When DC first announced Knight Terrors, their newest event, the concept of heroes and villains being dragged into their fears sounded interesting. The Free Comic Book Day teaser delivered beautiful artwork and enough to make what’s to come intriguing. Still, a horror event during the summer feels a little weird, a disconnect of Halloween imagery during the warm months. That disconnect aside, Knight Terrors: First Blood #1 is a pretty solid start to the event which has a lot of potential.

Written by Joshua Williamson, Knight Terrors: First Blood #1 dives right into the story as he villain John Dee, aka Dr. Destiny, is dragged into a nightmare and seemingly killed. This brings the trinity of Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman together when an alarm is set off in the Hall of Justice and Dee’s body is found. From there, a string of nightmares rise as the world is plunged into terror. The trio are helped by Deadman who looks like will play a key role in the event.

Whether you know Dee as a character or not doesn’t factor much to the story. He’s but a victim of a greater force that plunges the world into nightmares. Williamson builds it all up nicely for the final panel when the villain is revealed and delivers a story that feels like one being sucked into a bad dream. It builds, like dreams do, until things go sideways and you feel like you’re drowning in the visions haunting you as you sleep.

That’s helped by the art of Howard Porter, color by Brad Anderson, and lettering by Troy Peteri. The issue uses purples, reds, and oranges to build a nightmare of visuals with an unnerving feel to it all. None of it will leave you awake at night but instead there’s a quality about it all that emphasizes how off everything is. It’s all twisted like something from a Tool video.

Knight Terrors: First Blood #1 is a pretty solid start that delivers more than enough to get readers to want to see what’s next. with five other tie-ins also released this week, there’s more than enough to check out. This is an event that’s sure to have a twist based on that title, but we’ll have to wait and see what nightmares await.

Story: Joshua Williamson Art: Howard Porter
Color: Brad Anderson Letterer: Troy Peteri
Story: 8.15 Art: 8.5 Overall: 8.25 Recommendation: Buy

DC Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

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