Within the violent tundra of their fantastical world, a child emerges with strange earthly powers. Unfortunately, the powers of the miraculous child pit them against a league of assassins seeking to control the world. Now, readers rejoin their unwitting hero as he chooses to protects the boy from all manner of would-be killers. Let’s continue to examine their journey below!
A Destination
In the last issue, the mercenary Deathstroke and the mysterious Alec managed to survive an ambush from his estranged daughter, Rose. Sadly, the attack claims the life of Slade’s wife Adeline. While Adeline’s intentions with the boy are still unclear, Slade reluctantly decides to fulfill her mission and head towards their destination. In typical fantasy fashion, the journey ahead is beset by several dangerous pit stops along the path they choose. As for the boy, Jay Kristoff sneakily hints that The Green itself is influencing his mind in several ways. In fact, The Green directly provides him information every time the boy sleeps or looses consciousness. Naturally, this spooks and confuses the old mercenary, but continues to commit to saving the kid out of guilt.
Also, this issue marks the first reappearance of Batman in the story. As a reminder, Bruce Wayne is not only a prince, but a esteemed Kryptonian warrior in this universe. However, issue #3 reveals that the frozen setting of Allwinter is a mystery to the citizens of the El-Kingdom. Moreover, the monochromatic color palette is affecting Batman’s connection with the light of the sun and diminishes his Kryptonian abilities. Regardless, Batman’s sudden appearance forces Slade to attack him out of the misunderstanding. Arguably, Kristoff writes the pair somewhat evenly matched and plants the seeds of an impromptu partnership. Despite how cool it is to add another warrior to the growing party, Batman feels out of place. For one, the character comes out of nowhere and weirdly takes little convincing to join the story despite his development in the previous iteration of the story.
Heir To The Sea Part Three
In Heir To The Sea Part Three, a dying queen selects reluctantly loving knights Johnathan and Martha to adopt her son. Incidentally, this story ends up combining the stories of Superman, Batman, and Aquaman fairly neatly. In this version, the knights desert their posts to care for the orphan prince in Gotham. Much like the challenges Clark presents them in the main universe, the reality of Arthur’s abilities eventually complicates their lives. Of course, talking to seafood isn’t as hard to hide as flight or invulnerability. Yet, their care for their son Arthur sustains their sense of happiness and improves their overall relationship.
Easily, Roberto Federici and Arif Prianto’s line art and colors remains the highlight of the somewhat underwhelming back up story. The sense of texture and detail adds realism and practicality to the story. The storybook style look and flow of the artwork allows the story space to feel like a classic fable. In particular, some of the illustrations of the family life reminds me of biblical artwork. In contrast, Tirso’s art in Allwinter lacks detail in many of the panels. While I enjoyed parts like the beautiful vignette of the squirrels in the snow oddly mirroring the Scrat scenes from Ice Age, Tirso under develops several figures and faces. Some of the looseness works like the watercolors, but a lot of it is starting to look blob-like.
Recommended If…
- You’re choosing to read AllWinter because you like Batman.
- You are a fan of Tom Taylor’s Elseworld series.
- A lover of Ricardo Federici’s interiors and variant covers.
Overall
Knights of Steel plays heavily with sword and sorcery tropes of the genre, but seems to lack it’s own voice for now. I totally appreciate this setting, but this story is getting increasingly dull. The creative team spends most of the main story discussing the boy’s abilities and fighting a new party member. Furthermore, Batman feels like a random addition thrown in inorganically. For a character the readers have spent a lot of time with in the last series, Batman confusingly lacking motivation, virtually confessing that he had nothing better to do. The back up is picking up steam with the introduction of Arthur, but continues to seem like a bland history lesson with admittedly amazing illustration. Hopefully, both stories come together nicely, and wake up this otherwise lackluster adventure.
Score: 6/10
English (US) · 