A major villain unexpectedly returns in Dark Nights: Death Metal, and he has something to do with Lobo’s secret multiversal mission.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Dark Nights: Death Metal #3 by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion, FCO Plascencia and Tom Napolitano, available now.
Dark Nights: Death Metal began with the Batman Who Laughs serving under Perpetua, creator and reshaper of the multiverse. Perpetua granted the evil incarnation of Batman the role at the end of Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen, when she cast out her former right-hand man, the superpowered Lex Luthor. Perpetua stripped the former Apex Lex of his powers and sent back to Earth, but the villain isn’t out of the fight yet.
While he’s been off the larger board of Death Metal, Lex makes his dramatic return at the end of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s Dark Nights: Death Metal #3.
On the issue’s final page, the badly scarred arch-foe of Superman is seen hiding in the now-ravaged former Hall of Doom, where he only recently commanded the Legion of Doom during DC’s “Year of the Villain” event. But he’s not just holed up licking his wounds — after being rejected by Perpetua, Luthor has his own plan, seeking to “change the story of this universe, once and for all.” And it involves acquiring five different substances that comprise, appropriately enough, what Luthor calls the “death metal.”
Little is known about these mysterious elements, other than the fact that they’ve been what Lobo has been scouring the multiverse searching for, apparently at Luthor’s behest. The trash-talking Czarnian has just acquired the fifth and final piece, after shooting up the Fifth Dimension, better known as the home of Mr. Mxyzptlk. One of these other pieces was located by Lobo in Death Metal #1, on a “planet made of living bone” called Ossex.
While the nature of these five metals, and why Luthor wants them, remains unknown, the notion evokes the five divine metals that were critical to the storyline in Death Metal’s precursor, Dark Nights: Metal. Those five metals — Electrum, Dionesium, Promethium, Batmanium and Nth metal — when combined opened a portal between the known multiverse and the newly discovered Dark Multiverse. How these five new metals connect to the previously known elements is another mystery that has yet to unfold.
In various storylines leading up to Metal, Batman had been exposed to each of the five original metals, individually over time. Upon exposure to the last of them, the portal between multiverses opened, allowing the Dark Multiverse Bat-god Barbatos to breach into the known multiverse, and threaten its very existence. It was only through the wielding of the Tenth Metal — aka Element X, the fundamental element of creation itself — that the heroes of the DC Universe were able to defeat Barbatos.
What’s Lex Up to Now?
Do these five newly revealed metals, when combined, possess similar multiverse-breaching properties? It’s possible, but not likely. If Luthor’s intent is to simply travel to the Dark Multiverse, the original metals from Metal could have served that same purpose. Luthor’s sights are probably set much higher, with revenge against Perpetua for her betrayal almost certainly sitting at the top of his list of priorities.
The metals likely endow some kind of powers, though — something the power-hungry Luthor has always sought, especially in the wake of losing the near godlike powers Perpetua herself had originally granted him. Perhaps the properties of these new elements was something he learned while under her employ. Luthor wants to “change the story of the universe,” and that story could somehow see a newly-enhanced Luthor giving himself a bigger role. If these death metals grant him that kind of power, it’s easy to see Luthor recasting himself as a god, and attempting to recreate the universe — and possibly the multiverse — as he sees fit.
Of course, Wonder Woman and the other heroes already have their own plan to recreate the multiverse, and Luthor isn’t part of it. The ever-crafty Luthor clearly has his own ideas, which will likely put him at odds with the heroes once again. But, both sides have a common enemy in Perpetua, so perhaps Luthor’s plan could actually aid the heroes in fixing the multiverse.
It might be a hard sell on Luthor’s par, after aiding Perpetua in wiping the Justice League from existence. But Lex Luthor hasn’t hesitated to fight alongside the good guys before when it suits his purposes, and saving the multiverse is probably the most unifying cause either side could come up with.
