Knight Terrors: Nightwing #2 – Becky Cloonan/Michael W. Conrad, Writers; Daniele Di Nicuolo, Artist; Adriano Lucas, Colorist
Ray – 8.5/10
Ray: Every Knight Terrors mini takes the concept a little differently, and few take the “nightmare” concept as literally as this one does. Dick Grayson found himself locked up in Arkham, which is filled with his fellow heroes and villains—with the inmates seemingly literally running the asylum. Complicating things even further, he’s there because he’s accused of murdering Batman, and his roommate is none other than the king of fear Scarecrow—who seems just as confused as anyone else by the strange dreamscape they find themselves in. As the nightmare unfolds, the two start to form an uneasy alliance to get more answers—but the end of last issue threw a new wrinkle into the fold, with Barbara Gordon being brought in as a half-human, half-cyborg mutant. So this seems to be some sort of collective nightmare, different from the others—or is everyone else here just to serve Dick’s nightmare?
That sense of ambiguity serves this issue well, which takes on the tone of a spook-house mystery in the second half. The blood-stained catacombs that make up the back half of the asylum are genuinely creepy. I also like how even if they don’t get too much page time, this issue sort of serves as a backdoor epilogue to the writing team’s recent Batgirls series—giving us just enough info on what Cass and Steph’s nightmares would be and giving Barbara her own storyarc as she battles to maintain her humanity. As the issue enters its last act, we see Dick confront a cavalcade of his nightmares, going back to the very first trauma he ever experienced, as Insomnia battles to keep him from escaping. Most of these stories follow a similar pattern, but what makes the best stand out is that they put us in the shoes of the heroes as they experience their nightmares and make us feel their fear—and this issue hits that a few times.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
