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Knight Terrors: Black Adam #2
[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer/Artist: Jeremy Haun
Color Artist: Nick Filardi
Letterer: Troy Peteri
Reviewed by: Bryant Lucas
Summary
Black Adam stares down his greatest fear as his nightmare continues, in this month’s Knight Terrors: Black Adam #2.
The issue picks up right where last month’s left off: Black Adam encounters Batman in the nightmare realm, however, it turns out it’s Batman’s body possessed by Deadman. Boston Brand tries to convey the message to Adam that he’s in some sort of “thin place” (which is not exactly explained) and that he needs to fight and break free.
Adam’s powers are still on the fritz when he enters Anubis’ court where the Egyptian god of death is judging the departed. While it’s not explicitly stated, the issue implies that Anubis is judging Isis, her brother, and Black Adam’s nephew – the three most important people in Black Adam’s life – and Anubis has found them “wanting”. The issue ends with Black Adam staring down Insomni, who has now gained the powers of the Rock of Eternity.
Positives
One of the things that Knight Terrors: Black Adam #2 does well is that it captures the essence of the larger event. Knight Terrors (as you would imagine) is all about dreams and nightmares. Between its aesthetic and plot beats, this issue feels like a dream. They often feel disjointed and, if we are to believe Freud and Jung – are often laden with symbolism. Writer/artist Jeremy Haun understood the assignment and wrote/drew a comic that feels like a legitimate nightmare derived from Black Adam’s psyche.
Negatives
Alas, this issue’s strength is also its greatest weakness: the book feels very disjointed. It doesn’t do a great job explaining itself. For example, the whole “thin place” business means nothing on its face. In order to understand the context of that statement, readers must be familiar with the main story. I get that this is a tie-in, but I have this old-fashioned notion that a story should stand on its own two feet. The narrative should be self-explanatory or at least have an editor’s note explaining the context.
Also, the Anubis sequence is not very straightforward. It’s never explicitly stated who these people are, or why Black Adam was so horrified by the vision. Visually, it seems like they’re from Egypt, which led me to the conclusion that they were Adam’s family. That coupled with the fact that the last issue reestablished Isis and Osiris as canon. Nevertheless, I guessed about the second child. The only character that made sense was the boy from whom Adam stole his powers. My point though is that I should have to be guessing. Two lines of dialog could have clarified the situation easily.
Conclusion
Like most tie-ins, Knight Terrors: Black Adam #2 feels a little superfluous at best. It has nothing to do with Christopher Priest’s recent work on the character, and it doesn’t feel super relevant to the larger Knight Terrors event, unless the last page somehow relates to Insomnia’s overarching plan. However, usually, these things are simply background noise within the larger narrative.
Images Courtesy of DC Entertainment
