A review by alexauthorshay
Batman: The Dark Knight, Vol. 1: Knight Terrors by David Finch

4.0

I'm very picky with my comics, DC/Marvel especially, so this was actually surprisingly good given how many New 52 story lines I've been disappointed by. The first 8 comics were great, and built the story. And then the ninth went off on a tangent about the Court of Owls. I happened to have read (and regret doing so) the first volume of that comic line and Nightwing, so I'm vaguely aware of what's going on in this situation. But they really should have capped this volume with 8 comics instead of 9. It feels like the main storyline gets dropped entirely because the timelines between the different comics dictates that the Court of Owls events have to happen at that time, and for people who haven't read any other New 52 or are reading them out of order, this last comic is going to make no sense to them. Even to me, I'm wondering how--or even if--it actually ties in with the plot Finch is building in the first 8 comics of the volume.
The idea of a toxin that makes super villains even worse than they are by inhibiting fear is a really neat one. It even has some effect on Batman. White Rabbit could have been a little less BDSM fan-service-y, but so many women in super hero comics are sexualized like that I'm not even surprised, honestly. Each comic has a different suspect in sight about who caused the toxin. Technically the answer is provided in the last comic, but I don't know if the villain's motive is fully explained as to why he gave these other villains the toxin. I'd like to see more on that front than stuff with the Owls.