While Batman is trapped in his own tie-in nightmare and his body has been possessed by Deadman in the event’s main series, KNIGHT TERRORS DETECTIVE COMICS #1 has readers following Jim Gordon in a psychological thriller by Dan Watters, with art by Riccardo Federici, colors by Brad Anderson, and lettering by Steve Wands.

The first part of the book focuses on Gordon reflecting on how much he’s given himself to the people of Gotham in the multitude of positions he’s held, including a short stint as Batman, and how it’s all taken a toll on his relationships with his family. Instead of focusing the nightmare on his familial failures, we pivot to a look at what it means for Gordon to keep Gotham safe. He stumbles upon a trio of cult members who successfully summon a demonic version of Batman. Gordon tracks the Batman across as it unleashes a brutal assault on the city but realizes he’s beginning to physically break apart, piece by piece. It’s a nice way to keep the emotional trauma that was set up earlier as a thread throughout the book — instead of breaking mentally, his body is now deteriorating. Gordon ends up on the run looking for a clue to figure out what’s happening but more things go awry and ends up he coming face-to-face with a big bad who is scary enough to give readers actual nightmares!

Watters’ slow-build approach to revealing how much weight Gordon carries on his shoulders after being a detective, a commissioner, and Batman, while having a son who was a serial killer, is very impactful. Even when he’s ready to throw in the towel, his instinct to save others kicks in the moment something threatens Gotham. With his body now denying him the ability to do what he does best, how will Gordon respond? I’m very interested to see where Watters takes this story.

I loved the Federici’s art in this story. It felt like a Norman Rockwell painting morphed with a Guillermo del Toro film and came to life. Realistic and nostalgic, yet full of horror and creepiness. The demonic Batman is beautiful, the evil creatures are terrifying, and the depiction of Gordon’s body breaking apart gave me goosebumps. Anderson’s choices for colors were muted, yet effective. They let the designs shine through, yet popped of the page when they needed to.

KNIGHT TERRORS DETECTIVE COMICS #1 is one of the more natural horror stories to come out of the Knight Terrors event and it was refreshing to see the actual Batman character not show up here. I hope that stays the same in the second issue because this examination of who Gordon is and how far he’s willing to push himself before he breaks is very intriguing.

Rating: 8.5/10