Whew! Another great issue. While the J'onn origin ran a touch long, it definitely filled in a lot of the backstory needed to explain how all these Martians ended up here. I love the politics of the world, the queens uniting to fight this foe. But the smaller emotional moments, building up these characters, are what really hit here. The guilty Constantine. The mourning Diana. The loving Zala. The sheepish Harley. It all just clicks. Wrap it up in the delightful art by Putri and you have a winner. Read Full Review

But while this is a wildly ambitious story, it's impressive just how invested I am in the individual stories. Read Full Review

With two more episodes left, the action is likely to intensify making for what should be a strong finale for one of DC's best Elseworlds tales this side of DCeased. Read Full Review

Dark Knights of Steel #10 gives readers a chance to see the harsh consequences of war after the battle in issue #9, without loosing the excitement of seeing Superman in a high fantasy setting. It continues the series history of being a well written, well drawn, well coloured, and well lettered series, and just a ton of fun. Read Full Review

The series gives us that point in the run where it sets us up for the next two installments of action to wrap up this first season. We know the basics now of what's going on, the sides involved, and just how much has been accomplished to take down the ostensible good guys by sowing so much distrust and anger toward each other. Taylor gives us a lot of familiar material here even within this setting but it hits the right notes and for people not so familiar with it all makes it engaging. It's something that a lot of long-time readers have obviously seen in multiple versions and media over the years, but it is effective and sticks to the core concepts. Putri's artwork is strong as always and makes it thoroughly engaging and I just love the scene of all the leaders together and just taking everything seriously to figure out what's going on. Good stuff that sets up the end run. Read Full Review

Art is gorgeous as usual and we're approaching what should be a good finale. Read Full Review

Dark Knights of Steel #10 is a great issue filled with emotional moments. We only have two more chapters to go, yet there's so much left to be answered. If you've been following this series, then yes absolutely pick up issue #10, and not just because all the covers are gorgeous. We're so close to the finish line now, I'm excited for the full series to be released in one book. Overall, this was a captivating issue created by a dream team. Read Full Review

My final thoughts on this chapter are simple. The story is shifting from a political who-dun-it mystery into an action epic. That means that most of the heavy lifting of the story is over, and expecting action to be the only thing that awaits. Admittedly, the mystery has not been as clean as it could've. There are loose ends in the form of The Green Man, Ra's Al Ghul, The Titans, Waller, and more, but will be less pressure going forward. Judging the mystery as is, I'd say it was decent and creative, but not quite impressive. Originally, I bought into the Dungeons and Dragons-like setting and the Game of Thrones level politics, but I know it's time to say “let them fight” and finish it. Read Full Review

FINAL THOUGHTSAfter the game changing events of the previous chapter Dark Knights Of Steel #10 is a much needed issue for this series. We finally get fully clued into the big bad of this series. In the process the heroes of every Kingdom are given a strong reason to fight as a united front. With this set-up out of the way the final two issues are well positioned to deliver epic fights to wrap up this series in an exciting way. Read Full Review

Nevertheless, the series didnt begin that way and wasnt pitched that way out of the gate. If you read a Wonder Woman title, you know what youre going to get. And might I add that the current Wonder Woman ongoing is outstanding! You should check it out. However, Dark Knights of Steel was shipped as an Elseworld Series, set in Medieval times, with an eclectic cast of some of our favorites regardless of gender. It just currently feels odd to have most of the strong characters now all women that remain. Again, women can and should be strong characters. However, reading Dark Knights of Steel #10 felt like the culmination of Taylor forcing it into the narrative instead of it happening organically. Read Full Review

Some back history and a reveal…there could’ve been more here.

This really fell off right near the end. All of the momentum ended last issue then they try to ramp it up in the last few panels, remove an incredibly underutilized but insignificant character to create even more weird tension that's going to have to be wrapped up in two issues. Seems like the ending was tacked on or was diverted away from another Batman vs Superman battle.

I'm still liking this book, though more than some other people. It has lost its edge, that's for sure. There were some touching moments with Diana, J'onn. and the story of the white Martians. I think this is where I have the biggest problem. I know they have Kryptonians in it, but it still felt semi-grounded in the Fantasy setting. Now that we've added "Green Men" it feels less like Fantasy than it did at the start.

A thin, generic plot with piss poor pacing. Characters at their most factory-setting versions (oh, a Wonder Woman written by Tom Taylor that's angry and emotional, what a surprise).

Wants to trick you into thinking this world is more interesting than it is so you spend 9 issues setting up a conflict only to introduce a big dumb monster to fight in the third act.

Zero originality, it copies from stories like Grant Morrison's JLA and the DCAU JL intro episodes (but with weaker writing).

It's as dull as watching paint dry.

And it commits the cardinal sin of any Elseworlds: it's scared of being an Elseworld story. Instead of really trying to make a story in a different genre, it chooses to give you the most generic repackaged JL story (they fight aliens! How novel!) with some reskinned characters. more

This book feels like it’s become an afterthought and Taylor, and a lot of readers I’m sure, just want it to end.

Between this and the DCeased conclusion (the OG was fine), Taylor's Elseworlds have gotten pretty terrible.

What an absolutetly spineless, terrible series. This is probably one of the most generic Elseworld stories in quite some time, Taylor is ripping himself *and* other JL stories (like the animated JL opening) only in medieval cosplay.

Which would be so bad if the characters weren't at their most generic, if the villains were more interesting than the msot regurgitated JL baddies, if we hadn't spend 9 issues setting up a conflict just to toss it aside for the most clichéd "we must put aside our differences to fight a common threat" third act plot, if dialogue weren't terrible...

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• TheKing

hesfkshgf - Apr 1, 2023

Taylor’s Dark Age at Marvel was just as bad!

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