Tales from the Dark Multiverse #1 Batman Knightfall Review

by Wes Greer on October 16, 2019

Tales from the Dark Multiverse #1 - Batman Knightfall
Written by Scott Snyder and Kyle Higgins
Art by Javier Fernandez and Alex Guimares
Lettering by Clayton Cowles
Published by DC

As a fan of Batman, it has been neat having these other Batman tales released that get us away from the current Tom King run. DC has really been hard at work giving us new stories to supplement the current run and they have not disappointed me yet! With current releases such as Curse of the White Knight and the Batman’s Grave reigning supreme on their own, Tales from the Dark Multiverse #1 Batman Knightfall (a serious mouthful) is an incredible addition.

Just from the title, Tales from the Dark Multiverse, we can tell that there is going to be some seriously twisted concepts added to an already ground breaking story that we all know and love but then you add the name Scott Snyder and we get even more hooked. The writer for the New 52 run that has become a staple of all batman stories so far, steps in and takes us on an amazing ride with this one. To open, we are introduced to a character named Tempus Fuginaut who explains the current status of the Multiverse and explains his role. He then takes us to a dark multiverse planet where we learn what would have happened if Batman lost his fight to retake the cowl and what that world would have looked like.

Reading through this one was one of the best reads I have had in a long time. We already go in expecting twists and turns, but this one gives us some amazing twists and leaves us shocked down to our core. Scott Snyder really proves himself again with this story and reminds us why we were so in love with his runs in the New 52. This story almost makes me yearn for him given the status of the current Batman run. Overall the writing on this one is easily the best thing he has done since The Court of Owls and Death of the Family!

The pencils on this one are also some of the best we have seen in awhile by DC. The art is amazing and really replicates the feel of the original Knightfall series. There are also some really cool panel division using the character noises vs leaving them in the middle of the panel. There is some stunning character profiles in this one, and that dark and edgy tone really shows through the drawings of this one. We can easily see and feel the despair of current Gotham City.

There are some beautiful colors used in this issue and a lot of red and ominous tones used to help sell the feeling of this dark Gotham. I did have some issues with some of the panels however because there are certain times where the ink eats up and covers the original pencil and at times this makes it really hard to figure out what you are looking at. I had to do several double takes at certain panels to figure out what was supposed to be represented in the drawing and the ink bleeds over a lot in these panels. It is not like this for most of the book however it is still annoying on the panels it does happen in.

Overall I really enjoyed this story and the re-telling of a classic story that gave us the infamous “now I break you” that we all know and have come to love! Scott Snyder and Kyle Higgins do an amazing job pulling us into the story and keeping us on our toes the entire issue. Although there are issues with some of the inks on this one, the tones and colors really help sell the feeling of the story and the pencils are gorgeous making sure to fit within the original Knightfall series. I think this book is one of the best to be released as of late from DC and I highly recommend if you love Batman or the Knightfall story that you pick this one up and get lost in a new spin on the story.

-Wes Greer





 

Our Score:

9/10

A Look Inside