From BRZRKR’s Matt Kindt and Stray Bullets‘ David Lapham comes Knight City, a new miniseries from Dark Horse Comics. Is it worth reading? Here’s our review!
In Matt Kindt and David Lapham’s new 3-issue superhero series Knight City, they ponder a very interesting concept that makes it not ‘just another’ superhero comic. Knight City is described as Fight Club-meets-Superman. That comparison draws attention immediately. We’re talking about one of the most acclaimed psychological thrillers of all time, and, well, Superman. Setting my expectations extremely high, I was still greatly impressed by Knight City. This is a comic with nuance and a unique hook that draws you into its world.
In such a gluttonous landscape of superhero media nowadays, it can be difficult to stand out. Pretty much every conceivable concept has been explored. This one, again, asks another ‘What if Superman were…’ storyline. What if Superman wasn’t as headstrong? What if he got tired and had the ability to escape his responsibilities? What if he was vulnerable, and we saw that vulnerability manifest?
Knight City #1 picks up the story with Knight, a Superman-esque hero. In fact, the story feels deliberately like the seminal DC Man of Steel. His powers are very similar, and he also has a relationship issues and hangs out with a girl called Laney. But the actual story that Kindt and Lapham have created is outstanding; creative, engaging, and largely unlike anything we’ve seen in the superhero world.
It blends magnificent with mundane. When we see Knight, he’s the protector of Earth. He’s a beacon of light, and he has his arch nemesis Zero. They get into myriad battles, but like Superman, Knight does not kill. He could have killed Zero several times over, but he shows restraint. It’s the humanisation that births respect from humanity. But so too, after endless battles against evil, he grows tired and weary. He cannot be everywhere at once. So at night, he takes himself deep into the antarctic, where he sleeps (relatively, but certainly not entirely) undisturbed by the chaos of the world. However, when he sleeps, his ‘dream’ takes him into a mortal body, where he lives a mundane life crunching numbers in an office. It’s in this mortal body that he is vulnerable. He is not absolutely aware of his super-powered alter-ego; it exists fleetingly in his mind.
The world building in issue #1 is exquisite, being told largely through internal monologues. It’s engaging, and it doesn’t require a lot of effort to engross the reader into the plot within just a couple of pages. The stylised artwork, too, is gorgeous — I particularly loved the juxtaposition in colour between the two perspectives of our main hero. It’s expertly crafted.
This comic achieves what it sets out to do. It doesn’t go down the route of subverting the Superman archetype by making him evil, as we’ve seen so many times before. It keeps the traditional view of the archetypal figure in tact, but builds out a totally unique and fresh narrative. Suffice to say, I had a lot of fun with this one. And it leaves you with a cliffhanger that’ll have readers desperate to jump back in for issue #2.
Knight City #1 soars into comic stores on February 4, 2026. You can pre-order issue #1 here.
