DC Comics just kicked off its latest summer crossover event with the release of Dark Nights: Death Metal #1. A follow-up to 2017’s Dark Nights: Metal, Death Metal reunites writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo for a wild journey across the DC Universe. In the process, Death Metal is tasked with tying together many corners of DC lore and working to make the DCU a more cohesive place. There’s a reason the tagline for this crossover is “It all matters.”
Reading Death Metal #1 is certainly an illuminating experience. Read on to learn more about how this series works to connect the dots between Snyder’s Justice League run, DC Rebirth, Doomsday Clock and DC’s various Crisis stories, as well as some of the coolest and most mind-blowing plot twists in the first chapter.
Warning: This article contains full spoilers for Dark Nights: Death Metal #1!
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How Death Metal Ties DC’s History Together
DC readers can be forgiven for having a hard time making sense of the company’s current superhero universe. While 2016’s DC Rebirth relaunch hinged on the reveal that Watchmen’s Doctor Manhattan has been meddling with the DC timeline, more recent projects have cast doubt on which stories are actually happening in the core DC Universe. As the climax of the Rebirth storyline, Doomsday Clock attempted to simplify matters by establishing the existence of a DC “metaverse” that constantly changes and evolves with Superman at its center. However, Justice League #39 suggests Doomsday Clock itself happened in an alternate universe. That issue also ends with the Justice League being cast out of Earth and venturing into an unknown realm, a twist that has yet to be reflected in any other book.
With Death Metal, Snyder and Capullo are finally following up on that cliffhanger while also attempting to tie these events into the larger history of the DC multiverse and the past Crisis events. Just as DC Rebirth began with the return of Wally West, Death Metal relies on Wally (now empowered by Doctor Manhattan’s own energies) to make sense of the DC timeline.
After reuniting with Wonder Woman, Wally lays out the entire history of the multiverse and how the cosmic entity Perpetua has been the secret hand behind every Crisis.
Building on themes from Snyder’s Justice League run, Wally reveals the DCU is built around two opposing energies. The energies of Justice (the Emotional Spectrum, the Speed Force, etc.) embody unity and the act of creating a legacy that connects past and present. Meanwhile, the opposing energies of Crisis (the Anti-Life Equation, Chaos Magic, etc.) are about selfish desires and the suppression of the past in favor of the immediate moment.
The reason the DCU has been so susceptible to transformative cosmic events like Crisis on Infinite Earths, Infinite Crisis and Flashpoint is that the DC multiverse itself was created from Crisis energies. Perpetua built the multiverse on a foundation of Crisis, making it ever-changing and capable even of devouring or absorbing other realities as it evolves. Even when Perpetua was banished beyond the Source Wall that surrounds the DCU, her dark influence gave rise to villains like the Anti-Monitor, Superboy-Prime and Mandrakk the Dark Monitor and compelled them to reshape reality. We can probably assume even Doctor Manhattan was being influenced by Perpetua when he meddled with the timeline and birthed the New 52.
The credits page to Death Metal #1 refers to this event as an “Anti-Crisis,” suggesting this story may finally break the cycle of death and rebirth that’s defined the DC multiverse.
What Is Dark Nights: Death Metal Actually About?
DC has largely kept the plot of Death Metal under wraps leading up to its release, but issue #1 gives us a much better idea of what the series is about and how exactly it picks up where Justice League #39 left off months ago. [Note: While DC continues to publish Justice League under a new creative team, the current stories are set before the end of Snyder’s run.] We don’t actually learn much about what transpired immediately after the Justice League were banished from Earth and traveled through the doorway, but it’s implied the team waged a titanic battle against Perpetua and lost. In the aftermath, the League has been dragged back to Earth and are now pawns in Perpetua’s plan to eliminate the multiverse and build a new DCU entirely in her image.
The various Justice League members have been allowed to survive so long as they continue serving Perpetua, with the promise that each one will be given a free and independent world in Perpetua’s new universe. Each member is thereby given a choice – serve evil and protect the ones they love, or resist and face the wrath of the Batman Who Laughs and his fellow Dark Knights.
While Batman has chosen to resist and now wages a guerrilla war against his enemies, Wonder Woman has chosen to serve in Hell. Literally. What was once the island refuge of Themyscira has been transformed into a demonic prison with Diana as its warden. With her faithful companion Swamp Thing by her side (now clinging to life with most of the Parliament of Trees destroyed), Wonder Woman is biding her time and waiting for the moment to strike back against Perpetua.
At its core, Death Metal is a story about the Justice League trying to restore hope in a world transformed into a hellish distortion of its former self. That’s why Wonder Woman is positioned as the series’ central protagonist. Where Batman seeks only to hurt his enemies and find small victories wherever he can, Wonder Woman clings to the hope that this disaster can be undone and the true DC Universe can be restored. Reuniting with Wally and remembering the events that led to Death Metal is the spark that reawakens Diana’s resolve to fight. And it’s the starting point for a comic book crossover that will play out for the remainder of 2020.
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The Chainsaw of Truth and More Epic Twists
Even before the Death Metal name was revealed, DC first teased this crossover with an image of Wonder Woman wielding an enchanted chainsaw powered by her Lasso of Truth. At the time we dubbed that weapon the Chainsaw of Truth, and it turns out that’s exactly what it’s called. Issue #1 reveals the origin of this new weapon and why it’s just the tool Wonder Woman needs in these dark times.
The Batman Who Laughs is a dangerous foe because he combines all the strategic brilliance of Batman with the malevolence of Joker. He knows exactly how Batman’s mind works, making it difficult for the Caped Crusader to outwit his evil doppelganger. But as Wonder Woman proves, even the Batman Who Laughs can be caught off-guard.
The Batman Who Laughs confronts Wonder Woman near the end of issue #1. He knows Diana has melted down her Invisible Jet, and he rightly suspects Batman wants to harness the alloy to forge armor capable of shielding the Justice League from Perpetua’s sight. However, Wonder Woman makes it clear she has no desire to build armor. She demonstrates as much when she unleashes her invisible Chainsaw of Truth and kills Perpetua’s right-hand-man.
Not to be outdone, Batman upgrades his own arsenal in this issue. As he wages a surprise attack on the Dark Knights, Batman reveals a secret weapon in the form of a Black Lantern ring, giving him command of the dead. Suddenly, his Grim Reaper-inspired costume change makes a lot more sense.
While most of the original seven Dark Knights were eliminated in Dark Nights: Metal, a number of new evil Batmen spawned from the Dark Multiverse have arisen to take their place. Easily the most memorable of these is a Batman who managed to survive the collapse of his Batcave by transferring his consciousness inside that robotic dinosaur trophy. The result is a character some fans are already affectionately referring to as “B-Rex.”
And though the Batman Who Laughs is now dead, his successor is already being teased. The penultimate page teases the arrival of “The Final Bruce Wayne,” a version of Batman who also wields the power of Doctor Manhattan.
All in all, a very eventful way to kick off this new crossover. We can only imagine what wacky twists are in store over the next several months.
Let us know in the comments below what you think of the Chainsaw of Truth and this radical new take on the DC multiverse.
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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
Source: IGN.com Why Dark Nights: Death Metal Is DC's First 'Anti-Crisis'