DC’s Knight Terrors Ends With The Heroes Taking A Big Loss

DC’s “Knight Terrors” crossover has come to an end, and even though the threat was inevitably defeated, and order inevitably restored to the DC Universe, it was the deeper loss the heroes suffered that could have the most significant effect on the franchise. 

WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW! 

In Knight Terrors: Night’s End #1 the DC superheroes managed to wake themselves up from the slumber cast over them by new villain Insomnia – only to find that the nightmares were far from over. Insomnia got hold of the Nightmare Stone he’d been searching for – giving him the ability to bring nightmares into the real world. Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Robin (Damian Wayne), the resurrected Sandman, Robotman, Detective Chimp, and Zatanna mount a counterattack, and with help from Deadman, they are able to swipe the Nightmare Stone from Insomnia and trap the villain in a Hell of his own nightmares. 

However, after an ominous proclamation from Wonder Woman that they actually lost the fight, the epilogue to Knight Terrors reveals that indeed, Insomnia’s deeper plot has actually taken hold. The hero-themed nightmares Insomnia inspired and the ones he brought to life, have all convinced the general public that superheroes are not the iconic unicorns they used to be – they are actually the stuff of nightmares. The point is made in a panel of a little girl who adored superheroes ripping her drawings of the Justice League off of her walls and throwing them in the trash. The girl tells her father that she thinks superheroes are “too scary,” to which the father responds, “It’s okay. After what we went through, I think superheroes are scary, too.”

There’s been some question as to what the overall point of “Knight Terrors” is,  beyond the gimmick of getting to play out multiple dream sequences for various DC heroes and villains. There have been some significant psychological shifts for characters like Batman, The Joker, and others – but it seems as though the change to the overall worldly status quo of superheroes will be another byproduct of the story. 

It’s a somewhat interesting twist, casting Justice League in the same kind of ‘feared and hated’ light as, say, the X-Men. Obviously, the change in perception will be a bigger deal for characters like Superman or Wonder Woman (who were once viewed with reverence) than it will for Batman, who has always been feared by bystanders. 

DC’s Knight Terrors is now on sale.