Mary may be more or less oblivious about the situation that shes in, but she remains an admirably heroic figure throughout the issue, which ends up being really, really impressive in its own right. She knows that shes caught in a dream, but she refuses to acknowledge it until she has to. There are things to be done regardless of the situation with the world around her. Its an interestingly skewed look at superheroism that ends up being really, really fascinating on closer inspection, even though...ostensibly, its just another superhero horror story.  Read Full Review

Knight Terrors: Shazam! #1 is well-crafted addition to the Knight Terror event because it not only segways smoothly from the current Shazam series but also at the same time provides just enough information to give a connection to the overall event being told throughout the DCU. Waid continues to show with this book why he is one of the best writers in the industry today, not only because of his comic book knowledge but he understands how to make a tie-in book worth pick up off the shelves. Read Full Review

While this is way too dark for what I like out of this franchise, that's kind of being a running issue for years, and it's still good to see Mary get the spotlight. Read Full Review

Knight Terrors: Shazam! #1 is a grim, dark, psychological nightmare for Mary Marvel that turns her worst fears against her. Waid's writing is in top form, and the art team delivers solid work, but this issue barely has anything to do with Insominia, so file this one under "optional" for Knight Terrors. Read Full Review

Knight Terrors: Shazam #1 has a lot going on, and it can be confusing, but in a good way. The dream within a dream angle is very cool. And bad Billy Batson is also lowkey cool. But it comes down to this, Mary's love for her family is her strength and her weakness. Insomnia knows this and is using her fear of losing them to try and get what he's looking for. But does Mary even know where the Nightmare Stone is? Is there a part of this Billy Batson that is actually trying to help her? This is a unique look at the Shazam family and it all concludes with the most intense final panel in the series so far. Read Full Review

If a new series is going to have to pause so soon for a crossover, I really hope more of it is like this. It's fun, scary and gets into the head of its lead. Read Full Review

Overall, this issue kicks off a very fun and twisty detour with yet untapped potential that could make for a genuinely impactful companion miniseries for Waid's main run. Read Full Review

Although it's unclear what the exact stakes of this tale are, readers already invested in the Shazam family will find plenty of emotional attachments to follow as Mary falls deeper into her own night terrors. Read Full Review

Waid embraces classic dream logic to send Mary down a road to her worse nightmares.
Hints at a tie to the main Knight Terror plot-line, but... it probably doesn't mean anything.

Clearly going against the grain with this opinion, but this wasn't bad at all. Was it confusing? Yes. But I have honestly had nightmares similar to this one. Where things just happen and you never gain your footing. Where the everyone around you acts normal but nothing is normal, where you might even know you are in a dream but you still cannot get solid ground. This is what this issue is like. If you have had dreams like this before then I think you will find this issue enjoyable.
If you dont dream much, or have very orderly dreams, this will seem weird and jarring. Is it a needed read at all? No. Should this event have had all these tie ins? No. Is Waid doing a good job conveying a disorienting nightmare? Yes.

I'm thinking it might have just been me, but this issue got a little confusing for me at times with the dream logic, if that makes sense. However, this was still an enjoyable read for me. Despite my confusion, I still thought Waid handled the story well enough to get through this for the line-wide crossover. My main gripe with this is the art, unfortunately. Cruz's best moment here is the splash page of Mary's face in the burning house, but everything else ranges from good to meh. I wasn't a big fan of his art whenever he was on Jeremy Adams's Flash run, and he hasn't changed my mind with this issue. I'm just glad the story is entertaining.

This was interesting but a bit confusing

https://youtu.be/ElQ33ghUwAw

1:58 full review

I don’t particularly keep up with Shazam books, so it took a bit of research to understand the context of this story which made it a bit less enjoyable for me. I don’t get to keep up with every DC character but so far this has been the first tie-in were my general knowledge of characters wasn’t enough to understand Mary Marvel’s POV. Mark Waid’s writing was strong enough to keep me intrigued throughout the book and I was able to relate with Mary once the plot got going, but it’s lack of connection to the main event lowered the stakes for me.

The issue revealed that Mary wakes herself up from Insomnia’s grasp on a daily basis by uttering “SHAZAM!” during her nightmare and it’s revealed via a fun succession of panels by David Baldeon. I’d have been more intrigued if this allowed Mary to engage with what Zatanna and Deadman are doing in the awake world, but it’s quickly glanced over as she’s brought back into her nightmares for the remainder of the issue.

Rating: 6/10 more

I love Mark Waid's writing and Mary Marvel, but this is just completely forgettable. She's not even questioning why she's in the dreamworld or how to get out. Billy as Black Adam is interesting, but unnecessary, just use the real Black Adam. I don't know, but I have no interest in the next issue.