Knight Terrors #2 // Review
Wesley Dodds has crawled out of the grave. It’s a rainy night. (This guy’s been through plenty of them.) He’s dealing with the stresses of coming back from the dead. He’s bound to be more than a little bit disoriented, but even HE knows that it’s not Batman who is there waiting for him when he comes back in Knight Terrors #2. Writer Joshua Williamson continues the central conflict of this summer’s big DC comics mega-crossover with the art team of Giuseppe Camuncoli, Stefano Nesi, and Caspar Wijngaard. Color comes to the page courtesy of Frank Martin and Caspar Wijngaard.
It’s Boston Brand. He’s the one who called Dodds back from the dead. Deadman has taken the form of Batman. The Bruce Wayne inside Batman is having a hell of a time in his own nightmare along with the rest of the world that isn’t android, AI, dead, or otherwise protected from the realm of nightmare. Brand is connected with the villain Insomnia through a psychic link. He knows what the man fears, but he doesn’t necessarily know why he wants the Nightmare Stone. That’s why Brand contacted Dodds...he’s the one guy who knows more about it than anyone else.
Williamson carefully crafts a series of scenes that seem to reach right into the heart of what the crossover is searching for. Theoretically, he could be making a move to understand the realm of nightmares in a world of dramatic physics and much more dramatic people wearing masks. The team-up between Deadman and the original Sandman is a really fun combination. The two are perfect together. Boston is an entertaining character in and of himself. Juxtapose him against a dead man of mystery, and it’s really kind of interesting. There is a powerful kind of darkness in and around the mystery that makes the two of them seem that much more powerful.
The art team has its hands full, trying to maintain the darkness and shadow of the atmosphere. The torrential downpour at the gravesite is delivered to the page in a way that feels very immersive, thanks in large part to the color work of Martin and Wijngaard. Their work also serves the shadows of the interior shots quite well. The presence of Red Tornado might have lifted this issue out of the darkness. However, the artists find ways of making even his presence seem dark and mysterious.
There are dark and sinister shadows around the entire issue. It’s not very easy to bring authentic horror to the page in a way that sneaks in around the perceptions of a reader. Populating a world full of people having nightmares with dead people and the resurrected heroes of ages past is a very powerful step in the right direction. The reality being presented in the story feels like its own kind of nightmare. All of the heroes are gone, and all that’s left is a few shadows of people who aren’t alive anymore.
