Knight Terrors concludes in Night’s End, a bookend to the miniseries alongside its opener, First Blood. The DC Universe is starting to wake up from their forced nightmares, and now it’s time to see if they can come together to stop Insomnia, who wields the Nightmare Stone. When last we saw our heroes, they were against the ropes, and it would take a massive change for them to win the day. Can they overcome their nightmares come to life to save the day? More importantly, can they come out of this unscathed?
One of the best parts of this event is all the new additions to the DC Universe: the Nightmare Stone, Insomnia, and Doctor Hate. If you remember the Dawn of DC Primer, you’ll remember the helm of Doctor Hate, liberated by Peacemaker and delivered to Amanda Waller. Writer Joshua Williamson does a fantastic job creating another mystery you’ll want to follow across the DC Universe. Those with event fatigue, beware: this issue will have an epilogue that teases Waller’s plans and the upcoming Beast World event.
Before that epilogue, we get a solid conclusion to Knight Terrors and some great fallout. Williamson gives closure to Sandman and a surprise consequence to Batman since Deadman used his body. Deadman will be fascinating post-Knight Terrors, and I can’t wait to hear more about his future. Williamson did a great job giving Deadman a spotlight and building him as a hero; it’s been a while, but this was up there with Deadman’s adventure in Brightest Day, and Terrors has a better ending.
Sadly, the DCU didn’t play much into the conclusion, which is a double-edged sword for this event. If you liked one of the new nightmares created in the character books, hopefully they got a conclusion there, as they don’t make a stop here. The DC Trinity was a big part of this event’s launch, but they only showed up for the conclusion. Instead, it was more the “horror trinity” of Deadman, Sandman, and Robin who save the day, but there was a great assist by Zatanna and Robotman. Some might feel it cheapens the tie-in character books, but it could strengthen the event’s impact and villain’s reach by affecting the characters while they were far away.
Art duties on this issue are handled by the team of Howard Porter, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Stefano Nesi, and Trevor Hairsine. One constant among the artists is the colorist Rain Beredo. The styles blend nicely so as not to distract the reader and keep the story moving forward. For an oversized issue, it reads quickly but keeps your attention. The creepy elements get their moments, and I like how they impacted Deadman and Insomnia. The art team gives us expansive moments and personal moments; the end with revisiting the family reminds us of how people saw the heroes in this event, and shockingly, it doesn’t seem to have left their minds after the conclusion.
Knight Terrors concludes with sacrifices made, and one of those will haunt the DCU for a bit. How will images of heroes look after nightmares have distorted them? Night’s End gives us a twist on being careful about your dreams and reminds us that heroes can come from anywhere. Get ready for characters to move on and an introduction that will have you wondering who is under the Helmet of Hate.
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