Longtime Justice League foe Dr Destiny, aka John Dee, gets a taste of his own medicine as a pleasant dream turns into a living nightmare.
At the Hall of Justice, super-ghost Deadman is worried by decidedly bad vibrations around Superman and Wonder Woman.
Inside, Batman is alarmed by an alarm, one connected to the presence of an unexpected guest.
Then again…
Wanting to tell the heroes what he fears, Deadman drops by Batman, but the Dark Knight isn’t happy about being possessed.
For goodness sake, Caped Crusader, this is Deadman. You’ve teamed up many times. He’s a member of Justice League Dark. You know Boston Brand’s occupation is going to be temporary and for the greater good. But no, this is a DC event intended to be intense, so Batman is at his grumpiest. I doubt it’s Williamson getting the voice wrong, as he does with Deadman.
Authentic Deadman sounds like Ben Grimm, Cliff Steele, not the Phantom Stranger, all grim and melodramatic. The strangest dialogue in the issue, though, goes to Superman – you may have spotted it back there.
‘Usual theatrics’? I honestly thought Superman and Diana were going to be revealed to be possessed or replaced, but nope, it’s just random oddness.
Maybe I’m a grumpy wee Batman. I’m certainly not excited that my regular DC comics are all being put on hold for two months while Knight Terrors micro-series take their place. But a great first issue might get me buying the replacements for my regular comics.
This isn’t a terrible first issue. Artist Howard Porter is an asset to any book, his storytelling is first rate and he never goes for the obvious compositional choices unless they’re the best ones, as with Deadman emerging from his origin montage. Here he gets a bit gnarlier than usual with the heroes for dramatic effect and for the most part it is indeed effective; occasionally the faces are a tad too goofy.
Williamson usually delivers something enjoyable and I enjoyed several moments, such as the use of Harley Quinn, and Deadman’s nod to Vertigo’s Sandman series is fun.
But there’s nothing here to indicate we’re going to get anything more than yet another ride on the dream trap carousel. You know, as in JLA: A Midsummer’s Nightmare, every Dr Destiny story ever, all those Mongul tales… it’s only a few months back that we had the Worlds Without a Justice League non-event.
That story ended – so far as any DC event story has ended over the last decade or more – with the Justice League disbanding, supposedly to reassess what a League should do. What was on their mind was unclear, and it still is here, despite Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman hanging out in the Hall of Justice, which is again open to tourists after a recent bombing by supervillains – a very stupid idea, as Batman notes. The rule seems to be that the Justice League is no more, unless it’s needed for an event.
One thing I could really do without is this.
I wish Williamson would cut it out with the Eeeeeevil Amanda Waller business. I suppose we should be grateful the currently ubiquitous Peacemaker and (for cripes’ sake!) Peacewrecker aren’t with her, but is that a massive version of Prometheus?
The villain of the piece wants to send the whole world to sleep, so of course he’s called, er, Insomnia. What, me worry?
Of course Batman has emergency protocols! Just like he can expel the god-powered Deadman. But Insomnia has the best pun, with his threatened minions going by the name of… the Sleepless Knights!
Mind, how great does Batman look as illustrated by Porter and coloured by Brad Anderson? Like Porter, Anderson brings all his talent to bear on this assignment, with spooky tones from start to finish. Letterer Troy Peteri also keeps up the creepy vibe. And the cover by Porter and Hi-Fi is terrific. Excellent logo too.
There’s no denying the level of craft in this comic, the creative team comprises top professionals, passionate artists. I’m sure they could give us a cracking summer event if there was a less tired idea at the core. But another load of nightmares for heroes to wake up from, motivated by a Dr Destiny wannabe’s desire for who knows what? It’s not even Hallowe’en. The most interesting thing for me is the prospect of a return by long dead JSA-er Wesley Dodds, the original Sandman – you likely caught him on the cover. Still, I think I’ll be passing on a lot of same-day DC stories for the next two months and have a peek a month later via DC Infinite Ultra. How about you, is Knight Terrors a dream or a nightmare?
Too Dangerous For a Girl 2 
Holy cow, this was dull as dirt. Not only does Williamson get Deadman’s voice wrong — from his opening line, “Good day.” I mean, really! — but he get Harley’s voice wrong too: Batman asks her if she’s sure about something, and she says “As sure as I have multicolored hair.” What the hell? Harley is FUNNY. Stating the obvious is beneath her. But there’s nothing about this script that isn’t obvious, hackneyed, and tired.
Aside from “No Sleep Till Gotham” — the one decent joke in the book, and it goes to Batman, the one person who shouldn’t be making it. That name for some sort of “speepless” protocol* only works if Dick named it. Bruce would never give it a jokey name.
*And what the hell is it with Batman having psychological/physiological “protocols” anyway? Grant Morrison has a lot to answer for.
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Great points. I think they’ve worn me down on Harley Quinn, I didn’t even complain about her contacting Batman. What is wrong with me?
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Just to add, I usually don’t get mad at comic books. But this train wreck is taking my regular DC comics away from me for 2 whole months of the summer, and that feels like a damn crime.
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You’re not overreacting at all, it’s very annoying.
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Already planned to skip this and any tie ins. DC doesn’t have a PAD or De Mateis who could get stuck with a crossover and do a wonderful story still. Abd we disagree on Williamson: Bad writing can definitely be attributed to him just as much as it can editorial fiat.
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Skipping will save you money and make you fitter.
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Are you planning to look at the Thor annual?
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Should I? Is it any good? I’m intrigued by the Al Ewing backup but not the lead.
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The main story is so-so but the backup is very promising.
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I think that could be Sand vs Wesley Dodds Sandman on the cover but we’ll see. I too thought it was pretty “meh” (art aside). The Dawn of DC isn’t so much morning as it is “surveillance state” of DC with Waller popping up all over the line. I thought the Dawn would symbolize a new beginning with promise and so far, it feels very much the opposite.
Theory: the Trinity (stop calling them that in-universe please) are acting weird because they’ve already been suffering from night terrors. THis issue is just the first overt action from Insomnia (UGH). I’ll skip the event except for books I already read. Maybe I’ll check out issue 2. Hopefully it will turn out to be “horror” versus standard event villain of the week (2-months).
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I hate the ‘Trinity’ business too, it’s bad enough outside of the stories without it becoming a canonical term. To me they’ll always be the Big Three.
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Wonder Woman’s historic and ongoing struggle to be the third leg of the triad through popularity and sales keeps me from taking the character seriously as a member of the Trinity or the Big Three. TBH, I don’t think there’s been any one character that fits the bill consistently through the decades. GL would have counted for a bit but it’s turned out Johns fans were buying the series, not Hal fans.
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I’m pickin’ up bad vibrations bad vibrations (bop bop)/This is givin’ me high vexation
Knight Terrors. I love a bad pun but that stinks. Why is Batman such a huge ***hole? Who does he think he is? B*ll*cks J*hns*n?! I thank you wholeheartedly for tackling this horror, Martin, you martyr/you poor man/you masochist! Your a braver man than I, Gunga ‘tin. Yet another pointless terrible “event”. Dawn of DC? I’d hate to see Twilight. This stuff makes Millennium like a masterpiece. Knight Terrors: First Blood? Is Rambo in it? “He wuss all ovuh mee!”
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Great post! You know what I’d like for a DC event. Just a bunch of annuals with heroes on holiday. Adventures round the world. Use some of the swimsuit covers.
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That could be fun. (DC Comics: Fun? What is this thing of which you speak?) Superheroes stumble into some foolishness. Wonder Woman takes Batman on holiday in a kind of odd couple situation and tries to stop him from obsessing about crime. Booster Gold and Blue Beetle (Ted Kord) go on holiday with Fire and Ice, Blue Beetle tags along and who else? G’nort! Chaos ensues. Peacemaker and Amanda Waller go on vacation. And never come back.
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That’s my one caveat about my complaints: I love the impending return of Wesley Dodds. And from this first issue, I feel like I’d rather read one sentence on wikipeda that says “Wesley Dodds returned somehow,” and then get on with other stories.
But maybe I’ll be wrong!
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Fingers crossed, Rob!
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