Overview: In Knight Terrors: Ravager #2, Ravager (Rose Wilson) fights her Doppelganger in an attempt to stop the Murder Man from entering her world.
Synopsis (Spoilers Ahead): In the Nightmare Realm, the Nightmare version of Ravager (Rose Madison), along with Slaughter Squadron members Rager and Vexor, is searching for the real-world’s Ravager (Rose Wilson). Wilson is wounded from a surprise attack by Rose Madison. Wilson takes cover behind a wall, seen by a couple looking outside their window. They urge Ravager to leave, fearing the Murder Man will find out. Just then the roof to the house is ripped off. The couple is then fused into a two-headed spider that attacks Rose Wilson. During the attack, the creature chides at Rose, blaming her for what happened to them. Rose tries not to injure the spider, avoiding it when she can, and runs for cover in a nearby factory. The evil Rose, however, does not take too kindly to the spider’s failure, killing it. This evil Rose then orders Rager and Vexor to pursue Ravager. Ravager, however, decides to take the fight to the two pursuers instead of hiding.
In the real world’s Star City, Ravager’s body is brought to a diner by Stormwatch. They discover that she is in a coma. It is decided to wake her up, but shaking her and splashing water will not work. Peacekeeper-01 (Sean Mahoney) has an idea using some vials of chemicals.
In the Nightmare Realm, the evil Rose joins the fight, injuring Ravager further. Ravager tries to reason with her duplicate, telling her that the Murder Man is like her Deathstroke. He has no intention of taking Rose Madison with him, instead, he will abandon her. Murder Man finally makes an appearance. Murder Man tells Ravager that his Rose, Rose Madison, knows that she cannot come with him. Instead, she is to rule the Nightmare Realm in his stead. Ravager tries to kick the monstrosity to no effect. Instead, he throws Ravager to the ground and orders his Rose to cut her spine. Ravager defends and cuts down the remaining henchmen. Her final strike is to throw her sword at Murder Man, who dodges easily. She identifies that Murder Man is just a walking bucket of blood. Wilson opens a drum that floods the area with a chemical that freezes Murder Man where he stands. Ravager throws her sword again, this time disintegrating Murder Man. She turns to Rose Madison; Ravager has freed her from Murder Man. Rose turns back to a human girl just as Ravager awakens in the real world.
In Star City, Rose Wilson wakes up. Peacekeeper-01 debriefs her about the storm that knocked the world out. He was sent to find the Stormwatch team. He found her and stitched her up. She asks the Peacekeeper-01 if anything came through with her. The last thing we see is a puddle of blood starting to expand. This story will continue in Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
Analysis: The story is just a run-of-the-mill horror story. We have zombie henchmen, a horrific monster fight, and the final boss fight in the Murder Man. Where this story really shines is in the characterization of Rose Wilson.
Rose is generally depicted as an antihero. Here, we see that she cares for what she is doing. She does not kill for killing’s sake. She avoids killing the spider creature in the beginning. Even though there is nothing she can do to undo the change to the couple, she will not kill it. Instead, she asks the spider to stay down, so she will not have to kill it herself. Unfortunately, the evil Rose ends up killing it instead. Throughout the issue, Wilson takes the high road urging, her doppelgänger to become more like her and help those people and even defend them from the Murder Man.
The art is very descriptive. By the art and the coloration, it is easy to distinguish that the action is taking place in the Nightmare Realm instead of Star City. Vexor and Rager are carbon copies of each other, which is okay in that they are really just two of the same creature anyway. The real nightmare characters are Rose and Murder Man. It was a nice touch that Rose is shown as returning to her human form in the last frame we see her. In addition to that, the frame itself is brighter as this is the point that Ravager wakes up in the real world.
Editor’s Note: DC Comics provided TBU with the preview images of this comic for review purposes. You can find this comic and help support TBU in the process by pre-ordering this issue digitally on Comixology through Amazon or a physical copy of the title through Things From Another World.
Knight Terrors: Ravager #2
Overall Score
4/5
This is probably not the best story Knight Terrors, but at the same time, it is not really bad either. I particularly liked the characterization of Rose Wilson, and this story showcases her humanity very well.
