Dark Knights of Steel #1

Dark Knights of Steel #1

DC Comics 2021

Written by Tom Taylor

Illustrated by Yasmin Putri

Lettered by Wes Abbot

An entire medieval world will be forever changed when a spaceship crash-lands from a doomed planet. Monarchs will die, kingdoms will rise, and what seemed the end of the world for many…was only the beginning! An epic high-fantasy story set in a DC Universe where nothing is what it seems…

Honestly I read this mainly because I was curious about what this was going to be about. While it is very much an Elseworld’s style story there are a myriad of aspects of this that grabbed me and made me fall in love with the story. I do find one aspect both interesting and puzzling and that’s the fact that coming from Krypton you’d think that with the scientific and technical advancements that keeping a medieval castle and kingdom wouldn’t be something that would actually happen. Mind you I’m far from complaining because the whole fantasy realm of what we see is utterly fantastic it just surprised me is all. With all that knowledge I’d have made advancements that would’ve benefited my kingdom beyond what was available from others at this time. Had it just been Kal-El I could understand it much easier but to see what we do and whom we do well it just popped into my head, thus engaging me in this story so I am thinking of what is beyond the page already.

I’m a huge fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does wonders in establishing their personalities. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages introducing the story, the characters and the world they inhabit we begin to wish that this were a double sized introductory issue.

I’m extremely impressed with the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story begin to emerge, grow and evolve. I like how we see the layers open up new avenues to be explored and the prospect of those who will come into play. This adds some great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is impeccably achieved.

The interiors here are bloody mindbogglingly brilliant! The linework is exquisite and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level & quality of detail within the work is positively stunning to behold. The work really captures this fantasy world with its strong and yet delicate work. The way that we see backgrounds enhance and expand the moments as well as how they work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show an extremely talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a brilliant eye for how colour works and how to maximise its effects.

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This is so much more entrancing and enticing than I would have thought it could be. Along with the warlike aspects that come with life in this age there is still this whole idea of romanticism that goes along with it as well. This is exceptionally well written with some superb characterisation all of which is wrapped up in these utterly brilliant interiors making this that surprise book you won’t want to put down.