Noteworthy Issues: Knight Terrors #1 (July, 2023)

Man, I skipped this issue.  I try not to read the next part of something until I review it, and I missed this one when I was looking for covers.

Eh, I skipped an issue of Amazing Spider-Man too.  I’m surprised I don’t do this more often.

Issue:  Knight Terrors #1, July 2023

Writer:  Joshua Williamson

Artists:  Guiseppe Camunocoli, Caspar Wijngaard, and Stefano Nesi

The Plot:  Deadman learns more about his foe.

Commentary:  Friendly reminder at the start of all this:  the villain of this event is called “Insomnia,” but his first move was to put most of the planet to sleep.  That is a thing that happened.

OK, to get back to what’s really happening:  while most of the heroes of the world sleep, Deadman took over Batman’s body and is using it to fight Insomnia in the waking world.  Boston Brand notes there are a handful of folks still awake.  Most of them are robots and the like.  Zatanna is awake in her own special.  And another special showed there is a longtime DC hero and his extended supporting cast that are also awake, but that’s for later.  In the meantime, this issue here serves more as an exposition dump:  who is Insomnia?  Is he, as he claims, the God of Nightmares?

Um, no.  The Batman special hinted he was a Gotham City resident, and that’s basically true.  Since Deadman can hop bodies, he jumps into Insomnia to learn where the guy came from.  There’s backstory there on Dr. Destiny, the Nightmare Stone, and one Golden Age hero that should be dead and indeed is but…well, maybe Boston has some superpower to raise zombies I’ve just never seen him use before.  The point is, Insomnia, real name still unknown, is not a god of any kind.  He wants an object of power that Dr. Destiny was too afraid to use, and Insomnia is not the sort of guy to show hesitation.

What does all this mean for this overarching story?  So far, not much.  Most of the issue was either Deadman escaping in Batman’s body or getting some, but not all, of the information on who Insomnia is and maybe how to beat him.  It doesn’t make for much of an issue, but that info dump had to go somewhere.  Ultimately, I didn’t mind this one.

Grade:  B-