Batman Last Knight on Earth 2 Featured Reviews 

“Batman: Last Knight on Earth” #2

By | August 2nd, 2019
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

“Batman: Last Knight on Earth” #2 takes readers on a tour through the post apocalyptic wasteland of the DC Universe. Warning: spoilers ahead.

Cover by Greg Capullo

Written by Scott Snyder
Pencilled by Greg Capullo
Inked by Jonathan Glapion
Colored by FCO Plascencia
Lettered by Tom Napolitano

The world has been destroyed, and Batman is on a quest to find out who’s responsible. But when villains from his past begin to complicate things for the Dark Knight, he finds an unlikely ally in a place known as “the Plains of Solitude.”.

Scott Snyder has operated on the ethos of telling whatever story he is writing in the DC Universe as though it is his last and in “Batman: Last Knight on Earth” #2 this ideology feels stronger than ever. Capullo, Glapion, and FCO Plascencia graphically illustrate a horse aging to dust by a Speed Force Storm as Batman and the disembodied Joker clamber to safety. As Batman catches his breath a drawn out “Pleeeee…” comes into frame lettered by Napolitano revealing the malformed and twisted faces of the Flash Family calling out to Bruce for help. Tragic fates such as this one set this post-apocalyptic landscape from many others in comics. Snyder’s ideas for just how horrific the DC Universe can be is par for the course for the writer who brought in the Dark Multiverse, but the landscape of “Batman: Last Knight on Earth” #2 is different by just how much history in the DC Universe it draws from.

Batman’s sojourn through this DC Universe wasteland gives readers the ambiance of post-apocalyptic familiarity as the Fallout games that offer where things are in this future built on the bones of artifacts that are our present. The Speed Force storm is just one example of how bad things got for the DCU in the years since everything went wrong. Batman glides over a scene of an army of Unknown Soldiers and Haunted Tanks go to war with Animal Men before a giant Swamp Thing enters the picture. These DC deep dives create a fascinating tapestry of land that Batman has to witness but the biggest drawback with this scene is the lack of connection between these DC war and horror concepts. An issue with this scene and a number of concepts in this story and others of Snyder’s works are that they operate on the “rule of cool” and not much greater substance. When listing what happens in a Scott Snyder story, the elements always sound much more interesting than they are often presented.

However, “Batman: Last Knight on Earth” #2 bucks compact rattling off of interesting things that previous Scott Snyder stories have done by having the space to breath. The 54 pages and being part two of a three-part mini-series allows Snyder to drop these ideas as a part of the landscape without the expectation that they will be followed up on in a substantial way. Every mention of the crocodile men of Fawcett City, the imp death grounds or the graveyard of otherworldly machines serves as set dressing for just how dire things are now and to spark the readers imaginations on just how they came to be.

Despite the wide space given in the story for peppering big ideas into, “Batman: Last Knight on Earth” #2 is a pretty tightly told story. The repetition of the motif of the knock knock jokes are very easy to dismiss as throwaway Joker lines but the motif ties from the very well-crafted opening scene with Batman visiting Joe Chill as apart of his last case, gets tied onto Robin in the scene regarding the Speed Force storm and Batman’s outburst of asking “Who?!” to who else is out there who just wants to do good. This motif is seen to its conclusion with the final two pages with the Court of Owls surrounding Batman, Wonder Woman and Joker asking “Who?” and the big reveal of Dick Grayson answering the issues looming question.

The other major reveal of the issue was regarding Superman who in any post-apocalyptic DC story is the elephant in the room. How do you get an apocalypse through Superman? “Batman: Last Knight on Earth” #2 tackles this by leaning back to the Silver Age. Much like Snyder’s use of DC horror and war history, Snyder draws from one of the best Silver Age Superman concept of the series of robot Superman duplicates and crafts a very retro plot for Luthor and Superman’s final confrontation. Luthor’s debate on Good vs. Evil with the loser dying is an extremely hokey concept but its played straight and goes incredibly wrong which through the Dark Multiverse Snyder has shown is a story type he can pull off.

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Artistically, Capullo and Glapion pull of an extremely well-done issue in “Batman: Last Knight on Earth” #2. Capullo pulls off a number of violent and grotesque imagery and many pages lean into a very deep horror background which is enhanced by Glapion’s use of deep black inks on a page.

Capullo’s page layouts lends itself to the anticipation needed in horror scenes. The first page of Batman’s confrontation with Joe Chill are all very rectangular panels prior to Batman showing himself on the page. On the following page Batman’s first lunge at Chill is depicted in slanted and jagged panels that emphasize action before returning to the four vertical panels. In the next page the descent into the growing fire is emphasized by the gradual shift in panels from tight vertical and horizontal panels into overlapping diagonal panels that focus on Batman’s finger pressing deeper into Chill’s shoulder with Napolitanio’s “AAAAAGH” adding emphasis to the unnaturalness of these panels by having the scream outside of the panel itself. This excellent sequence is enhanced by FCO Plascencia pulling focus to the flame over the course of the three pages. On page two Batman calls attention to the potential gas leak and the orange of the flame grows with every panel until the final panels have Chill in front of a pure red background leaving the reader to assume an inferno burning around the two figures.

The scene in “Batman: Last Knight on Earth” #2 where Alfred shoots Bane is another example of Capullo and Glapion’s layouts merging well with Napolitanio’s letters to create a frantic and rhythmic anticipation, however there are scenes with a very quiet anticipation. The Old Faithful Superman robot appears in the doorway to Batman and Lex Luthor’s conversation and bursts into action. This scene is made impactful by Capullo reversing our expectations of where this action takes place. The panels in this scene are calm and rectangular so the burst of action in the last panel creates an effect similar to all of the sound dropping from a scene in a jump scare.

Ultimately with “Batman: Last Knight on Earth” #2 Snyder, Capullo, Glapion, Plascencia, and Napolitano have crafted a middle chapter that gets deep into the exploration into this superhero wasteland and explores the horror found within it. Snyder is not holding back with drawing from DC History and crafting dystopian versions of beloved characters and concepts. The art team follows suit by working together to create this overall sense of unease and crafting excellent horror sequences. “Batman: Last Knight on Earth” #2 is a very tight bridge to the introduction to this mini-series that keeps readers eager to see what else is waiting for them in the final chapter.

Final Verdict: 8.5 – “Batman: Last Knight on Earth” #2 gives the creative team some room to stretch their legs and explore the wonders and horrors of this post-apocalyptic wasteland ripped straight from DC’s history.


Kenneth Laster

Kenneth is a cartoonist, critic, and cryptid somewhere in the crumbling empire of the United States. Hit him up on twitter @disasterlaster to see dumb jokes and artwork.

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