Knight Terrors: Terror Titans

Knight Terrors (DC)

by Jeremy Haun, Dan Mora (Illustrator), Various (Illustrator)

Horror devastates the DC Universe, and this volume details how the Titans, Shazam, Black Adam, Angel Breaker, and Ravager navigate the terror of the Nightmare Realm!

In Knight Terrors, DC’s heroes are taken past the land of the living, beyond the land of the dead, and directly to a new villain called Insomnia...who uses his powers to engulf every single hero and villain in their own dark and twisted nightmares. 

This volume collects Knight Titans #1-2, Knight Shazam! #1-2, Knight Black Adam #1-2, Knight Angel Breaker #1-2, and Knight Ravager #1-2.

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels, Horror

272 pages, Hardcover

Published March 5, 2024

About the author

Jeremy Haun is a freelance comic book artist. Beginning in 2002, Haun worked for Image Comics, IDW Publishing, Oni Press, Devil's Due Publishing, Top Cow, and Marvel Comics. Since 2008, he has worked for DC Comics. He is best known for his work on Berserker and Battle Hymn.
External links

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

See my ‘review’ of the core title for my thoughts on the Knight Terrors crossover overall. The spin-off books are just getting broken down and totted up:

Angel Breaker: 2 stars
Black Adam: 2.25 stars
Mary Marvel: 3 stars
Ravager: 2.25 stars
The Titans: 2.5 stars

Overall: 2.4 stars, rounded down.

[Ronald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spoiler! Only one of the stories here has anything to do with the Teen Titans. That story was fine but could have been better.

Is Black Adam and Shazam (Mary Marvel) part of the Titans mythos? I feel like Ravager might be and I have no idea who this is this person Angel Breaker. Both the Black Adam & Shazam stories are dumb because they should be immune to the sleep thing or able to awaken in the dream. Maybe there is something about their backstory but I don't know - I mean they are essentially gods. The Ravager story is also disappointing because she is a future seeing badass and should not be so easily tricked by a bad zombie like nightmare. I liked the Angel Breaker story for the dialog and how they were just doing their thing - the kids they ran into were surprisingly not that annoying.

[Matthew Ward · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.25 stars.

I’ll rate these books individual for how much I enjoyed the mini-series within each book, but I’ll bring this review over to each of the five books in this series. I read the entirety of this event over a weekend in the single issue order that these were published in.

This event gets a lot of bad reviews everywhere I look and while I don’t necessarily agree with those reviews, I couldn’t push too hard against those opinions either. Most of these stories were okay. Some of them I actually really enjoyed (Main storyline, Batman, The Joker, Detective Comics, Shazam, The Flash, Nightwing) and some of them I actually just found to be nothing but a chore to get through (Angel Breaker, Ravager). I don’t see a problem with an event like this taking over a comic line for a couple of months for a quick refresher, but that’s seems to be a lone opinion for these books. I thought a lot of the art was the best parts of some of these stories and that art gave us some horrifying things to look at where we may never have seen in any other circumstance. I enjoy Joshua Williamson’s storytelling for the most part and I’m actually glad he was able to be the architect for something very experimental and different within the DC Universe.

[Ya Boi Be Reading · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5 rounded down since I can’t really recommend this unless you’re a fan of the characters the issues cover. Overall this wasn’t terrible. No issues were unpleasant (except for Black Adam which was a slog) but many felt sorta boring or uninteresting. None of these felt essential or good enough for new readers of the characters. Unless you’re a real fan of any of these characters you won’t probably get much out of reading any of these. I know that is sometimes how it goes with these tie-ins or little spin-off issues but these can also serve as great introductions or create interest in new readers but these don’t really do that. The highlight was Ravager and Shazam just because it did interest me in the character (Ravager) or had some familiarity with them (Mary Marvel through Lazarus We Were Once Gods).
Reviews below for each story. Average rating was a 2.6.
Black Adam - This was really not that good imo. The art wasn't amazing although it did do well with the Egyptian God inspired villains. The story just felt meandering as it went from dark time to dark time in Black Adams life. But each one was only a page or two before the long transition between them. Both this and Shazam did this things where their Shazam powers are on the fritz but it doesn’t work since they just have to say a second time or something. But it’s worse here than in Shazam. 1.5/5
Shazam - This doesn't have much to say about Mary Marvel. She likes her family so they die! She's a brother of another Shazam who might he better than her so he's too powerful and now evil! There is some nice use of stuff kids would be scared of like giant adults or public speaking along with some childish whimsy too like cars filled with water or eating bugs which was a nice touch. I like how the panels are stripe-y and play correlate to Mary's emotions. The ending ties into the family aspect of Shazam and is the best part lifting the whole thing up. I just wish the solo Mary parts were better. Art is fine tho it makes Mary's age hard to pin with closeups having her face look older. 3/5 cuz of the ending.
Titans - This felt more like an introduction about the Titans Terror than focusing on the Titans. They each get the same nightmare of being “All that I Am” and showing them caricatured by the things they dislike. The idea of the Titans Tower being alive is cool but this is a Knight Terrors issue and the nightmare element is weak for the Titans and for Tower (dang it used to be a shitty prison so it has spooooky prisoners). I like the idea of focusing on the collective nightmare/experiences a building can inhabit but it’s a bit rushed only being covered in the second issue while also juggling introducing the concept of the living tower, showing a fun fight scene, and having them all be able to wake up at the end. The second issue was a big improvement as the first issue felt weak and short. The art is nice especially for the fight scenes but those are fleeting. 2.75/5 would be 2.5 or 2 but the second issue focusing more on the Tower and the experiences of those in it (the most interesting part of this even if it had to fight for page space) brought it up.
Ravager - I have no clue who this is but this serves a great introduction. The issues deal with her shitty childhood and her ties to Deathstroke (her father) both in how it hurts those around her and her past of trying to follow in his footsteps. Nice art as well. 3/5 but easily could be higher if I knew Ravager before this.
Angel Breaker - Who is this? Apparently it’s a DC character with Al’Ghul and his whole secret ninja deal but I think it’s also merging with Wildcats? Idk. It feels like the Voltron remake from Netflix - a modern rendition of some 90s and 80s property (this time seemingly GI Joe-y stuff) with (mostly) visually appealing modern anime-inspired art. While the action is fun and the horror movie “survive the monster” trope mixed with infiltrating a building is fun it doesn’t fully click. The monster bits are hit or miss as it has to spend a lot of time just explaining the whole building and what Kobra is (and I still don't really know). Only the “real” monster looks cool the other disguises it puts on just don’t look spook. Kinda cool read. 2.75/5.

[Akshay · Rating 3 out of 5]

My rating: 2 of 5

This volume collects:

Knight Terrors: Titans #1-2
An interesting little side-adventure wherein the Titans are all individually trapped in nightmares - and the choices for the same were all pretty good and made sense (more so than in many of the tie-ins) and the short comic benefitted from the larger cast because we didn't really delve into any one of them, giving the reader just the gist and letting your brain fill in or not as you saw fit. The protagonist is interestingly NOT a regualar Titan and whether this mystery woman who is hearing a guiding voice in her head and working to save the Titans is Raven or not was a nice little added mystery that lent itself to an interesting twist to cap off the story. There is horror, mystery, some solid action and a pretty good art style throughout that works very well for the whole vibe - much like a familiar DC house-style but at the same time with a dark edge to it that suited this as one of the better tie-ins as a whole. Very well rounded.

Knight Terrors: Shazam! #1-2
It was... well, Mary Marvel is the primary protagonist and we see her trying to save her family while dealing with this surreal nightmare reality, there's horror and a few snap-twist moments here and there. But despite a pretty strong art team effort and some good moments, I really didn't much care for the comic. It was throwing the Shazam family into the event in a pretty generic feeling story and it's quite "rah-rah-family!" and all but nothing special. Ended on a cliffhanger for no reason.

Knight Terrors: Black Adam #1-2
A better framed story, Black Adam finds himself in a nightmare scenario where he kind of knows this is all not real, but at the same time has no way out. Drawn in a more somewhat realistic style by Huan, this story is a good exploration of one of the darker characters in the DC pantheon as he faces being powerless and in a blast from the past, we see the murder of the Black Marvel family from way back in "52" which is still one of the better period of DC comics in years. Decent art, decent story but somewhat annoying cliffhanger ending - and if you don't know Adams' backstory, it will likely be a little awkward.

Knight Terrors: Ravager #1-2
Bored me lifeless. Ravager is in some suburban nightmare that isn't part of any actual nightmare she's had and there's a kid version of her and creatures hunting them that at times I felt was all tied to Deathstroke but then I wasn't sure... it was all a bit confusing and felt like the Catwoman story, I felt like I was missing big chunks of info for context and it also ended on a cliffhanger for no good reason if I am not following the main book. Weakest by far in this volume and among the poorest overall. Even the art was fine but unremarkable.

Knight Terrors: Angel Breaker #1-2
Probably the surprisingly best story in this collection - I liked it more perhaps because of how much it surprised me. The main character of Angel Breaker is one I am not even really passingly familiar with and she recruits Raptor, a pro-thief, to help her steal something from a Kobra site. The site turns out to be like a boarding school for a few teenage-ish kids who are being raised and indoctrinated by Kobra. It's not a heroic story and is more of anti-heroes who end up trying to kind-of-sort-of do something good (or at least decent) while they carry out their thieving plan - all while surviving in a slasher-movie feeling situation. Combined with the art of Acky Bright who creates a pop-bright art style that is coloured darkly and heavily shadowed with some creepy thrown around, it is a nicely crafted story that actually shows and adds characters to the two principal characters and I wanted to know what happens next at the end.

A bright spot or two but overall some of the weakest stories in this whole event so-far, several of these could have been abandoned on the idea-board and more focus given to the better ones, a theme I see recurring throughout this events tie-in minis.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Last, and most definitely least, we have Terror Titans. Emphasis on the terror (or terrible, I guess).

The Titans mini-series by Andrew Constant and Scott Godlewski, is the best of the bunch here, which is why they get to be in the title. The Titans find themselves trapped in their tower, and have to fight their greatest fears to escape. Does what it says on the tin, fits the mission brief, looks good doing it. Exactly how tie-ins are meant to work.

Considering Shazam's tie-in is written by Mark Waid you'd think it'd be better than it is, but alas. Mary Marvel takes centre stage, which is fun, but otherwise there's little of substance here. Art's by Roger Cruz, if that makes any difference.

Moving on from Shazam is Black Adam's tie-in, written and drawn by Jeremy Haun, and is insultingly bad. It doesn't make any sense in the greater context of Knight Terrors, and it ends in such a weird place that you'd expect it to be followed up somewhere, but...it's not.

Angel Breaker, by Tim Seeley and Acky Bright (now there's a name), makes an attempt at fleshing out Angel Breaker as a character, but I don't think anyone really asked for this. It's okay, but it's hard to figure out why we're meant to care.

And bringing up the rear is Ravager, by Ed Brisson and Dexter Soy (so it looks nice at least). Brisson uses the rules of Knight Terrors in an entirely different way to the rest of the tie-ins, which again confuses me. It makes me wonder if some of these tie-ins were just thrown out there to fill shelves, because it doesn't feel like the editors made sure everything fit together properly. I know dreams and nightmares have their own logic, but you'd think that there'd be some attempt made at consistency.

Of all the Knight Terrors collections, I'd say avoid this one the most of them all. Not that any of them need to be read, but if you're going for any of them...not this one.

[Michael Welch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Knight Terrors is a huge 47 issue summer event that was published by DC in 2023, that had all the heroes and villains trapped in nightmares. This event brought two forgotten heroes to the forefront Deadman, and the golden age Sandman. Deadman is the narrator for the main event books and is refreshing to have a big event centered around a ghost superhero that has to possess bodies to walk around and fight the villain Insomnia. Insomnia is a forgettable villain for me and the main series I would rate 3.75 stars out of 5. However the ties in which we get to see the nightmares people are trapped in save this event. Some stand outs are the: Batman, Poison Ivy, Joker, Detective Comics , Action Comics, Wonder Woman, Flash, Superman, Catwoman, & Titians. These are just the ones that stuck out to me. Over all I think the tie ins when they hit really hit and bump this read up to a 4 out of 5 comic book read. I recommend this for anyone who wants a spooky read, and the beauty of tie in is that you can read as many or as little as you want.

[Sesana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oof. There's exactly one decent story in this hefty collection, and that's the Titans. This one at least worked because I'm emotionally invested in the characters and the dream logic kind of holds up. Ravager's story is fine, but it feels like it's playing with a totally different set of rules than anywhere else in this event. Black Adam and Mary Marvel's stories are both boring, and neither can be bothered to provide any insight into the characters, so there's nothing of value here. And finally, Angel Breaker. My first exposure to this character and, I hope, my last. There's nothing compelling about her personality, or backstory, or her incredibly lame 90s bad girl design. I disliked this story so much that I'll probably be intentionally skipping anything that's unfortunate enough to have her in the cast.

[Ross · Rating 2 out of 5]

something, something, something...
another collection of dreams/nightmares from those caught in the 'Knight Terrors' nightmare wave

This collection is possibly the weakest. A Shazam and Black Adam story don't provide much besides the usual fear both main characters face. The Titans story has them taking on their new Teen Titans Tower in Bludhaven. Does every building they make end up having a soul? Weird.
============
Bonus: Who REALLY cares about Angelbreaker and Raptor?

[Jacob Shaffer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Black Adam - pretty sick, I love any mention of what happens in 52

Mary Marvel - pretty good!

Terror Titans - pretty good! A lil reveal in the story got me pretty good!

Ravager - not bad, this one felt like a nightmare with the ambiguations of Rose and the Murder Man

Angel Breaker - idk this character or her supporting characters, it wasn’t a bad book by any means but I’ll say it definitely dragged

I’m glad I read it all and I’m happy to be done!

[Belfry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Knight Terrors: Titans - 3.25 stars
Knight Terrors: Shazam! - 4 stars
Knight Terrors: Black Adam - 1.75 stars
Knight Terrors: Angel Breaker - Skipped
Knight Terrors: Ravager - 3.25 stars

3 stars

[AviChaim Snyder · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book seemed to be a compilation of the characters that were added to expand the storyline for profit purposes. The writers seemed uninterested in the characters and could have used anything in their arcs

[Luke Costin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Probably my least favourite of the tie in stories. I didn’t mind the titans story but nothing else clicked

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

The ones focused on character I'm interested in were fine, others I just skimmed. None of them use the nightmare premise to its full potential

[alejandro galvez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wasted potential

Great art. That's about it. Nothing to see here folks. Go home. This ain't the book you are looking for.

[Scott Waldie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Halloween 2025 Marathon, Comic 12/13.