Knight Terrors #3 – Joshua Williamson, Writer; Giuseppe Camuncoli, Stefano Nesi, Caspar Wijngaard, Artists; Frank Martin, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: So far, the main Knight Terrors event has centered around a pair of characters who rarely get the spotlight—Deadman, the undead detective currently possessing the body of Batman, and Wesley Dodds, the undead Sandman of the Golden Age. These oddball partners are on the trail of the Nightmare Stone, same as Insomnia, but they get an unexpected new ally this issue—Damian Wayne, keeping himself awake through sheer determination and not in the mood to team up with the man holding his father’s body hostage. Of course, Williamson has written Damian extensively before and will be writing him again soon in Batman and Robin, so it’s no surprise that there is a lot of nuance under the prickliness. Although he responds negatively to Deadman at first, he soon winds up opening up and saying a few of the things he might not be able to say to Batman himself, which is really interesting.
But that’s not the focus of this issue. The focus here is a pitched race against time as Insomnia’s most powerful minions chase the few remaining awake people down and desperately try to keep them from reaching their goal. While many of the nightmares we see in this event are standard spookhouse stuff, there are a few moments when things get a lot darker. That’s what we find in the House of Horrors, a new eldritch DC location that contains Deadman’s darkest memories—the last moments of his life, containing terrors he never quite revealed to anyone that illuminate a lot of how he operates. Wesley Dodds, still trapped between the living and the dead, also gets some great spotlight moments—which makes sense, since it’s been decades since he got any meaningful focus in the comics. Overall, this main event continues to be so strong because it’s sticking to its roots grounded in surrealist horror.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
