Review: Batman: The Dark Knight Vol. 1- Knight Terrors

Quick Summary

Pros: This book gives many Batman villains a brief moment to shine. The inclusion of Justice League members is cool. The vast majority of the volume contains some great artwork.

Cons: All of the book’s larger narratives are poor and some of them go completely unfinished. There are multiple moments where Batman and other characters are given strange characterization. One new character’s design is completely ridiculous.

Overall: This is a collection of fun moments rather than a book telling a complete story. In this volume, random fights against random villains provide bursts of action. However, besides this, the volume’s larger narrative is weak and is fraught with a variety of problems. This collection may appeal to Batman fans looking for a few good-looking battles, as long as they aren’t concerned with a larger or deeper narrative.

Story

Batman: The Dark Knight Vol. 1: Knight Terrors, by Paul Jenkins and David Finch, is entertaining in short bursts but fails in establishing captivating larger narratives. Over the course of this book, Batman fights a variety of his enemies while teaming up with a few of his allies, leading to some fun fights. However, the connections holding these fights together are extremely weak and don’t establish anything more significant. There are even places where additional drama is teased but either does not live up to the hype or is left completely unaddressed. In the end, this collection delivers some cheap action but does little more than that.

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The fun aspects of Night Terrors come from the collection’s ability to depict multiple quick fights against multiple members of Batman’s rogues gallery. Two-Face, Clayface, Deathstroke, Scarecrow, Bane, and Mad Hatter all have their time in the sun. Each character takes a couple of shots at Batman and each of these shots show that Batman’s villains are all formidable, in their own way. All of this helps keep the volume exciting with a few cool battles. 

I also appreciated the way in which Knight Terrors incorporated the members of the Justice League into Batman’s life. While I enjoy the fact that the core Batman series downplays Batman’s Justice League affiliation, it is nice to see another book recognize the fact that this affiliation exists. It also opens up a few opportunities for cool moments from Superman and the Flash.

However, aspects of the narrative stretching past these individual moments of fun are not written nearly as well. Bane’s entire plan seems extremely elaborate and appears to be building toward some grandiose finale, yet ends in a quick battle. In a similar manner, the White Rabbit and her secret identity are built up to play a big part in Batman/Bruce Wayne’s life, yet this plotline is completely dropped without any explanation. In general, the larger narratives in Night Terrors are a near complete failure.

There are also places where characters are given some strange characterization. Most of the volumes center around Batman’s skills as a detective, yet most of the volume also has him failing to realize venom is the drug all of the criminals are using, something that should be obvious to everyone from the very first chapter. In addition, he directly threatens a police detective at one point, something he should be smart enough to realize will have negative consequences. There are even smaller moments where weird characterization creates some problems, such as Two-Face inexplicably deciding to call himself “One-Face” for seemingly no reason.

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Art

One of the most consistently positive aspects of Knight Terrors is the artwork. David Finch does a wonderful job with creating Batman’s entire world. Each of his villains looks fresh yet clearly recognizable. Gotham City looks fantastic, especially when viewed from above. Above all though, Batman looks intimidating and Finch makes sure his character uses light and darkness to its full potential. In general, the artwork throughout this book is solid and makes the reading experience slightly better.

The only negative here is that the book’s new character, White Rabbit, has a completely ridiculous character design. Her costume and figure are so over-the-top that it almost appears like some form of satire, despite, apparently, being completely serious. The narrative also makes no attempt to justify any of these visual choices, leaving a ridiculous sore spot in an otherwise visually impressive volume.

Continuity

Batman: The Dark Knight Vol. 1: Knight Terrors starts the Batman: The Dark Knight New 52 series. This means that this is the first volume in a brand new continuity, so there are not many references to previous books or specific character histories.

The story started here is continued in Batman: The Dark Knight Vol. 2: Cycle of Violence (Review).

This volume also references another comic book, detailed below:

• Bruce Wayne’s new initiative for Gotham City was revealed in Batman #1, collected in Batman: The Court of Owls (Review).
• Bruce Wayne’s financial connection with Batman is explained in Batman Incorporated.
• Batman believes the Joker is retired due to the events of Detective Comics #1, collected in Detective Comics Vol. 1: Faces of Death (Review).
• Poison Ivy joined the Birds of Prey in Birds of Prey #2, collected in Birds of Prey Vol. 1: Trouble in Mind (Review).
• The references to Bane breaking Batman’s back are specifically referring to the Batman: Knightfall arc.
• Many aspects of Commissioner Gordon’s life are mentioned here. These include:
  • The reappearance of his wife. This took place in Batgirl #4, collected in Batgirl Vol. 1: The Darkest Reflection (Review).
  • His son’s insanity. This is a plot point from Batman: The Black Mirror (Review).
  • The attack that left his daughter in a wheelchair. This happened in Batman: The Killing Joke.
  • His daughter being able to walk again. This was explained and first shown in Batgirl #1, collected in Batgirl Vol. 1: The Darkest Reflection (Review).
• The final chapter of this volume is a tie-in to the “Court of the Owls” event. This event is kicked of at the conclusion of Batman: The Court of Owls (Review). However, this chapter specifically shows the events of Batman #9, collected in Batman: The City of Owls (Review), from another angle.