Knight Terrors #2: A Good Ol’ Fashion Nightmare

Knight Terrors #2 marks the halfway point for the two-month DCU event as Deadman, still in possession of Batman’s body, enlists the dead Golden Age Sandman, Wesley Dodds, for help in solving the mystery of Insomnia, the Nightmare Stone, and pulling the DCU out of their nightmares.

After a quick exchange between the reanimated Wesley Dodd and Deadman/Batman, writer Joshua Williamson wastes little time filling in Dodd’s past with the Nightmare Stone and how the case going unsolved bothered him and asks Deadman for the opportunity to finally bring closure to the case.

The issue also focuses on Insomina’s quest to find the Stone, visiting the descendant of one cultist who helped bring it into existence, providing a series of disturbing panels nicely executed by the art team. Williamson gives more backstory on Insomina’s origin as Deadman through his connection from the previous issues experiences the time when the Arkham staff tried to get Insomnia to socialize with John Dee (Doctor Destiny), around the time that the Justice League returned after believed to be dead and leading him to question why they get to come back from being dead and not others.

As a second issue in the over all event, the story is what is expected: a lot of background story setting up the conflict with just enough material to move Deadman and Sandman forward in their investigation. It is still somewhat unclear how Insomina’s motivations of making the heroes pay for being able to “return from the dead” and finding the Nightmare Stone are connected or mutually exclusive.

It is also confusing as to how he knows that the Nightmare Stone has been hidden in the dreams of one of the heroes or villains. It also remains to be answered storywise why the characters featured in the tie-in limited series. If the Nightmare Stone goes back to the Golden Age, why would newer characters, such as Punchline, unknowingly possess it in their dreams?

There seem to be some missed opportunities that could have fleshed out the story and some possible continuity questions raised by this issue. As for missed opportunities, again Williamson gives page time to Red Tornado and the Metal Men, the non-human characters of the DCU who are keeping the Earth from plunging into complete chaos, which would seem to be amenable to its own limited series that would easily tie-in to the main series.

One tiny continuity nitpick would be that the solicit says that this is the first appearance of the Sleepless Knights, who are aiding Insomnia when they appeared in Knight Terrors: Zatanna #1 in the lower levels of Hall of Justice’s Justice League Dark archives. Williamson continues to expertly use Deadman as the story’s narrator and supplier of lighter moments, offsetting the building feeling of impending terror.

The art team does a beautiful job of breaking up the story with both the art and color that easily distinguishes not only what is taking place in the current timeline and flashbacks but also the nightmare sequence as Insomnia questions the only living decent of the cult that made the Nightmare Stone a reality.