades, and the way in which Snyder, Jock and Francesco Francavilla approach it makes Black Mirror the best Batman story of the decade.

It has everything, from Dick tracking down an underground auction that sells the most decrepit artefacts from DC's history (the first of which is the crowbar used to murder Jason Todd), to James Gordon Jr. returning to the family.

It really is a perfect Batman story, providing chills, mystery and emotion in spades whilst exuding an atmosphere that drips from right off the page.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.