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chocolateteapotsvis · 10 months

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Let's talk about Knight Terrors! But only the Flash (and a little of the Green Lantern) one shot, because we're here for the Halbarry content.

Spoilers for Knight Terrors: The Flash #1, and some discussion of the event in general. And also warnings for some minor gore (Hal's not looking so hot, as you know if you saw the pages) and spoilers from Final Night (from 1996, so you probably know them already)

Also, from the snippet about the Hal/Barry team up in Green Lantern #4 announcement, I don't think this is meant to tie in with that, but I guess we'll see when the issue comes out!

So! Context! The basic idea of the event is that a villain has trapped everyone in their own personal nightmares, tailor made from their deepest fears. Barry's story focuses around him trying to help an injured Kid Flash Wally, while slowly realizing that there's something very wrong with the world he's in. He goes to the Watchtower to use the Cosmic Treadmill to go back to the moment Wally was injured, and instead is met with this:

So, I kind of love this. It's Barry's dream, and his lack of reaction to Hal's appearance makes sense in that context. The entire scene feels less nightmarish and more melancholic, and reads to me as Barry's own regret about not being there through Parallax and Final Night (or just in general). But despite just traveling through a nightmare world that made him question his own actions and acknowledging their mortality, Barry trusts that they'll have more time to address his regrets without blame or resentment.

And then, immediately after Hal comments how he doesn't know when to let things go, he helps Barry go back in time. Hal trusts Barry's judgement, and Barry knows he can count on that, even when everything else in the world is wrong.

And then there's all the little details, like Hal's Boomer vocab calling back to their Silver Age adventures, Barry recognizing Hal by his signature boring constructs, how Barry doesn't think twice about asking for Hal's help despite his condition and Hal being able to make something as incredibly complex as a working Cosmic Treadmill no problem, how Barry only asks everyone else for information until he finds Hal...

Also, I can't help but wondering if Hal's "Didn't anyone tell you what happened?" is a callback to the League not bothering to tell Hal when Barry died. Between that and Hal's comment about no one coming to visit him, I wonder how Barry feels about how the rest of the League treats Hal.

(Though it's pretty funny, that, from a straight reading of the scene, you could come away thinking Barry's sorry that Hal's face no longer features on League merch)

Honestly, I'd forgotten about the "attacked by your fears" part until writing this up, but it works for Barry on that level too: failing the people closest to him in a world that doesn't make sense. The introduction of the story was how Barry grounds himself in facts and the people around him, and Barry's continued struggle even as those things are ripped away (sometimes by his own doing) was really heartening, despite the nightmare and the cliffhanger.

Even outside the Halbarry moments, Knight Terrors: The Flash is a solid stand alone. I loved Barry's introspection about how he sees the world and the Speed Force, and his relationship with Iris. The introduction of the dream stuff works well even if you're not familiar with the larger event with the trippy visuals and the little things out of place, things Barry himself starts noticing throughout the story. Definitely recommend it, though with a warning for the level of gore that you'd probably expect from these pages and knowing that it's a nightmare world.

But it's a dream sequence, which means it's really open to interpretation! If you've got another read, I'd love to hear it!

The Green Lantern one is decent too, though probably better if you go in knowing that about half the issue is about Sinestro. The overall approach addresses Lanterns having a different relationship with fear than the average superhero. I really appreciated it, especially when so many comics forget that.

#spoilers #halbarry #knight terrors #comic recommendations #knight terrors: the flash #knight terrors: green lantern #and despite my own bias #knight terrors: the joker #hal's turn to be charred like a rotisserie chicken #thanks Ceeloi for that colorful turn of phrase #totally not procrastinating my Halbarry Week stuff

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