Death Metal’s ragtag Justice League reaches their target, with one major member managing to seize victory at the expense of their life.
WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Justice League #56 by Joshua Williamson, Robson Rocha, Daniel Henriques, Romulo Fajardo Jr. and Tom Napolitano, on sale now.
The impromptu Justice League forged in the fires of the crossover event Dark Nights: Death Metal always had incredible odds stacked against them as they navigated the hellish landscape to free the Legion of Doom from Perpetua’s throne and deprive her of a major power source. And as the Justice League reach their heavily guarded target, one of the team’s most prominent members sacrifices their life to ensure that their desperate mission is a success, completely vaporized in a devastating blast: Detective Chimp.
Chimp has been forced to confront his unresolved guilt and grief throughout Death Metal, barely escaping total annihilation on multiple occasions. While traversing a valley filled with gigantic Starros, Chimp received telepathic visions of his old friend Nightmaster who wielded the mythical Sword of Night and ran the Oblivion Bar, a secret dive bar that served as a safe haven for the DC Universe’s magical community. The hero was killed by the Batman Who Laughs in the original Dark Nights: Metal, with Chimp inheriting his friend’s sword and bar though still visibly haunted by Nightmaster’s demise as it fueled his own death wish as evidenced by the Starro-induced hallucination.
While the rest of the Justice League is left at the mercy of the cosmic Omega Knight, a behemoth fashioned from pieces of the powerful Omega Titans and tasked with personally guarding Perpetua’s throne, Chimp realizes he is the last hope to break the Legion of Doom free from their imprisonment inside the throne. Chimp gains the Omega Knight’s attention and maneuvers himself in front of the throne just as the towering Dark Knight unleashes a destructive blast of cosmic energy. Chimp’s gambit pays off, destroying the throne and freeing the Legion but he is caught in the blast and reduced to nothing but smoking ashes, with only his signature deerstalker cap left visibly intact.