Dark Knights of Steel's Creators Describe Their Fantasy-Themed Take on the DC Universe
DC's new Dark Knight of Steel series looks to take readers into a bold new interpretation of the DC Universe, a world filled with familiar character draped in the trappings of high fantasy. Releasing this week, Dark Knight of Steel is the new Elseworlds-style series by Tom Taylor and Yasmine Putri. The comic is set in a high fantasy world filled with familiar DC characters. However, at least at the outset, the conflict of the series is driven not by the familiar "heroes vs. villains" plots found in traditional superhero books. Instead, we see two kingdoms on the brink of conflict - the Kingdom of El (ruled by Jor-El) and the Kingdom of Storms ruled by Black Lightning. The result is a fun and shocking fantasy romp filled with familiar characters who could die at any moment.
Speaking to Taylor and Putri via phone, ComicBook.com asked the duo how Dark Knight of Steel came into being. "I was working on DCeased and [DC editor] Ben Abernathy literally said, 'Tom, what would you think of doing a fantasy book at DC?'" Taylor responded. "What Ben didn't know is that I'm not a horror fan at all, but I'm a massive fantasy fan. So the idea of being able to combine superheroes and swords and sorcery was just dream come true stuff for me."
"I instantly leapt on that and had a million ideas," Taylor continued. "We talked about an artist and the first person we talked about was Yasmine because we'd done an eight-pager on a Supergirl story together, which was just stunning in every way. Obviously, I was a massive fan of her cover work, but we knew that this would be a bit daunting because it was such a big thing and it would also be her first full issue of a comic ever. But we were very lucky that she said yes."
One of the challenges of building a fantasy-themed world populated by iconic superhero characters is designing looks that feel genre-appropriate while also remaining keeping the characters recognizable. Putri spoke about mixing superhero designs with a fantasy aesthetics. "We started with really traditionally high fantasy stuff, like intricate designs and big armors and really crazy helmets and stuff," Putri said. "Over time, that got tampered down because what the story needed were characters that are instantly recognizable to the readers. So, our initial wild approach over time became more grounded and evolved into something much simpler and grounded and recognizable to the readers."
"We decided that because we're already putting them in an unfamiliar setting, if both the characters and the setting they're in are equally unrecognizable, that would not be good," Putri continued. "So we decided on a more simple, historically relevant look. We researched a lot of medieval European costumes and armors based on that. And we're not really looking into real high fantasy stuff, at least for the first few issues."
As for the central premise of Dark Knight of Steel, Taylor noted that the story and world of the series came out of creating something new and then seeing how it would evolve. "What you see in the first three to six pages is something we've never seen in the DC Universe," Taylor said. "The conflict itself flows out of a prophecy that comes to John Constantine, this idea that someone will come from stars and it will spell the end of the world. And that puts all of our characters into conflict from page one, basically." The prophecy quickly pits Black Lightning and his family against Superman and his still-alive parents because Black Lightning believes their presence is going to spell the end of the world.
Other familiar characters also take on new roles in Dark Knight of Steel. For instance, Batman takes on the role of Superman's protector, capturing and imprisoning anyone with magical powers. And in a fantasy setting, that means just about any character with extraordinary abilities, such as Black Canary of the Flash. There's also a history between the various kingdoms in Dark Knight of Steel that's hinted at in the early books, tying the Kingdom of Storms, the Kingdom of El, and the Amazons together in new and different ways. "It's a different take that we've never seen before," Taylor said. "It's just joyous stuff. I'm just think of the craziest stuff I can think of and wait for Ben Abernathy to say 'yes.' And he does, every time."
With Dark Knights of Steel joining DCeased and Injustice, Taylor has gained a reputation for crafting highly-acclaimed (and high-selling) alternate takes on the DC Universe. When asked how he keeps ending up at the helm of these Elseworlds-esque books, Taylor admitted that it was by request. "From the moment Injustice started getting big. I just said, 'Let me write Elseworlds books,'" Taylor said. "Because this is my love. This is my joy. I grew up with these books. I grew up loving Kingdom Come and Red Son and The Nail. Books like those just broke the rules and the stakes were always the highest they could possibly be because you don't know if someone will survive to the next page."
Taylor noted there was a freedom to telling Elseworld stories, as you can "break the toys" without worrying about it lining up with what other writers want to do. "There's a freedom there," Taylor said. "But also it means that everybody reading it is along for the journey and they feel every fear. If a character does something, if a character kills someone out of the blue, they don't know what's going to happen at the next one. What we see at the end of the first issue of Dark Knights of Steel, that's never been done before. You get this really amazing freedom, but also just lets you raise the stakes in ways that's harder to do with in-continuity books."
Taylor and Putri hope that Dark Knights of Steel takes off and becomes the next big Elseworlds story, complete with toys and statues and even a tabletop RPG similar in scope to Dungeons & Dragons. The pair also note that Dark Knights of Steel, hopefully, is just the beginning for this expansive and ambitious fantasy world. Taylor also noted that he consulted with popular fantasy writers such as Assassin's Apprentice writer Robin Hobb and Eragon writer Christopher Paolini.
"What readers are going to see with Dark Knight of Steel is a story they've never seen before in the DC Universe," Taylor said. "This is an entirely new DC Universe. The characters' origins are completely different. Their goals are completely different. Their conflicts are completely different. And it's just a really exciting book."
"I just hope that fans of the genre, both superhero and high-fantasy genre, will be able to enjoy it," added Putri. "We worked really hard on the book, so my main hope is that people find it delightful and enjoy it and hopefully can find something relatable or excitable to them."
Dark Knights of Steel #1 will be released on November 2nd.
