“Dark Knights of Steel: Allwinter #2”
Writers: Jay Kristoff, Tom Taylor
Artists: Tirso, Riccardo Federici
Color Artists: Arif Prianto
Letterers: Wes Abbott
Review by Adam Ray
We’ve got another fantastic installment of the high fantasy reimagining of the DC Universe. Dark Knights of Steel: Allwinter #2 continues the two side stories introduced in the previous issue. We can expect the epic saga and bitter struggles of characters we know and love to come to life, all in a way that makes them new and fresh.
The Deathstroke: Chapter Two
As we saw, the golden child of Slade Wilson is a powerful force in the mainline DC Universe, as well as in this bleak expanse of the Allwinter timeline.
The consistency of Tirso’s artwork just makes this one colorful character truly pop in ways that delight our eyes. There’s moments of deep richness in the otherwise noir, and muted grayscale color scheme. At the same time, we see that makes the appearance and the powers of his unlikely son, and it delights the eyes much in the same way as it does the readers. It almost makes me want to forgive the lack of detail illustrated on a character’s face here and there.
As a big fan of the character Deathstroke from other stories and media, it’s amazing to see that he still translates super well in this highly magical reimagining of the DC Universe. There’s a commonality of a character like Slade in the modern setting and in this one, that the master of battle being summoned to take down the opposition on behalf of a figure like Vandal Savage is a welcome sight to behold. The appearance of high magic in a feudal society is where the welcome drama comes in.
Heir to the Sea: Chapter Two
This shorter, sweeter story sums up the clash between mankind and magic in a way that wets the appetite. Get it?
By reframing characters as familiar as John and Martha Kent in such a radical way, we can get a wildly new take on the origin of DC’s other greatest hero. The mystery left over from the previous issue gives us the look at what we can come to expect from this story, all the while wondering what may yet happen.
The way the creative team conveys movement is wonderful in this shorter story. The panels at odd angles, which match the spiraling movement of the current of water is so satisfying to behold. We feel as though we’re being washed away by this figure from Atlantis, while there’s the weight of the confined panels to give us the cramped movement of the Kent forces as they recover.
Conclusion
Dark Knights of Steel: Allwinter #2 perfectly continues the tone and the artistry we’ve seen applied in issue one, to hold up two vastly different, but entirely matching stories in a wonderfully well imagined slant on the DC Universe. I for one am eager to feel these stories grow from here.
Images Courtesy of DC Entertainment