Did DC’s Knight Terrors Just Make A Major Change to Batman and Joker’s Rivalry?

DC’s latest comic book crossover event “Knight Terrors” has seen a new villain named Insomnia place the entire Earth (and most of its superheroes and villains) into a coma-style sleep. Insomnia has been tearing through both the dream world and real world looking for a MacGuffin called “The Nightmare Stone,” a counterpart to the infamous “Dreamstone” used by Doctor Destiny. 

In Knight Terrors: Joker #2 we return to Joker’s nightmare reality where Batman has died (randomly) and left Joker living on as “Johann,” a middle-management executive of Wayne Enterprises, who lives with his Joker-fied wife Lena and son Albert. 

However, as we saw in the first issue, Joker’s normal life is indeed the worst nightmare he can imagine, as a world without a Batman is also a world with no need for a Joker. The stress of missing his rival makes “Johann’s” psyche fracture: he starts having blackouts where he moonlights as his own murderous version of Batman, who brutally dispatches criminals while reciting demented “jokes.” 

Joker’s nightmare gets shattered when a manifestation of Bruce Wayne brings him to dinner and confronts him with his psychological dilemma: if Batman is ever truly dead, The Joker is screwed. The “Johann” person finally breaks and the Joker-Batman takes over – only to find himself overrun by an army of citizens in Joker masks and/or makeup. 

Joker’s last words in the nightmare are “Wait! You can’t kill Batman! You need him! We need him!” With that latter part (“We need him…”) carrying over into the real world. 

Will Knight Terrors Change Batman & Joker’s Relationship? 

The question with this Knight Terrors crossover is just how effectively this particular comic book story trope (characters trapped in mind/dream worlds) is used to tweak various DC status quos. 

Obviously what takes place in the “Knightmare” worlds of each character isn’t all that important, since most of it will be ‘just a dream.’ What could be important, however, is how those dreams affect each dreamer, and make them look at the world/life/their own ways, thereafter. Writer Joshua Williamson has poised DC for a ‘psychological reboot’ of sorts, which could be interesting to see playout. 

In the case of Batman and The Joker: It will be interesting to see how Joker behaves now that he’s fixated on the idea of “needing” Batman in order to validate his own existence. Joker trying to be an ally or even “friend” to Batman could be even more twisted and depraved than the usual cop-and-crook routine they’ve done for years. Joker could do some pretty horrific things to the people of Gotham, just to give Batman “meaning” and “purpose” in his mission. Imagine how what a new mind-screw that would be for The Dark Knight – whose mind seems to be getting more treacherous by the minute (see: Batman comics). 

DC’s Knight Terrors is currently unfolding in various DC comic books.