Knight Terrors: Ravager #2: The Killer’s Calling From Inside the Mind

Knight Terrors: Ravager #2 – written by Ed Brisson with art by Dexter Soy, colors by Veronica Gandini, and letters from Troy Peteri – continues Rose Wilson’s battle against the Murder Man, a nightmare creature trying to escape into the real world. The Murder Man has used the facade of Deathstroke to trick a subconscious version of young Rose to achieve his plan, as he needs Ravager to cross the barrier into the real world. A twisted family-themed slasher chase propels the bulk of the issue, intercutting with Peacekeeper-01 in the real world working with Stormwatch to break Ravager out of her sleep. 

Brisson’s script keeps the strong momentum established in the previous issue, employing a slasher/pursuit framework for the story to ensure the issue never drags. It allows the issue to dip into the overall horror leanings of the Knight Terror event but gives it a unique flavor for a specific kind of horror. The shifting back to the real world allows for the elevated action of the main Stormwatch story to boost the book’s frantic tone. 

Soy channels this loop of genre and tone in the book’s action sequences, especially as Ravager goes from pursued to pursuer. As Ravager is chased, the art lingers on small, tight panels that build a sense of dread as Rose scrapes by. Later on, Soy illustrates the fight between Ravager and the Murder Man with full pages, larger panels, and the use of low angles framing Ravager as the powerful one in combat. Soy also uses a blur effect for the backgrounds or specific elements of the panel to generate a sense of hyperkinetic movement, taking the book from horror into over-the-top action. 

That shift in tone is also created through the book’s coloring, which builds on the blood reds and stark blacks established in the last issue’s nightmare reality. The coloring feeds the sense that something is wrong, making this nightmare feel like a twisted earth rather than a dream realm. Gandini’s palette makes a shift when Ravager becomes the attacker. It’s a simple change of location, the inside of an abandoned factory, but the interjection of industrial grays and lush greens of overgrown foliage create a whole new dimension to the fight. It also creates a stark contrast with the orange of Ravager’s costume, which feels a bit muted against the open reds of the nightmare sky. 

The use of coloring also makes for an excellent denouement, as lingering doubts about the Murder Man’s demise influence the real world’s palette. The transition from nightmare to reality is constructed through a series of panels that fade to white and return once Rose awakens. But even as Peacekeeper-01 gives a sitrep for the general Knight Terrors status quo, the coloring indicates that something is still off with the world. The same use of stark colors and silhouettes punctuation moments and teases the ramifications of the adventure and the unkillable nature of a nightmare, which feels at home with a slasher/horror villain.