Knight Terrors: Zatanna #2 – Dennis Culver, Writer; David Baldeon, Artist; Rain Beredo, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: While Zatanna’s name is on the cover, this comic has really functioned as a stealth Doom Patrol tie-in for Culver’s current series—at least it did. Last issue found Zatanna (whose magic was protecting her) and Robotman (whose strange biology protected him) remaining awake as the entire world fell asleep and into their nightmares. That seemed like a gift—except that the two of them couldn’t stand each other due to the bad blood over the failed seance that killed Zatara years back, which they blamed on science and magic respectively. But there was no time to hash out their issues—because the Sleepless Knights, Insomnia’s elite soldiers, were stalking them and chasing them into a twisted labyrinth. In the end, Zatanna found herself alone when Robotman was “knighted” and transformed into a monstrous, rusted version of himself out for the blood of his former companion.
The big highlight of this issue is David Baldeon’s creepy art, which has a comic book-like edge but also delivers in some great scares, especially when it comes to the character of the Sleepless Queen. This twisted revenant is scarier than Insomnia himself in some ways, and makes for some great visuals over the course of the issue. While Zatanna felt like she was taking a backseat a bit in the first issue, that’s not the case here. With Robotman out of commission, she’s forced to take stock of herself, confront her own fears and guilt, and call back on her roots in magic—not the magic we know, but stage magic—to pull one last trick on the Sleepless Queen. This is a great example of how to do one of these minis, not by rehashing what we already know but by pulling back the curtain on characters we haven’t seen get a focus and introducing us to new stories about them.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
