Knight Terrors: Night’s End #1 is written by Joshua Williamson and published by DC Comics. Artwork is by Howard Porter, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Stefano Nesi and Trevor Hairsine with colours by Rain Beredo and letters by Troy Peteri. Main cover art (left) is by Porter and Romulo Fajardo Jr.
Knight Terrors: Night’s End #1 is available now in print and on digital where all good comic books are sold.
Synopsis
KNIGHT TERRORS FINALE! SPECIAL OVERSIZE ISSUE! Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, along with the DCU’s other heroes, have escaped the Nightmare Realm only to find the Nightmare League has followed them home! The entire world has become engulfed in horror, and the last person standing to take down Insomnia is Deadman. But does he want to? And don’t miss the exciting ending that continues the Dawn of DC mystery and introduces Dr. Hate! Wait…who is Dr. Hate?
Review
Has it been two months already? It feels like Joshua Williamson’s Knight Terrors has reached its conclusion a lot sooner than I was expecting. Like it or not today marks the release of the final issue as the DC Universe wakes up to the truth of Insomnia’s attacks. But will our heroes ever be the same again?
I’m impressed that Williamson and the various writers involved in Knight Terrors were able to play this story out over just eight short weeks. In the past we’ve been used to events rolling out over 6 months, sometimes even 12. But this truncated approach has worked will in both disrupting the status quo and in tying in to DC’s wider plans.
Night’s End has some heavy lifting to do. For those who haven’t read every book in the event, Night’s End is required to pull together any lingering threads to ensure its conclusion is satisfying and worthy of an event-level threat. For the most part it works. Insomnia’s plans, other than vilifying the Justice League, have been a little murky. But in his final moments Williamson makes it clear that perhaps it’s his motivations and not his intentions which are the most important. Circling back to the loss of his family and using that to mirror the life of another key Knight Terrors figure, Deadman, works well and keeps things on track.
What I hadn’t anticipated was that Knight Terrors isn’t truly over. Williamson had me fooled that the event would neatly wrap itself up in a bow before returning Wonder Woman, Superman and Batman to their status quo, allowing for our usual monthly titles to return. Rather than simply wrapping up, Knight Terrors instead reaches out and embeds itself in the wider DCU by picking up on the breadcrumbs of Dawn of DC and Tom Taylor’s upcoming Beastworld event which will focus on the Titans.
It’s a bold move. In one respect it could be interpreted as a corporate cash cow, using this event to signpost future storytelling. But that’s not how I see it. What Williamson has managed to achieve here is pushing forwards a huge narrative which has wider ramifications for all of our heroes. Amanda Waller and her plans have been quietly bubbling away for some time now and the final panels of Night’s End nudge that along nicely, proving there’s more going on than us mere readers are aware of. It’s tantalising stuff.
Verdict
Knight Terrors comes full circle with a satisfying final issue. It succeeds in doing the heavy lifting required to tie up loose ends as well as tying in to both the wider Dawn of DC arc and the upcoming Beastworld event for later in the year.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
