Noteworthy Issues: Dark Knights Of Steel #3 (January, 2022)

Hey, why didn’t I get back to this fun Elseworlds story sooner?

The same reason I don’t get back to a lot of things sooner:  I read a lot of different titles and only get back to them sporadically.

Issue:  Dark Knights of Steel #3, January 2022

Writer:  Tom Taylor

Artist:  Yasmine Putri

The Plot:  The Bat-Prince investigates a meteor while his half-sister goes on a rampage of her own.

Commentary:  So, to sum up a bit, King Jefferson of the Storm Kingdom had archer Oliver Queen, with an assist from the Green Man, assassinate Jor-El, king of a neighboring kingdom since he and his wife Lara cramped themselves into that escape rocket instead of just sending their baby off that way.  Jor-El died in front of Bruce Wayne, the Bat-Prince, just after the young man learned he’s actually another Kryptonian.  While the pampered Kal-El seems too smug and Bruce got to witness his father’s death right in front of him, there’s still the other member of the house of El, the Princess Zara Jor-El.

She got a bit violent, starting with the murder of Jefferson’s gentle son, a young man who could conjure rain and that was about it.

Now, it’s worth noting the series hasn’t exactly painted the Els as perfect.  They’ve got a lot of metahumans locked up in their dungeons for the crime of being metahumans.  Jefferson’s court magician John  Constantine says there’s a prophecy that the Els will cause the end of the world, and that is basically what started all this, going against Constantine’s own advice in the process.  So, really, it may be hard to find the good guy here.  The Bat-Prince at least has a conscience and seems to be starting to realize things are wrong in the kingdom, and it looks like the next issue will have him finally learn his origins after all he was told was Jor-El was his real father.

That said, for a series with no good guys, I think it is painting this universe’s Supergirl as a villain.  Yeah, she’s mad and grieving, and she can take it out on King Jefferson, even as he’s trying to pull Themyscria into an alliance in the event a war breaks out, but Supergirl then went off and basically killed the Metal Men, here just ordinary people in special armor protecting the land of Lord Magnus.  Why did they have to die?  I’m not sure.  It didn’t seem like they could do anything to her.  Plus, every one of the people she kills, she doesn’t do it without some level of gruesomeness.  She could just snap necks at high speed.  She doesn’t do that.

But see, there was this meteor that came down from the sky…a green one.  That needs looking into, and it may be the sort of thing that could act as a way of leveling the playing field.  Or it could make things much, much worse.

I’m guessing much worse.

Grade:  B+