SUPERMAN is the best kind of event tie-in

THIS WEEK: Superman and Supergirl face their nightmares in Knight Terrors: Superman #2.

Note: the assessment under accommodates spoilers. If you need a fast, spoiler-free purchase/cross advice on the comics in query, take a look at the backside of the article for our remaining verdict.

Knight Terrors: Superman #2

Writer: Joshua Williamson
Artist: Tom Reilly
Colorist: Nathan Fairbairn
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Cover Artist: Gleb Melnikov

The two-month Knight Terrors event is approaching its conclusion, and the quite a few two-issue event tie-in miniseries have been wrapping up all month. This week has a couple of conclusions, however just one from the architect of the total event. Knight Terrors: Superman #2 concludes author Joshua Williamson and artists Tom Reilly & Nathan Fairbairn dive into the Man of Steel’s deepest anxieties, with a aspect of Supergirl and Lois Lane’s for good measure.

The strongest event tie-ins are the ones that each advance the total event storyline whereas additionally pushing ahead a title’s present threads, and Knight Terrors: Superman has checked each of these packing containers. It helps that Williamson is writing the Superman ongoing sequence, so he’s capable of seamlessly herald components like Marilyn Moonlight and Metropolis’s secret historical past and use the goings-on of Knight Terrors to flesh these out.

As the lead on the total event, too, Williamson makes use of this sequence to extra totally discover what’s occurring outdoors of everybody’s desires, and bringing Aquaman into the combine right here is a very nice addition, particularly since he didn’t get his personal tie-in sequence. The complete sequence has simply been that rather more satisfying as a reader of each the ongoing sequence and the total event.

Williamson additionally makes use of dream logic extraordinarily properly on this sequence. One of my complaints about the event tie-ins generally is that the tales have been so linear, when that’s simply not how desires work in any respect. For my cash the Poison Ivy tie-in has carried out the best job of capturing the really feel of being in a dream, however Superman and the Williamson-written Batman tie-in each are available a detailed second and third. Having Superman, Supergirl, and Lois know that they’re in a dream adjustments the dynamic, and it’s entertaining to see their rational, alert minds attempt to make sense of the craziness occurring round them. I perceive why two months of titles that make no sense in all probability wouldn’t have labored, nevertheless it certain would’ve been quite a bit of enjoyable, and I’m glad no less than a couple of of the tie-ins had been capable of recreate that vibe on the web page.

Of course there’s no vibe with out the visuals, and Tom Reilly and Nathan Fairbairn knock it out of the park on this e-book. Knight Terrors could also be a horror event, however this Superman sequence has been very clearly an motion comedian (no, not Action Comics), and Reilly and Fairbairn are the good workforce for that. Reilly’s linework is clear and energetic, his characters shifting effortlessly all through the web page, which makes the already-big motion all the extra dynamic. Fairbairn’s colours make even the darkest sequences pop off the web page superbly. Of explicit notice is the workforce’s work on the Aquaman scenes, as they carry the fluidity of underwater motion to the web page expertly, together with the depth of Aquaman’s battle with one of the Sleepless Knights, a sequence which finds the hero swimming by means of a river of flood and kind of simply laughing it off. It’s an unimaginable scene, and Reilly and Fairbairn crush it.

It is smart that DC would launch the Knight Terrors tie-in tales as their very own sequence. Single-issue comedian followers are a notoriously finicky bunch who each dislike when an event storyline ‘interrupts’ what’s occurring in an ongoing sequence and in addition dislike tales they really feel are ‘skippable’ or not necessary to the total universe of tales being advised. Knight Terrors: Superman makes a robust case for not separating a personality’s event tie-in from their fundamental title, although. It’s an efficient tie-in to Knight Terrors whereas additionally advancing and enhancing the tales Williamson is already telling in the pages of Superman. It’s nice work from a implausible inventive workforce, and it has me excited to take a look at Williamson & Reilly’s subsequent collaboration on Skybound’s Energon Universe Duke sequence.

Final Verdict: BUY.

Round-Up

Elsewhere in Knight Terrors tie-ins, the Wonder Woman tie-in encompasses a fundamental story by Josie Campbell, and Juan Ferreyra through which the wonderful Amazon confronts the contradictions of the character head-on. It’s a pleasant meta-commentary on Diana that addresses criticisms readers have of her trendy characterization, and that embraces these contradictions reasonably than shying away from them.
Outside of the event storyline, Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #18 begins a two-part story through which Mark Waid, Travis Moore, and Tamra Bonvillain replace the first assembly between Batman and Superman. There are intelligent references to different first assembly tales – the place else are we ever going to see Magpie pop up – and the requisite traces of dialogue which can be ironic given what readers learn about the characters’ futures. This sequence continues to be a blast to learn.
Harley Quinn: Black, White, & Redder continues with a trio of tales spotlighting all the pieces folks love about Harley. The standout right here in my view is the difficulty’s first story from Kelly Thompson, Annie Wu, and Clayton Cowles, as Harley struggles to get out from below the shadow of her origin being tied to The Joker. It’s a sensible story about character progress past one’s origins and letting the previous outline us, and it’s additionally actually rattling humorous.