Warning: Contains spoilers for Knight Terrors: Night’s End #1
When looking at the most powerful villains in the DC universe, there are few Justice League threats that can compare to the all-powerful Darkseid. Yet one new supervillain just surprisingly beat the Justice League, robbing the world of the superhero team’s credibility in a way that would make even the God of Evil proud.
Knight Terrors: Night’s End #1 – by Joshua Williamson, Howard Porter, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Stefano Nesi and Trevor Hairsine – concludes the Justice League’s battle against Insomnia, a new villain with a grudge against the team, after he plunged the entire DC Universe into a deep sleep of nightmares. Though the League, alongside Deadman and Sandman, defeat Insomnia, the villain still succeeded in making the world fear the heroes he hates.
Knight Terrors Saw The Justice League Suffer A Rare Defeat
DC’s Knight Terrors event centered on the new villain Insomnia, also known as Christopher Lukas. Before becoming Insomnia, Lukas was an Arkham Tower inmate who was driven insane after his family was killed in a Justice League battle during the Dark Nights: Metal event. Later, Lukas was given the power to enter and control the nightmares of others after being affected by the Lazarus Resin that rained across the world in the Lazarus Planet crossover. In Knight Terrors, Lukas sent a nightmarish sleep across the world, as he searched for the Nightmare Stone, hoping to make the Justice League live through the same horrors that he witnessed in the waking world.
The World Questions Whether It Can Still Trust The Justice League
With the Nightmare Stone, Lukas eventually releases the nightmare horrors into the real world, discrediting the Justice League before being defeated. At the end of Knight Terrors: Night’s End #1, a little girl is shown taking her drawings off the Justice League down from her wall, declaring the heroes “too scary” for her. It’s a sentiment her now-injured father shares. This scene highlights that, though the Justice League defeated Insomnia, the nightmare-based villain still succeeded in turning the world against its heroes. Regardless of what happened to Lukas himself, the villain succeeded in convincing the world that the Justice League is just as nightmarish as he considered them to be.
Knight Terrors: Night’s End #1 is concluded with an epilogue featuring Amanda Waller reveling in the Justice League’s defeat. Though she did not orchestrate Insomnia’s attacks, the events of Knight Terrors still furthered her goal of turning the world favor against its superheroes, so they can be removed entirely. First unveiled in Dark Crisis, Waller and her team, led by Peacemaker, are seeking the end of superhuman saviors, with Night’s End #1 teasing the Titans as their next target. With Waller amassing more power, and superheroes losing their trust and popularity, the Justice League may find Insomnia’s reign just as hard to recover from as an attack from Darkseid himself.
Knight Terrors: Night’s End #1 is available from DC Comics now.