Knight Terrors: Black Adam follows Black Adam’s unfortunate dilemma in the sinister nightmare world. As the antihero wanders the dreamscape, Bast attempts to guide him towards the Rock of Eternity. Whether he should trust the spirit is unclear, but Adam is desperately running out of time.
Nothing To Fear
As far as I understand, Insomnia’s dream realm reflects the subconscious fears of the individual dreamers. Meaning that every horrific thing Black Adam comes across is a representation of the fears and regrets in the back of his mind. Despite Adam’s denial, the images of his loved ones having to endure torture significantly bother him. To make things worse, Adam faces insurmountable powerlessness in Insomnia’s world. His inability to stop the destruction of his found family fuels his urgency to escape the dream.
In the previous issue, Batman arrives at the end to speak to Black Adam. The twist reveal is that “Batman” is actually Deadman in possession of his body. This creates an unnecessary anachronism where Deadman possesses Batman in the waking and dreaming world. Yet, Batman controls his form in only the dream world in every other tie-in. According to Deadman, Black Adam’s experience may lie somewhere between reality and the nightmare world. As a result, it may be possible to reason that Deadman is simply just bleeding through. Even so, Deadman just pops in to dump enough exposition for Adam to catch up to what’s happening around the world.
Fear of God
I have mixed feeling about Jeremy Haun’s artwork. On one hand, the large panels and detailed drawings give it a spooky but ethereal look. The biggest standouts for me are the awe inspiring interpretations of Anubis or the other gods. For instance, the inverted look of Haun’s Anubis gorging itself on hearts is an awesome illustration. In fact, I appreciate all the heavy inks reminiscent of the Iranian animated film Persepolis (2007). On the other hand, many of the figures are stiff, strangely rendered, and surprisingly even cross-eyed. The nice inks become an unfortunate double-edged sword, because Haun illustrates his figures at unflattering angles.
Additionally, there is plenty to dislike about the action sequences as well. A side effect of using less panels to tell the story is that all of the fights feel shaved down to key frames. In terms of sequence, you may often see an extreme close up, implied motion, and sudden impact. Also, Black Adam repeatedly abuses the word “SHAZAM” across static images of him in flight. Although the story surrounds his impotence, I think the word loses a lot of power on the page when invoked and nothing happens. Despite the awesome tone of the monster battles, it is hard to tell what the word ends up accomplishing when said correctly.
Recommended If…
- You’re looking to keep up with all the Knight Terrors tie-ins.
- You are a fan of Black Adam.
- Getting a standalone story appeals to you.
Overall
What works best about Knight Terrors: Black Adam is how it can function as an introspective story regardless of the event. Despite the overall underwhelming appeal of Knight Terrors’ current narrative, some of the looser connected stories seem to fare better. When the story guides Adam through a tour of his guilty psyche, it stands beyond whatever treasure hunt the big bad is up to. Unfortunately, there are plenty of issues with the narrative and artwork to call buying this issue into question. Outside of the spooky atmosphere and personal aspect to the story, most of what transpires is too shallow for the overarching or standalone stories. Simply put, it is extremely disposable until proven otherwise. As it nears its conclusion, I hope it can wrap itself up in a way that services either narrative nicely.
Score: 5.5/10
DISCLAIMER: DC Comics provided Batman News with a copy of this comic for the purposes of this review.
