'Knight Terrors: The Joker' Review: The horrors of office worklife

The world of superheroes is certainly not my thing. At least, I don't think it is. Over the years I have done my best to completely avoid the films and shows that have not interested me in the slightest. Though, over the past year I have been getting into art. Learning to draw is a really fun, challenging thing that takes such an incredible amount of time, but there's something else it requires: opening your eyes to different forms of media. Now, I have never really been a graphic novel or comic book reader. Years back I would occasionally read some manga, but that was ultimately the full extent of it. I realised that comics might actually be a really great learning resource, and outside of that, also fun. Imagine that? This marvelous realisation has led me to open up a bit and start reading some comics, coming across the other day a new 'event' from DC that spans over two months going into October, for Halloween. This series is a small story called Knight Terrors, it seemed like a good entry point for me, to dive into something that didn't seem too long and gave me a little glimpse of various characters and stories to be told. Something to, well, settle into as a minor introduction. These short stories all connect somehow, focusing on different characters and their fears; a main story was told in its own comic, which I have also read.

While I read many of them, only one managed to really stand out to me, and it was the spin-off story on the Joker. This one had a fun art style, but it was the writing that really had me engaged. It was vastly different to the other stories, which seemed more serious. These stories show what the character fears the most, a similar story to A Nightmare on Elm Street: if you fall asleep, your dreams turn to nightmares, riddled with your greatest fears. Naturally, some characters had more on the nose fears, others had more interesting stories.

What stood out in the Joker story, was how his character's greatest fear was incredibly simple: he feared the loss of Batman. Joker's entire existence now thrives on the endless drama between the two, and without it, his life is reduced to a meaningless, shallow life which he considers similar to others. Have a job, climb the corporate ladder, fit in, and tell the odd joke to the co-workers. Despite him climbing the corporate ladder, little had changed about his character. He'd openly discuss his crimes to which everyone considered it water cooler and office humour. To no surprise, much of the story was focused more on the idea of comedy, and Joker's eventual boredom with life as things were going too well for him. This was quite different to the prior stories in which the stories were focused more on horror elements and gore. These events take place in dreams, of course, and an entity thrives on keeping these characters locked down in efforts to find a particular item that grants a higher power that could allow them to essentially take over reality, taking the horrors of nightmares out of dreams and into the real world. What I liked here was that Joker didn't know he was dreaming. Whereas the other characters figured it out pretty quickly.

In the mix of office life, we even see Joker in his boring home life. A regular wife and child, playing a father figure. Though, his main interest appeared to be just sitting by the television and trying to figure out which channel "Real Housewives" was on. Batman's dead body was kept hidden in the closet, to which the whole thing was accidental. Boredom surrounds his mundane life as a result, even the excitement of corporate, bureaucratic work life died as he realises he wasn't actually infiltrating Wayne Enterprise but just doing boring paperwork, sucking up to annoying higher-ups that passed down useless information.

I quite liked that this all started as a result of an accident. Batman slipping on a rainy rooftop, smashing his face down on the floor, to which he lifelessly slides down and off the building. There's a moment of confusion over what happened as the characters react, a sort of "Oh, so, what now?" approach added to the comedic effect of it all. No character really sure as to how to go about this long-awaited, far-too-easy killing. And the inevitable boredom that comes now the excitement of cat-and-mouse games has ended, albeit with a highly unsatisfying conclusion. As mentioned before, I'm really not familiar with these sorts of comics. I don't really expect any gore, something I probably picked up from seeing how lame and colourful the films looked. Seeing all of this, as well as casual swearing, definitely pulled me in. I admit, I had expectations that these comics would be too tame, controlled as to appeal to the widest possible demographic. Fortunately, they aren't.

In regards to the art, I liked it. It is clearly done digitally, but with a clean, and pretty detailed approach. Given these are short stories, it was nice to see the attention to detail, some of the others felt a bit too quick and cheap, but that comes with different artists doing different things. Especially alongside writers that also have their own ideas of what the characters can be like. There isn't really anything to complain about, in my case. Though again, I really am not all that familiar with these characters and the usual styles that may be seen elsewhere. I may not be the best person to recommend these things, after all!

Having read through most of the Knight Terror comics already, this one by far has been the most engaging. It had a bit of everything. Good writing, character development, and the comedy to match said character. It had an incredibly simple story but one that felt like it belonged. Ultimately, the only one I felt I wanted to actually write about after reading. It has managed to pull me in, making me curious as to how the broader comic book world may be. And perhaps this is the start of a new hobby. If you're looking to get into the mood of Halloween as October comes, or want to wait until October, I think the entire Knight Terrors event has ended, so you can either start reading them now or wait until that spooky month comes calling. There's enough atmosphere in them, with short stories that certainly differ. Some weak, some stronger. But definitely a bit of lighthearted fun with a clear 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' inspiration.