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DC's Knight Terrors event continues this week with the penultimate issue of the core series, as well as more of the character-specific spinoff series, being published today. And, as has become something of a tradition with this series, there's a direct link to Neil Gaiman's iconic horror comic, The Sandman.
In Knight Terrors #3 Damian Wayne and Batman's body - which is currently possessed by Deadman - travel to "the Hollow", a place described as being "not quite the waking world or the dreamscape", in search of the Nightmare Stone. While there, Deadman casually mentions that he has visited both the House of Mysteries and the House of Secrets. Spoilers ahead.
These locations will be familiar to long-term DC fans and readers of The Sandman as the homes of Cain and Abel. Knight Terrors #3 goes a step further, however, by introducing a new location: the House of Horror.
In this sinister shack, Boston Brand is forced to confront the lies that he has told people about his death. As he reveals to Damian, "I always tell people I was dead before I hit the ground. But that wasn't true. I felt the bullet. I felt the impact."
It's all part of a final test before the heroes can acquire the Nightmare Stone that villain Insomnia has been searching for. Deadman retrieves it, but the issue ends with an ominous cliffhanger that suggests that something is controlling Deadman while he in turn controls Batman's body.
The House of Mystery and the House of Secrets are strange locations in the DC universe that both exist in reality and in the Dreaming. Little is known about them except that Cain (the dream that embodies the first murderer) lives in the House of Mystery, while his brother Abel (the first victim) inhabits the House of Secrets.
Although best known these days for the Sandman connection, both locales actually had a long and interesting history before Neil Gaiman latched onto them.
House of Mystery and House of Secrets were the names of two DC anthology comics launched in the 1950s. Both initially told stories in a wide range of genres, from fantasy to sci-fi and weird fiction, before fully pivoting to horror in the late '60s.
Cain the Caretaker was added as a "horror host" for House of Mystery starting with #175, which also featured the first appearance of the titular building as an actual location. House of Secrets followed suit with both the House itself and Abel making their debut in #81.
DC published a House of Horror one-shot in 2017 but it appears, so far, to have no connection to the place seen in Knight Terrors #3. The new issue doesn't give us a lot to go on when it comes to this new location, but it's interesting to see the event continue to further its already very strong ties to DC's horror history and particularly to The Sandman.
Knight Terrors #3 is out now from DC Comics.
What does Hal Jordan fear? Find out in this interview with Jeremy Adams and Alex Segura about Knight Terrors: Green Lantern.
