Batman: The Knight #7: Damsels and Demons and Daddies, Oh My!

There was a great deal to love about this meditation on the power of grief masquerading as a Batman story. Zdarsky presented us with four different methods of handling grief, and the consequences of each choice were well thought out and handled with a mixture of delicacy and brutality that was, in places, quite astonishing to see. 

We have Batman, a boy (almost a man) who holds onto his grief, his pain, and uses it almost as a talisman — one that powers his quest to save others from suffering. John Zatana refuses to face his grief, tamping it down with buckets of liquor, refusing to acknowledge the way that it’s hollowing him out. We have a series of people, corpses really, who have lost themselves to grief entirely (helped along by a very vibrant metaphor, wearing the shape of a demon), and then there’s Zatana, who lives with her pain, treating the  ashes she’s left with as fertilizer for the life that she’s growing for herself. 

This story did exactly what comics are meant to. It filtered a difficult, universal problem through the mythic lens of metaphor and strained out something good, something which will help people even as it entertains them. 

Carmine Di Giandomenico’s art was just about perfect. The line work served the myth-building beautifully and well. Ivan Plascencia’s colors were rich and powerful, without ever being overwhelming. Pat Brosseau’s lettering was masterfully done, adding to the beautiful, immersive effect of the art. 

This story was nothing short of brilliant, a tender, difficult treatise on the subject of grief, and the choices we make in the wake of it. I cannot recommend it strongly enough.