Dark Knights of Steel: All Winter #2 The Shades of Gold And Green

Jay Kristoff’s writing is fantastic. He’s telling us a brutal story, centered around a flawed and brilliant love, and he balances the loud and quiet moments with the delicate ease of a knife-thrower. Like all fairy tales, the plot is simple: get the magic, symbol-laden hope-child to the appointed place so that the dead world can be renewed, but he’s layered this mythic simplicity with a quality of psychological truth that elevates it beyond the level of its roots. 

These characters are easily identifiable archetypes. We have the Mother-goddess figure, the Warrior fighting for the wrong side, whose soul requires restoration, we have the child who, like all children, represents the possibility of renewal and new life. But they’re more than figures on a tarot card. The boy is angry, afraid, and full of both love and the desire for family. Aldine is ready to mother him, but she’s wounded (physically and psychologically) and therefore isn’t capable of giving him everything he needs. 

And then, there is Slade. The old warrior longs for the era, the family, he destroyed himself. He’s ready to redeem the loss, but he’s only just beginning to understand the extent of it. 

It’s a good story. And it’s going to be remembered beyond its initial publication. 

But the real story here is the art. Tirso is a miracle worker. His dark, scratchy, painfully detailed black and white scenes are easy to follow, but they grate on you. The brutal sameness of a dying world is difficult to endure, so brutal, in fact, that when the color blooms at last, its beauty is agonizing, as numinous scenes so often are. 

I’ve rarely seen a creative team work so well together. This is a brilliant, agonizing book.