Batman: The Knight #7 – Chip Zdarsky, Writer; Carmine Di Giandomenico, Artist; Ivan Plascencia, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: After the brutal betrayal of Anton in the Canadian woods last issue, Bruce’s journey takes another dramatic left turn. With no more masters to seek out and no more allies to rely on, he heads back to America to seek out a very different kind of teacher—John Zatarra, the world-renowned stage magician and a close friend of his parents. While he’s still keeping the true nature of his mission from the man, it’s clear Bruce and Zatarra are both haunted. John recently lost his wife, has stepped away from stage magic, and spends most of his time drinking his sorrows away. Zatanna, returning for the first time since very early in the series, is trying to pull him back from the void—but quickly losing her hope. She turns her attention to Bruce, and I must say that once again these two are the most underrated Batman pairing. They come from similar worlds, but she’s not afraid to read him and point out his self-destructive instincts.
This issue is largely a trial by fire for Bruce as he’s forced to confront a disturbing truth—there are powers far bigger than him out there that he doesn’t understand. It’s rare to see Batman caught flat-footed, but when he finds out magic is real it’s pretty clear he’s at sea. That leads him further down a path of obsession, as he and Zatanna experiment with summoning a demon Zatara has been toying with to try to put it away for good. It’s a little too out-there at times to quite reach the level of the last few issues, and the villain is a little cartoonish. That being said, Zatanna is a great character here, and the last few pages of conversation between Bruce and Zatara is some of the most heartfelt material in this series so far. It continues to prove that just because a story is well-trod ground doesn’t mean you can’t get something great out of it. This feels like a great companion to the just-started Batman run by Zdarsky.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
