Knight Terrors: Green Lantern #2 – He Who Knows Fear

Knight Terrors: Green Lantern #2 presents a surprising departure from the current Knight Terrors mold. It is a fun action story first with a quiet, somber theme underlying its clever instances of subversion. Jeremy Adams proves his Green Lantern street cred here, delivering an entertaining comic experience with an art team consisting of Eduardo Pansica, Jordi Tarragona, and Julio Ferreira. Conversely, Alex Segura propels Sinestro’s new status quo into the spotlight, accompanied by artist Mario “Fox” Foccillo, who provides a visually inspired interpretation of the classic supervillain’s fears.

Starting with Hal’s tale, it’s yet another Knight Terrors tie-in that experiments with a nightmare concept while exploring Hal’s response to trauma. Although it resembles every other story in this line-wide event, there’s much to appreciate here. Adams skillfully subverts the reader’s expectations, utilizing Hal’s lack of fear as a Green Lantern to craft a compelling story about his coping mechanisms. Instead of trembling in his boots or succumbing to guilt when facing Parallax, Hal’s natural willpower as a lantern empowers him to react confidently to the situation. However, if that were the sole aspect driving this story, it would be a charming yet hollow trope subversion.

In a delicately handled scene, Hal is confronted with all the death he’s either dealt with or faced. To overcome this growing trauma, he reacts violently, treating the dreamscape corpses of those he once knew as though they were cannon fodder enemies in a JRPG. This silent portrayal indicates that while Hal is not consumed by fear, he isn’t entirely liberated from the ghosts that haunt him. Darkness lingers behind his willpower, a facet that he hasn’t wholly confronted. This backdrop adds a haunting element to the relatively enjoyable story, hinting at something likely to persist into the future of Jeremy Adams’ run on Green Lantern. Its implications are essentially all that the story has to offer in terms of significance or importance, with the book ultimately building toward somewhat wasteful fun, akin to many of the “Knight Terror” tie-ins. The art team adeptly renders it, showcasing dynamic, imaginative, clear panels that expertly convey emotion and character nuances.

Sinestro’s narrative is conceptually more enlightening than its execution, but it holds significant importance for the character’s new status quo. It showcases the character’s history of failures and subjects him to scrutiny until it catalyzes his evolution. While it might come across as heavy-handed, Segura & Foccillo could only do so much with their page. Fortunately, the inspired visual approach to ‘nightmares’ and ‘dream lucidity’ is excellent, standing out amidst the industry-standard excellence in the main story.