Knight Terrors: Punchline #2 // Review
Alexis Kaye is being pulled through a video screen. It's so cliche. It's something out of Cronenberg, the Wachowskis, or some other horror. To make matters worse, she's been pulled into the comments section of a website criticizing her. Being attacked by gray-faced anonymous users is only the beginning for her in Knight Terrors: Punchline #2. Writer Danny Lore continues a venture into the darkest fears of Gotham City's newest criminal psycho with artist Lucas Meyer and colorist Alex Guimarães. Once again, Lore carves an exciting path through the psyche of Punchline in a witty little nightmare.
Punchline has a little to defend herself with. She tries pressing the block button below her, but it doesn't do much. The other one works as a weapon when she pulls it off the page and slams it into one of them. Too bad the gray face breaks in half and doubles when she hits it. That's the problem with internet trolls: attack them, and you're only feeding them. Punchline Is going to have to learn the basics again in a whole new way if she's going to be able to make it out of the nightmare alive.
"Bad dreams and nightmares are just jokes your brain comes up with to fill the silence." Lore's writing ramps up once Punchline takes total stock of the fact that she's in a dream. There's clever web hell as Punchline falls through the infinite scroll of endless comments. Still, the more profound existential nature of the contemporary internet ends up being the heart and soul of Lore's second chapter. It seems silly and evident on the surface, but Lore's script has substantial bite as it moves through to a very satisfying end.
Meyer does a brilliant job of capturing Punchline's defiance as she maneuvers through the hell of her own worst nightmares. Meyer's layout with the comments section is as dazzling as simple. Punchline's deeper emotions can be read on her face in a depth that is beautifully enhanced by Guimarães' colors. The emotional resonance of the horror in Lore's script finds a powerful punch in Meyer and Guimarães' visuals. The kinetics of the physical action might not feel quite as potent as they could, but it takes a special kind of artist to take this sort of thing seriously. Meyer finds a way to make a physical altercation in the comments section of a website feel powerful and menacing. There aren't many artists who could pull that off.
There's real poetry in the ending of Punchline's latest mini-series. She might be flawed for it with any writer, but Lore has done an excellent job of framing a story around Punchline's fears. She comes across as a mighty hero in the end. It's almost inspiring. Interestingly, this is the second time this week in which Batgirl has shown up as a hideous monster. She has yet to have a whole lot of luck in Knight Terrors. Hopefully things turn around for her.
