Knight Terrors: Superman #1 – Joshua Williamson, Writer; Tom Reilly, Artist; Nathan Fairbairn, Colorist
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: This is the second Knight Terrors tie-in written by Williamson besides the main series, and it’s also far and away the best of these miniseries. That’s not a surprise—Williamson is writing the main Superman book at the moment, and it’s one of DC’s best books. With a new artist more suited to the horror themes, this issue very much feels like a continuation, focusing on Superman’s own anxieties about his role working with Lexcorp. As the issue picks up, Clark—in a 1950s-inspired newsroom—gets the great news from Lex that he’s officially saved the world and there’s nothing left to do. This means that the Planet is shutting down—but it also means that the world is coming to an end, with a massive tidal wave coming. Naturally, this is all Insomnia’s play to torment Earth’s most powerful hero with a situation where he can’t save the day, but this issue manages to find some dark new depths to plunge.
Some of the nightmares—Clark not being able to save everyone, Clark never being able to be truly human—are well-trod ground, but others tackle some issues that are harder to resolve. Ultimately, Clark is as close to an immortal as it gets in the DCU, as long as he stays under a yellow sun—and that means he won’t just outlive everyone he knows, it means he might outlive Earth itself and possibly all life in the universe, leaving him alone. The depiction of this future and Insomnia’s rapidly shifting forms are very creepy, but it turns out Clark’s not alone in this dreamscape—or so it seems. Kara is able to break her way through her own nightmare—which has a great twist to it—and find Clark, but they’re both still stranded. Saving them might fall to an unlikely group of heroes who seems to be immune, and it might also give us a clue to the very busy Williamson’s next big project.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
