Knight Terrors: Dark Knightmares
by
Story: Joshua Williamson, Tini Howard, Dan Watters, Becky Cloonan, Michael Conrad, Kenny Porter
Art: Guillem March, Leila Leiz, Riccardo Federici, Daniele Di Nicuolo, Miguel Mendonca
(My rating: 3 of 5 Ω‘s)
The second tie-in collection to the DC Comics Knight Terrors event. This volume collects:
Knight Terrors: Batman #1-2
Focussed on the caped crusader himself as he struggles with the nightmares he is being dragged through and being trapped in his own body as Deadman tries to get him away from real-world threats in the waking world. Treads many familiar paths in the Batman mental-challenge history so nothing terribly new, but as a 2 issue mini horror jump into the Dark Knights psyche, it does a pretty solid job and the art was very enjoyable.
Knight Terrors: Catwoman #1-2
Felt painful. I have not enjoyed (and thus not followed) the Catwoman series’ for some time now and this one was heavily dependant on knowing ongoing lore (or old lore I never knew) with dramatic changes to Selenas’ situation – the origin of her giant facial scar being amongst the info I was lacking. The slightly funky art was nowhere near enough to salvage this story which never really managed to feel either like surreal dream journeys or horror or anything that would fit the bill.
It was frankly boring. Pretty, but boring.
Knight Terrors: Detective Comics #1-2
Definitely one of the strongest entries in this volume by far! This one follows Jim Gordon as he tries desperately to save Gotham and has no idea what is going on at all. He is all alone and reality itself is in danger here as a new demonically masked trio summons warped entities to grant wishes and Jim and Gotham are caught in the wake of those wishes – because nothing is ever simple about asking mystic entities to grant your dreams.
From Jims body being cursed and slowly falling apart to his frantic search for answers to stop the trio while he still lives to the dreary atmosphere, the art and writing are solidly on point.
Knight Terrors: Nightwing #1-2
A good, solid storyline that sees Nightwing trapped in Arkham after he has apparently murdered Batman himself.
One of the most dream-like and warping tie-ins to the event, this mini sees Grayson in an unlikely team-up with The Scarecrow of all people. There are also cameos by the Gotham girl-Bat trio or Oracle, Spoiler and Cassandra. Some may not like the vibe but I enjoyed it quite a bit.
The artwork is truly fun and works so well with the nightmare narrative. Both bright and dark in well executed measure with parts of the finale that I genuinely did not expect, another strong tie-in.
Knight Terrors: Robin #1-2
A surprising entry that had some weak moments but was overall a good one as we Robin (Tim Drake) and Red Hood (Jason Todd) in the aftermath of the nightmare wave. Both are caught in it and by some stroke of chance, are able to partially communicate with each other. Tim faces his inability to save people, starting with his father who was killed by Captain Boomerang; while Jason is faced with his failures as he keeps fighting an unwinnable fight all alone and his choice to take on a name/mantle once used by the very man who brutally murdered him.
It is a well crafted idea for them individually and as a pair of Bat-Sons and I think this was one that I would have liked to see more of because it perhaps suffered a bit from being too short and had to be rushed a wee bit. Artistically/visually this is the one most able to be an outright dream but it is not all that twisted-imagery heavy except for a few moments and it keeps a nice atmosphere throughout.
Overall, this volume is pretty decent.
One Happy Monk 
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