A review by rbreade
Batman Vol. 10: Knightmares by Tom King

King is one of those writers who relishes a challenge, especially when it comes to ways you shouldn't tell a story and approaches that shouldn't be used. Of course, as my fellow Queenies from that school's MFA program know, per Fred Leebron, the only rule in writing is that there are no rules. There are guidelines, approaches you should undertake carefully, one of which is beginning a story with a dream. Or, as here and even more to be undertaken with caution, a multi-issue story that takes place in the protagonist's mind--Batman's of course, as he struggles to free himself from a nested series of nightmares, victim of Scarecrow's fear gas, though we don't find that out until we're a few issues into this multi-issue arc.

Surprise! King pulls it off, with style and depth, and the reader gets the satisfaction of slowly realizing none of this is real, yet all of it is potentially deadly, and we see Bat's famous intellect and will summoning his own phantasms as a way to help him navigate the perilous terrain: John Constantine, the Question, who are there-not-there in the role of oneiric sherpas.

Through all of this, what continues to haunt the Bat is how close he came to happiness with the Cat, only for her to be a no-show on the wedding day. "I wrote a note," Cat says deep into the nightmare. "Read the note." He replies, of course, "I read the note.

"Why?"

Cue the song, "Some of These Days" and the inevitably sad ending.