DC Comics and Knight Terrors Spoilers: Insomnia’s Past Unravels As Nightmare Stone Exposed!
Spoilers For Knight Terrors #2, Knight Terrors: Detective Comics #1, Knight Terrors: Action Comics #1, Knight Terrors: Titans #1, Knight Terrors: Harley Quinn #1 and Knight Terrors: Angel Breaker #1!
Insomnia had a huge presence in:
- Knight Terrors week 1 (full spoilers here);
- Knight Terrors week 2 (full spoilers here); and
- Knight Terrors week 3 (full spoilers here).
Let’s see how Knight Terrors week 4 unfolds below.
Knight Terrors #2 Spoilers.
The big event issue from DC this week is Knight Terrors #2 (of 4).
Deadman, controlling Batman’s body while Bruce Wayne’s mind deals with his own nightmares enabled by new villain Insomnia, has used the Lazarus Rain, that Batman had bottled some of during the Lazarus Planet event, to bring back to life the classic Justice Society of America (JSA) hero the Sandman.
Zombie Sandman tells the story of his encounter with the Nightmare Stone from the Golden Age.
Deadman brought Sandman to life as he had seen him in Insomnia’s memories or dreams / nightmare last issue.
In this early Sandman adventure, a young and cocky Wesley Dodds, made a miscalculation over victim versus villain and saw such a character kill himself to bring the Nightmare Stone into the Earthly plane.
Apparently, one soul sacrifice wasn’t enough to allow the Nightmare Stone to stay and it winked back to whence it came.
A relative of that Golden Age cult is alive in modern times and too is trapped in his nightmares.
However, he does not know where the Nightmare Stone is, frustrating Insomnia.
In the waking world several heroes are still awake particularly DC’s robots such as Red Tornado and the Metal Men and they congregate at Terrifictech headquarters of Mister Terrific who is trapped in his nightmares too.
Deadman, Boston Brand, continues to control Batman’s body and continues to be able unexpectedly connect with Insomnia’s mind visiting his memories it would seem and not his nightmares.
That’s how we learn more of Insomnia, Mr. Lukas’, secret origin in Arkham Asylum including how he and Dr. Destiny, John Dee, came to know one another.
It would appear that the Justice League’s reemergence recently was a violent trigger for Insomnia.
To the point where the Arkham Asylum doctor and orderlies realize Insomnia is better off sleeping as he’s too dangerous awake.
Insomnia kicks Deadman out of his mind and we realize their connection is a two-way street as in the waking world Insomnia sends his Sleepless Knights to Terrifictech where they are able to subdue the robots starting with the Red Tornado.
Knight Terrors: Detective Comics #1 Spoilers.
Next is the Dectective Comics opening chapter of Knight Terrors.
We do see Insomnia in this issue.
A rather macabre issue in story, but most especially conveyed in its art.
However, the story is not from Batman’s POV (point of view).
We experience the nightmares of Batman of one-time GCPD (Gotham City Police Department) Commissioner Jim Gordan.
His nightmare includes meeting Batman.
However, it is not clear to readers if this is another example of a shared dream between them or Gordon’s own conjuring of a version of Batman in his nightmare.
It would appear James Gordon’s nightmare includes his own mortality as he is literally cracking and breaking apart.
It also includes a fear of harm coming to his loved ones as he continues to literally crack and break apart.
Knight Terrors: Action Comics #1 Spoilers.
Action Comics’ opening event salvo focuses on Power Girl.
We appear to get a glimpse of where Power Girl is in the waking world presumably trapped by the Cyborg Superman.
In her nightmares, she is also cofounded by digitization and her friend turned foe Omen.
The back-up features more of the Superman Family.
It seems the Conner Kent’s nightmare including becoming a Cyborg Superman himself.
This appears to be a shared nightmare of the Superman Family.
Earth and Metropolis have coming the stuff of nightmares.
The family’s foe is one of their own in Superboy.
A Cyborg Superboy who has made the family pet and ally Krypto into a Cyborg Superdog who will help him make all of the Superman Family into macabre cyborgs.
Knight Terrors: Titans #1 Spoilers.
The Titans edition of Knight Terrors opens with a stranger, guided by a mysterious voice, in a haunted house of sorts.
She is guided by that voice first to Cyborg.
He is trapped in his nightmare of becoming more machine than man.
She frees him by allowing him to see himself literally.
It is implied that this woman may be Raven, but its not confirmed.
They together free Donna Troy.
Then Starfire.
Then Beast Boy.
No Nightwing or Flash, as these Titans try to escape this haunted house.
Looks like the voice guided the women did belong to Raven and she may or may not be Raven.
This collective nightmare appears to belong to the inanimate Titans Tower?!
Knight Terrors: Harley Quinn #1 Spoilers.
The Harley Quinn Knight Terrors offering begins with her back as a doctor in Arkham Asylum.
Her nightmare appears to be focused on the Multiversity Guidebook from almost a decade ago in 2014.
The rest of the issue sees Harley Quinn seemingly visit other earths in the “Local Multiverse”.
She leafs through the tome to see where she’d like to visit.
She discounts many parallel Earths until she gets to Earth 31.
Here’s Earth 31 from the Multiversity Guidebook of olde.
Next up, she visits Earth 43.
Here’s the Earth 43 bio from the Multiversity Guidebook as well.
However, that adventure too ends in chaos for our anti-heroine.
It turns our being a member of the Justice League is Harley Quinn’s nightmare?!
There’s also a back-up story where Harley Quinn struggles with herself quite literally.
Knight Terrors: Angel Breaker #1 Spoilers.
Finally, new character Angel Breaker also gets the Knight Terrors spotlight.
It’s own that has her encounter the Raptor in the waking world.
She has a mission for him.
It involves a captive Doctor Destiny and his Dreamstone which would grant its possessor any skills he/she desired.
She reluctantly enlists Raptor’s help who seemingly won’t kill her and she knows as much due to her mystic sword.
In the mindset of their mission the Knight Terrors begin.
They are all thrown into nightmares.
However, the nightmare seems to be a continuation of their mission?!
It is difficult to tell what is the waking world and what is the nightmare realm, but things get bizarre in the end to help differentiate that.
It is a nightmare where Angel Breaker fears that the evil she has trained all of her life to face was actually created by her?!
Week 5 of Knight Terrors, which kicks off month 2 of 2 for the event, is out next week.
DC Comics August 2023 Solicitations spoilers for Knight Terrors are here.
