This one-shot written by Sean Murphy, illustrated by legendary artist Kraus Janson, and colored by Matt Hollingsworth, is an interesting add-on to the Batman: White Knight mythos. As a recap of White Knight, it involved a giant freeze cannon built by Freeze, whose father was brought over to the U.S. under the sponsorship of Thomas Wayne during World War II. This story fleshes out what happened during World War II with the Fries family and we get a tale showcasing the breaking of friendships, the horrors of Nazi human experimentation, and the creation of new friendship bonds.

Hollingsworth’s work here is commendable. He is adjusting his work to dovetail nicely onto Janson’s art style. Compare his coloring work on other issues of White Knight or Curse of the White Knight to see how different his work is within this issue. The story is told primarily as a memory of World War II events, and as such the color palette is filled with browns (for the memories) and cold blues (for winter/Mr. Freeze) to serve the story that is being told. This is a vast difference from the blazing yellows and reds we currently see with Curse of the White Knight.

Per Murphy’s afterward, this was intended for the first White Knight volume at the time but he ran out of space. Thus, this issue should be treated as expository material that falls between upcoming issues number six and seven of Curse of the White Knight. This is a strong story on its own and worth reading even if it wasn’t connected to either White Knight titles. Without the context of how it ties into Curse of the White Knight, I will be interested to see how it plays out in hindsight.