Each Friday, we'll be letting a different DC.com writer share what they'll be reading over the weekend and why you might want to check it out. Here's this week's suggestion for a perfect Weekend Escape!
 

How often do you find a Batman arc that you haven't heard of? And how often is that storyline written by one of the most famous, prolific and genre-shaping writers of their time? Well, today is your lucky day because for Women's History Month, I'm recommending a rare Detective Comics arc by none other than Louise Simonson. Yes, a year before she took part in orchestrating The Death of Superman, Simonson turned her eye to Batman in an inventive and super fun story that sees the Dark Knight face down a video game villain, brought to life with aplomb by penciller Jim Fern, inker Steve Mitchell, colorist Adrienne Roy, letterer John Costanza and cover artist George Pratt. The delightfully retro-futuristic storyline, entitled “Mind Games,” began in Detective Comics #635, continued in Detective Comics #636 and concluded in Detective Comics #637. That’s right! It’s only three issues long, all of which you can read on DC UNIVERSE INFINITE, making it the perfect easy bite-size weekend read.
 

THE PREMISE:

Get ready to travel back to 1991, when 8-bit video games ruled the collective consciousness and household TVs everywhere. As a teen named Fidel Fineggan is institutionalized at Arkham Asylum, a plague of 8-bit monsters descends on Gotham. Batman and Jim Gordon get swept up in the madness and find that the digital constructs have deadly real-life consequences. Luckily for Batman, Tim Drake is obsessed with the latest home console releases, and they fight back using in-game tactics to their advantage. Gordon, as it turns out, was born to be a gamer and thank goodness for that because now he'll need every edge to stay alive.
 

LET’S TALK TALENT:

Weezie is best known at DC for her work on the Superman line as an integral part of the Death of Superman event and the co-creator of Steel. Here, she turns her sights on the Caped Crusader, applying a Silver Age mentality to the tropiest trappings of the early ’90s. Jim Fern and Steve Mitchell cut loose with a mind-bending blend of trippy 8-bit beasts and Bat-action. It's all held down by the prolific talents of colorist Adrienne Roy and letterer John Costanza, seasoned vets with thousands of comic book credits between the two of them.
 

A FEW REASONS TO READ:

  • Retro Graphics in the Modern Age: An incredibly unique factor in this reading experience is the story arc's digital restoration. The production team left the 8-bit constructs blurry underneath exceedingly crisp character art and lettering. The effect is a more immersive visual experience than the original print comic, something that could only exist because of the digital remastering process.
     
  • Contrasting Covers: Video games of the ’80s and ’90s are notable for their gorgeous covers that looked nothing like the games themselves. That tradition lives on here too as George Pratt's super cool art evokes the moody experimentation of Dave McKean and Bill Sienkiewicz, contrasting wonderfully with the buoyant cartooning of Jim Fern. These covers are gorgeous and gothic in a way that belies the interiors, but tells us something about the unreal and complex story within their pages.
     
  • Ahead of the Game: Simonson never mentions "virtual reality" in this arc, but that's only because she was early on the trend. VR was barely a twinkle in game developers' eyes when she was scripting these comics in the spring of '91. Fusing the impending VR zeitgeist with hints of cult gaming films like Tron and The Wizard, Weezie arrives at the party early and takes the Dark Knight along with her.
     

WHY IT’S WORTH YOUR TIME:

This story features one of the most legendary DC writers of the 1990s working on an iconic superhero that she's rarely had a chance to write. On top of that, Simonson crafts a tale that takes Batman on a strange romp that was well ahead of its contemporaries. The result is a fun time capsule from an age when video games were crossing over from fad to fixture in homes everywhere and Batman was the biggest action hero in the world. So why not dive in?
 

Batman: Mind Games by Louise Simonson, Jim Fern, Steve Mitchell and Adrienne Roy can be read in full on DC UNIVERSE INFINITE.

Rosie Knight is an award-winning journalist and author who loves Swamp Thing, the DC Cosmic and writing the monthly gossip column here at DC.com. You can also listen to her waxing lyrical about comics, movies and more each week as she co-hosts Crooked Media's pop-culture podcast, X-Ray Vision.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Rosie Knight and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.