“The Good People Of Gotham” – Part One
Artist: Riccardo Federici
Color Artist: Brad Anderson
Letterer: Steve Wands
Review by James Attias
Knight Terrors: Detective Comics #1 is a nightmare! Or is it? Are you the person having the bad dreams, or merely a part of someone else’s darkest imaginings?
Are my words confusing and somewhat mad? If so, they’re just like this issue!
Cop. Commish. Bat…
Well, since there’s currently no Justice League Dark book running at DC, it feels like all of the weird and spooky stories have fallen to Detective Comics. With Ram V’s current run (reviewed by some Spooky Nerd) in full flow, monsters, demons, and azmers aplenty, this book delivered more of the same.
Batman’s unconscious body is currently Deadman’s ride in the main Knight Terrors title, so it makes sense that someone else would take the lead on this issue. That person is former Commissioner of Police, James Gordon.
So what does Jim Gordon have nightmares about? Would this book dare to show some Killing Joke flashbacks? His daughter; naked, crippled, and bleeding to death? Will we see his serial killer son, James Gordon Jr.? Or perhaps any of the multiple times Jim has been captured, tortured, beaten, and left for dead?
Brilliantly, the creative team took a different path in this story! Let’s go full Grant Morrison and introduce a scary cult with a weird name, and let’s make sure our readers think this is all a nightmare (just like every other DC book through July and August). Once I’d read it, however, I still wasn’t sure if it was a dream or not!
Crumbling
The art in this issue is very good, it hits a sweet spot for me personally (for this event. It looks normal enough that we can still understand what’s going on, but it’s also weird and spooky enough to leave me unsettled. Like I said, a sweet spot. Well done to Riccardo Federici and Brad Anderson. I was also confused the entire time, as I jumped into this issue wondering what nightmare we’d see today, then I was put in my place as the events in this issue feel like they may be setting up future trouble for Batman, Gordon, and Detective Comics as a whole.
Conclusion
Knight Terrors: Detective Comics #1 is a spooky fever dream that has some great moments. I’m excited to see where they take this unsettling tale of Jim Gordon battling beasts of the dark!