Knight Terrors: Batman #1 – Joshua Williamson, Writer; Guillem March, David Lafuente, Artists; Tomeu Morey, Rex Lokus, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: Each of these tie-ins will take us inside the personal nightmares of the DC heroes and villains, but few of them are as closely linked as this one. It makes sense—after all, Batman is the headliner, so it’s not a surprise that showrunner Josh Williamson is tackling his tie-in personally. He writes both stories in this oversized issue, with the main story finding Bruce Wayne being personally tormented by main villain Insomnia. Bruce has always been chasing his own nightmares—a prelude shows him subjecting himself to reliving his parents’ murder over and over to desensitize himself. But none of that prepares him for finding himself in the body of his child self, reliving all his worst moments.
The thing is, though… Bruce is very hard to scare. All the things Insomnia presents him with in this issue, he’s undoubtedly seen before—and probably put himself through. So he keeps himself composed in a way few heroes will likely be able to, but that doesn’t make the sights here any less disturbing. Particularly, a horrible creature that Bruce is forced to vomit up provides some genuine scares. Insomnia himself is an intriguing figure, talking like he had human origins in Gotham while also seeming to be a cosmic being of some sort. This is very much the second issue of the main Knight Terrors story, less stand-alone than the other tie-ins, and it’s a fitting journey into the darkest parts of Batman’s psyche.
The backup features Damian Wayne, in a flashback as Robin investigates psychic warfare by tracing the footsteps of his deceased (?) grandfather Ra’s al Ghul and finding himself as an ancient temple. He undergoes some trials, aces them, and finds himself in possession of books containing dark secrets. Williamson is a great writer for Damian, always has been, but the art style makes Damian look a lot younger than he did in the original Robin series. This is going to be a great bridge between this and the upcoming Batman and Robin series.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
