As Dark Nights: Death Metal continues, the heroes travel through space and time as the fight against the Dark Multiverse escalates.
The first two issues of DC Comics’ latest crossover event Dark Nights: Death Metal had unfolded on a hellishly rewritten incarnation of Earth as the last heroes of the DC Universe staged a desperate resistance against the Batman Who Laughs and his forces from the Dark Multiverse. The third issue of the crossover’s core series takes things off-world as the heroes go on an interplanetary rescue mission to the darkest corners of the DCU while the Dark Knights quickly launch a counterattack of their own. With the stakes higher than ever, Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo expand the crossover’s extensive cast of heroes and villains while taking things in an effectively cosmic and psychedelic direction reminding the readers that this is all supposed to be a hell of a lot of fun.
Picking up directly from the events of the previous issue, Wonder Woman leads a strike force to the fiery pits of Apokolips only to discover that Darkseid’s domain has similarly been conquered and reshaped by the Batman Who Laughs. As the heroes attempt to rescue an imprisoned Superman who has been subjected to the effects to the Anti-Life Equation, the newly upgraded Batman Who Laughs, now known as the Darkest Knight after being reborn with the powers of Doctor Manhattan, unleashes his new abilities, joined by the sinister Robin King.
It’s clear that the entire creative team is having a blast coming up with different ways to showcase various heavy metal takes on the DCU and its colorful cast of characters, with a wink and a smile at the readers. Now taking the narrative across time and space, the story appropriately moves away from the doom metal-fueled darkness and gloom to brighter sequences that embrace how wacky and wonderfully weird the DCU can get. There are sequences in this issue that are among the funniest that Snyder has written yet without compromising the pulse-pounding intensity of the story he is telling nor feeling tonally out of place. The story still has plenty of menace when the issue calls for it, without giving the reader whiplash from the variances in its narrative atmosphere.
This effective change in direction permeates throughout and is elevated by the artwork, as well, with Capullo joined by longtime collaborators Jonathan Glapion on inks and FCO Plascencia on colors. The reimagined Apokolips is perhaps the brightest and most colorful it’s been since being introduced by Jack Kirby and infinitely more heavy metal. And the full debut of the Darkest Knight, with the Robin King at his side, is enduringly creepy as the Dark Multiverse villains immediately set their sets on their latest targets. Most surprising is a comedic sequence near the end of the issue involving a certain bastich in a surreally psychedelic setting that lets the art team change visual gears completely. The crossover’s defining fire and fury is still present, but this issue gives everyone to the creative room to stretch out and try new things.
Three issues in and Dark Nights: Death Metal is showing no signs of slowing down; if anything, the crossover event is just getting started. Blasting off beyond the confines of Earth, the story and cast continue to get bigger and weirder, with the creative team’s fun spread to the readers as they bring in virtually every corner of the DC Universe for a fiery battle against the forces of darkness. And while the stakes have continued to rise, the crossover remains just freewheelingly entertaining as ever as a clear love letter to the history of DC Comics, including and especially to the strangest elements of the DCU.
