Knight Terrors: Batman #2 variant cover, via DC Comics.
Knight Terrors: Batman #2 — Joshua Williamson, Writer; Guillem March, Trevor Hairsine, Artists; Tomeu Morey, Antonio Fabela, Colorists
Ray — 9.5/10
Ray: It’s no surprise that Josh Williamson’s issues of this event have been among the best — after all, he’s showrunning the whole thing and created the villain from what we know. He’s also working with a pair of characters he knows intimately — Superman and Batman. Batman got one of the harshest visits from Insomnia, taking him on a sadistic journey inside his deep-seated childhood fears complete with a brutal reinvention of the shooting of his parents. But Batman has been here before — encountering his worst fears both from supervillain-induced visions, and from experiments he’s done on himself. So while the visuals are highly disturbing, it’s not like he’s completely out of his element.
Haunted. Via DC Comics.
It’s actually pretty dramatic to see Batman confronted with horrific phantasms and not only shrug them off, but correctly diagnose where they come from and what they’re preying on. This allows him to break through his subconscious, identifying what is and isn’t a threat to him and making his way to Insomnia, and then to the deepest part of his own subconscious — encountering himself as a child one more time. But instead of playing into the fear, he gives his younger self the hope he needs to keep moving forward at the darkest moment of his life. This series has been a core part of the event, and the ending nicely sets up one of Williamson’s upcoming series as the race to the final showdown begins.
The backup, with Trevor Hairsine art, has a bit of a DCeased vibe but actually takes place neatly within the pages of Williamson’s Green Arrow book. That puts the focus on Arsenal and Black Canary, as the two face off against their worst fears outside Belle Reve prison. Black Canary’s fears are much more visceral, with some disturbing body horror, but Roy’s fears come back to Lian and all he missed — giving those scenes some real emotional punch. At least we’re keeping up with these two until the series returns in September!
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
