DC K.O.: Knightfight #3: You’re Getting Old, Bruce

This is the second half of Jason’s future, which we saw the beginning of last month, and it doesn’t overstay its welcome as Bruce is reminded that this isn’t a world tour. It’s a trial against the Heart of Apokolips, which is somehow crueler and darker than its master in this issue of D.C. K.O.: Knightfight.

To avoid spoilers I will focus primarily on Bruce and the Heart here. Bruce has largely been reactive in the past two issues, as he finds his way through multiple simulated futures where he’s pitted against his many different potential successors. For the most part this has been a legacy run for the man underneath the cowl, challenging Bruce more so than Batman. Even though they are fake creations, Bruce sees how plausible each of the Heart’s realities is and has to contend with the weight of the legacy he is leaving behind for his sons. That same legacy affects each of his sons in different ways, reflecting the differences in each of the Heart’s false futures. This challenge to Bruce’s sense of self as well as his unstoppable crusade against crime is far more dangerous than any bomb the Joker has ever planted in Gotham City.

In issue three, without changing the story arc, Joshua Williamson turns things up a notch by giving Bruce one of those “aha” moments that are classic Batman. When Bruce begins to cheat by working with his sons rather than against them, the Heart dials up in response by pushing Batman into harder and harder challenges. This actually serves as the issue’s internal pacing, with the downtime pages being the moments between one false reality and the next. This works extremely well from a narrative-forward standpoint and is executed without relying on exposition-heavy dialogue.

There isn’t a single page that I found incredible by comparison to the rest, even with scenery changes and action that was relatively short-lived. This is a good sign in comic art, as one page outdoing the rest is often a fallback for rushed projects and/or weaker artwork. Knightfight #3’s artwork and colorwork by Dan Mora and Tríona Farrell, respectively, were incredibly clean and balanced. The biggest strength of the art is that it didn’t overdo scenes that it definitely could have. Different types of panels are stacked together in a common comic book and graphic novel technique to break up the feeling of sameness, which also plays into the continually changing setting of the storyline.

As an overall story with a very limited run time of just four issues, each issue has felt pretty fast, especially with only 20 pages per issue. I had the same feeling by the end of the third issue. This does hook readers for next month’s issue, but some may question why they’re paying full price for a comic with fewer pages than the industry standard. Even with the level of quality that Knightfight has been able to maintain across its 3/4 issues thus far.