Dark Knights of Steel II #1: Re-forged in Kryptonite

DC’s Elseworlds storyline Dark Knights of Steel began in 2021 and ran for 12 issues, excluding spin-offs such as Allwinter, Tales from the Three Kingdoms, and The Gathering Storm. That original run has been praised for its fast pacing, so I was surprised when most of Dark Knights of Steel II’s first issue was a bit meandering in its exploration of its characters.

The marketing for this series promoted “treasonous agents hiding in plain sight,” but nothing resembling political nuance or a surprising betrayal shows up in the plot of this first issue at all. Instead, Issue #1‘s storyline picks up sometime after the first run, after a brief opening flashback to long ago, with Zala Jor-El (this universe’s version of Supergirl, who is also Kal-El’s sister) performing a ceremony to officially join the Amazons on Amazonia, led by their queen, Diana Prince (aka Wonder Woman). During this, several characters, such as Kal-El, John Constantine, etc., arrive in Amazonia to witness the ceremony and to celebrate the league formed between the three kingdoms.

There is a considerable amount of dialogue in this issue, which hits the fantasy vibe of the series surprisingly well. Characters seem constantly aware of each other’s social stations, even referencing them regularly in the dialogue, which helps sell the medieval fantasy setting of the series. Lois makes a brief appearance as an Amazon, and Taylor hints at her relationship with Kal-El briefly in conversation with Diana, which is a nice nod to the main DC Universe.

However, none of this dialogue does a lot of “planting seeds” in terms of plot points. For the most part it’s an introduction for new readers and a reintroduction for returning ones to these reimagined versions of popular DC heroes. That would be fine on its own, if it didn’t take up the entire issue without creating an overarching narrative for a 12-issue series.

Wes Abbott’s lettering is economical in this issue, whether it be how they break up the conversational beats across several balloons that manage not to clutter the page or the sections of opaque text used when characters whisper to one another.

The original interior artist, Yasmine Putri, being brought back as the cover artist but not doing the interiors on this issue is quite disappointing. Many fans of Taylor’s previous run consider Putri’s art to be one of the biggest highlights of that run and a defining piece of its overall identity.

Instead, Otto Schmidt provides the interior art for issue #1. The artwork matches the fantasy aesthetic but doesn’t do much more than it has to in most scenes. Despite a lot of characters wearing similar colors, the issue’s colorist, Arif Prianto, is able to differentiate them and their backgrounds, such as the numerous characters wearing blue on pages where the perspective is against the daytime sky well, in this issue. Prianto’s colors elevate Schmidt’s character designs and provide consistent lighting to a variety of scenes.