Editor's Desk 
The sequel to Dark Knights of Steel started off with a lot of setup. We needed to check in on our returning favorites Prince Kal-El, Princesses Diana and Zala-El, and the renegade Knight Bruce Wayne, as well as introduce us to the new Dark Knights take on Aquaman. Now that the initial setup is out of the way, the real meat of Dark Knights of Steel II‘s plot can get underway, as Tom Taylor and artist Otto Schmidt put the medieval action on the back burner to give us a conspiracy laden-plot that would make even the most conniving member of Westeros proud.
With Zala-El at death’s door, Diana rushes to get her to safety with the healers of Amazonia. While under their care, the seeds of doubt start to spread about her mysterious illness, and Harley Quinn, advisor to Queen Lara, suggests the not improbable possibility that perhaps Lara has fallen ill because of the Amazonians. This causes Lara to begrudgingly take Zala back to the Kingdom of Metropolis, but as she arrives both herself and Kal-El fall ill to the same mysterious illness as Zala. As the tension within Metropolis mounts, the Amazonians arrive with Diana, but they are not facing the most welcoming crowd when they arrive. Can the two kingdoms overcome their differences to get to the bottom of this conspiracy? Or will the divide between them be too great for even Diana and Zala’s marriage to overcome?
This sense of conspiracy and confusion is peppered brilliantly throughout Tom Taylor’s script, and he uses well known ideas of xenophobia and fears of the unknown to not only make this conflict between the kingdoms believable, but also empathetic. At this stage in their rule, the House of El has never fallen ill to anything, so to suddenly have one of their own get sick, and then subsequently themselves, has to be an insane feeling, and Taylor uses that fear to great effect in this issue. The fact that characters like Harley are buying into the narrative is done particularly well, as her advice isn’t something out of the ordinary for someone in her position to give, especially knowing how extremely rare this kind of event happening to the Els is. Taylor keeps the conspiracy plot moving at a great pace throughout the issue, and even though the end reveal isn’t a surprising one, the fact that we’ve gotten it only two issues into this run makes me even more curious for what’s next in the series.
DC
That being said,there’s a few narrative bumps in Dark Knights of Steel II‘s second issue, and a lot of them stem from the introduction of this world’s version of Aquaman. Despite having an interesting backstory that mixes up Arthurian legend with the origin of Superman, the brief aside Tom Taylor takes in telling this story makes for a weird moment in the book. We just got the one-shot issue depicting Arthur Curry’s Dark Knights of Steel origin story a month ago, so having it rehashed here (and in fewer pages, no less), makes that one-shot feel superfluous to those who read it, and a jarring aside to those who didn’t. Most likely this was out of Tom Taylor’s hands, but having his origin rehashed again so quickly when we could have devoted more pages to building the mystery of who is poisoning the Els would have made the issue flow a lot smoother. Couple that with some strange asides to the other kingdoms, and no mention of Bruce Wayne in this issue, and Dark Knights of Steel II #2 has some unfortunate narrative bumps in the road.
Otto Schmidt’s art continues from the previous issue, and here he’s given something I don’t think he’s ever really gotten to play around with before: intrigue. While not as action packed as the previous issue, Schmidt still finds ways to make this story show off his skills as an artist, and I particularly loved seeing how expressive Schmidt was able to make our cast of characters here. From pain and torment to despair and worry, Dark Knights of Steel II #2 is a great showcase for Otto’s talents when heroes aren’t punching the crap out of each other, and makes him a great, if unexpected, fit for this type of series.
The fact that we already know the identity of the mastermind behind the El’s potential downfall in the second issue of Dark Knights of Steel II is pretty surprising, but it doesn’t take the wind out of the narrative sails at all. In fact, it fills me with more curiosity and excitement for what Tom Taylor and Otto Schmidt have planned for the rest of the series. If they’re willing to play this card this early, then what else can we expect from the sequel to one of my favorite DC Elseworlds of the past five years? Here’s hoping one of those things is a certain Dark Knight’s return to the Kingdom of Metropolis.
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