A member of the Justice League may have committed murder against one of his teammate’s loved ones in Dark Knights of Steel #1, the newest Elseworlds-style story from writer Tom Taylor and artist Yasmine Putri. Taylor’s recent DC output includes the DCeased franchise and Superman: Son of Kal-El starring the Man of Steel’s son, Jon Kent. Superman and the House of El are central figures in Dark Knights of Steel, a 12-issue miniseries that gives the DC Universe a Game of Thrones makeover. The debut issue concludes with a shocking action that shows just how different this new world is. Warning: Spoilers below for Dark Knights of Steel #1. Continue at your own risk.
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In the world of Dark Knights of Steel, instead of Kal-El being sent away from Krypton before its destruction, the issue reveals his parents joined him inside his escape shuttle. The House of El goes on to become a ruling house on Earth, with Batman and his Robins helping to defend them against magic users. Now fearful of attacks from magic, there are numerous references to a “Green Man,” who we find out is a Green Lantern — most likely Hal Jordan. This Green Man powers up one of Oliver Queen’s arrows, which he then shoots into the air. This powered arrow soars through the air and finds its target in Jor-El, Superman’s son, and pierces through his right eye, possibly killing him.
Now, it’s quite possible Jor-El will survive this sneak attack by Green Arrow, but right now it doesn’t look good. It also remains to be seen if Green Arrow and Green Lantern were specifically targeting Jor-El, or if Superman was the intended target. Right now, this will put the best friends Oliver Queen and Hal Jordan at odds with Superman and Batman, who are also revealed to be brothers. Batman learns this fact right before the attack on Jor-El, making things even more complicated for him.
“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 told ComicBook.com during a phone interview. “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.”
Putri also discussed crafting the stunning visuals that mix superhero fare with 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.”
Have you picked up your copy of Dark Knights of Steel #1? If so, let us know your thoughts down in the comments below.
