ICYMI – Knight Terrors – Shazam #2: The Nightmare Unravels

Knight Terrors -Shazam #2 continues Mark Waid’s story starring Mary as she is trapped in the nightmare realm of Insomnia’s making, beginning right where the last issue left off, with her being captured by Captain Billy. As Captain Billy is aiming to finish off Mary, she remembers that Captain Billy mentioned that this was her dream and Insomnia overplayed his hand, along with her to take control of her dream and turns the tables on him.

Having come to this realization and taking control, Mary enters her family’s dreams and helps them overcome their nightmares that they are trapped in themselves. As Mary travels between her family’s nightmares, she again empowers them with their connections to their Shazamily powers to help them overcome their fears from the silly (Freddie’s dream of a classic Shazam both in looks and speech) to mundane and just plain nightmares.  Waid does a great job of showing why Mary is worthy of receiving her own set of Shazam powers and how she is always looking out for her family, and they will always be there to have her back when she needs them, powers or not.

While the focus is on Mary, it could be said that the tie-in also shows Billy’s nightmare of him not being the nice-guy big cheese superhero he usually is and just told from Mary’s perspective, thus giving Waid a chance to develop her character given the recent changes she went through following the Lazarus Planet event.

Once again, Roger Cruz and Arif Prianto provide an art feast for the eyes with their kinetic fight sequences and vibrant yet nightmare-appropriate color pallet, bringing the issue to stand out amongst the other installments of the series.