Noteworthy Issues: Dark Knights Of Steel #8 (November, 2022)

So, I have a theory of whose behind all this.  It’s an obvious theory, but it’s still a theory.

Issue:  Dark Knights of Steel #8, November 2022

Writer:  Tom Taylor

Artist:  Yasmine Putri

The Plot:  The Storm Kingdom and the Amazon’s respective armies push on towards the Kingdom of the Els.

Commentary:  One thing that this mini-series has done and done well is a lot of mixing and matching.  The Bat-Prince is half Kryptonian.  Supergirl is the daughter, not the niece, of Jor-El and Lara.  Heck, Jor-El and Lara survived the destruction of Krypton, and the Kents apparently raised an as-yet unseen but referred to Aquaman.  But then there’s the Green Man.

He’s a piece of work, and he’s almost certainly behind the war.

The first I heard of the Green Man, I assumed that was this world’s version of the Green Lantern.  He was seen in silhouette and seems to have an Oan power ring.  I wasn’t wrong, but there was more to it than that.  This Green Man wasn’t Hal, John, Guy, or Kyle.  He isn’t even Alan Scott or Simon Baz.  No, he’s Lex Luthor, a disgraced former advisor to King Thomas and Queen Martha, made to look foolish by the Els and who then went insane when he found a Green Lantern ring on a dying alien.

So, he’s not only the Green Lantern.  He’s also Lex Luthor and the Joker.

That’s a bad combo.

Anyway, while Poison Ivy was holding off the armies as a favor to Harley Quinn, the Green Man struck her down, saying he wants the war.

I strongly suspect that the Green Man is also behind the fact that various Kryptonians have committed sudden and shocking acts of violence, all of which seems a bit out of character for all of them, and all of which only make things worse.  Supergirl didn’t know anything about the death of Jefferson or Jacob Pierce.  Kal-El likewise probably doesn’t know “he” attacked his half-brother Bruce.  And this issue ends with something really bad.  So, I don’t think it’s way too off to assume the Green Man, if he isn’t committing these murders himself, is using someone like the Martian Manhunter to commit them for him.

And I won’t mind being right.  It’s a theory that makes sense, and this series has been pretty fun so far.

Oh, as for this issue…usual good stuff.

Grade:  A-